Life Study of Revelation Misses Mark RE: "First Love"

[JJ]

Witness Lee's Life Study of Revelation misses the mark on what "the first love" of the church in Ephesus was that they had forsaken. For reference here is a link to the verses that include the message sent to the church in Ephesus from the Lord.

https://biblehub.com/bsb/revelation/2.htm

If you read Witness Lee's Life Study on this section of scripture he says the love the Ephesians had forsaken is “love toward the Lord”.

While that seems to make sense, it is actually incomplete. Why do I say this? Because we have a record (in Paul's epistle to the Ephesians) that documents what their first love was. So, I checked every use of the word "love" in Ephesians (see links and verses below) to see whether their first love was their love for the Lord.

https://biblehub.com/ephesians/1-6.htm

https://biblehub.com/ephesians/1-15.htm


https://biblehub.com/ephesians/2-4.htm

3:17b-19 (Berean Study Bible)

"Then you, being rooted and grounded in love, will have power, together with all the saints, to comprehend the length and width and height and depth of His love, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.


https://biblehub.com/ephesians/4-2.htm


https://biblehub.com/ephesians/4-15.htm

https://biblehub.com/ephesians/4-16.htm

5:1-2 Be imitators of God, therefore, as beloved children, and walk in love, just as Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us as a fragrant sacrificial offering to God.

6:23-24

Peace to the brothers and love with faith from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace be with all who love our Lord Jesus Christ with an undying love.



So, Paul’s epistle to the Ephesians uses love as being toward the Lord, and also “toward all the saints", says they were rooted and grounded in love so that they would together apprehend the height, depth, and breadth and know the knowledge surpassing love of Christ, and exhorted them to walk in love.

Husbands are also exhorted to love their wives even as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.

It seems then that the Ephesians’ first love is more than just “love for the Lord”. It also includes walking in it, realizing its vast dimensions together with the saints, knowing it, loving all the saints, bearing with one another in love, speaking truth in love to one another, and even loving spouses as Christ.