Bible Study Library

Dear Disciples:

The main message of this letter is that doctrinal purity and steadfast commitment are worthless without love. The Ephesians would not allow false teaching into their church. Not only that, they faced tremendous persecution and would not back down.

“That’s great,” said Jesus, “but if you do not regain the love you had at first, you will be removed. If you overcome, you’ll be able to eat from the tree of life.”

Notes On The Text
This letter to Ephesus is the first of seven personal letters Jesus sent to churches in Asia. As we study these letters, we are bound to find elements of OCC - and of our personal Christian lives - in at least one of them.

Ephesus - It’s helpful to know a little about the audience Jesus was addressing. Ephesus was the leading city in Asia Minor. It had an important seaport and was a major religious center. Among other things, Ephesus was the home of a massive temple to Artemis (also called Diana), the “Mother Goddess” mentioned in Acts 19:35. Her temple was larger than two football fields! It was known as one of the wonders of the ancient world. This same temple also became a place to worship the goddess Roma (the Roman state) and the Roman emperor. Ephesus was known throughout the world for its magical arts and superstitions.

The Ephesian Church - The church at Ephesus was founded by Aquila and Priscilla, who had traveled there from Corinth with Paul (Acts 18:18). Paul left for Antioch, but they stayed to build this church. Later on, Paul returned to Ephesus to preach for a couple of years. Timothy later continued the work (1Tim 1:3). Paul’s two letters to Timothy were written to him while he was working there.

During his last visit, Paul delivered a farewell message to the elders of the Ephesian church. In that message he warned them:

I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them. So be on your guard! Remember that for three years I never stopped warning each of you night and day with tears. (Acts 20:29-31)

The Message - The church took Paul’s advice. In our letter, Jesus commends them for testing the teachings of their teachers and refusing to accept false teaching. They tested people who claimed to be apostles* and found some of them to be false (Rev. 2:2).

Sidenote: In Greek the word translated “apostle” (apostolos, αποστολος) simply means “a person who is sent.” There seemed to be two classes of Apostles in the early church - the original 12 (who always remained a distinct, important group) and a larger group of missionaries. In this last group were men such as Paul, Barnabas (Acts 14:14), and Andronicus and Junias (Rom. 16:7). False apostles were evidently part of this larger class, but they used their roles selfishly rather than for building up the church. These false apostles were some of Paul’s chief opponents in Corinth (2Cor 11-12).

That’s not all Jesus commends them for. He also noted that they “endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary” (2:3).

This was a church of outstanding doctrinal purity that would never back down in the face of adversity! They were not quitters. They were sturdy, determined disciples, faithfully working and witnessing, not deviating from the truth they had received.

 Wouldn’t we feel honored if Jesus said those things about us - that no false doctrine could enter our congregation and that we would never buckle under outside pressures? 

There was a big problem, though. Their fight against false teachers and the thick skin they developed in hard times evidently caused them to forget how to love. (2:4). 

Doctrinal purity and endurance are no substitute for love! 

It wasn’t always that way. Many years earlier in a letter to this same church, Paul said he’d heard of their “faith in the Lord Jesus and love for all the saints” and said the Ephesians were “rooted and established in love” (Eph. 1:15; 3:17). 

In Revelation, Jesus challenges them to “repent and do the things you did at first” (2:5) - that is, to learn to love again. This was no small matter. If they failed to repent He would “remove their lampstand” - which means he would remove the church itself (see 1:20). 

One of the groups the Ephesians fought against was the Nicolaitans. We don’t know anything about this group except what we find in Revelation. They are also mentioned later in the letter to Pergamum. Generally, this seemed to be a group that taught that you could be a Christian but also live sexually free. They claimed to have a special position and power with God, but they lived like the devil. The Ephesians hated the practices of this group just as Christ did (2:6). 

Finally, Jesus promised that if the Ephesians would overcome their loss of love, He would give them “the right to eat from the tree of life.” These Christians, it seems, only ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. They certainly knew good and evil -doctrinally pure and intolerant of ungodly practices. They now needed to love so that they could also have life.  

At the end of the book of Revelation, Jesus mentioned the Tree of Life again. He said in 22:14-15:

Blessed are those who wash their robes, that they may have the right to the tree of life and may go through the gates into the city. Outside are the dogs, those who practice magic arts, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idolaters and everyone who loves and practices falsehood. 

Those dogs were all around the Ephesian church. The Christians were short only love to escape them.