Look How Far You've Fallen
By: Kristen L. McNulty
Reprint rights available on request. Email the author at kristenmcnulty@hotmail.com.
Recently my bible reading took me to Revelation chapter 2, so today we're going to dive into it for a few minutes.
Let's start with a confession. I don't know if I'm alone on this, but often when examining my life and my faith, I like to count the boxes I've checked. Ministry: check. Surviving and thriving through suffering: check. Tithing: check. If the purpose of examining my life was to boost my christian life self esteem I'd say my method works pretty well. But as we will read in Revelation, we can check all of the boxes on the surface, but that's not what God calls us to examine ourselves solely on. He wants us to go deeper. Let's take a look. Revelation 2:1-5:
"Write this letter to the angel of the church in Ephesus. This is the message from the one who holds the seven stars in his right hand, the one who walks among the seven gold lampstands: 'I know all the things you do. I have seen your hard work and your patient endurance. I know you don't tolerate evil people. You have examined the claims of those who say they are apostles but are not. You have discovered they are liars. You have patiently suffered for me without quitting. But I have this complaint against you. You don't love me or each other as you did at first! ook how far you have fallen! Turn back to me and do the works you did at first. If you don't repent, I will come and remove your lampstand from its place among the churches." Revelation 2:1-5
Checking All The Boxes
As we see here, the church in Ephesus looked like on the surface they were checking all the boxes, but there was a problem. They were missing out on the most important part, highlighted in verse 3: they didn't love Jesus or one another in the way they should have or in the way they once did. They missed the most important part. When Jesus asked what was the most important commandment, He said:
"Jesus replied, 'You must love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: Love your neighbor as yourself.' The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.'" Matthew 22:37-40
We can be checking all the other boxes with our actions on the surface, but still fall so short in what really matters.
So what was the church in Ephesus to do? What can we do if somewhere along the way we've drifted from loving God and others the way we should? Well let's read what God said in Revelation 2, verse 5:
"Look how far you've fallen from your first love! Turn back to me again and work as you did at first."
Look how far you've fallen. It's not easy to look, but until we examine how we went wrong, we won't know how to set it right and keep it right.
Opening Our Hearts To Examination
It's hard. It requires swallowing pride and opening the state of our hearts to full examination. I recently had to do this and while it wasn't easy, it was necessary. The sooner we can make a course correction when we drift, the sooner we can get back to where on the path we should be. If we wait months or even years, coming back is not only a lot harder, but chances are we drifted even further as time went by. In the Christian life there is no park. You are either in drive, moving forward, or you are in reverse, moving away.
For me this came to a head when I noticed that while I was still going through the motions, but on the inside my heart was on autopilot. I was still functioning, but I wasn't growing in my love for Jesus or those around me. Upon further examination it didn't take long to realize why.
I had gone through a pretty intense period of time when in just over a year I had seen numerous doctors to figure out how to treat this sinus infection that just won't go away. During that time I had multiple tests, treatments and even surgery, all of required multiple appointments with these doctors. Not helping the matter was most of them were in Toronto, meaning I was travelling all the time. To put it mildly, I was fried. I still prayed, I still was active in ministry, but on the inside my love and pursuit of Jesus was slipping to less than it was before..
While Circumstances Started Me On The Path, Choices Left Me There
My Bible didn't get opened nearly enough. My prayer life wasn't as deep and as rich as before. It was only when all the travel and appointments got put on hold due to COVID did my heart and passion start to come back. But don't get my wrong, while circumstances may have started me down that path, it was still my own choices that left me there. I could have cut back on other things to create the margin I needed in my life for my relationship with Jesus to thrive. I didn't. I pretended I could do it all and as a result, the most important relationship in my life, didn't get the time, energy and love poured into it that it should have. I had fallen from my first love. And had COVID not happen, who knows how much further the fall could have gone.
So how about you? Take a moment and do a love check. How much love and heart and attention are you giving to Jesus? If it's anything less than what you used too, take the time to stop and examine why so you can stop the drift. How about your love for other people? Do you find yourself caring less? Or being more impatient? Less forgiving? All of those should be spiritually alarm bells going off. A call to wake up and make a correction in your course, lest you drift away.
As this chapter shows us, God wants more from us than going through the motions. He wants more from us than ministry. He wants our hearts. And unless they are devoted to Him, anything else we do with our lives is going to be less than the best it could have been.
We only have a limited time on this earth. Let's not waste even a moment or a season. Instead let's turn back to Jesus and work as we did before to love both Him and the people He has placed around us. When we do, when we pursue Jesus with love and passion, the outpouring of it allows us to love people like we should. And that's not only a beautiful thing, but a necessary one as a follower of Jesus.
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