LAMPSTAND REMOVAL
Wednesday, August 10, 2016
Dear fellow travelers,
Following
yesterday’s DT, BREAKING UP IS HARD TO DO, for further understanding and
serious ponderance I share with you an applicable passage from Albert Barnes
Notes on the Bible. The portion I highlighted spoke to me most heavily in personally
reviewing relationship to 1Cor.3:9-20; 9:24-27; Heb.6:1-6; 10:23-35; 12:6-8.
Sincerely, to serve Him all our days,
EBB4
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Revelation 2:5
Remember
therefore from whence thou art fallen - The eminence which you once occupied.
Call to remembrance the state in which you once were. The duty here enjoined
is, when religion has declined in our hearts, or in the church, to call to
distinct recollection the former state - the ardor, the zeal, the warmth of
love which once characterized us. The reason for this is, that such a recalling
of the former state will be likely to produce a happy influence on the heart.
Nothing is better adapted to affect a backsliding Christian, or a backsliding
church, than to call to distinct recollection the former condition - the
happier days of piety. The joy then experienced, the good done, the honor
reflected on the cause of religion, the peace of mind of that period, will
contrast strongly with the present, and nothing will be better suited to recall
an erring church, or an erring individual, from their wanderings than such a
reminiscence of the past. The advantages of thus “remembering” their former
condition would be many; for some of the most valuable impressions which are
made on the mind, and some of the most important lessons learned, are from the
recollections of a former state. Among those advantages, in this case, would be
such as the following:
(a) It
would show how much they might have enjoyed if they had continued as they
began, how much more real happiness they would have had than they actually have
enjoyed.
(b) How
much good they might have done, if they had only persevered in the zeal with
which they commenced the Christian life. How much more good might most
Christians do than they actually accomplish, if they would barely, even without
increasing it, continue with the degree of zeal with which they begin their
course.
(c) How
much greater attainments they might have made in the divine life, and in the
knowledge of religion, than they have made; that is, how much more elevated and
enlarged might have been their views of religion, and their knowledge of the
Word of God. And,
(d) such a
recollection of their past state as, contrasted with what they now are, would
exert a powerful influence in producing true repentance; for there is nothing
better adapted to do this than a just view of what we might have been, as
compared with what we now are.
If a man has
become cold toward his wife, nothing is better suited to reclaim him than to
recall to his recollection the time when he led her to the altar, the solemn
vow then made, and the rapture of his heart when he pressed her to his bosom
and called her his own.
And repent - The
word used here means “to change one’s mind and purposes,” and, along with that,
“to change one’s conduct or demeanor.” The duty of repentance here urged would
extend to all the points in which they had erred.
And do the first
works - The works which were done when the church was first established. That
is, manifest the zeal and love which were formerly evinced in opposing error,
and in doing good. This is the true counsel to be given to those who have
backslidden, and have “left their first love,” now. Often such persons,
sensible that they have erred, and that they have not the enjoyment in religion
which they once had, profess to be willing and desirous to return, but they
know not how to do it - how to revive their ardor, how to rekindle in their
bosom the flame of extinguished love. They suppose it must be by silent
meditation, or by some supernatural influence, and they wait for some
visitation from above to call them back, and to restore to them their former
joy. The counsel of the Saviour to all such, however, is to do their first
works. It is to engage at once in doing what they did in the first and best
days of their piety, the days of their “espousals” Jer_2:2 to God. Let them
read the Bible as they did then; let them pray as they did then; let them go
forth in the duties of active benevolence as they did then; let them engage in
teaching a Sunday school as they did then; let them relieve the distressed,
instruct the ignorant, raise up the fallen, as they did then; let them open
their heart, their purse, and their hand, to bless a dying world. As it was in
this way that they manifested their love then, so this would be better suited
than all other things to rekindle the flame of love when it is almost
extinguished. The weapon that is used keeps bright; that which has become rusty
will become bright again if it is used.
Or else I will come unto thee quickly - On the word
rendered “quickly” (τάχει tachei), see
the notes on Rev_1:1. The meaning is, that he would come as a Judge, at no
distant period, to inflict punishment in the manner specified - by removing the
candle-stick out of its place. He does not say in what way it would be done;
whether by some sudden judgment, by a direct act of power, or by a gradual
process that would certainly lead to that result.
