“Unto the angel of the church of Ephesus write: These things saith he, who holdeth the seven stars in his right hand, who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks: I know thy works, and thy labour, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them that are evil, and thou hast tried them, who say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars: and thou hast patience, and hast endured for my name, and hast not fainted. But I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first charity. Be mindful therefore from whence thou art fallen: and do penance, and do the first works. Or else I come to thee, and will move thy candlestick out of its place, except thou do penance. But this thou hast, that thou hatest the deeds of the Nicolaites, which I also hate. He, that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith to the churches: To him, that overcometh, I will give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of my God.”
“I will not leave you orphans, I will come to you” (John 14:18) is a helpful verse in considering the greeting of Jesus to the respective churches. Jesus is in control, in your midst by being present in your heart, and holds you in His hand: “And I give them life everlasting; and they shall not perish for ever, and no man shall pluck them out of my hand” (John 10:28). Though He cannot be seen, His love is very present, and He begins encouraging and correcting His Church by beginning with the mother church in Asia, which is Ephesus. Jesus begins with recognizing the good that is being wrought through His people: “Yet not I, but the grace of God with me” (1 Corinthians 15:10), for all the good actions of man are given by God, like a child that takes a flower planted by their parents in a garden and presents it to them as a gift of love. However, this encouragement is important, because “Great labour is created for all men, and a heavy yoke is upon the children of Adam, from the day of their coming out of their mother’s womb, until the day of their burial into the mother of all” (Ecclesiasticus 40:1), and love alone can spur someone to work happily through the toils that life and love demand: “This therefore hath seemed good to me, that a man should eat and drink, and enjoy the fruit of his labour, wherewith he hath laboured under the sun, all the days of his life, which God hath given him: and this is his portion” (Ecclesiastes 5:17). It is also a reminder that love and grace save, but what one does with this gift of love is the measure by which they will be judged: “Do you see that by works a man is justified; and not by faith only?” (James 2:24). The ministry and patience of the Ephesians are commended, a loving reminder that “your labour is not in vain in the Lord” (1 Corinthians 15:58), but Jesus makes an interesting point that they cannot tolerate evildoers. While patience and love are necessary, to encourage others in false teaching or sin is akin to congratulating someone on a crippling illness, thus does St. John say: “If any man come to you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into the house nor say to him, ‘God speed you.’ For he that saith unto him, ‘God speed you,’ communicateth with his wicked works” (2 John 1:10-11), and the putridity of the odors of sin are more foul than those of Job’s plight: “And he took a potsherd and scraped the corrupt matter, sitting on a dunghill” (Job 2:8). Furthermore, the Ephesians have weighed what appeared to be loving teachers of God’s ways and found them lacking, for as truth without love is cold, love without truth is water poured onto the ground rather than in a glass: “God is a spirit; and they that adore him, must adore him in spirit and in truth” (John 4:24). To reject the weeds of the false and let the fruits of truth grow to their full beauty is the mark of a good gardener: “Gather up first the cockle, and bind it into bundles to burn, but the wheat gather ye into my barn” (Matthew 13:30). Now, with a flourishing ministry and patience in bitter times comes the risk of losing sight of the true goal: Authentic love, both of the Beloved and of others: “He that loveth not, knoweth not God: for God is love” (1 John 4:8), and “If you have bitter zeal, and there be contentions in your hearts; glory not” (James 3:14). All the good actions one can do are nothing if the flame of one’s love is weak: “If I should distribute all my goods to feed the poor, and if I should deliver my body to be burned, and have not love, it profiteth me nothing” (1 Corinthians 13:3). Thus, it is not a small sentence to be losing one’s love, for orthodoxy and tremendous work are not the heart of the Gospel, but love is: “A new commandment I give unto you: That you love one another, as I have loved you, that you also love one another” (John 13:34), thus why He threatens removing the candlestick from Ephesus, despite its sterling reputation, for love alone is forever: “Love never falleth away” (1 Corinthians 13:8). When He then says, “Remember from where you are fallen,” this does not mean a reminder of one’s sins, for love does not bring back up the failures of the past, but remember the joyful heights of love, when all things were roses and warmth, and to return to Love Incarnate to receive His love: “I am the vine; you the branches: he that abideth in me, and I in him, the same beareth much fruit: for without me you can do nothing” (John 15:5), that the love they have may be reinvigorated. It is a reminder for a love unto folly, for just as the young lover does things out of an abundance of love, not considering cost or time, but purely for love’s sake, so too does Jesus here call His people to love as one first in love. This in turn leads to repentance from the failures of an anemic love, which always leads to joy in the heart of God: “And when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and was moved with compassions, and running to him fell upon his neck, and kissed him” (Luke 15:20). Jesus then mentions removing the candlestick, which Victorinus of Petovium calls “dispersing the congregation,” for without the bond of love, the bundle falls apart; the consequences of a lack of love are not to be taken lightly. He then mentions that He, like them, hates the works of the Nicolaites, not hating the people themselves, but seeing their works as something harmful to human dignity and the beauty of soul to which all men are called: “King Solmon hath made him a litter of the wood of Libanus: the pillars thereof he made of silver, the seat of gold, the going up of purple; the midst he covered with love for the daughters of Jerusalem” (Canticle 3:9-10). The one that has an ear, that is, an understanding of the message, the love with which it comes, and the direction to which it is pushing them, hears well: “But he that received the seed upon good ground, is that that heareth the word, and understandeth, and beareth fruit, and yieldeth the one an hundredfold, and another sixty, and another thirty” (Matthew 13:23), and this applicable to all of Scripture, for the Holy Spirit speaks through it to the entirety of the Church. To the one that overcomes, that is, emerges victorious on the side of Christ in the war over your heart, will be given eternal life, that your love story may never end, but last forever.