Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee,
because thou hast left thy first love.
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.
Revelation 2:4-5
God’s position in our lives is to be first
He seems to be saying it is a sin not to keep Him first and foremost
“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” v5
If He slips to another position in our lives, all things will be out of whack
God’s rightful position is first place
He requires the preeminence
He required that from his disciples and from the apostles
And from the rich man who refused to follow Him
He required first position
from all of those closest to Him throughout the Bible
All of those who chose to follow Him:
Noah, Abraham, Moses, Job, King David, Daniel and all the others
Esther hadn’t learned yet to put God first
Mordecai taught her that lesson
He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me:
and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.
And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me,
is not worthy of me. Matthew 10:37-38
There are many that follow Jesus
who have not given up all to be His disciple
I cannot speak for them
I can only tell you what He asks and requires
so if we don’t give all, we may do so at great risk
Risk of losing our first love
Risk of not pleasing Him
Risk of not doing the missions we have been put here on earth to do
Risk of not using our talents
Risk of wasting our time
Risk of not getting rewards in heaven
that we don’t quite understand here on earth
There are many promises about rewards and positions in heaven
It seems those are eternal for how we have given of ourselves to Him on earth
There is a least in the kingdom of heaven,
so there must also be a greatest, apart from the Lord,
and everyone in between
Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments,
and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven;
but whoever does and teaches them,
he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. Matthew 5:19
While our focus should be on the Lord and pleasing Him,
he exposed to us the fact that we get rewarded in eternity for a reason
That is the ability to value His Kingdom
more than what we see, hear and feel here on earth
Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you,
and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake.
Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven:
for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you. Matthew 5:11-12
As we go through our days
and make our decisions of how we spend our time,
how much importance we place on God,
remember how He sees things
Let us seek His help to put our flesh to death
and honor Jesus as He deserves to be honored
Scriptural References:
And they told to Mordecai Esther’s words.
Then Mordecai commanded to answer Esther,
Think not with thyself that thou shalt escape in the king’s house,
more than all the Jews.
For if thou altogether holdest thy peace at this time,
then shall there enlargement and deliverance
arise to the Jews from another place;
but thou and thy father’s house shall be destroyed:
and who knoweth
whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this?
Esther 4:12-14
And a certain ruler asked him, saying,
Good Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?
And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good?
none is good, save one, that is, God.
Thou knowest the commandments,
Do not commit adultery, Do not kill, Do not steal,
Do not bear false witness, Honour thy father and thy mother.
And he said, All these have I kept from my youth up.
Now when Jesus heard these things, he said unto him,
Yet lackest thou one thing: sell all that thou hast,
and distribute unto the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven:
and come, follow me. And when he heard this,
he was very sorrowful: for he was very rich.
Luke 18:18-23
For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die:
but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. Romans 8:13