What does it mean to love the Lord with the first love? What does it mean to give the Lord the preeminence in all things? What does it mean to give the Lord the first place? When we first see the Lord and are captured by His beauty, we love Him with the first love. But what about now, today? Do we still love Him with the first love?
Do we still do the first works which come out of the first love? Is our love toward Him so fresh, so sweet, so intense and affectionate? We need to repent of losing our first love and do the first works, so that we would continue to have the lampstand, His testimony, and His shining, among us (Rev. 2:4-5).
The beginning: a vision of His person
The beginning of our love story with the Lord is by seeing who He is – when we have a vision of His person, we just fall in love with Him! “Your anointing oils have a pleasant fragrance; Your name is like ointment poured fourth; therefore the virgins love You…” (Song of Songs 1:3).
When we see the Lord, His Person, and His name, we love Him because of what He is. We may not see everything or understand everything, but we love Him, we are drawn by Him, and we just run after Him. Spontaneously, the works that we do are the first works, works that come out of our first love for the Lord. Now, nothing but love can keep us in a proper relationship with the Lord.
The first works issuing out of the first love
What are the first works spoken of in Rev. 2:4-5? Are these works only the things we do for the Lord our of our love for Him when we firstly love Him? According to the principle of the divine life and the divine love, these works are not necessarily “open” and great, but they are works which issue out of our love for the Lord.
The Lord’s banner over us is love – this means that love is our motto, the slogan and theme for our living, and everything we do is based on our love for Him! Also, as the loving seekers of the Lord, we are “sick with love” – just like the seeker in the Song of Songs – which means that we are joyous in the Lord as love, to the point of exhaustion (Song of Songs 2:4-5).
The first works are the works done in secret for the Lord out of our first love for Him. We don’t do them for others to see or to praise us – it’s just like the joints in the Body, who richly supplies every member in the Body through their operation, and who are secret, holding to truth in love (Eph. 4:15). We hold to truth IN LOVE, and we grow up into Him in all things – in love we build up the Body, we minister life to the other members, and we do the first works.
Hallelujah, God’s love in Christ is a banner spreading over us which displays/exhibits that we who are loved by God are always more than conquerors (Rom. 8:31-39)! We have a love that conquers everything if we live in His love!
Repent and do the first works!
Our normal condition and situation as the loving seekers of Christ should be that we have these first works which result out of the first love. But the church as a whole and most believers are in degradation, the main cause being that we have left our first love!
The cause of degradation is not that “we didn’t read the Bible every day” or “we didn’t go to church regularly”; the leaving of the first love toward the Lord is the source of and the main reason for the failure of the church throughout the ages! Nothing but our renewed and fresh love for the Lord can keep us in a proper relationship with the Lord (see Phil. 3:8; Rev. 3:20; Eph. 6:24).
This is why we need to repent, have a change of mind and a turn of heart, and do the first works which issue out of the first love. We need to confess our deadness and our lukewarmness and ask the Lord to shine on us that we may see His Person! When we see Him, we love Him and we are kept in a loving condition toward Him!
The door of grace is still open to us today – let us repent and turn to Him, allowing Him to make His home in our hearts today (Eph. 3:14-19), that we may be rooted and grounded in love! Our foundation in everything is just love for the Lord, and anything we do out of love for Him is the first works – muchly treasured by Him!
Having a personal relationship with the Lord
Paul bowed his knees before God the Father that He would strengthen the saints through His Spirit into their inner man, so that Christ may make His home in their heart through faith! The result of this is that we would be rooted and grounded in love and we would know Him in His universal dimensions in the Body of Christ, to be filled unto all the fullness of God!
For this we need to allow the Lord to come in and make His home in our heart – by having a personal, affectionate, private, and spiritual relationship with the Lord (see Song of Songs 1:1-4). Only by touching Him personally and intimately can we allow Him to make His home in us.
Lord, because of Yourself as the ointment and because of Your name as the ointment poured fourth, we just love You! We love You because of Yourself and because of Your fragrant name. We are attracted by You, dear Lord, and we love You. Draw us more, Lord, and we will run after You. Increase our love for You. We just want to repent of loving other things – we return to You as our first love and our best love.
References and Further Reading
- Sharing inspired from, The Song of Songs (introduction by Watchman Nee), and, The Collected Works of Watchman Nee (vol. 4, pp. 289-307), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Taking the Lead as Elders and Responsible Ones, week 1.
- Recommended: Rev. 2:4 note 2 on “love”.
- Hymns on this topic:
# Jesus Lord, You’re our first love; / You’re the One we love the best.
# I repent and now return, / Grant my heart for You to burn. / Flame in me this zeal. / Lord, be in me so real!
# Lord, keep my heart always true to You, / Never backsliding, always viewing You.
# I love You, Lord Jesus! / I love You, Lord, Precious One!
Yes, quite good. "For the love of Christ constrains us because we have judged this, that One died for all, therefore all died;" (2 Cor. 5:14), so loving the Lord is released to constrain us because on our side by the Cross in the all-inclusive Life-giving Spirit we put to death the deeds of the body that we might live. When we live Him, we can love Him. He as God cannot tolerate sin and He hides His face from us when we do, as He did with Jesus on the cross. When we put to death all the negative things in us both good and bad, His love can constrain us to the narrow way which leads to life, the life of the Body of Christ issuing in the eternal home of God and corporate man, the New Jerusalem.
The one accord, which is our practice of the oneness mentioned in Ephesians 4 and which is the oneness of the triune God, IS the Body!
We can be in the one accord only when we have the same vision. Our vision must be one that matches the age and which includes all that has gone before.
There is also the pattern of the 7 churches in Revelation 2 and 3 in which the lampstands were identical in everything but their business affairs and were independent but not separated by different opinion. The churches must have the same mind, the mind of Christ. This is produced by the apostles teaching, just as the apostle Paul taught the same things in every church, so that they could be in one accord.
When we have the One Accord, God can then pour out the blessing described in Psalms 133. "How good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in one accord (more extensive than mere unity, but including it)…For there the Lord commanded the blessing, even life forevermore." (eternal life)
Exerpts from Outline Msg 3 International Blending Conference, Memorial Day Weekend 2012 and charles hennessy notes, Scripture Reading: Eph. 4:3-6; Matt. 18:19; Acts 1:14; 2:46; Rom. 15:5-6
As the Body of Christ (Eph. 1:23), the church is a matter of life; as the new man (Eph. 2:15), it is a matter of the person of Christ; and as the bride of Christ (John 3:29), it is a matter of love. The first Epistle to the Ephesians tells us that for the church life we need to be strengthened into our inner man that Christ may make His home in our hearts, that we, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to know the knowledge-surpassing love of Christ, that we may be filled unto all the fullness of God (Eph. 3:16-19); and it is for the church life that grace is with all those who love the Lord Jesus (Eph. 6:24). Now this second epistle to the Ephesians reveals that the degradation of the church begins with our leaving the first love toward the Lord. Nothing but love can keep us in a proper relationship with the Lord. The church in Ephesus had good works, labored for the Lord, endured suffering, and tried the false apostles (vv. 2-3), but she left her first love toward the Lord. The leaving of the first love is the source of all the degradation in the succeeding stages of the church.
Footnote on, Revelation 2:4, Recovery Version Bible.