Revelation 2:5, commentary and pictures

Christ speaks with divine authority to the church at Ephesus, commending its labor, patience and rejection of evil and false teachers, yet rebuking it for leaving its first love. That first love is love for Jesus in the heart, shown in supreme love to God and Christlike love to brethren and neighbors, and its loss is a real spiritual fall even when outward works and sound doctrine remain. Those fallen are commanded to remember the former height when faith was simple and Jesus was precious, to repent thoroughly with humbling, confession and forsaking of sin, and to do again the first works. Doing the first works means returning to deeds of tender, humble, self-denying love, obedience, prayer and unity, and to personal soul-saving labor for friends, relatives and new fields. Unless there is repentance He will come quickly and unexpectedly and remove the candlestick, taking away light, blessing, the Spirit's presence and usefulness as light-bearer, while faithful witnesses are raised to take the place.

Speaker and Ephesian Setting

The speaker is the one who holds the seven stars in His right hand and walks in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks. He is the True Witness who searches hearts and gives to everyone according to works, with a guardian angel ministering to each special church. He knows the works, labor, patience, refusal to bear evil, testing and exposure of those claiming to be apostles and finding them liars, bearing trial, endurance, and unfainting labor for His name of the church of Ephesus. After enumerating those many virtues He charges that church with leaving its first love, which is love for Jesus Christ embracing also the brethren and those for whom Christ died. He commands the fallen to remember from where fallen, repent, and do the first works again, warning that except there is repentance He will come quickly and remove the candlestick out of its place.

The message was given through John on Patmos to be written and to come down through the ages to the end of the world. It first speaks words of commendation for what can be commended, crediting good works, labor, patience, refusal to bear evil workers, and faithful endurance without fainting, with Well done pronounced on the good and faithful servant. It does not close there but adds rebuke because the first love has been left, calling for remembrance, repentance, and doing the first works. He who walks in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks is seen walking among them from church to church, from congregation to congregation and from soul to soul with unwearied vigilance, and while human undershepherds may sleep He as the true Watchman never slumbers nor sleeps, His presence and sustaining grace being the secret of all light and life kept by the power of God through faith which is the gift of God. The call applies now because great things are about to take place and there is no time to serve God with a divided heart, when everything that can be shaken is being shaken that unshakable things may remain and every case comes in review as He measures the temple and the worshipers therein.

The early setting was when many had lost their first love of gospel truth, ensnared by false doctrines urged by false teachers, faltering under trial and tempted to give up the faith as the mystery of iniquity began its baleful work. The defection was presented before the faithful and beloved disciple, concerning those who had light and knowledge but turned from sin only for a time. Falling meant not preserving integrity, not searching the Scriptures with a heart to obey and put away every sin, not overcoming defects of character by grace, not being fully converted, not keeping garments white and pure, not retaining simplicity of faith and first love, letting strength and purity of faith diminish and zeal grow cold, becoming earthly, sensual, devilish, like trees of the Lord's planting turned to a degenerate strange vine bearing corrupt fruit with no fruit to the glory of God. The message is God's merciful refusal to leave His church to continue in a backslidden state, stern reproof and chastisement to a defective church losing sight of fundamental principles and imperiling hope of salvation, yet spoken in infinite tenderness revealing love and desire that believers make sure work for eternity, with promise of peace to every penitent believer, and those in this fallen condition are not to be at once erased from church books but shown with earnest effort what they must do to be saved.

The seven churches are symbolic of the Christian church in different periods of the Christian era, and the number seven indicates completeness. The messages extend to the end of time and are in force today, portraying the state of things existing in the churches of the religious world today. The figures used are symbolic of the state of professed people, with wheat developing among tares and truth standing on its own eternal basis in contrast with error. Christ weighs the characters of those who take His name, with every individual under His supervision, for He knows the thoughts and intents of the heart as well as every word and act and all about each one's religious experience. This belongs to the last testimony given to John, message after message to Ephesus, Pergamos, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea, confronting selfishness in worked or unworked fields where destitute places are left unworked with little earnest effort to put workers into those fields.

The word is spoken by One who has authority and must not be flippantly turned from or trifled with. To trifle allows Satan to steal in and blasts commended excellencies as with mildew. Leaving first love, which is brotherly love by which disciples are known, makes all effort unacceptable to God even when works, labor, patience, rejection of evil and false apostles, bearing trial, and unwearied labor without fainting remain. Without that love there is no steadfastness of purpose, all knowledge, capabilities, outward zeal and service are worthless, no grace is received from Christ to impart to others, and light does not shine forth to the world so the candlestick is removed. The Saviour watches with more tender compassion than an earthly parent for response to His offers of love and forgiveness and cries after the wanderer to return, but if the erring one persistently refuses that pitying call he will at last be left in darkness with heart hardened by long slighting mercy until no longer susceptible to grace, and the warning falls most heavily on those who have known love yet turn to choose pleasures of sin, for whom it will be less tolerable in the day of judgment than for Sodom and Gomorrah. When love wanes it is sure proof ministers and people have lost first love, for the love of Christ is not fitful feeling but living principle lived out as abiding power bringing unity and strength, with teacher and learners quickened together by the Holy Spirit drinking from the same fountain and moved to good works for Jesus and those purchased by His blood.

