{"id":16323,"date":"2026-10-14T09:00:47","date_gmt":"2026-10-14T14:00:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/?p=16323"},"modified":"2026-10-15T09:09:55","modified_gmt":"2026-10-15T14:09:55","slug":"ephesus-and-your-first-love","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/16323\/ephesus-and-your-first-love\/","title":{"rendered":"\u00a0Ephesus and Your First Love"},"content":{"rendered":"

Good morning!<\/span><\/p>\n

I watched the link you sent us about Ephesus (https:\/\/youtu.be\/CcemMtXm9Ns?is=2MD4AdAUqfnZMoJi<\/a><\/span>) \u00a0and what it would have looked like.\u00a0 It was interesting to see the places that Paul traveled and how things would have looked when he was there in Ephesus.\u00a0 After watching the video, I wanted to read Ephesians.\u00a0 So, I did. And I ended up reading the whole book.\u00a0 It was so good.\u00a0 And such a beautiful love letter from Paul to his precious saints in Ephesus.<\/span><\/p>\n

When I finished, it stood out to me how Paul started his letter establishing an order.\u00a0 First, his tells who God is, then he tells who the Son is, and then, he says who the body of Christ is, and then, he goes further to husbands and wives, and children. In chapter 5, Paul then says, “This is a great mystery, but I am talking about Christ and the Assembly of God.\u201d \u00a0When I read that, this came next, “that he himself might present it [the body of Christ], with himself, as a glorious Assembly without spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing, but that it might be holy and blameless.\u201d \u00a0I felt so much love in that.\u00a0 The whole letter was full of love.\u00a0 And at the end, Paul asked for prayer “that something might be given to him so that he might open his mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel.\u201d \u00a0That touched me. \u00a0For Paul to write such a letter to the Ephesians meant he thought a lot of them.<\/span><\/p>\n

Next, I looked up Ephesus and wanted to read what was said about it and Paul. \u00a0I read over the instances that were mentioned, but the last one was in\u00a0Revelation 2:4 when Jesus was talking to the pastor of Ephesus.\u00a0 Jesus said:\u00a0\u201cI have something against you\u00a0because you have forsaken your first love.\u201d \u00a0I read the whole message to the pastor there and it said, “I know your works, and your labor, and your patience, and that you cannot tolerate those who are evil.\u00a0 And you have put to the test those who make themselves out to be apostles but are not, and you have found them liars.\u00a0\u00a0And you have patience, and you endured for my name\u2019s sake and did not grow weary.\u201d \u00a0But, he said,\u00a0“I have against you that you have left your first love.\u201d But Jesus had something against the pastor there and told him that he was going to remove his candlestick if he didn\u2019t return to his first love.<\/span><\/p>\n

That stood out to me.\u00a0 I wanted to see what Jesus was saying to this pastor that was going to cause him to possibly lose something God had given him. So, I looked through your writings to find where\/what you have written about that.\u00a0 And I found a two-part series on \u201cYour First Love\u201d.\u00a0 I sat down and read them.\u00a0 You describe this pastor there in Ephesus and what Jesus was saying.\u00a0 He had done all those things: been patient, endured hardships, didn\u2019t tolerate evil, etc., but he did not remain humble in his attitude toward others who had gone astray or had faults and\u00a0would not receive correction.\u00a0 He became puffed up.\u00a0\u00a0Even with all the \u201cright\u201d things that were done, because of his attitude, Jesus was not pleased.<\/span><\/p>\n

It was very good to read what you wrote here and be reminded of what our first love is.\u00a0 It\u2019s easy to get caught in the trap that you see something which\u00a0someone else doesn\u2019t see; it is easy\u00a0for your flesh to get stuck in what you know.\u00a0 That doesn\u2019t allow for mercy.\u00a0 I love the\u00a0scripture you quoted in this article, \u201cThe love of God is spread abroad in our hearts by the holy Spirit that He has given us.\u201d \u00a0If we stay full of the Spirit and let the holy Ghost lead us in our thoughts and actions, we will have so much love in our hearts, that\u2019s the only thing that can come out from us.\u00a0 You also said that it works both ways, and the Spirit gives us the power to reject error \u2013 which led me to Jesus!\u00a0 Your first love is Jesus.\u00a0 The feelings he gave you when he first touched your heart and the love you felt for him and feel for him now as you realize how much he has loved you in your journey with him.\u00a0 That will keep the holy Ghost alive in you!<\/span><\/p>\n

I followed the trail this morning. \u00a0I was thankful to feel and know these things.\u00a0 Jesus is the point.\u00a0 And the love we have for him will compel us to be a part of the body of Christ Jesus wants to present to his Father without spot or wrinkle, holy and blameless.\u00a0 I attached the\u00a0article.<\/span><\/p>\n

Amy B.<\/span><\/p>\n

Your First Love<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Good morning! I watched the link you sent us about Ephesus (https:\/\/youtu.be\/CcemMtXm9Ns?is=2MD4AdAUqfnZMoJi) \u00a0and what it would have looked like.\u00a0 It was interesting to see the places that Paul traveled and how things would have looked when he was there in Ephesus.\u00a0 After watching the video, I wanted to read Ephesians.\u00a0 So, I did. And I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16323","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-netmail"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16323"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16323"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16323\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16327,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16323\/revisions\/16327"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}