Living as an Overcomer: Jesus’ Messages to the 7 Churches in RevelationExemplo

Living as an Overcomer

Introduction

Jesus thought it was important to tell the seven churches in Asia Minor what they needed to know, specific to their current situation - both the good and the bad. But He’s talking to us, too. We may live and worship in America in the twenty-first century, but that doesn’t mean the truths, warnings, promises, and rewards we see in Revelation chapters 2 and 3 aren’t today. They most certainly are.

Each day in this plan will look at Jesus’ message to each church, from the church in Ephesus to the church in Laodicea—the group about which Jesus seems to have had the most concern.

Day 1– Putting God First: The Church in Ephesus

Jesus says to the Christians at Ephesus—and subsequently to each of us who has an ear to hear— that duty is never to replace devotion if we want to be an overcomer. Devotion is meant to transform duty into something desirable if done out of a heart of love and generated by a relationship rooted in the priority of intimacy.

If, like the church in Ephesus, you have failed to keep God first in your heart and your life, notice verse 5 in Revelation 2. It gives you three steps to get back in alignment with Him—and it tells you what will happen if you don’t take them: “Remember from where you have fallen, and repent and do the deeds you did at first, or else I am coming to you and will remove your lampstand out of its place— unless you repent.”

Let’s look at these three steps.

1. Remember What It Was Like Before

God makes the start of the solution simple and straightforward. If He’s no longer the priority love in your life, remember when He was. Remember when He was all you had and when He mattered most. Remember that when you didn’t know how you were going to make it—recover from that illness or financial difficulty, find a spouse, get the job you need, leave a toxic relationship, or whatever it was—you looked to Him first.

Remember when you were first saved - when He was always first in your mind. You knew He had your back because He also had your heart. When you remember how things were, you’ll recognize how to get back to that.

2. Repent of Your Sin

Second, we must repent. There’s only one thing a person repents of in the Bible - that’s sin. That means leaving your first love is considered a sin. It’s not just a mistake. It’s not just a bad habit. It’s not an “oops.” When your relationship with God is relegated to second place or even less than that, you’re living in sin.

God isn’t asking the church in Ephesus to listen to a motivational video on reprioritizing their lives. He’s telling them to repent from their sin. This isn’t a time-management issue. It’s not a scheduling issue. It’s a sin issue. And the only way to exit a lifestyle of sin is through heartfelt repentance. Repentance involves a change of mind to reverse a direction.

3. Repeat What You Did at the Start

Then, the church is told to “repeat” what they did at the start. They’re called to “do the deeds you did at first.” That means repeating what they once were all about—prioritizing God in the first place.

To apply this principle in your own life, look closely at when God was first. What did you do without even thinking twice? How did you talk to God then? Did you make time for reading and studying His Word? To return to the place of prioritizing Jesus, you’ll need to return to what you did when He was your priority.

John 14:21 sums up this connection between love and action: “He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me, and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will disclose Myself to him.” When you return to God with all your heart, mind, and soul, and with all your actions, He reveals Himself to you like never before.

As God discloses Himself to you here on earth, you’ll discover what you are to do, where you are to go, what purpose He has for you, what brings you your greatest joy, how to have healthy relationships, and so much more. You’ll discover the wisdom He has available to you when you draw near to Him in a relationship rooted and grounded in pure love.