during our recent orientation week for the new students in the seminary, i was asked to lead the morning worship and preach a short homily (all in 30 mins). as i reflected and pondered what to share with the new students, i was reminded of what i wrote for the Light For Our Path devotional some time ago on the topic of 'zeal or love?' i re-wrote certain parts of it for this new occasion.
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Tuesday Jan 8th 2008 Revelation 2:1-7
Title: ZEAL OR LOVE?
1 "To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: ‘The words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand, who walks among the seven golden lampstands. 2 "’I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear evil men but have tested those who call themselves apostles but are not, and found them to be false; 3 I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name’s sake, and you have not grown weary. 4 But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. 5 Remember then from what 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. 6 Yet this you have, you hate the works of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. 7 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who conquers I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.’
Key verse: “I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance…But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first.” (Verses 2, 4)
The ancient church at Ephesus was highly commended by the risen Lord Jesus. On the surface, she seemed to be doing very well e.g. she hated evil men and tested the false apostles (verse 2), endured patiently for her faith (verse 3), and hated the Nicolaitans (verse 6). But the church lacked one thing, that is, she has lost her first love (verse 4). How can a church that seems to be 'dead serious' in everything else be lacking in love for the Lord? It was Benjamin Disraeli, a former British Prime Minister, who once said, ‘The magic of first love is our ignorance that it can ever end’.
One reason that the church at Ephesus lost her first love was that she became overzealous in many areas for God (fighting against evil, combating heresies, enduring for the faith) but neglected that one crucial but simple area – loving God. A church can become overzealous and not be balanced with faithfulness and love. She can sometimes be caught up with doing many wonderful ‘works’ but forget about the all-important quality of ‘love’.
Without love, our works are merely verbal professions, our toil merely human tasks, our endurance merely patient longsuffering, and our zeal merely misdirected fervour. But with our focus rightly centered on the agape love of God, this will ensure a healthy balance between doing and being.
One possible danger in coming to seminary is to get so caught up with the zeal and passion of theological study: we faithfully memorize our Greek declensions daily; diligently read through Karl Barth’s 14 volumes Church Dogmatics; exegete the Hebrew Masoretic text of Isaiah; or strive to write a fantastic paper on Christian Education on 'The Pedagogy of Church Education'. Our heads can be caught up among the heady clouds of biblical languages, and our feet so high up in theological circles that we are not grounded in love in the real world. We can end up living in an unreal world misguided by our zeal and passion but heading towards the wrong direction. Don’t be like some Christians who are too heavenly-minded to be of any earthly use! Warm hearts must be balanced by cool heads. Zeal must be balanced with love. Only then can we be vessels of noble use to God, to the Church and to the world.
Prayer: Teach me, dear Lord, to constantly re-discover my first love for you, so that I can continue to love you faithfully unto the end. Walk with me through this exciting journey of theological studies so that in the end I may become a Christian with zeal and passion for your Word but also with love in my heart for you and others. Amen.
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Tuesday Jan 8th 2008 Revelation 2:1-7
Title: ZEAL OR LOVE?
1 "To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: ‘The words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand, who walks among the seven golden lampstands. 2 "’I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear evil men but have tested those who call themselves apostles but are not, and found them to be false; 3 I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name’s sake, and you have not grown weary. 4 But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. 5 Remember then from what 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. 6 Yet this you have, you hate the works of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. 7 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who conquers I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.’
Key verse: “I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance…But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first.” (Verses 2, 4)
The ancient church at Ephesus was highly commended by the risen Lord Jesus. On the surface, she seemed to be doing very well e.g. she hated evil men and tested the false apostles (verse 2), endured patiently for her faith (verse 3), and hated the Nicolaitans (verse 6). But the church lacked one thing, that is, she has lost her first love (verse 4). How can a church that seems to be 'dead serious' in everything else be lacking in love for the Lord? It was Benjamin Disraeli, a former British Prime Minister, who once said, ‘The magic of first love is our ignorance that it can ever end’.
One reason that the church at Ephesus lost her first love was that she became overzealous in many areas for God (fighting against evil, combating heresies, enduring for the faith) but neglected that one crucial but simple area – loving God. A church can become overzealous and not be balanced with faithfulness and love. She can sometimes be caught up with doing many wonderful ‘works’ but forget about the all-important quality of ‘love’.
Without love, our works are merely verbal professions, our toil merely human tasks, our endurance merely patient longsuffering, and our zeal merely misdirected fervour. But with our focus rightly centered on the agape love of God, this will ensure a healthy balance between doing and being.
One possible danger in coming to seminary is to get so caught up with the zeal and passion of theological study: we faithfully memorize our Greek declensions daily; diligently read through Karl Barth’s 14 volumes Church Dogmatics; exegete the Hebrew Masoretic text of Isaiah; or strive to write a fantastic paper on Christian Education on 'The Pedagogy of Church Education'. Our heads can be caught up among the heady clouds of biblical languages, and our feet so high up in theological circles that we are not grounded in love in the real world. We can end up living in an unreal world misguided by our zeal and passion but heading towards the wrong direction. Don’t be like some Christians who are too heavenly-minded to be of any earthly use! Warm hearts must be balanced by cool heads. Zeal must be balanced with love. Only then can we be vessels of noble use to God, to the Church and to the world.
Prayer: Teach me, dear Lord, to constantly re-discover my first love for you, so that I can continue to love you faithfully unto the end. Walk with me through this exciting journey of theological studies so that in the end I may become a Christian with zeal and passion for your Word but also with love in my heart for you and others. Amen.
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