Nature of Fallen First Love

The first love is love for Jesus Christ in the heart, responding to the love that dwelt in Him who gave His life, and it embraces supreme love to God with love for brethren and neighbors as Christ loved. By that brotherly love disciples are known, and through it the light gathered from Christ shines from believers as the light of the world upon the pathway of others and reveals the knowledge of God to the world. Leaving it is betraying sacred trusts, serving the enemy, sacrificing pure and holy principles, forming a confederacy, walking in sparks of self-kindling, and gathering lines of control into finite human hands instead of humbly seeking God's will, way and counsel, dealing justly, loving mercy and walking humbly with God. That loss made the great heart of the work at Battle Creek, especially the publishing house, an object of sorrow mingled with severe displeasure, made a backslider who once had piety and early devotion lukewarm and spiritually blind without acknowledging it, and made even defenders of truth in the controversy over the law in Galatians at Minneapolis Christless by failing to abide in Christ and cherish His Spirit. The same fall comes through disagreement among men in responsible positions who let Satan captivate mind, soul and body, and through handling sacred work in an overbearing spirit that brings hated principles into God's work.

Leaving that love is a spiritual and moral fall and degeneracy, even when works, labor, patience, refusal to bear evil, testing of those claiming to be apostles and finding them liars, bearing trial, and unwearied labor for Christ's name without fainting remain and are commended. Without the love, all such effort is unacceptable to God, and the True Witness still calls the fallen to make the world's Redeemer their foremost love and to live distinct from the world with hope centered in Christ rather than in this world. That loss is a grievous sin and danger to spiritual life, marked by skepticism and spiritual blindness requiring confession and forsaking of besetting sins and purification of the heart by the Spirit, and its remedy is conversion and turning back to wholehearted love for Christ that begins working to save the perishing. The rebuke must expose carelessness, backsliding and sin and bring repentance and confession with Christ proclaimed as first and last and all in all to the soul, and it includes decided reform with self-denial and self-sacrifice, eating and drinking to God's glory without corrupting soul and body by intemperance.

The fall is revealed by cooled love for Jesus and for one another, opening the door to coldness, selfishness, harmful speech, evil surmising and speaking, hearsay, envy, jealousy, hard-heartedness, criticism, fault-finding, suspicion, distrust, unrestrained tongues, neglected prayer, pharisaical righteousness and formal orthodoxy, with deadness of spirituality and loss of spiritual sight, tenderness and eyesight. Love almost extinct and waxed cold so brethren do not love brethren is replaced by mechanical formal religion instead of deep fervent charity, by dryness and coldness of heart without Christian courtesy and the fragrance of kindness and tenderness seen in the true Christian, and by willingness to listen to and circulate hearsay while helping Satan through envy and hardheartedness. The loss affects the entire religious life with spiritual blindness and a wrong view of others, especially hatred of brethren, loss of faith in brethren, seeing nothing valuable in their work, catching at words and actions and interpreting them as injustice, vindicating self while disparaging others and uprooting confidence in them, which dishonors God and tramples truth in the dust. It sets long-professed believers on the judgment seat to pronounce sentence on those who do not meet their ideas, striving for the first place and making many hearts sore by word and act, and until the first work of Christian love, fellowship, honoring one another and cultivating humility is done, council meetings amount to naught, for something more than mere admission is required and the proud in heart must take Christ's yoke and learn His meekness and lowliness, fall upon the Rock and be broken, and let the name of Jesus kindle the heart.

The fall also appears as harshness, want of tender sympathy, and a harsh, judgmental, fault-finding and dictatorial spirit that displaces love and must be confessed with humbling before God. It appears as striving for first place and supremacy, self-sufficiency and reliance on human wisdom, devisings and theories, walking in self-kindled sparks and light instead of seeking God's will and counsel, and undertaking work relying on personal smartness. It appears as worldliness, unbelief and impenitence that put work and souls in peril, coveting means and high wages, and failing to follow the Lord day by day, grow in faith and live in holiness, so freshness and power are lost. It appears as neglect of soul-saving work and of the home missionary work of sharing Christ's grace with those for whom He died, which is itself a fall from former faithfulness.

