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The first church Jesus addresses in the Book of Revelation are the saints in Ephesus. He says to them—
I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked people, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false. You have persevered and have endured hardships for My name, and have not grown weary. Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken the love you had at first. (Revelation 2:1-4)
The Ephesians were known for a very admirable list of qualities:
- good deeds
- hard work
- perseverance
- not tolerating evil people to remain in the church
- weeding out false apostles
- enduring hardship without growing weary
But it appears that like the Israelites in Isaiah’s day, these qualities had ceased being delights and had now become mere duties—items to simply check off their spiritual To Do list.
Listen to what God said through the prophet Isaiah—
“What makes you think I want all your sacrifices?” says the Lord. “I am sick of your burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fattened cattle. I get no pleasure from the blood of bulls and lambs and goats. When you come to worship Me, who asked you to parade through My courts with all your ceremony? Stop bringing Me your meaningless gifts…. Yet they act so pious! They come to the Temple every day and seem delighted to learn all about Me. They act like a righteous nation that would never abandon the laws of its God. (Isaiah 1:11-13; 58:2)
Just like the people of Ephesus, the people in Isaiah’s day were dutifully checking all of the boxes that they thought religious people were supposed to check, but their heart was no longer into it.
Love for Jesus—our First Love—is seen not in what we think we have to do, but in delighting in what we get to do.
Jesus calls us to show mercy in following God’s commands (see Matthew 9:9-13; 12:1-8). But when we have a “Have to” attitude, we can easily become judgmental of anyone who is not checking off the boxes the way that we are. Judgmental people don’t love others and serve them, but they condemn them for doing the “Have tos” the wrong way.
Jesus calls us to closely monitor our attitude about our motivation to do what we do. We need to have a loving “I get to do this” attitude, not a “I have to do this and so does everyone else” attitude.
The “Have to” attitude, Jesus says, forsakes His love for our way of doing things. But the “Get to” attitude is fueled by our devotion to our First Love. Let’s all check our attitude to make sure our “Get tos” never becomes our “Have tos.”
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