How is your first love faring?
The Screen as a Rival for Your Soul
In Revelation 2, Jesus speaks to the church in Ephesus. He first praises them: their work, their perseverance, their aversion to evil, their faithfulness to sound doctrine. Then comes the sentence they would rather not have heard: “But I have this against you: You have abandoned your first love.”
Notice what it says. The church in Ephesus isn’t doing anything wrong, but their hearts have drifted away. You can be busy for the Lord and still drift far from Him. Service can replace conversation, knowledge can replace wonder, and church life can replace fellowship with Christ.
My first love on earth is my wife, Ingrid. She is my first and only love. I know what that’s like: your heart goes out to someone, you want to spend time with her, you give her the attention she deserves. That’s what Jesus means. Spiritually speaking, He is our first love. He deserves our worship because of what He did on Golgotha: He redeemed us from sin and death and gave us eternal life.
Jesus’ question shows that this love can be lost. You can be tempted by another love—a false love that does not lead to life. In the Old Testament, this is called idolatry, and in the book of Proverbs, the image of the seductive woman is used: she attracts you, she promises much, and she does not lead you where you want to be.
What draws my heart?
That seductive voice is disguised differently than it used to be, but it’s still there. It made me think of the system that keeps us glued to our phones: the algorithms behind social media. They’re designed to keep you looking. I struggle with that myself. When I wake up, the first thing I do is grab my phone. What’s on Facebook? What’s in the news? Images flash by that you’d rather not see, and it’s precisely those that keep you hooked. It stirs up the desire to look even more.
Walk through a city and you’ll see it everywhere: people with their heads down and their thumbs moving. That isn’t sinful in and of itself, and it also brings good things. What you look at repeatedly shapes your thinking. It determines the lens through which you view the world. If the first thing my heart receives every morning is a screen and not the Lord, then I have a rival for my first love.
That doesn’t mean we have to throw away our phones. It does mean, however, that we must honestly ask ourselves where our first attention goes. Jesus tells the church in Ephesus to remember where they fell away, to repent, and to do what they did at first. Consider a simple step: set aside the first ten minutes of the day for Him, and it will have a positive impact on the rest of the day. Jesus asks about your first love. He isn’t accusing you, but inviting you to return. Whatever holds your attention slowly becomes your master. Choose consciously where your heart goes first.
@wimvanputten