Losing first love quenches spiritual light and freezes warmth, so the atmosphere and spirit become frigid and primitive, heaven-born piety cannot be sustained, steadfastness of purpose is taken away, and light does not shine forth to the world. When love for Christ is gone, all knowledge, capabilities, outward zeal and service are worthless, no grace is received from Christ to impart to others, and to trifle with the direct reproof allows Satan to steal in and blasts commended excellencies as with mildew. Formal, mechanical religion without deep love and tenderness leaves the light to go out in darkness and the place as witness to be lost, and repentance requires being watered over by the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

Call to Remember Repent Return

The fallen are commanded to recall from what height they have dropped, to repent, and to perform the former deeds of love again, for mere admission of wrong is not enough, and without such repentance the light-bearer will lose its light and have its lampstand taken away. The charge stands even where truth is still held, doctrine is established, and evil is firmly resisted, because loss of awareness of the redeeming sacrifice reveals how serious the decline is. The call joins commendation of works, labor, patience, rejection of evil and false apostles, and unfainting toil with rebuke for abandoning the first affection, and it is presented as already being fulfilled. The same summons is sent to the present church whose love for Jesus and for one another has cooled into selfishness, harmful speech, envy, jealousy, hard-heartedness, neglected prayer, and formal religion.

Remembering means looking back to the former spiritual height when faith was simple, confidence was trustful, the name of Jesus was precious, His love melted and subdued the proud heart, and His knock met a hearty welcome. It means recalling what was before Jesus lighted the candle of love in the darkened soul, how the faith was received and what convictions then held, and recognizing the change that has since taken place in the heart. Those in whom that light still burns though feebly are to look back to the rock from which they were hewn, examine often whether they are in Christ and Christ in them, and discern whether they wear Christ's yoke rather than a yoke imposed by men. The admonition must be taken personally with earnest solemnity, holding fast what was had from the beginning, clinging to the Mighty One, refusing to throw the first faith overboard for sophistries, fallacious stories and messages, science, hypnotism, or any such thing, and securing by faith the heavenly anointing to discern defects, awaken, put on Christ, and return to first devotion.

Repentance must be thorough, continuing, and shown in life, not a superficial beginning or a resolve to change course while refusing to confess in order to protect influence after injuring the cause. It requires humbling as a little child, taking Christ's yoke to learn meekness and lowliness, humbling the soul before God, turning from every difference of opinion, and individually seeking the Holy Spirit with the whole heart. It requires confessing definite sins, forsaking sin, putting away self-sufficiency and self-boasting, conversion and reconversion, and falling upon the Rock and being broken, which brings vital connection with God, Christ abiding within, a pure flame of devotion, and clear sight of spiritual things. This demand presses especially on those with great light who have not opened the heart, including men in positions of trust in the Battle Creek Sanitarium and the Review and Herald Publishing House whose stubbornness, unholy independence, sin, and selfishness dishonored God, yet even after long trifling with grace wholehearted confession and brokenness will be accepted.

Doing the first works is returning to deeds of Christlike love, which is supreme love to God with the whole heart, soul, strength, and mind, comprehended in the first four commandments, and love to neighbor as self and to brethren as Christ loved, comprehended in the last six. That love is mercy, grace, longsuffering, goodness, and truth circulating from God's own character to be imparted and reproduced to the world, bringing truth, grace, glory, and power when practiced and not merely read, with dependence on God rather than on one another for experience, yet with tenderness, courtesy, mutual honor, and freedom from suspicion and distrust. In practice it means tender restoration of erring ones, unity, humility, self-denial and self-sacrifice as the first work, obedience to the commandments, prayer and watching unto prayer, travail of soul for the world, proclaiming the last message of mercy, rising to higher piety and devotion from the highest motives, and becoming laborers together with God with changed thoughts, motives, and actions. It forbids benefiting self at another's disadvantage, exalting self as privileged, looking down on others, joining any ring or party that connives at evil however trivial, demanding high wages, and encouraging a selfish spirit, and those who refuse to deny self have no place in God's work and institutions and will never receive the overcomer's reward. This is the instruction of the True Witness for the time of the third angel's message amid adulterated Christianity, and without it the unrepentant walk in darkness.

Doing the first works is not outward service such as attending church, singing, and taking part in the various forms of religious worship, which cannot meet the requirement, but following Jesus' example in willing self-denial in laboring for the salvation of souls. It means helping distressed sinners with Christ's pity and compassion rather than leaving struggling souls without help through cold, hardhearted religion, and taking up the neglected work of restoring others. It means being watered by the baptism of the Holy Spirit so that the frozen warmth is thawed and primitive heaven-born piety can be sustained, instead of undertaking work in self-reliance and mere smartness which lacks Christ's mould and superscription. Then believers with hearts overflowing with love seek out friends, relatives, and acquaintances to tell what Jesus is to them and what they are to Jesus, put the leaven of truth into society, carry the work to new fields, and use means unselfishly instead of grasping them.

