On a delightful spring morning, five young men met together to discuss the second and third chapters of the revelation of the apostle John. We began with the letter to the Ephesian church, reflecting on some of the patterns in these letters. Christ writes to these churches, beginning with a nuanced description of himself and concluding with encouragement, but more often a call to repentance. We strove to work through these seven letters, yet something came up that required a pause.

In Revelation 2:4, Christ writes, “But I have this against you: You have abandoned your first love.” We briefly looked through the possible interpretations. The first love could be Christ, or those in the church, or both. But the more significant hangup was the fact that multiple of us thought that this idea of leaving your first love showed up elsewhere in scripture. We searched and nothing turned up. One passage that aligns closely with this thought is Galatians 1:7. Here Paul expresses his surprise by stating, "I am amazed how quickly you are deserting the One who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel..." The idea of leaving your first love is unique to John's apocalyptic vision, but similar notions echo across scripture.

This idea of leaving your first love prompts the thought of our spiritual journeys or sanctification paths. Let's begin with an illustration. The credit for this thought goes to my Bible teacher from my time in New Mexico. How quickly can we forget the one whom we first loved, or can we at all? God's path toward us seems very linear—through faith in Christ alone. Yet, the circumstances that lead us to that point number the stars in the heavens. After this act of conversion, we journey down a narrow and difficult path. Is this a linear path to the gates of paradise? Do we exponentially become more like Christ every day? My Bible teacher described this spiritual journey as looking more like a spiral than a linear line. Let's take it one step further and describe this process of loving God more as looking like a three-dimensional spring. This object starts wide at the bottom, and for each loop, the curls become tighter to the point that at the top the twists almost seem as one. With each sin and repentance cycle, the betrayal seems more horrific and the God we return to appears more beautiful. The more time we spend with the One we love, the more we become like him.

To explore the thought of the Christian life as a continual call to return to the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ, let us turn to the larger text of the letter from Paul to the Ephesian church. Before jumping into this letter full of rich theology and practical application, David provides a simple proverb where we may find hope. He writes in 24:16, "For though a righteous man may fall seven times, he still gets up; but the wicked stumble in bad times." In Christ, we are righteous men and women. We still stumble. There is hope in getting up and walking with Christ. Yet in the hard times, where do the wicked find hope? Christ offers his hand to those who admit their need for him. The way we treat others reflects the inner reality of our love for the Lover of our souls.

In Paul's letter to the church in Ephesus, he reminds them that unity is found in love of Christ and this binds the local gathering of believers. Here is an example of a life that is lived in accordance with the love we were first shown.

Ephesians 6:9 — God shows no partiality. As imitators, we should never think little of a fellow brother, sister, or a lost one.

Ephesians 6:10-18 — Our struggle is not against flesh and blood. We need the armor of God. The enemy tries to divide us, to make us hate each other. In a way, we spit on the work of Christ when we claim to be Christians "little Christs" and still choose to hate in the name of self-worth and protection. We need the whole armor of God. God's armor, not our own; to protect against the attacks of our enemy.

Ephesians 5:25 — Christ’s sacrificial love for the church. He laid down his own life to redeem his bride, the church.

Ephesians 4:25 — We are members of one body. We are all unique; instead of striving for what we were not created to be, let us lean into our natural gifts and learn how we can support those who are a beautiful extension of Christ's hand.

Ephesians 5:32 — The profound mystery of Christ and the church. The Church is for Christ and Christ is for the Church. A bride prepared for her husband eagerly awaits his return, and meanwhile lives in the joy of knowing him.

Ephesians 3:17 — Being rooted and established in love. Our foundation, the source of all growth, is no longer in something that is here today and gone tomorrow. We bear fruit in his life and death as a branch is pruned to establish more growth.

Ephesians 1:4-5 — Chosen and adopted in love. We were chosen before the foundations of the world to be his. He took a foreigner, a slave to death, a wandering pilgrim, and made us his children.

Ephesians 1:3 — Every spiritual blessing in Christ. A life no longer cursed in sin and death now receives more than we could ever ask—rich goodness and mercy that follow us all the days of our life.

With all this in mind, how can we leave our first love? Let's return to the spiral illustration. If Christ's love is the momentum that energizes the coil of the believer, is it up to us to return to first love again and again? We are sealed in his Spirit. In his mercy, we may now return to him as our father and friend. The Christian life is one of repeated repentance and restoration, a return rooted in love and not obligation for salvation. If we stumble seven times, there is still hope in Christ. Let's listen to Christ's call: “But I have this against you: You have abandoned your first love.” This message was for the church in Ephesus, yet has weight for all believers. Will we allow this life to spiral out of control? Instead of letting the days waste away, let's return to the love we had for others, to the love we had for Christ. May God rekindle love for Christ in our hearts. The journey is a spiral—each return brings us deeper into the love of Christ.