Revelation 2:5 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Remember therefore, &c. It is not possible for any church, or individual Christian, whether public teacher or private member, that has lost the first love, to recover it, but by taking the three steps here spoken of. 1st, Remember; 2d, Repent; 3d, Do the first works. Remember from whence thou art fallen From what degree of faith, love, holiness, though perhaps insensibly; and repent Have a deep and lively conviction of thy fall, be humbled and truly sorry for it before God, earnestly desiring to be pardoned and renewed, and bringing forth fruits worthy of repentance in all respects; do the first works Outwardly and inwardly, otherwise thou canst never regain the first love; or else thou must expect that I will come unto thee quickly In some awful dispensations of providence. By this word is the warning sharpened to those five churches which are called to repent, this admonition belonging equally to them; (for if Ephesus was threatened, how much more shall Sardis and Laodicea be afraid!) and according as they obey the call or not, there is a promise or a threatening, Revelation 2:5; Revelation 2:16; Revelation 2:22; Revelation 3:3; Revelation 3:20. But even in the threatening the promise is implied in the case of true repentance. And will remove thy candlestick out of its place This threatening, considered as addressed to the angel or pastor of the church, meant, Unless thou repent, I will remove the flock now under thy care to another place, and put it under the care of another pastor, where it shall be better taken care of. Considered as addressed to the church, it implies that it should no longer continue to be a church, if the members of it did not endeavour to recover their lost ground, and to shine at least with their former lustre; but that the hedge of discipline should be broken down, and the light of the gospel removed from them. From the flourishing state of the church, however, at Ephesus, for a time after this, there is reason to believe that both the pastor and his flock did repent, although, not long after, they declined again, and fell lower than ever; and this church, with the other churches addressed in these letters, was ruined and overthrown by heresies and divisions from within, and by the arms of the Saracens from without. So that Mohammedanism prevails and prospers in all those countries which were once the glory of Christendom, their churches being turned into mosques, and their worship into superstitions; even Ephesus, which was once so magnificent and glorious a city, being become, as is observed on Revelation 2:1, a mean, sordid village, with scarcely a single family of Christians dwelling in it.