The Light of Life

Revelation 2:1-5 - "To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: The One who holds the seven stars in His right hand, the One who walks among the seven golden lampstands, says this: I know your deeds and your toil and perseverance, and that you cannot endure evil men, and you put to the test those who call themselves apostles, and they are not, and you found them to be false; and you have perseverance and have endured for My name’s sake, and have not grown weary.  But I have this against you, that you have left your first love. Remember therefore from where you have fallen, and repent and do the deeds you did at first; or else I am coming to you and will remove your lampstand out of its place—unless you repent."

So far we have covered most of this. We saw the works that the Ephesian church was involved in, we saw what the Lord Jesus had against them, namely that they had left their first love, we saw the solution that the Lord gave them which was in three steps: 1) "Remember from where you have fallen." That is that loving intimate relationship with Him from which everything else stems in our Christian life. 2) "Repent." Recognizing that a lack of love for God is sin, bringing that before Him and asking for His forgiveness for breaking the first and the greatest commandment. 3) "Do the first works." That is, doing the Lords work, not out of a sense of duty, but flowing from an intimate love relationship with Him, not the other way around. But the Lord Jesus goes on to tell this church what will happen if they do not  follow His instructions. He says in verse 5 - "Remember therefore from where you have fallen, and repent and do the deeds you did at first; or else I am coming to you and will remove your lampstand out of its place—unless you repent."

When a saved persons first love is gone but he continues in Christian service he is simply serving out of a sense of duty, but duty is not to be the motivating source in our service for Christ, we’ve seen that. God didn’t send His Son to die for us because He felt obligated to, or even because He felt sorry for us. He didn't fell responsible to save us because He created us, no. The Bible is abundantly clear that it was His love for us that motivated Him to send His only begotten Son to die for us. John 3:16, the most well known verse in Scripture says - "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life." Romans 5:8 says - "But God demonstrated His own love toward us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us.

This letter in Revelation chapter 2 was written to a local church. When the Lord Jesus talks about removing their lampstand He is not saying that they will lose their salvation. The Bible never indicates that a child of God will ever unbecome a child of God. It can't happen. So, that being the case, what is He talking about when He says that He will remove their lampstand? In John 5:35 the Lord Jesus is talking about John the baptist and He says - "He was the lamp that was burning and was shining and you were willing to rejoice for a while in his light." The Lord Jesus refers to John as a "lamp that was burning. The purpose of a lamp is to provide light. When people looked at the life of John the baptist there was a light that was coming from him, a light that was shining out of him. In Matthew chapter 5 verses 14-16 the Lord Jesus says to His disciples and to us as well, - "You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden; nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven." The church at Ephesus was involved in works, and yet the Lord Jesus told them that their lampstand would be removed. There was not a light connected with their works like we see Jesus talking about in these verses. In John 8:12 we read - "Again therefore Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world; he who follows Me shall not walk in darkness; but shall have the light of life.”" The Lord Jesus said of John the baptist that he was a light that was shining. He said of us in Matthew 5 that we are the light of the world, and here He says that He is the light of the world. There is an interesting connection in the Bible between light and life. In talking about Himself as the light of the world the Lord Jesus said that whoever follows Him would not walk in darkness but will have the "light of life." We do not shine our own light. It's Christs light and He shines it through us. In John 1:4 we read of the Lord Jesus - "In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men." His life is the light.

In Exodus chapter 34 we are given the account of Moses coming down form Mount Sinai after spending forty days and forty nights receiving instruction from the Lord. In verse 29 we read - "It came about when Moses was coming down from Mount Sinai (and the two tablets of the testimony were in Moses’ hand as he was coming down from the mountain), that Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone because of his speaking with Him." As a result of that close contact with the Lord Moses face shone and he didn't even know it. We're told in other places that his face shone like the brightness of the sun, and that the people couldn't even look at him unless he put a veil over his face to mask the brightness of His glory. Now, Moses didn't go up on that mountain and spend time with the Lord in order to get a face that shone. That wasn't his purpose in going up there, but that was the outcome. We don't have a close intimate relationship and daily fellowship with Christ in order to shine His light, that's not our purpose, but that is the outcome. When we daily grow in our love for the Lord we can't help but shine His light. So when the Lord tells this church that He is going to remove their lampstand He is not talking about their salvation. He is talking about their testimony, their witness. The light of Christ that He shines through those who are growing in love toward Him. When any church or any individual leaves their first love, if we do not take the appropriate steps to come back to Christ, the end result is going to be that we will have no light. Our Christian testimony will not be there, we will not be shining the light of Christ. We may be working, but works that do not flow out of a love relationship with Christ are defined as dead works. Simply spending time in loving communion with Him is going to cause us to shine His light. When we leave this loving devotion He will remove our lampstand.

Revelation 2:4-5 - "But I have this against you, that you have left your first love. Remember therefore from where you have fallen, and repent and do the deeds you did at first; or else I am coming to you and will remove your lampstand out of its place—unless you repent."