Ephesus: The Apostolic Age [30-100 AD]
Revelation 2:1-7
1 Unto the angel of the church of Ephesus write; These things saith he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand, who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks;
2 I know thy works, and thy labour, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil: and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars:
3 And hast borne, and hast patience, and for my name’s sake hast laboured, and hast not fainted.
4 Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love.
5 Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent.
6 But this thou hast, that thou hatest the deeds of the Nicolaitanes, which I also hate.
7 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God.
The first message Jesus gives John is directed to the church in Ephesus. In church history, Ephesus represents the apostolic age, which began with Jesus’ ascension and lasted through the deaths of the original twelve apostles. This period would have ended shortly after John received Revelation on the Isle of Patmos in 95 AD.
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John wrote that Jesus knew the church’s works and labors—their good deeds and struggles as a new, persecuted faith—and their patience. Jesus also told John that the Ephesians had “tried them which say they are apostles, and are not.” This suggests that there were many false apostles near Ephesus in the first century whom the church recognized as imposters.
However, Jesus also offered constructive criticism to the Ephesian age. Though the soft wording of Jesus’ criticism foreshadows the far more severe admonishments he would have for the other churches, he does critique them by saying, “Thou hast left thy first love.” The Greek word used for “thou hast left” is άφίημι, or aphiemi, which means “to give up, keep no longer.”[i]
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This passage describes how the Ephesians were still believers suffering for Jesus’ name’s sake. However, when the church’s first generation died off and was replaced by younger members, their love for him had lost some of its original zeal and passion. Jesus tells the Ephesians to repent and return to the type of Christians they were earlier in the first century, when they were more enthusiastic about him.
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During this period, Christians were harshly persecuted—first by the local Jewish leaders in Judea, then by the Romans. The persecutions of believers by the emperors Nero and Domitian occurred in the first century AD. The hardships faced by these early church converts were beginning to cause them to drift in their faith. Jesus advised that if they returned to him, they would eat of the Tree of Life in Heaven with him for eternity.
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[i] Thayer, Joseph Henry. 1889. “άφίημι.” In A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament, by Joseph Henry Thayer, 88-89. New York, Cincinnati, Chicago: American Book Company.