“But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love
you had at first.” Revelation 2:4
Some of the most troubling words in the New Testament for believers are found in Revelation 2. There the Lord tells the believers at Ephesus that serious problem is developing in their church. While their doctrine is still strong and their service is still robust, a weakness is forming that has the potential to derail the Lord’s church. They are
being tempted by Satan in a most insidious way. He is telling them
they can be religious without the Lord. Their strength is sufficient.
The Lord died on the cross for us that we may be forgiven for our sin.
That is the gift we receive from Him. But our Lord did not save us to be His uncaring slaves. He desires our love, our thankfulness and our
relationship with Him. He wants our fellowship, our abiding in Him – a
personal relationship. He wants us to desire to be with him. This was being lost in the church at Ephesus. All the activities of the Christian life, Bible reading, prayer, service to others, were still going on but the saints at Ephesus forgot the reason they did any of that – relationship not ritual.
One indication of the depth of a relationship is how much time you spend together. When two people truly love each another they want to spend time together. People often talk about “quality time” with a loved one but quality time cannot be scheduled. What can be scheduled is quantity of time.
When sufficient time is spent together quality of time occurs within that period. If you do not think that is true, think of it this way. Kobe beef was one of the most expensive meats in the world. At one point it sold for $100 an ounce. Let say you wanted quality so you order a Kobe steak but you can only afford 1 ounce. You eat it. It is all that is advertised, it is superb quality. After you eat it there is a problem, however. You are still hungry. Quality alone does not fully satisfy.
Over a 70 year lifespan it is estimated that people spend 50% of their lives is spent in sleep or at work or school. Only seven tenths of one percent is spent in “religious activities. When I was growing up we
went to church on Sunday morning, Sunday night and Wednesday night. That accounted for about 4 hours a week. Out of 168 hours in a week that is approximately 2.3% of the week. Today people go to church once on a Sunday morning. That 1 hour is about 6 tenths of one percent of the available time in a week. Now let’s say a person reads and prays an hour each day plus an hour in church on Sunday. That accounts for 8 hours a week or 4.7 percent of the week. Less than 5% of the week goes to spending time with the One who saved us.
What can we learn? The Greek word the Lord uses for leave means to send away, permit, or leave alone. This word is used of a husband “putting away” his wife. He sets her aside and spends no more time on her. Think of how this applies to our twenty-first century lives. We put Jesus in His Sunday slot. We make a portion of time available for him in our schedule (if we even give him that. Isn’t it interesting that we find some many valid reasons to miss church on Sunday – tired, raining, don’t feel like it, have other places to go.). Some will say we are in the age of grace – we are not commanded to keep the Sabbath.
That’s true but Christ’s warning to the Ephesians is also in the day of grace. Because of the cross we are supposed to obey out of
love, not commandment. The truth is we don’t give Christ first place. He is not as important as watching television. Let’s not blame others. It is us. We set Christ on the shelf and told him to wait until we can schedule him in, usually much later if at all! Is it any wonder that in the last days the church is lukewarm?