And will remove
thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent - On the meaning of the
word “candlestick” see the notes on Rev_1:12. The meaning is, that the church
gave light in Ephesus; and that what he would do in regard to that place would
be like removing a lamp, and leaving a place in darkness. The expression is
equivalent to saying that the church there would cease to exist. The proper
idea of the passage is, that the church would be wholly extinct; and it is
observable that this is a judgment more distinctly disclosed in reference to
this church than to any other of the seven churches. There is not the least
evidence that the church at Ephesus did repent, and the threatening has been
most signally fulfilled. Long since the church has become utterly extinct, and
for ages there was not a single professing Christian there. Every memorial of
there having been a church there has departed, and there are nowhere, not even
in Nineveh, Babylon, or Tyre, more affecting demonstrations of the fulfillment
of ancient prophecy than in the present state of the ruins of Ephesus. A remark
of Mr. Gibbon (Decline and Fall, iv. 260) will show with what exactness the
prediction in regard to this church has been accomplished.
He is speaking of
the conquests of the Turks. “In the loss of Ephesus the Christians deplored the
fall of the first angel, the extinction of the first candlestick of the
Revelations; the desolation is complete; and the temple of Diana, or the Church
of Mary will equally elude the search of the curious traveler.” Thus, the city,
with the splendid temple of Diana, and the church that existed there in the
time of John, has disappeared, and nothing remains but unsightly ruins. These
ruins lie about ten days’ journey from Smyrna, and consist of shattered walls,
and remains of columns and temples. The soil on which a large part of the city
is supposed to have stood, naturally rich, is covered with a rank, burnt-up
vegetation, and is everywhere deserted and solitary, though bordered by
picturesque mountains. A few grainfields are scattered along the site of the
ancient city. Toward the sea extends the ancient port, a pestilential marsh.
Along the slope
of the mountain, and over the plain, are scattered fragments of masonry and
detached ruins, but no thing can now be fixed on as the great temple of Diana.
There are ruins of a theater; there is a circus, or stadium, nearly entire;
there are fragments of temples and palaces scattered around; but there is
nothing that marks the site of a church in the time of John; there is nothing
to indicate even that such a church then existed there. About a mile and a half
from the principal ruins of Ephesus there is indeed now a small village called
Asalook, a Turkish word, which is associated with the same idea as Ephesus,
meaning, The City of the Moon. A church, dedicated to John, is supposed to have
stood near, if not on the site of the present mosque. Dr. Chandler (p. 150,
4to) gives us a striking description of Ephesus as he found it in 1764: “Its
population consisted of a few Greek peasants, living in extreme wretchedness,
dependence, and insensibility, the representatives of an illustrious people,
and inhabiting the wreck of their greatness. Some reside in the substructure of
the glorious edifices which they raised; some beneath the vaults of the
stadium, and the crowded scenes of these diversions; and some in the abrupt
precipice, in the sepulchres which received their ashes. Its streets are
obscured and overgrown. A herd of goats was driven to it for shelter from the
sun at noon, and a noisy flight of crows from the quarries seemed to insult its
silence. We heard the partridge call in the area of the theater and of the
stadium ... Its fate is that of the entire country; a garden has become a
desert. Busy centers of civilization, spots where the refinements and delights
of the age were collected, are now a prey to silence, destruction, and death.
Consecrated first
of all to the purposes of idolatry, Ephesus next had Christian temples almost
rivaling the pagan in splendor, wherein the image of the great Diana lay
prostrate before the cross; after the lapse of some centuries Jesus gives way
to Muhammed, and the crescent glittered on the dome of the recently Christian
church. A few more scores of years, and Ephesus has neither temple, cross,
crescent, nor city, but is desolation, a dry land, and a wilderness.” See the
article” Ephesus” in Kitto’s Cyclopedia, and the authorities there referred to.
What is affirmed here of
Ephesus has often been illustrated in the history of the world, that when a
church has declined in piety and love, and has been called by faithful
ministers to repent, and has not done it, it has been abandoned more and more,
until the last appearance of truth and piety has departed, and it has been
given up to error and to ruin.
And the same principle is as
applicable to individuals, for they have as much reason to dread the frowns of
the Saviour as churches have. If they who have “left their first love” will not
repent at the call of the Saviour, they have every reason to apprehend some
fearful judgment, some awful visitation of his Providence that shall overwhelm
them in sorrow, as a proof of his displeasure. Even though they should finally
be saved, their days may be without comfort, and perhaps their last moments
without a ray of conscious hope. The accompanying engraving,
representing the present situation of Ephesus, will bring before the eye a
striking illustration of the fulfillment of this prophecy, that the candlestick
of Ephesus would be removed from its place. See also the engravings prefixed to
the notes on the Epistle to the Ephesians.
