Revelation 2:4 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

Thou hast left thy first love.— Not quite forsaken, but remitted and relaxed the former love and zeal; which is condemned, and for which they are dreadfully threatened; because the angel and his church, notwithstanding their zeal against the false apostles, by giving way to them at last, or from other causes, had, in a measure, forsaken their first love which they bore to the Lord Jesus. It is very plain, that these epistles, though inscribed to the governors 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 upon the society; and particularly that the zeal of this minister of Ephesus might be declining.