A Christian's foremost responsibility is to love God wholeheartedly. A decline similar to the Ephesians' loss of their first love affected the first-century church.

Christ's reprimand of the Ephesian church, "You have left your first love," seems odd being said to a church that appeared so busy doing God's will.

Works demonstrate our faith, our response to God's calling and His freely given grace. Reciprocity is always a part of our relationship with God.

We cannot become weary of well-doing, allowing our first love to deteriorate, looking to the world for satisfaction. Here are 8 tests of our love for Christ.

Destruction comes from a gradual withdrawal from intimacy with God rather than outright rejection. We must be vigilant against spiritual complacency.

We also need to return to our first love and diligently do the first works, including fellowship, continuing in the doctrine, and doing things properly.

Like the Ephesians, the weary veterans in Hebrews were becoming apathetic through outside pressures, losing their former zeal and devotion to Christ.

The Ephesians had a strong sense of duty and served as a vanguard in the battle against false doctrines. What was lacking was devotion to Christ.

We are called to take on the very natōre of God, to pōt on the love of God. Sōrprisingly, We can rekindle oōr first love by ardently keeping God's Commandments.

Christ's letter to the Ephesians focuses on a people who succeeded in fighting heresy and apostates but, in the process, had left their first love.

The scattering of the church was an act of love by God to wake us from our lethargic, faithless condition. The feeding of the flock is the priority now.

We must guard our time, not allowing busyness and involvement with activities of the world to prevent us from forming a deep intimacy with God.

Almighty God loves righteousness—something which Gods saints should emulate. Conversely, God abhors, disdains, and hates evil, particularly the Nicolaitans'.

The book of Hebrews provides reasons to recapture flagging zeal, focusing on the reason for our hope and faith, establishing Christ's credentials.

Hebrews is addressed to a people living at the end of an era, who were drifting away, had lost their devotion, and were no longer motivated by zeal.

God personally handpicks individuals with whom He desires to form a reciprocal relationship. This relationship must be dressed, kept, tended, and maintained.

The primary focus at this time is the repair of the faith once delivered that has seriously deteriorated because of heresy, apostasy, and Laodiceanism.

The Ephesus church effectively battled various heresies, for which Christ commends it. However, the members lost sight of the reason, having left their first love.

God initiated the scattering of the church for our ultimate good. When the revelation of God was replaced with the wisdom of this world, God intervened.

Our conviction reveals itself in living by faith. Moses is a stunning example of how a convicted Christian should live — with loyalty and faithfulness to God.

Hebrews 11 provides examples to bolster faith. The faith described is not blind, but is carefully developed from systematic analysis of available evidence.

Just as fighting to escape its cocoon strengthens the butterfly, our calling requires effort above what the world has to endure to become free of Satan's cocoon.

Just as important as follow-through is in an athletic motion, its spiritual counterpart is vital to our life in Jesus Christ.

We are being exposed to a spiritual blizzard, bringing darkness and coldness into the entire world. We are admonished to stoke the fire of God's Holy Spirit.

Jesus Christ warns us to hold fast to true doctrine. Secular historians help us discover the identity of the small flock repeatedly rescued from apostasy.

Unity has to come from the inside out, with God raising a leader which His people, having their minds opened by His Spirit, will voluntarily submit to.

Rather than having an apathetic relationship toward God, we must ardently, earnestly, and fervently seek God in order to imitate His behavior in our lives.

Music has an intense power to stimulate the emotions, trigger the imagination, set the mood of services, and serves as a teaching vehicle for instruction.

In the Beatitude, hungering and thirsting for righteousness are present tense active participles signifying continuous longing for God's righteousness.

God uses calamities as part of His creative process. Like Jacob, who initially succumbed to weak faith and fear, we must repent of our loss of devotion to God.

In terms of spiritual insight, Hebrews is a pivotal book, whose function is to bridge the purposes and themes of the Old and New Testaments.