First Love

Serve God out of Love 

Colossians 2:6 (KJV)

As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him..

It is clear from the Scriptures that salvation is not a progressive walking away from where we started off, but a progression in growth from where we started off. For us to understand how to walk and live as believers, we have to keep in mind how we started off. They say that the journey of a thousand miles begins with one single step. I am sure the journey of a thousand miles is not a sprint, but rather sort of a long-distance race/course. We have been told that at the end, it does not matter how one started, all that matters is how one finished. However, how one started and continued the journey/race contributes a lot to how they finish. From the Scriptures, it is clear that God wants us to continue this walk with Christ as we started.

Picture the beginning of the walk with Christ as God putting you at the starting point of your journey/race, and setting you up in such a way that you will finish. For you to picture this, you have to remember how this “setup” exactly happened. Some of us may have been born in church, or have been in salvation all their lives, or have been in salvation for so many years, that they do not remember exactly how salvation happens (joking). So let me remind you what exactly happened. The Bible says that,

John 3:16.

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”

And,

Romans 5:8

But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

The gospel revolves around the love of God. When we heard the gospel, the good news of God’s love and how He demonstrated it, we accepted Christ. In other words, we put faith in His love. This is brought out in Galatians 5:6, which says that faith works through love. The Bible also brings it out clearly:

1 John 4:9-10

In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. ¹⁰ In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

And,

1 John 4:19

We love Him because He first loved us.

If we didn’t know about God’s love for us, and how He demonstrated it (by giving us His Son to save us), we wouldn’t have been born again. So, this is how the walk of faith began: knowledge of and faith in God’s love. Going back to our first verse, God tells us through Paul that as we received Christ (by faith in His love), we should continue to walk thus.

Again, let me take you back to when your journey of salvation began. For many of us, we didn’t quite know what would come out of it all, or what exactly we were getting into, and didn’t have that much revelation of God’s love. This is because, as the Bible says, the natural/carnal man cannot understand the things of God (1 Cor. 2:14). The moment we accepted Christ, suddenly things became clearer, as we got a fresh revelation of God’s love, how much sin we were in, how much we’ve been forgiven, and how much God loves us. For some, like me, we were moved to tears, and remained inspired and awed by God’s love for us. Most of the things we did for God were motivated by our love for Him: going to church and fellowships, singing, worshiping, telling others about Christ, praying, studying the Word and so on. By and by, for some, we remained with the motions (going to church and fellowships, singing, worshiping, witnessing, praying, studying the Word etc), while the driving force (the love of and for God) faded away.

Picture a young couple who have just fallen in love. Everything they do revolves around their love for each other: talking to each other, hanging out around each other, what they say to and about each other, their thoughts of each other, getting gifts for each other and so on. By and by, many fall “out of love”, and remain with the motions (talking to each other, hanging around each other, thinking about each other, getting gifts for each other etc.), which by and by become burdensome, and also fade away. People’s marriages and love relationships mostly fade because the life of their relationship faded off. Love is the life of every relationship. Love brings the motions (what we do out of love), and when love fades away, the motions become burdensome, and eventually fade away.

Similarly, the reason why some people have fallen away from salvation or some are on the verge of doing so, or that salvation has become so burdensome for some, is because they let and are letting the life of their relationship with God to die off. The life of every relationship is love. The life of our relationship with God is God’s love, and our understanding and knowledge of it. We are never supposed to walk away from our understanding and knowledge of God’s love, we’re only supposed to grow in it. God’s love is not a curriculum that we cover and finish within the first few weeks of our salvation, and graduate to another level; it is a life-long study, which is so immense. This is why the Bible says:

Ephesians 3:14-19

For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ... ¹⁷ that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love,  ¹⁸ may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height-- ¹⁹ to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

If anyone thinks they have figured out God’s love just because they have read and heard of it, they are as deceived as that child who thinks they hold the whole world just by having a map of it in their hands. God’s love has a width, length, depth and height. The Bible says that it actually passes knowledge, meaning you can’t study it! It can only be revealed by God, and understood by faith, little by little. As the Amplified puts it, it can only be known and fully understood by experience and practical knowledge. The more we seek to grow in knowledge of the love of God, the more we grow in the love of God, attain to His fullness, and thereby walk and live like Him. This is why the Bible says:

1 John 4:8

He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.

The more you know and understand the love of God, the more you know and understand Him, and love like Him. God is love, so everything that proceeds from Him proceeds out of love. Everything God has done, is doing and will ever do will always proceed out of love, as He is love. In the same manner, the more we know Him, the more love is perfected in us, and all we do ends up proceeding out of love. Since we were born of God (1 John 3:9), and God is love, we can say that we were born of love. Our very DNA is love, the God-kind of love. The more we grow in the love of God, the more we operate in our true nature, and do everything out of love. When you understand this concept, you see that Jesus, by giving us the two commandments (love God and love people – Mk. 12:30-31), was simply telling us to be like God, and since He later made us just like God, us having been born of love, He was simply telling us to act out of our nature.

The call to continue walking in Christ as we received Him is the call to simply continue in love, the love of God, growing in knowledge and understanding of it, and walking in it. It is a call to simply walk in our nature, where everything is about the love of God.

When two people are in love, the things they do are unimaginable. Love is very creative, and has a power of its own. Mothers have died for their children; men have gotten into lawsuits, bankruptcy, huge conflicts etc.; women have fallen out with their parents, friends, and some even bosses -- all because of love, either love for their children or for their lovers. Love is a powerful force that changes everything. A bored and depressed person can light up when they fall in love, and become a totally different person. If human love can do this, imagine what the love of God can do. At the end, human love is impatient, unkind, envying, proud,  rude, seeks its own, is easily provoked, thinks evil, rejoices in iniquity, does not bear, believe, hope, or endure all things; it always fails. On the other hand, God’s love is patient, kind, does not envy, is not proud or puffed up, does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil, does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth, bears, believes, hopes and endures all things; it never fails (1 Cor. 13:4-8).

