The Cure of what was Wrong.
How shall old, faded love be revived? In reply to this question, a great many plans have been proposed and urged, while the Lord's own method has been either overlooked or perversely set aside. The directions He gives are few and simple, but they go to the very core of the matter, whether it be a single individual who has left his first love or a whole Church. Let us mark the things that He names, and the order in which He names them. Memory, conscience, will, are called into play.
I. "Remember whence thou art fallen." That is sure to be painful, but it is the first step towards healing. There was a better estate, an estate that has been left by thine own fault; thou art "fallen" from it. Remember this better estate; call it up again into memory; live the old days over again, those days of heaven upon earth when the name of Jesus sounded so sweetly in your ears, and joy dwelt in your soul. Take the best of them, the most heavenlike of them, and in thought live them over again. This is one of the most blessed uses of memory, and it is the first step in a return to first love.
II. "And repent." This is the Lord's second word of direction. It is an absolutely vital word. He who summons to repentance will see to it that nothing of needful grace is lacking. He "gives" repentance, and we are to take this for granted without need of argument, however dull or insensible our hearts may have become. This word "repent" is one of the profoundest words in the Bible, however superficially modern evangelism or modern legalism may deal with it. It does not indicate mere regret, such as may be caused by the consequence of our actions. That regret may be the beginning of good, but of itself it is not repentance. Repentance is a change in the mind. It implies a true sense of sin and apprehension of the mercy of God in Christ. It is the turning of the inner being from sin to God.
III. The Lord's third word is this, "And do the first works." They might seem at Ephesus to have ground for saying, "We have never ceased working from the very beginning," and in a sense they had not. But their works were not the same as at first; in a measure the love was out of them, the love that not merely made them vital, but gave them beauty in the Lord's sight. The summons to do the first works is, therefore, a summons to begin, as it were, over again, throwing love into every deed. To secure compliance He adds this word of warning: "Or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of its place, except thou repent." He will bring salutary fear into play as well as gratitude, love, and hope. It is not loss of the soul that is threatened, but loss of the privilege of usefulness and the suppression of them as a Church. The sure way to ruin and extinguish a Christian Church as a light in the world is that it should lose its love.
J. Culross, Thy First Love,p. 86.
Backsliding.
Those who have fallen in the Church and those who are fallen from the Church are both to be found in the midst of us. The world abounds with backsliders in heart and in life; and if the census could be taken of the multitudes now irreligious, of the prayerless households and Sabbathless families, the result would be something absolutely appalling.
Consider:
I. Some of the ordinary causes of falling: (1) adverse or persecuting influence brought to bear upon the soul; (2) an overweening attachment to the present world; (3) self-confidence; (4) a neglect of secret intercourse with God. Only the heart that has renewed its strength on the mount can maintain its consistent walk with the multitude and its influential citizenship in the world, and it is certain that many of the temptations under whose terrible pressure so many are apt to yield would either be entirely disarmed, or would assail with diminished power, if the soul were strengthened from the onset by secret fellowship and prayer.
II. The signs that it has taken place. The Scriptures speak of individuals who may have left their first love, while many of the characteristics of a religious profession continue to be maintained, backsliders in heart, who hang on as useless encumbrances to a Church from which their affections are estranged. Minor apostacy prepares the way for greater; the restraints of conscience once violated, the gap grows wider and wider; easy is the descent to perdition, and you are speeding thither. Your only safety is in a renewed application to the Saviour, who has promised to heal your backslidings and to love you freely.
W. M. Punshon, Sermons,p. 51.