For those who see their mistake of not abiding in Christ, including those who became Christless by failing to cherish His Spirit and by taking wrong positions in the controversy over the law in Galatians at the Minneapolis General Conference, the first works include repenting of sins, confessing them, and being baptized, and no one should condemn that work. The same return applies to those led astray by unqualified, self-sent teachers, who when their duty is made clear should begin anew and be baptized by called messengers. For some it means returning to faith poured forth in thanksgiving and praise and taking up again the baptismal vows of death to sin and new life in Jesus Christ, since losing first love is shown by strife to be first, working for self-promotion, picking flaws in others, and violating those vows. Then the repentant live out the likeness of Christ who bore sins in His own body, dying to sin and living to righteousness and walking not after the flesh but after the Spirit, for without this there is no part with Christ, though provision is made for freedom from the law of sin and death.

Coming quickly means coming unexpectedly, and it means not bearing long with the perverse spirit that cherishes envy and evil surmising. The warning is directed to believers willing to listen to and circulate hearsay and who by criticism, evil surmising, envy, and hardheartedness help Satan, revealing the loss of the talent of love, the most sacred trust, the love that saved the fallen race from eternal death. It exposes departure from Christ through loss of Christlike love shown in evilspeaking, prejudicing minds against brother or sister, disturbing thoughts, destroying peace, weakening confidence in brethren, dryness and coldness of heart, and lack of Christian courtesy and the fragrance of kindness and tenderness. No position in service and no qualifications or capabilities, however commendable, can supply that deficiency, and the pattern given is commendation for earnest labor followed by reproof for losing love, calling all who profess the Word to serious thought and earnest study.

Warning of Removed Candlestick

Unless there is repentance Christ will come quickly and remove the candlestick out of its place, bringing heaven's punishment and judgment. Leaving the first love is a moral fall shown in coldness and indifference, in failure to keep pace with the message and work for the time, and in great lack of love and respect for one another. The fallen must remember their former condition and height, humble the heart before God, confess definite sins, repent thoroughly, and return to the first works including faithful cooperation in the work entrusted to the church and love that shapes Christian life and action. The warning is the solemn decided testimony of the True Witness who holds the seven stars in His right hand and walks in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks, who knows the works, labor, patience, rejection of evil and false apostles, and unfainting endurance for His name, and every church has a guardian angel to minister to it. Commendation for excellent qualities that must be kept changes to rebuke because first love for Jesus Christ, which also embraces love for the brethren for whom He died, has not been cherished, and with waning love of God self-love springs into new activity; loss of first love comes as faith and holiness fail to grow in daily life so freshness and power disappear and influence is put at risk.

The candlestick is His church as light-bearer in the midst of which Christ walks beholding the works of His professed disciples, and its removal is loss of place, standing, usefulness, light, blessing, and witness. A church must let its love for Christ shine through its works and serve as a channel of light to the world, for His people need all the light they can receive from the Saviour and cannot afford to walk in darkness without God and without hope. If there is no change and no reform, light and blessing will be withdrawn, which applies especially to people and institutions professing to accept heaven's message while dealings lack Christlike love, tenderness, and compassion. Removal leaves darkness and spiritual blindness, with prayer needed for His Spirit that they may work the works of God.

Removal signifies loss of heavenly illumination and the warnings and tender admonitions of the Spirit, so that left without them the people kindle their own fire and walk by their own light and in the sparks of their own kindling. It means the precious light from heaven is taken away and the quickening influence of the Word is no longer felt, with formal rules and methods taking the place of light obscured and eclipsed by wilful blindness to God's Word, leaving the church unable to advance and in a very perilous position. It means Christ will cease to take the name upon His lips in His intercession with the Father unless there is decided change in life and character, and the light now shining from the throne of God to enlighten and lighten the earth will be taken so they are left in complete darkness. Removal of the candlestick is always followed by loss of spiritual perception in regard to God's estimation of the value of man, with confused discernment and refusal to be convinced, while the case is not yet hopeless like the foolish virgins after the door was shut but encouragement remains to obtain faith, love, and the righteousness of Christ. Repenting and doing the first works means leaving a cold, half-hearted life destitute of love that disappoints Jesus, appreciating precious privileges and opportunities, walking in the light, receiving light and diffusing light by working for the Master, enlightening souls, showing them the truth, and leading others out of darkness in a world lying in wickedness; those who make no use of light and neglect soul-saving work will not only fail to receive greater light but will lose what now shines upon them, and good works without Christ and without the savor of Christian love, fellowship, humility, and meekness amount to nothing.

The warning is being fulfilled and is now taking place for many because they have failed to heed the call to remember, repent, and do the first works. It applies to those who receive spiritual messages and are convicted but fail to make thorough changes, honor God, or leave practices opposed to truth and righteousness, and to those who in self-importance separate from Christ, turn away from one another over lack of full agreement, and engage in dissension and strife working against God instead of carrying light to those in darkness. The call was given openly at the center of influence at the large meeting, not in an obscure corner, as work essential to spiritual life and power that would have meant following conviction, being reconverted, returning to first love, discerning and putting away evils that leavened the work, receiving spiritual strength and clear discernment, falling on the Rock and being broken with deep springs of the heart broken up, and having the Holy Spirit fill the assembly with bright beams and divine rays reaching afar if leaders had led the way. Because they did not return, the candlestick was taken away, seen in destroyed facilities for service and in the ruins of the publishing house.

