“But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first.” Revelation 2:4
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Some of the most troubling words in the New Testament for believers are found in chapter 2 of Revelation. There the Lord tells the believers at Ephesus that a 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. They are trying to do the Lord’s work 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 ourr elationship with Him. He wants our fellowship, our abiding in Him – a personal relationship. He wants us to desire to be with him. This was lost on 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 it – they had became ritual, not relationship.
One indication of the depth of a relationship is how much time two parties 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. But after you eat it there is a problem. You are still hungry. Quality alone does not fully satisfy. Quantity must be sufficient as well.
A recent study looked at of how a person spends their time over a 70 year lifespan. According to this study 55% of our life 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 the 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 often find 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 is true but Christ’s warning to the Ephesians is also true in this 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. Is it any wonder that in the last days the church is lukewarm? We can’t blame others. It is us. We put Christ on the shelf and tell him to wait until we can schedule him in, maybe later!