Eloy Rodriguez, Teachings, Uncategorized
What Is Your First Love
Nov
2 “To the [a]angel of the church of Ephesus write,
Revelations 2:1-6 NKJV – Italics added for emphasis
‘These things says He who holds the seven stars in His right hand, who walks in the midst of the seven golden lampstands: 2 “I know your works, your labor, your [b]patience, and that you cannot [c]bear those who are evil. And you have tested those who say they are apostles and are not, and have found them liars; 3 and you have persevered and have patience, and have labored for My name’s sake and have not become weary. 4 Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love. 5 Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works, or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place—unless you repent. 6 But this you have, that you hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.
It is on my heart today to write about first love. This is prompted after some personal revelation with God as well as from conversations with various people from different backgrounds, ranging from Muslims to Christians to new age beliefs. From these conversations it was clear that most people do not understand the term “first love”. We see in the Bible that God wants to be the King of our heart (Proverbs 3:5, Proverbs 23:26, Psalms 73:26, Philippians 4:7), which means He must be our first love. We see in the above Bible quote that the church of Ephesus is rebuked by Jesus for turning away from their first love. So what does it mean for Jesus to be our first love? What does it mean to have His Body (the church) as your first love?
Let us start by defining first love:
First Love is the first person you want to be with. You can talk to them anytime of the day/ night regardless. First love is the person who you first see a future with and want to last. The person who you first feel a fast connection. The first and one of the hardest heartbreaks .. many believe First love also happens to be their last . You’ll always have place in your heart for them because they’re the first person who you cared for even . First love can happen in any age or anywhere even if you never meet a person
https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=First%20Love
This is the current modern description as per urban dictionary, yes its not a formal definition, however, this is a fair representation of the modern persons view of first love. A formal dictionary nearly states:
Definition of first love
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/first%20love
: the first person one loves in a romantic way
Which frankly does not really leave much to desire to be fair. But let us look deeper, let us look at the lost concept of what it means to have a first love. As you read on, sit and critique yourself honestly, look deep into your heart and assess if Jesus sits in the position of first love in your life. If He does not hold the forth coming position then I recommend you step out and walk out Revelations 2:5 and repent and get right with God and let Him move into this position.
To get an understanding if Jesus sits as our first love we must first workout do we truly love Jesus? What does love mean to you? I am sure a huge torrent of thoughts come to mind, ranging from you enjoy spending time with them, you want to look after them to you would do anything for them. The dictionary defines love as:
“A profoundly tender, passionate affection for another person.
A feeling of warm personal attachment or deep affection, as for a parent, child, or friend.
Sexual passion or desire.”
The urban dictionary does a better job:
“You can’t explain it….but all you know is; you will never be the same. It’s a beautiful feeling; you can’t imagine life without them…”
If look into the greek definitions of agapao (this is the type of love referred to in Revelations) it is an active and perfect for the present and the future (think now and forever) in which you exhibit the same as the person you are referring to. It means to be full of good-will towards them. It is the means to which salvation is provided to men. Thats right, part of the definition of this perfect love is the act with which God made salvation available to you by sending His Sone, Jesus our Messiah. If we are to then expand on this, love is a today and forever feeling and action with which we exhibit the same behaviours as the person we are claiming to love. Love towards God is an active today and forever act of following and exhibiting the same behaviours as God, especially the self sacrificial act of giving one’s life in order to save others. We can then expand that this love is not just towards God Himself, but must also extend to His Body the fellow believers in Jesus as the Messiah, for we are branched into Jesus through the offering of His body. Just wow, thats quite a lot to digest and absorb. One thing I personally lament over is the simplicity of the English language. As a species we have apparently evolved, but our literature and language skills have simplified to the point that the modern person is too lazy to type you instead they settle for u. When we stop and dig deeper into what the authors of the Bible were trying to express we can start to understand why perhaps the fruits that we should expect to see according to the Word of God are not materialising in our walk. For example how easily do people criticise or complain about or chose to not talk to other believers in Yeshua because of petty differences? Is that exhibiting the self sacrificial love God has for you when He sent His Son Jesus to die for your sins? Do you give your whole life back to God or do you just keep once a week for your regular church service to give back to Him? Does that exhibit or match the behaviour of Jesus giving His whole life for yours?
Now we have dug into what does love actually mean as per the context of the Bible what does it mean when Jesus is referring to “first love”. The Greek word used is protos, which is translated to first. Protos means to be foremost (in time, place, order & importance), it is before everything, it is the beginning, it is the best, chiefest and it is if the first. So when we put these two terms together one can simply summarise that the action of exhibiting the behaviours of God is at the beginning of everything we do and its the most important action and thought of our very lives as we exhibit the behaviour of giving our life back to God in order to save others. How can we put this in understandable terms for your walk with God. It means there is no such thing as too much for God. Putting one to two hours a week aside for God is not enough. Jesus gave his whole life for you and we are therefore to give our whole lives back to Him. Putting aside a small portion of the finances God gifted us to give back to Him or to help other Christians is not enough, as Jesus gave everything He had to give you the gift you hold today; salvation. Setting aside a brief 10-15 minutes of your day to spend praying and talking to Him when you can maybe fit Him in where you have a short gap is not enough. Now I can hear some of you thinking, he can’t say that, thats heretic, thats condemning, thats religious, well I say to you, no. Thats just what the word of God says. What is first in your life takes ALL priority. If you have time to watch episode after episode on Netflix, then you are choosing to love something else over reading the Bible, praying, worshiping God, helping those in need or sharing the Gospel. If you have time go for a coffee where you spend it gossiping but you dont have time to read the Bible and study the Word of God, then you are choosing to love that over God (Jesus was a rabbi and by nature able to quote the scriptures without referring to google/bible apps/search in His pocket scrolls(FYI there isn’t such a thing as a readable pocket scroll)).
If you are still here then I am assuming you want some tips to help you put Jesus back as your first love where He desires. When God took me through this journey of understanding first love, the question He posed to me, “Eloy will you put your life down in order to give the option of salvation to someone who doesn’t even know Me?”. God being such a loving Father, who knows me so well, knew this was an easy one for me to understand. Being ex-military this was a mindset I understood as I was willing to die for my country to give people who didn’t know me the freedom and luxury that they have. Now I have something bigger to lay my life down for, the Kingdom of God and to help others see the free gift of salvation available to them. What could this mean to you? A simple thought process or question would be would you be happy to give up non Biblical activities (such as Netflix/movies/cinema or playing sports) in exchange for spending more time with Him in prayer, worship and studying the Bible? If you are not in a position where you would willingly give up activities of the world to chase activities that exhibit the behaviours of Jesus then you my friend could be sitting under the warning to Ephesus.
To summarise in an urban dictionary format, to have Jesus as your first love means that you want to be with Jesus all day and night. All you want to talk about is Jesus. Jesus is the person you want to build a future with, you’re primarily focused on building a relationship and kingdom with Him. If you was to break up with Jesus you would never love anything or anyone like you loved Him.
I pray that you today place Jesus where He wants to be, in position of first love and may that love extend to His Body.