When the unfaithful are removed faithful witnesses take their places, for Christ who moves in the midst of the candlesticks will never be without a church. Those on trial must learn from past experience, turn back, and return to faithful testimony to the Word and shining for Christ and His glory; those who dishonor God's name, fail to testify, and refuse to shine will have their candle put out, be exposed as faithless, and have no place in His kingdom, while faithful and true witnesses who stand unflinchingly will take their places and others will do the neglected earnest work for souls when heart service has become a mechanical form. As with the Jews who rejected Christ the foundation of their religious system, separated from God, and became no longer recognized as His church, the kingdom was taken from them and given to the Gentiles, signaled when God tore the Temple veil from top to bottom at Christ's death ending the old barrier and opening a new way for everyone to come to God without priest or ruler. God continues on this same principle with every branch of His work: whatever its position, however high and sacred its calling, when a church proves unfaithful to the Word He can no longer work with them and others are chosen to bear important responsibilities, and if these in turn do not purify life from every wrong action and establish pure and holy principles He will grievously afflict and humble them and unless they repent remove them and make them a reproach.

Refusal puts eternal salvation at stake, for many have lost the love that gives value to good works and must repent and do the first works or they cannot be saved. Continuing in a stubborn, querulous spirit with fretful complaining instead of Christlike words and actions obscures the knowledge of God and Christ and endangers place as a church, and unless there is reconversion there will soon be such lack of godliness that the church will be represented by the barren, pretentious, fruitless fig tree; as Jesus with mournful reluctance pronounced doom on the fruitless fig tree and under the curse of an offended God it withered away, so the impenitent face withering, walking in darkness, being sifted as wheat from chaff, perishing with the wicked, and never entering the mansions of the blest. God deals with the erring after long patience and repeated invitations of mercy, patiently pointing out errors and pleading, then speaking more plainly and sending judgments to lead to repentance and forsaking of sins. The threat to come quickly except there is repentance is spoken to every impenitent one who once cherished the love of God, with remembering meaning looking back to what they were before Jesus lighted the candle of love in darkened souls and to the rock from which they were hewn, examining whether they are in Christ and Christ in them and whether they wear Christ's yoke rather than a yoke men placed on them, yet opportunity to repent is still open and is cause for gratitude and for appropriating the admonition personally with earnest solemnity while there is still time.

Doctrine and Scriptural Connections

The verse belongs to Christ's last testimony given to John, with messages to Ephesus, Pergamos, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea, and with promises to the overcomer that increase in glory, including eating of the tree of life in the paradise of God. Failure to repent brings removal of the candlestick out of its place, which is loss of the bright light connected with the light of the Sun of righteousness and requires humbling the heart before God. If any fall from first love and do not quickly repent, living agents who claim truth yet refuse to become missionaries, practice the gentleness of Christ, and cooperate with Christ at their head are dropped out of the work, the light they enjoyed goes out, and the heart grows hard and selfish in contact with the world through indulgence of self, selfish pride, and following inclination not in harmony with the life and character of Christ. Losing first love is looking outside self to find spot and stain in another to vindicate one's own superiority, which is the work of accusers of the brethren, and is shown by strife to be first, working for self-promotion, picking flaws, and violating baptismal vows of death to sin and new life in Jesus Christ. Unless there is repentance there will be no part with Christ and His glory will not be seen, yet Christ has made provision for freedom from the law of sin and death, and even when all refuse God still has witnesses to diffuse increasing light to enlighten every soul. Returning to first love is returning to Christ, and every soul led to make that return is a soul gained, so those being drawn away must not be left to become the prey of the enemy but must be sought with decided care, urged to face about and repent, and fought for because Christ died to save them, standing on affirmative truth with strong decided testimony and power yet with Christlike love, refusing indifference and watching for souls as those who must give an account. Repenting means stopping criticism, working out one's own salvation with fear and trembling while God works within to will and to do His good pleasure, and means heart-searching, seeing mistakes, being converted, and taking up again baptismal vows in regeneration to live out the likeness of Christ who bore sins in His own body, dying to sin and living to righteousness and walking not after the flesh but after the Spirit.

