In the book of Revelation, we read what are commonly called “letters to the churches”. In these, God warns these churches or groups of believers about what they are lacking in their relationship with Him. In chapter 4, a letter is written to the church at Ephesus and it says, “I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear with those who are evil, but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and found them to be false. I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name’s sake, and you have not grown weary. But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent.” (Rev. 4:2-5)
Note how this group of believers seemed to be doing quite well. They endured patiently any persecution or troubles. They didn’t associate with false prophets and teachers. They didn’t tolerate evil. So, what was the problem? They had lost their initial love for Jesus Christ. They were just going through the motions of worship and following Christ out of habit or duty rather than out of a heart of pure love for Him! And God tells them “REPENT!” “Get this thing right!”
We too often get “comfortable” in our faith and our Christianity, and we fail to recognize little things that are out of place, or we tolerate little sins because we think they don’t matter. Kind of like a computer programer or web page builder. Just having one little (“) missing in a thousand lines of code can make the code not work correctly, or make the web page not display properly. Many times I’ve spent hours looking at a web page and trying to figure out what was causing an error to appear, only to find it was a simple missing quotation mark or semi-colon.
I’m sure the church at Ephesus didn’t even think about the fact that they had lost their love for Jesus Christ. I mean, they were doing everything else right it seemed, yet they were doing it out of duty or habit, and God wasn’t satisfied with that! And look at how He told them, “either get this right, or else I will have to punish you!” Remember, “God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.” (1 John 1:5) He is not satisfied with us until we are seeking to fully love, honor, and obey Him with all our hearts!
We can’t allow even the “little” sins to stay in our hearts and lives, we must seek Him with all we have! Just as a little fire ant can ruin our day, the little and seemingly unimportant things can ruin our relationship with God! “…let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us” (Hebrews 12:1)