U-Turn
From Pastor Kevin King
At the beginning of Revelations 2, Jesus begins to address seven churches to commend them for what He recognizes as good works but also to rebuke and correct them for unacceptable behavior. The very first church to hear from Him is the Church at Ephesus. Jesus explains to them the things He welcomes that they should keep doing.
He then follows that with what He has against them. In this case, Jesus tells them they have left their first love. Clearly, He’s not referring to their first prom date. He’s referring to the relationship He had with them from the beginning. That relationship has deteriorated to where He doesn’t like it anymore and explains what they need to do. In Revelations 2:5 Jesus lays out a three-step process of making a U-turn to get back to that place where our relationship with the Lord was like that first prom date. I’m not a fan of "seven steps to happiness" or "the four steps to great faith." But if the Bible does lay out steps to correct a situation or grow, then I want to embrace them.
Step one, remember from where you have fallen. This is, by far, the most important step in the process. If you fall into this category of your relationship with Jesus not being what it used to be, take some time to remember. Where did it used to be? What was it like? What did you do? What did your routines and lifestyle look like? What did your peace look like? What did your prayer and Bible study time look like? Take yourself back to those days and relive them. It sounds New Age, but this is what Jesus commanded them to do. He wants them to clearly recognize where their relationship used to be compared to where it is now and be grieved by the difference.
This concept of remembering is all over the Bible. God told them all throughout the Old Testament to remember the miracles He did when He brought them out of Egypt. "Tell them to your children and never forget them." David called to mind when God delivered him from the lion and the bear and would do the same with Goliath. Jesus told the disciples when having The Last Supper to eat the bread in remembrance of Him. Remembering can stir up our faith and encourage us to keep going. In this case, it is to bring a genuine conviction so we can turn from our ways and return to a better place. If we can’t clearly see where we are, we won’t change. A good exercise to help us do that is to remember back when and see how far we’ve drifted away from that. No matter what it is, if we forget something, we will live as though we never knew it. Go back and remember.
The final two steps are straight forward. Repent and do the first works. Once you recognize how far you’ve fallen, or backslid, then repent. U-turn and go the other way. To get back to that place, do the first works, the things you were remembering. Jesus says it’s not complicated. "Just start doing the things you did when we first became a thing." Marriage is the best example of this. Think about what you used to do when you first met your spouse. Talked, dates, cuddle, gifts, notes, etc. Those things were born out of your affection for them. So, Jesus would say that if your marriage is a little distant feeling, remember those first days and start doing those things again. What a simple tool to help us recognize how far we’ve moved away from Jesus. Just remember. Then do the things you used to do. It’s not even something new that you have to learn. You’ve already done them. Jesus says it’s not that hard. "Just do that again."