The verse is Christ's warning to the church of Ephesus, which had good works, labor, patience, and doctrinal faithfulness yet had left first love, commanding to remember the height fallen from, repent, and do the first works again. The first works are supreme love to God with the whole heart, soul, strength, and mind, comprehended in the first four commandments, and love to neighbor as self and to brethren as Christ loved, comprehended in the last six commandments. That love is the love circulating in God's own character of mercy, grace, longsuffering, goodness, and truth, to be imparted to God's children and reproduced in them to the world, bringing truth, grace, glory, and power streaming down when practiced and not merely read. Dependence must be on God, not on one another for Christian experience, while loving one another in tenderness, courtesy, and mutual honor without suspicion and distrust. To do the first works is to live the truth in obedience of a faith that works by love and purifies the soul, obedience to the law summed in love to God and love to man, shown in unity and unselfish love for brethren that witnesses God sent His Son, for the presentation of beautiful theories will not suffice unless the love of Christ is in the heart to give fragrance to words and works, and loss of this love is loss of all things. Christ is grieved by dissension and lack of love because leaving first love is the secret of lack of power, so the fallen must remember, repent by humbling as a little child, seek His guidance, and return to the first experience when the soul was filled with love for Christ, for without it quarreling and selfishness testify ignorance of Him. The call to repent is connected with failing to keep God's law and to love one another as Christ loved, and except there is repentance and return to this love, Christ who walks in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks will come quickly and remove the candlestick out of its place, which is loss of light and of God's richest blessing. The verse is to be considered and understood together with study of the second chapter of 1 John.

The verse unsparingly condemns the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which is the teaching now largely taught that the gospel has made the law of God of no effect and that by believing people are released from being doers of the word. Christ commends hatred of the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which He also hates, and commands those who have left first love to remember, repent, and do the first works, warning He will come quickly and remove their candlestick except they repent. Faith alone is not all-sufficient, imputed righteousness does not fulfill the law for sinners so they are under no obligation to obey, and repeating I am saved while transgressing the law is gross deception, because the garments of Christ's righteousness are not a cloak for iniquity. Faith is not a substitute for obedience, Christ and the law and the Father and the Son cannot be separated, and Christ by His death does not save men in their transgressions.

The verse is part of the gospel Christ came in person to present to John on Patmos, and one of the great and solemn truths of Revelation for the present time to be proclaimed to the world and brought into the very designs and principles of the church of God. It is the instruction of the True Witness for the time of the third angel's message amid adulterated Christianity, a message to the churches now to be heeded. Doing the first works means turning to the Lord by obedience to His commandments, by prayer, and by watching unto prayer, with much more praying, for not keeping God's commandments and walking in the way of neighbors shows the fallen condition. Without that turning and prayerful obedience the unrepentant walk in darkness, and unless they repent their candlestick will be removed from its place. The warning applies to those who abandon truths God established, who must not yield any part of the foundation because giving up one point can lead to rejection of others, calling for holding fast what was built point by point. Leaving first love is a spiritual fall into self-righteousness, pride, self-reliance, self-importance, boastfulness, and failure to follow clear light, applying to ministers and churches who have had great light from the Scriptures, whose condition is also revealed in the Laodicean message, so the fallen must humble their hearts, seek the Lord, come to Jesus in childlike trustfulness, realize need of the graces of the Spirit of truth and righteousness, receive the melting love of God in every heart, put away self-exaltation and dependence on human capabilities, and walk in the light as Christ is in the light.

The verse is Christ's admonition, who loves the souls for whom He died, to everyone in His church who has left first love and become Christless by failing to cherish the Spirit of Christ, failing to abide in Christ, and taking wrong positions in the controversy over the law in Galatians as at the Minneapolis General Conference. It commands remembering the fall, repenting, and returning to the first works on pain of having the candlestick removed, for a church weakened by rejecting light and taking wrong positions must repent and return to former faithful works or lose its candlestick. Doing the first works includes repenting of sins, confessing them, and being baptized for those who see their mistake of not abiding in Christ, and no one should condemn that work. The warning is applied to those at Minneapolis who rejected the message, showed contempt for God's word, and persisted in pride and prejudice, whose spiritual blindness and refusal to seek God made repentance and conversion necessary, for unless they repented and were converted God would remove their candlestick.

The encouraging words Paul wrote to that same Ephesian church supply what is needed in answer to the call to remember and repent, presenting the privileges, hope, and confidence given to man by and through Jesus Christ the righteous as powerful Advocate. Those lessons are to be studied and accepted, believing every word.

Historic Applications to Churches

The verse is God's present message to His professed people and to Seventh-day Adventist churches who have had great light but have left their first love, a spiritual fall that requires repentance and return to the first works on pain of having the candlestick removed. Leaving that love is being fallen, seen when love in the church is almost extinct, first love has cooled, brethren do not love brethren, and the atmosphere is frigid so primitive heaven-born piety cannot be sustained because the warmth of love is frozen up. The loss comes through dissension, criticism, neglect of missionary work, and satisfaction with a low standard, and it makes knowledge, ability, outward zeal and service worthless, so believers do not impart Christ's grace and their light does not shine to the world. The rebuke still applies now from Christ as the True Witness who knows the peril, and must be heeded with watchfulness, humility, confession, repentance that need not be repented of, reconversion, and striving earnestly in fervency and genuine love unto perfection, with the promise to the overcomer of eating of the tree of life in the paradise of God as incentive to obedience. Doing the first works again means being watered over by the baptism of the Holy Spirit and returning to personal witnessing with hearts overflowing with love, seeking friends, relatives and acquaintances to tell what Jesus is to them and what they are to Jesus, and those in responsible positions must not undertake the work relying on their own smartness and self-reliance, which lacks Christ's mould and superscription.

