Revelation 2:4 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Nevertheless, I have somewhat to allege against thee Exemplary as thou art in many respects; or, as somewhat is not in the original, the verse may be properly read, I have against thee that thou hast left thy first love Namely, the zeal and fervour of it, which thou didst manifest to me and my cause; that love for which the church at Ephesus was so eminent when St. Paul wrote his epistle to them. Neither they nor their pastors need to have left this; they might have retained it entire to the end. And they did retain it in part, otherwise there could not have remained so much of what is commendable in them. But they had not kept, as they might have done, the first tender, affectionate love in its vigour and warmth. Reader, has the love of God, of Christ, and of his people, been shed abroad in thy heart? And hast thou retained it in all its fervour and efficacy? If not, the following exhortation is addressed to thee. “It is very plain,” says Doddridge, “that these epistles, though inscribed to the angels or pastors of the churches, are directed to the churches themselves, as represented by them. Just as the Jewish Church was represented by Joshua their high-priest, Zechariah 3:1. But it is not improbable that where some of the churches are blamed, there might be in their ministers some faults correspondent to those charged on the society; and particularly that the zeal of this minister of Ephesus might be declining. There is, I think, no reason to be anxious with regard to Timothy's character on this account; for it can never be proved that he was a stated pastor of the church of Ephesus, though such confident things have been said concerning it on very slender foundations.”