That First Love

[Kan]

Revelation 2:4 "...because thou hast left thy first love" 

Jesus said, "Unless we become as a child..."  having that first love... we "cannot enter heaven."

What is that first love that Jesus wants us to keep? 

[missmuffet]

This is Jesus's message to the Church of Ephesus in Revelation.The Ephesians were in danger of falling away from Christ completely.

[Bible_Gazer]

Deuteronomy 6:4-5
⁴  Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD:
⁵  And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.

[gdemoss]

Deuteronomy 6:4-5
⁴  Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD:
⁵  And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.

absoluely!  Our first love must be to God and our second to our neighbor.  Many today seek to "Live United" or "CoExist".  These do not love God for they reject the love of God in Christ Jesus for tollerance of each others sinful ways.

[FreeinChrist]

37)  Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and all thy soul, and with all thy mind.   38)  This is the first and great commandment.   39)  And the second is like unto it.  Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.   40)  On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophet.   Matthew 22:37-40    Yes to love God is the first duty of the believers but Jesus adds the second to it, for if we don't follow the second we can not commit to the first.  If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?   I John 4:20

This is why Paul tells us to love thy neighbour is the fulfilling of the law, Romans 13:8-10; Galatians 5:13-14.  For to love is to let the Holy Spirit produce His fruit in us,  Romans 5:5; I Peter 1:22.   For Paul even writes:  For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision; but faith which worketh by love.  Galatians 5:6   This is why Paul commends the Thessalonians:  Remembering without ceasing your work of faith, and labour of love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, in the sight of God and our Father;   I Thessalonians 1:3   IMO this is what the writer of Hebrews is telling us about in Hebrews 6:4-10.

[Kan]

Perhaps someone can tell us what their first love to Jesus was.

[Esther4:14]

I was at church tonight and we did a cardboard testimony, which I participated in.  I didn't want to so much.  I was very nervous and didn't know whether I had put the right words down, but I was also nervous about sharing what I was saved from in front of all the people there when I am no longer that way, and it has been years since I was saved.  I am a Christian now, whatever that means.  But, I did it anyway because this is what I did at first.  I reminded myself that I was nervous when I did the same thing at first and this is how Jesus has continued to show Himself to me and how I have continued to grow as a Christian-and I did it.  My cardboard sign said on one side, "I felt dirty," and on the other side, "I feel clean."  

This represents my first love, sharing my testimony, because when I became a Christian, I didn't notice prophecy.  I didn't understand anything about the genealogies or the history of Israel.  I only knew that Paul could tell people that he was the least of all the Lord's people, and He was able to preach to the gentiles for Christ (Ephesians 3:8).  Because I knew then that there was no way I was every going to be able to say anything better than this, and I wanted to do something for Him too.  I like the way He talked to Pharisees.  I could relate it to the many adults I felt behaved hypocritically, and I wanted to do something for Him-even if I knew I was unworthy to tie His shoes (John 1:27).  

"They triumphed over him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death," (Revelation 12:11).  

I could go on and on for days on this subject, but I will stop here with a simple reminder for all of us that we never get too old to share where we were when we started walking with Christ.   In fact, it is an essential to continuing to grow spiritually to keep doing the things we did at first.  

Peace.  

Edited September 29, 2015 by Esther4:14

[Kan]

I was at church tonight and we did a cardboard testimony, which I participated in.  I didn't want to so much.  I was very nervous and didn't know whether I had put the right words down, but I was also nervous about sharing what I was saved from in front of all the people there when I am no longer that way, and it has been years since I was saved.  I am a Christian now, whatever that means.  But, I did it anyway because this is what I did at first.  I reminded myself that I was nervous when I did the same thing at first and this is how Jesus has continued to show Himself to me and how I have continued to grow as a Christian-and I did it.  My cardboard sign said on one side, "I felt dirty," and on the other side, "I feel clean."  

This represents my first love, sharing my testimony, because when I became a Christian, I didn't notice prophecy.  I didn't understand anything about the genealogies or the history of Israel.  I only knew that Paul could tell people that he was the least of all the Lord's people, and He was able to preach to the gentiles for Christ (Ephesians 3:8).  Because I knew then that there was no way I was every going to be able to say anything better than this, and I wanted to do something for Him too.  I like the way He talked to Pharisees.  I could relate it to the many adults I felt behaved hypocritically, and I wanted to do something for Him-even if I knew I was unworthy to tie His shoes (John 1:27).  

"They triumphed over him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death," (Revelation 12:11).  

I could go on and on for days on this subject, but I will stop here with a simple reminder for all of us that we never get too old to share where we were when we started walking with Christ.   In fact, it is an essential to continuing to grow spiritually to keep doing the things we did at first.  

Peace.  

What a perfect description of the first love - not a lot of knowledge or experience, but a lot of gratitude.

[Kan]

"They triumphed over him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death," (Revelation 12:11).  

 Amen.   "They triumphed"!  and We triumph today in the same way -

by the blood of the Lamb and by the word 

of our testimony in Yeshua - always in harmony with all of Yahweh's Word, simple.

 Never contradictory to God's Word like religions 

of man or of the world.

  Truth triumphs - imagine the VICTORY, "Children of Yahweh" separate from the world((holy, set apart)), called out by Him.

 That FIRST LOVE.....  HIS LOVE FOR US - 

KJ21

Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God! Therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew Him not.

 

A few replies have shown that the first love is to God or from God who first loved us, but the first love referred to in Revelation is about our first love, what made us love Jesus in the beginning.

God wants us to return to that first love, not to forget it. As Jesus put it - unless we become as children we are missing out on the kingdom of heaven.

Esther in the above post reminded us of the simplicity of that first attraction. 

When it says that they "loved not their lives unto death" - is the first love strong enough to endure that test - to have life itself challenged?