At Battle Creek unbelief and impenitence left the people in grave peril, regarded by God with sorrow mingled with severe displeasure, because they relied on human wisdom instead of seeking God's will, way and counsel. The danger centered in the great heart of the work, especially the publishing house and the men directing the publishing work, who gathered lines of control into finite human hands, betrayed sacred trusts, served the enemy, sacrificed pure and holy principles, formed a confederacy, walked in sparks of their own kindling, and separated God from the work by stubborn self-directed control. The same call pressed men in positions of trust in the Battle Creek Sanitarium and the Review and Herald Publishing House who dishonored God by stubbornness, unholy independence, sin and selfishness, demanding decided humiliation of soul, whole-hearted repentance with confession and brokenness which God will accept even after long trifling with grace. Remembering from whence they are fallen means seeing this peril, and repenting and doing the first works means humbly doing individual duty, dealing justly toward all employed, loving mercy, walking humbly with God, and maintaining fear, love, reverence and genuine faith in His providences, with no time to lose. If that repentance is refused, Christ will come quickly in humiliating rebuke and wrath, for the God who laid the foundation of these institutions can destroy as well as build up, and will remove the candlestick out of its place, separating Himself from the publishing house. The Battle Creek General Conference was an exceptional opportunity to discern the Spirit of God and make decisions of eternal consequence, and those failing to improve it would become increasingly blinded.

Men in positions of trust whose work is not in harmony with God's mind must recognize how far they have fallen, repent, and return to the first works, for despite given light their continuing wrong principles weaken conference and churches. The warning applies to people in responsibility and to publishing houses, the sanitarium, schools and institutions: when they accept the message but fail to reform, neglect Christlike love, tenderness, compassion, or practice sharp dealing, they must change and act nobly and quickly or their light, blessing, place and standing as witnesses will be withdrawn and their candlestick removed. Those handling sacred work in an overbearing spirit, bringing hated principles into God's work, and those who have left first love through disagreement and let Satan captivate mind, soul and body when a most solemn decisive work remains, must remember, repent and do the first works. Exalting one man's judgment must give place to counsel and humility, for God is infinitely gracious and waits only for return by confession and repentance to have mercy and save from ruin by iniquity, becoming an all-sufficient Helper, confidence and hope the moment idols are renounced, because stirring times lie ahead and His cause cannot be given up to reproach.

The call to repent and do the first works was given openly at the center of influence in the large meeting at Battle Creek, not in an obscure corner, as work essential to spiritual life and power. Doing it there would have meant following conviction, being reconverted, returning to first love, discerning and putting away leavening evils, receiving spiritual strength and clear discernment of truth, falling on the Rock and being broken, having deep springs of the heart broken up, having the Holy Spirit fill the assembly with bright beams, revealing life and salvation, lifting a standard when the enemy came as a flood, and sending divine rays afar with far-reaching influence for good if leaders had led the way. Because they did not return, the candlestick was taken away, seen in the ruins of the publishing house. The same verse calls the church in Philadelphia to open the heart in living faith so God will work through every member, to be spoken together with Christ's coming with power and great glory and with assurance of strength to deliver it. It warns opponents at Nashville who tear down what God builds, and it presses a spiritually unestablished person at Fresno to repent and return to works done at first by living out professed truth in dependence on God and on no living man. At Fresno a church so blind as to choose a man of weakness of character and little moral power to preach the message for this time and give him oversight shakes and moves its candlestick out of place, dishonoring God, lowering righteousness, ruining the man and harming the church while he remains in darkness. At Adelaide the same removal threatens a church in danger after rejecting evidence and letting truth's standard be dishonored, so repentance is necessary for safety.

God's churches must have revival and reformation with steady advance to make spiritual progress, for loss of first love is a great evil, and unless they repent and confess God will take away their place as light-bearers. Revival means new life put in the soul and filled with new power, and reformation means steady advancement in holiness as love revives in the heart. The rebuke is given to humble them and lead them to seek God's face, and as they reform He answers requests, strengthens reformatory action, lifts a standard against the enemy, rests rich blessing on them so in bright rays they reflect heaven's light, and causes multitudes not of their faith, seeing God is with His people, to unite in serving the Redeemer. That return to the first love of the gospel is shown in unselfish cooperation between His institutions to help one another and in establishing important interests outside Battle Creek so the Lord's name will be magnified.

