Christ criticizes the Ephesians church in Revelation 2:4 when He states, “But I have this against you: you have lost the love you had at first” CJB. What was that “first love”? As always, our first love must flow from the Great Commandment. After all, “We love because he first loved us.” 1 John 4:19. So how is that first love manifested? When seeking truth lets “follow the money”.
In addition to financial treasure, we have time and talent to demonstrate our heart’s desire. What is the greatest focus of our personal resources relating to Christ? For the traditional Christian the Sunday morning church service is the greatest object of our affection. To be a Christian simply means to show up for Sunday morning church service, obey the directions, then go and stay out of trouble until next Sunday when you must “go to church”!
As far as “going to church” 80-90% of our congregational resources go to the Sunday morning church service. When a group plants a church the first thing they look for is a location. Now, the group may start out in a home, a place to fulfill the 2nd Chapter of Acts model of the church’s gathering but quickly begin looking for a large enough space not to continue as modeled in Scripture but to hold a Sunday morning service. It’s all a traditional Christians knows. What else exists beyond the four walls of the local congregation?
Listen to traditional Christians or watch what is posted on social media. If one does not attend a congregation on Sundays, then they are in violation of Scripture. The constant drumbeat of Hebrews 10:24,25 the “forsaking of the assembling of ourselves together” is driven into the believer’s mindset. Not love for Christ, or commitment to discipleship, or service to G-d all greater value to the Kingdom and easily accomplished through regular in and outdoor ministries caring for our neighbors.
Sunday attendance is the traditional Christian’s first love. They love the uplifting, predictable, easy regular event providing the non-discipled believer with an existence of non-committal and the church leaders with the joy of “building a church”, having an audience to “preach the word” and to feel like they are doing G-d’s will. No discipling to work in the harvest loving G-d by loving our neighbors.
Have we lost our first love?
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