When you started off your journey of salvation since all you did was out of your love for and of God, you were energetic for Him, and did all things with zeal. If you continue so, all you do will be characterised by the good qualities outlisted in 1 Corinthians 13:4-8, and all you do will never fail. God is love, and all He does is out of love, hence He is always energetic, full of life, zealous, innovative, and motivated while doing it all. We are born of love, and if we allow love to be our driving force in all we do, we will always be energetic, full of life, zealous, innovative and motivated, all for God and for His people.

As I finish, let me draw your attention to the church of Ephesus. The things we have studied in this sermon about growing in and understanding God’s love were written to them (Eph. 3:16-19), by Paul. He also wrote other things about love to them, such as they being chosen to be holy and blameless before God in love, being accepted in the Beloved (Christ), being greatly loved by God, of their need to forebear each other with love, speak the truth in love, walk in love, husbands loving their own wives, and love Christ in sincerity (Eph. 1:4,5, 2:4, 4:2,15, 5:2,25,28,33, 6:24). Later on, a few years later, Jesus appeared to John in a vision, and sent Him with a message to the church of Ephesus. It was a message of encouragement, but largely rebuke.

What would you say to a church that had good works and labour for Christ without fainting, was patient in enduring all that came their way, did not bear with those who were evil, did not entertain false apostles and liars, and has borne many things for Christ’s name without fainting? As me, I would tell them, “keep on brethren, you’re doing good!” However, “The Lord does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart” 1 Samuel 16:7. God sees beyond what we see. Though the church of Ephesus was doing all these things, they did one thing that caused Jesus say that He would remove their lampstand from its place, if they didn’t repent: they left their first love.

Revelation 2:1-7

“To the angel of the church of Ephesus write, 'These things says He who holds the seven stars in His right hand, who walks in the midst of the seven golden lampstands: ² "I know your works, your labor, your patience, and that you cannot bear those who are evil. And you have tested those who say they are apostles and are not, and have found them liars; ³ "and you have persevered and have patience, and have labored for My name's sake and have not become weary. ⁴ "Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love. ⁵ "Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works, or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place--unless you repent. ⁶ "But this you have, that you hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. ⁷ "He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes I will give to eat from the tree of life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of God."

I always thought that them leaving their first love meant they had left Christ. But this isn’t true, as you see all the good things they did, they did for Christ’s name. They even persevered and had patience, and laboured for Christ’s name’s sake! Clearly, they had not forsaken Christ! So, what was it that Jesus was talking about? The answer lies in verse 5:

Revelation 2:5

"Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works...”

As we have seen in our sermon, there are some things we used to do when we accepted Christ, all out of love. The church of Ephesus also used to do the things they used to do out of love for Christ, and after some time stopped doing them. Jesus commended them for what they were doing, but was drawing their attention and minds back to the reason why they started doing them in the first place: love. Remember, the Bible says, “We love Him because He first loved us.” 1 John 4:19. Since love is the life of every relationship, Jesus knows that if we stop growing in and operating in love, our relationship will soon die off. God is not so much interested in what you do, as in why you do it. This is why He said through Paul:

1 Corinthians 13:1-3

Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. ² And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. ³ And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing.

So, if the church of Ephesus spoke in all tongues, prophesied, understood all mysteries and knowledge, had all faith, gave all their goods to feed their poor and died as martyrs by fire, to Christ it was all noise, and nothing, according to 1 Corinthians 13:1-3, as it was all without love. Can you imagine this? You do all these things, and in the eyes of men seem a hero and champion for God, while in the eyes of Christ He says your actions and life are just making noise? All because we stop doing things the way God wired us to do them, the way He set us up to do them the day we accepted Christ: out of love.

If Jesus came to you today (He has come through me), would He rebuke you for walking away from your first love? Are there some things you used to do the first days after you got born again, and a certain way, and now you no longer do them? Is it the way you were passionate about studying the Word of God, praying, going for fellowships, telling people about Christ, desiring the gifts of the Spirit and operating in them, hunger and thirst for God, abhorring evil, staying away from things that would make you fall, walking in the fear of God, loving other brethren etc.? Like as to the church of Ephesus, you know what, it is, I don’t, as Jesus told them to remember therefore from where they had fallen (Rev. 2:5), and repent. I don’t know where you fell, if you fell. You know, and Jesus knows better. Surrender to Him and let Him show you. Again, the heart of man is deceitful above all things, and it is God only who can know it (Jer. 17:9). Your heart may tell you that you are okay, and other people may certainly tell you the same, as they would to the church of Ephesus. But remember that it is God who knows you, and can see what you or anyone else can see. Surrender to Him, let the light of His Word and pierce through and make everything clear in your life, showing you where you need to make adjustments, how, when, and so on.

Whatever you do, remain in the first love. Let love be your driving force, your purpose, your goal, your life, and the life of your relationship with God. It is not about your love, but God’s love working in and through you (Rom. 5:5). Build yourself up in God’s love, by learning about and focusing on it more and more, since faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God (Rom. 10:17), and praying in tongues (Jude 20-21). Let all you do be motivated by love. It’s not about what you do; it’s about why you do it. God is love; it’s all about love.

Grace and peace to you!


-- Sam Gitonga. 


Sunday Service Morning teaching, Transformation Ministry, Joska. 


Brother Sam is the Youth Leader, at Teaching Transformation Ministry. We are located along the Thika-Ruai Flyover Junction (at the Thika Rd./ Bypass intersection), Next to Eastgate Restaurant.