James Ramsey
I know thy works, and thy labour, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil: and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars: And hast borne, and hast patience, and for my name’s sake hast laboured, and hast not fainted. Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love (Revelation 2:2-4).
A Church Strong, Orthodox in Doctrine, Order and Morals, but having left its first love.
…Notwithstanding all…external prosperity and internal soundness, there was ground for heavy censure. There was a secret and fatal disease fixing itself on the very seat of life. “Thou hast left thy first love,” is the weighty charge. How serious this is, is evident from the admonition and warning that follow. “Remember, therefore, from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent.”
A church, therefore, may be large and prosperous, zealous for truth and order and purity, labouring patiently and successfully for the name of Christ, and yet there may be, unseen by human eyes, and unsuspected even by herself, a secret defect that silently but surely threatens her very existence. No external zeal can compensate for declining love. Love is the very principle of life; and yet it is alarmingly true, that its vigour may so decline, even beneath the most flaming zeal and patient labours, as to imperil life itself.
This censure is administered in close connection with the praise of their zeal in exposing these false apostles, and before the second ground of praise is mentioned, implying some real connection between this zeal against false teachers, and their declining love. There is such a connection, and it should never be forgotten. When any are called to contend earnestly for the faith, when patience is tried by daring and persistent error, and when at length the pretensions of false teachers are exposed, the process is apt to chafe and embitter the spirit, and success to foster spiritual pride; thus holy love to Jesus and His people insensibly loses that first fervor with which it gushes forth in faith’s first view of the cross and the extinguished curse.
Ephesus, then, may teach the churches of every age, that if they would enjoy the approbation of their Lord, they must labour faithfully and patiently to uphold His sole authority, by contending for a pure ministry and a holy practice…The evil, therefore, which imperiled her existence, was not an evil in the working of her organization, was not any imperfect or wrong official action, but an evil which had its origin, its seat and its power in the affections of the individual believer. It was therefore only as these warnings and admonitions of our Lord were applied to the individual hearts of the members of the church of Ephesus that they could be of any avail to save it. By such a personal application only can they be of any benefit to us.
Excerpt from the commentary on Revelation by James Ramsey (Lecture VI), published by The Banner of Truth.