Personal Renewal and Results

The call is personal, requiring each heart to be searched, the former height recalled, the heart purified by belief of the truth, the soul emptied of every hindrance, and the mind and heart opened to cleansing by the Spirit of God. Remembering means recalling when faith was simple, confidence trustful, Jesus precious, His love melted the proud heart, and the candle of love was first lighted amid moral darkness. Leaving that love is fading of love for Christ and for souls into mechanical form, worldliness and pride, contention for supremacy, and failure to welcome Christ though great light has been received. The only hope is thorough repentance and reformation at once, confessing and forsaking definite besetting sins before spiritual blindness sets in and the light is moved out of its place. That repentance is out of fashion and counted humiliating and old-fashioned, yet Jesus with longing, yearning love holds out the attractions of eternal life that His people may catch the glory of the future world and regain their first love, putting the whole soul into preparing for the Lord's coming first in self and then by example to prepare others. Earnest prayer is to be made both for the lifeless and for self, that vital connection with Christ be maintained, abiding in Him to go from strength to strength and bear much fruit to God's glory.

Spoken under the deep moving of the Spirit the summons deeply impresses hearts and brings freedom and power. It moves hearers to come forward, receive prayer, decide for the Lord in the valley of decision, be strengthened in good impressions, be converted, and sing a new song of praise to God's name. Returning to God in repentance and in the first works restores His favor, renews the experience of His grace, and restores the love and communion once enjoyed. Until those who have turned from their first love return to it, they will not find rest and peace.

Renewal comes by being watered over with the baptism of the Holy Spirit, for loss of first love leaves the atmosphere frigid and freezes the warmth of love so that primitive heaven-born piety cannot be sustained. Doing the first works then means hearts overflowing with love seeking out friends, relatives, and acquaintances to tell what Jesus is to them and what they are to Jesus, rather than undertaking work in self-reliance and human smartness which lacks Christ's mould and superscription. The call is to repent, be converted, and return to the first love lost by failing to follow the self-sacrificing Redeemer, bringing the love of Jesus into the soul. That quickened first love becomes a cherished love leading to forbearance, gentleness, and generous nobility of soul, sanctifying marriage so husband and wife remember each other as children of God, bring faith into the inner sanctuary of the soul, walk in the light as Christ is in the light, and spread Christ who is their life through home life, business life, and church life.

Those who repent and confess and forsake sin, putting away self-sufficiency and self-boasting, gain vital connection with God, Christ abiding in the heart, a pure flame of devotion kindled in the soul, and clear sight of spiritual things. Tenderness of spirit, kindness, courtesy, and refinement learned in the school of Christ return in place of pleasing men of the world, accusing those God is using, and showing disrespect toward those to be highly regarded. Turning from every difference of opinion, humbling the soul before God, and individually seeking His Holy Spirit with all the heart makes faces glow with the love of God and lightens the earth with His glory in testimony that the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses from all sin. All church members on trial are to learn from past experience, turn back, and return to faithful testimony to the Word and shining for Christ and His glory, keeping the lamp burning by grace and seeing spiritual defects. Without that first love all profession of faith will not save a soul from death, but with it the fallen regain former devotion and keep their place as light-bearers.

Those who refuse are left without heavenly illumination and the warnings and tender admonitions of the Spirit, and kindle their own fire to walk by their own light. Long trifling with salvation dims spiritual eyesight until light becomes darkness and darkness light, so sudden temptation quenches the light, they cannot discern between light and darkness, and the deceptions of the last days overtake them, some already unknowingly preparing to be overtaken unless they repent speedily without delay. Unbelief, unholy thoughts and feelings, and words spoken against brethren are registered in heaven as done to Christ in the person of His saints, and if unrepented bring moral darkness and the candle put out with no place in His kingdom and the faithless exposed. Yet Christ who moves in the midst of the candlesticks will never be without a church, and faithful true witnesses who stand unflinchingly will take the places of those who refuse to shine and will diffuse increasing light.

The rebuke is joined with infinite tenderness and mercy, for God refuses to leave His church in a backslidden state and reveals His love and desire that believers make sure work for eternity. The Saviour watches with more tender compassion than an earthly parent for response to His offers of love and forgiveness and cries after the wanderer to return, dealing with the erring after long patience and repeated invitations by pointing out errors, pleading, then speaking more plainly and sending judgments to lead to repentance and forsaking of sins. The warning is mercy and encouragement as well as correction to those who have a name to live but are dead and whose works are not complete before God, bidding them be watchful, strengthen what remains before it dies, and not seek the highest places, for the command comes from heaven from One who cannot be swayed by human influence. It falls most heavily on those who have known the love of Christ yet turn to choose the pleasures of sin, for if the pitying tender call is persistently refused the heart hardens by long slighting of mercy until no longer susceptible to grace and is left in darkness, with a doom less tolerable in the day of judgment than Sodom and Gomorrah. Cherished facilities for service may be destroyed while members and leaders profess to know God yet deny Him in life and fail to recognize their condition and lack evidence of His saving presence, so the call urges speedy return by confession before strange events and withdrawal of the Spirit.