EV 2:3The Church looked at, first, in her relation to Christ; second, in her relation to the world; and, third, in her consequent condition at the second coming of the Lord.
These three may be easily traced in these two chapters. In addressing the Church on earth, just prior to His return, the Lord puts before her the real origin of her condition. He tells her that the beginning was departure in heart from Him, that her heart then went out after the world, and that thence has arisen all her present condition -a condition in which He will find her at His return. This condition He places fully before us in the last four churches. Her relationship to Himself and to the world He shows us in the first three.
In reading these addresses we must remember that the whole professing Church on earth is addressed, but that those in view are they " who have an ear to hear." These are exhorted to overcome individually, when the mass is going on either with satisfaction or indifference. The mass, which calls itself the church, is satisfied with its condition, and indifferent to the thoughts of Christ. In this state of things individuals are exhorted to overcome.
It is as cast out of the world that God gives to the Lord (i.e., as Man) the knowledge of His future purposes. The book we are reading is the "Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto Him, to show unto His servants things which must shortly come to pass." The Lord by the hand of John, an exile in "the isle that is called Patmos," communicates these purposes to the Church on earth. And He is first shown to John as invested with all authority. He is the "Ancient of days" (see Dan. 7:99I beheld till the thrones were cast down, and the Ancient of days did sit, whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like the pure wool: his throne was like the fiery flame, and his wheels as burning fire. (Daniel 7:9)), and holds the keys of hell and of death as the "LIVING ONE" who was once dead. These purposes of God to be executed by Him are those of judgment. He is about to return to the earth to execute God's final judgment in and upon all in this scene, in the midst of which we live and move every day. He "hath given Him authority to execute judgment also, because He is the Son of man." (John 5) "His servants" stand here in the relationship of John 15:1515Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you. (John 15:15)-" His friends "-and as such He would communicate to them all that is about to come to pass on the earth. It is imminent judgment, and this is the subject of the book.
The Church in Her Relation to Christ First, Then, He Speaks to the Whole Church (in His Message to Ephesus) of Her Relationship to Himself. She Owes Her Existence to Him. He Is the "Alpha" of God's Ways (Chap. 1:11); and "He Loved the Church, and Gave Himself for It." Unchanged in His Affection for Her, He Tells Her That She Has "Left Her First Love."
Though fallen from that condition which marked her when the "first works" were done in all the freshness of that "first love," how precious to Christ is the Church: He would seek to remind her of this. She was taken out of the world to be for Him. He says, "I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you." And this is truly His voice, and what the Spirit saith to her and to tee, my brethren, to-clay. The first works refer to what she did on earth, and at the commencement. These were done with the eye upon Christ. How changed is everything done by her now, as seen by His eye. "Works" are still there (v. 2), but the pitcher is broken at the fountain; the spring that caused Him to delight in them is gone. We are carried back to the relationship between Christ and the Church at the beginning in order to get. the sense in our souls of how vast the fall, As first seen, in the midst of all the rubbish -61 This world, no love existed in her. "Hateful and hating" was her condition then, as Titus 3:33For we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another. (Titus 3:3) says. And it was when she was in that condition that He saw her. "Having found one pearl of great price, He went and sold all that He had, and bought it." He went down to the bottom of the waters of death and judgment to have her. for Himself: " Christ loved the Church, and gave Himself for it." And thence it was that in her sprang up that which never existed before. "We love Him because He first loved us." (1 John 4:1010Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. (1 John 4:10)) He speaks then of her love, and His heart is conscious that her love is defective.
And why does the Lord thus address her and us? (for every true believer forms a part of the true body and Bride of Christ in the midst of this vast profession which has taken up this responsibility and name) It is that true bridal affections, and "first works" which manifest them, may be awakened in us, and that hearts may shake themselves loose from all that worldliness which burdens and crushes the Church in her testimony, and may start out afresh for Christ.
For as we read on in these addresses we shall see that worldliness is the defect. The WORLD has come in, and this is the worm which is gnawing at the root of a simple testimony here for the Lord. Oh for the heart to realize-the heart of each Christian individually-that the Lord is jealous lest anything intervene between us and Himself! To have every thought, every motive, every action consciously under His eye, and subject to Him, "to the Lord." (Col. 3:2323And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men; (Colossians 3:23)) How it tests us to ask, Did you do that to the Lord, and desiring only His approbation? These were the first works; the motive power was affection for Him. It is what the apostle Paul refers to when he says, "The love of Christ constraineth us." Love, the constraining spring of service, and the only motive power that satisfies the heart of Christ. May the Lord lead us into this path more distinctly, that we may be found doing all that we do with the eye and the heart occupied with Himself. Everything done with reference to the Lord, Who "loved the Church, and gave. Himself for it," and who is so soon coming back to receive her to Himself.
H. C. A.