Our First Love
Within the “red letters” of Revelation 2-3, Jesus makes it abundantly clear that what he desires the most from our relationship with himself is love! This is transcendent above all we know. It is a true love that we don’t have the capacity to give or even understand apart from Him. His overwhelming love for us is to become the very same love that we have for him.
As a result, the love we have for Jesus must now become the same love that we show to others (Matthew 22:37- 40). This can only happen because of him. This is not anything we can possess in our own strength. Yet, Jesus tells us that there’s a vast difference between love vs. obligation, desire vs. duty, and passion vs. performance.
In Revelation 2:3-5, Jesus commends his disciples in Ephesus for their many good works and correct doctrines. They tested teachers to see whether their professions were real, endured hardship, and persevered without growing weary. But Jesus then says they had lost their passion for him.
When that happened, they began to go through the motions of good works, motivated not by love for Jesus, but by the works themselves! What was once a white-hot relationship had now cooled into a mere religion. Their desire for him had become little more than an analytical, systematic business practice. Jesus’ point here? “You are doing all the right things, but you just don’t love Me anymore!”
Again in Revelation 3:15-16, Jesus says to his disciples in the city of Laodicea,
I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth.
Apathy had replaced desire. Their hearts no longer pursued Jesus. Instead, they were determined to be self-sufficient. For them, that was enough. Correspondingly, Jesus says that this is about the real desire of our hearts. He spoke much about this. Rest assured, Jesus absolutely knows the truth at any given moment: “These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me” (Matthew 15:8).
He iterates this again earlier in Matthew 7:22-23:
Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles? Then I will tell them plainly, depart from Me, I never knew you.
Why is it easy to deceive ourselves by focusing on good works and right beliefs? We say, “I must be alright, because I am doing and believing the right things.” Where does this idea come from? The lack of a true, living passion for Jesus himself can never be replaced by the things we do for him and his Kingdom.
Jesus is not seeking a display of my Christ-likeness or my attempts at imitating him. Instead, he seeks manifestation of his life and his love flowing within me. Life in Christ is not an imitation of Christ, but it’s a participation in his life within us. Dependency on him must be complete. Without his life in us, our efforts are completely pointless.
In John 15, Jesus tells us that he is the vine, the only true life source. Through this vine alone, his life flows to our hearts and then is pumped throughout our entire being. It’s not about what we know—it’s about the life of the one we are attached to.
Discipleship doesn’t come through a transfer of information; we become true disciples only by our connection to Jesus. His life becomes our life. Our eyes become his, seeing what he sees; our ears hear things not spoken, but revealed by his Spirit within us. Our hands, feet, and strength—all become his.
The heart of the believer is the place where the branch attaches to the vine and receives his life. If we are to love as Jesus loves us, that love—that true love—can only come from its source, which is Jesus himself, our first love.
Jesus doesn’t command that we schedule some kind of regular time with him each day. Rather, He asks us to abide in him moment by moment. Abiding in Christ is nothing less than acknowledging the reality that we have been crucified with Christ. We no longer live, but Christ lives in us (Galatians 2:20).
As we abide in Jesus, gaze into his glory and behold his majesty. His life becomes our life. We are transformed into his image with ever increasing glory (2 Corinthians 3:18). As we pursue him, we bear the fruit that he brings out of us—not the useless fruit we try to manufacture in our own strength. Christianity is not a religion. It’s an intimate relationship with Jesus. The Lord of all creation—the Lord of Heaven and Earth—has made his home, his very dwelling place, within our hearts.
Because of Jesus, we have faith. Because of Jesus, we have hope. Because of Jesus, we have love. He is our first love because his love is a consuming fire. Every element of our lives and every beat of our hearts all flow from the consuming fire that is the love of Jesus!