Revelation 2:4: Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love.

Christ commended the Ephesian saints in Revelation 2:1-3,¹ but he also had somewhat² against them because they left Jesus Christ, their first love.³ The word love (Greek, agape)⁴ means charity,⁵ which is the pure love of Christ.⁶ The Ephesians lacked this love of God⁷ in their outward labors.⁸ They didn't wholly abandon Christ,⁹ but they were neglectful and lacked complete devotion.¹⁰ The same can be said of professing saints today that fail to love God with all their heart, might, mind, and strength.¹¹

The Ephesians were like a disaffected wife¹² who loved her husband less than before, but was not wholly unfaithful to him.¹³ This analogy of lost love suits the Ephesian saints perfectly because their city was home to the temple of Diana (Greek, Artemis),¹⁴ the Roman fertility goddess.¹⁵ The immoral rituals in her temple were the worst possible form of unfaithfulness to, and disaffection from, Jesus Christ.¹⁶

Revelation 2:5: Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent.

The Lord admonished the Ephesian saints to remember from whence thou art fallen.¹⁷ Similar words describe the fall of Lucifer in the premortal existence¹⁸ and the fall of Adam in the garden of Eden.¹⁹ The Ephesian saints suffered an analogous fall from grace when they left their first love²⁰ and they had to repent.²¹ Their repentance process could only begin if they first recognized²² their fallen condition by remembering²³ their former love.²⁴ To fully repent, the Ephesian saints also had to resume their first works,²⁵ motivated by a renewed love of Jesus Christ.²⁶

Christ told the Ephesian saints that I will come unto thee quickly.²⁷ This common scriptural phrase²⁸ frequently describes the timing of judgments²⁹ that will accompany Christ's Second Coming.³⁰ In this verse, however, Christ promised to come quickly in judgment against unrepentant Ephesian saints in their time and in their city.³¹ He threatened to remove [their] candlestick out of his place.³² The candlestick was the church³³ that upheld the light of Christ in their midst.³⁴ Despite this clear warning, the love of the Ephesian saints continued to wax cold as in other congregations.³⁵ The Ephesians were scattered and destroyed.³⁶ Their candlestick was removed,³⁷ and the city of Ephesus fell into complete ruin.³⁸

The history of the Ephesian saints and their city foreshadows latter-day events when the love of many shall wax cold again.³⁹ Indifferent members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints must likewise remember their first love from whence they are fallen and repent lest Christ also comes to them quickly in judgment.⁴⁰ Christ's judgment of unrepentant Latter-day Saints can be no different than his judgment of unrepentant former-day saints.⁴¹ Christ removed all seven candlesticks in the seven cities of Asia because the saints in those cities failed to repent.⁴² They were overcome by apostasy,⁴³ which became nearly universal in the Roman Empire as the first century came to a close.⁴⁴ Similarly, there will be a latter-day apostasy⁴⁵ among many members of Christ's modern church.⁴⁶ It has already begun among the members who are less than fully devoted to their first love.⁴⁷