Study of Revelation #2 - Ephesus __ At first I was going to try to condense all 7 churches into 1 post but I have a lot I want to share and doing so would leave a lot of what I found meaningful in these 7 letters. Be sure to scroll through the remaining pictures and for my full thoughts on the church of Ephesus, go to the link on my bio for the full article. __ Starting from Revelation chapter 2 John starts writing the letters to the 7 churches. The first church we'll take a look at is Ephesus - the Loveless Church __ The church of Ephesus has found partial favor in the eyes of Jesus. They hate what is evil and labor for Christ (Revelation 2:2-3). However, their one great flaw is that they’ve forgotten their first love (Revelation 2:3-4). Jesus tells them to repent and to “do the first works”. I believe he’s talking about the first commandment he gave his disciples back in Matthew 22:36-38 as well as in Mark 12:28-30, in which a Pharisee asks Jesus a question about the law, “Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment”. The problem with Ephesus is that they have their minds in the right place – wanting to serve God, having a plan and putting that plan to action but they don’t have their heart there too, which according to 1 Corinthians 13:1-3 is meaningless. __ The consequence of not repenting is Jesus will come quickly and will remove their “candlestick” from its place (Revelation 2:5). Two things stick out to me from the punishment they’ll get if they don’t repent: Jesus says he’ll “come quickly” and that their candlestick will be removed. This seems like a reference to the rapture/2nd coming as well as the judgement seat of Christ. __ “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” - Revelation 3:22 . . . . #himitsustudy #himitsu #revelation #studyofrevelation #revelationofjesuschrist #jesusculture #jesussaves #biblestudy #ephesus #biblehistory https://www.instagram.com/p/BqxKSgTlKnT/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=zgi98zckjew
