Christ calls the love the Ephesians abandoned their protos agape, their first love. It is more than mere affection; it is an action. This first love is the God-centered devotion that new believers experience at baptism and initial justification, when they receive the gifts of peace from God. That peace reveals His grace and motivates them to serve Him and man. Christians who hold this love perform the "first works" (protos works) out of a sincere and zealous desire to serve God by serving others. They seek no reward, recognition, or reciprocal service, so God's nature rather than their own self-interest drives the work. Such work is without pretense and pleases both God and the one served. The Ephesians kept doctrinal purity, fought evil, guarded against false teachers, and stayed busy, yet they settled for something more mechanical and less passionate than this first love. Christ's remedy has three parts: remember from where they have fallen, repent, and do the first works. Remembering means honestly comparing their present love with their former love and recalling the zeal they once showed. Repenting means turning back to that earlier state of mind. Failing to return puts salvation at risk and invites the Devil's influence, so Christ threatens to remove their lampstand. The promise to the one who overcomes is the tree of life.

The Greek words protos agape in Revelation 2:4 mean the foremost, or first, love. Scripture does not explicitly define first love, but it can be inferred from other passages. Christ names the first and great commandment as loving God unconditionally (Matthew 22:36-38; Exodus 20:3; Deuteronomy 6:5; 10:12). Unconditional love for God is therefore the first and foremost responsibility of believers, and it enables them to love God's law and one another (I John 4:7, 21; 5:2-3). The earliest converts show this first love: upon receiving the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, they experienced an enthusiastic love for God together with unconditional love for each other (Acts 2:41-47; 4:31-35). The Ephesian church, though doctrinally faithful and resistant to false teachers, left this first love. Disputes, division, and drifting away eroded the loving fellowship of earlier years, as Paul had warned. Christ rebukes them for it, and when faith falters, first love soon follows.

In the letter to Ephesus, Jesus mentions that the brethren had left their first love. The word translated as "first" is protos (G4413), which means foremost in time, place, order, or importance. This could imply that the Ephesians had strayed from the love they had at the beginning of their conversion, full of excitement and new understanding. Alternatively, protos can indicate first in importance, suggesting they had abandoned their most important love, their relationship with Jesus Christ. Both interpretations offer valuable insights for meditation, and while there is a distinction, it does not create a significant divergence in understanding.

In Revelation 2:4, the phrase "first love" is central to the admonition given to the church at Ephesus. The Greek word for "first" is protos (Strong's 4413), which carries the meaning of foremost, beginning, best, or chief. While it is commonly translated as "first," its deeper significance lies in indicating something of primary importance. Thus, the "first love" that the Ephesians have abandoned is their most important love, the highest duty to God. This love is the foundation from which all other actions, thoughts, and zeal must flow, and losing sight of it risks losing everything.

The Greek word protos (G4413), translated as "first," typically signifies something that is first in a sequence or first in prominence. However, it can also indicate an order of events, showing whether an event occurs before or concurrently with another. For instance, in John 1:15, John the Baptist acknowledges Christ's pre-existence, stating that He who comes after is preferred before, for He was protos (before) him. Similarly, in II Peter 2:20, Peter uses protos to describe the beginning in contrast to a worse latter end for those entangled again in the world, illustrating an order of events. In Matthew 26:17, where the disciples ask Jesus about preparing the Passover, the phrase can be more accurately translated as "before the Feast of Unleavened Bread," indicating the incident occurred prior to the feast's start. Thus, protos in this context suggests a time preceding the actual Feast of Unleavened Bread, aligning the timing with either late Abib 13 or just after sunset on Abib 14.

Protos means the first or highest rank. In combining these terms deuteroprotos literally means the second first or the second of the first rank. Knowing that it means the second of the first rank it can mean one of two things. It may be the second of the annual Sabbaths of the first rank which are the high holy days of God the big seven. Here it stands for the last Day of Unleavened Bread. That is the second Sabbath of the first rank. The other idea is that it means the second Sabbath to the count toward Pentecost the end of that second week of seven weeks to Pentecost which would also put it just after the Days of Unleavened Bread.

The Greek word protos means "first," and indicates first in rank. It forms the second half of deuteroprotos, literally "second first" (deutero, second; protos, first), the word the King James renders "second Sabbath after the first" in Luke 6:1. Some build a case for a particular way of counting to Pentecost on that word, but it settles nothing. Scholars admit they are only guessing at its meaning, and the references offer four or five different guesses. It might mean simply the second Sabbath after the first one mentioned in Luke. Because protos denotes rank, it might mean the second Sabbath of the first rank, which would point to the Last Day of Unleavened Bread. Or it might mean the second Sabbath in the count to Pentecost. None of these is certain, and nothing in the verse directly connects that Sabbath to Unleavened Bread or Pentecost. If it did, the Pharisees would have challenged Jesus on the matter. A. T. Robertson, a respected Greek scholar, judged the word spurious, so the verse speaks of an ordinary Sabbath. God would not contradict Leviticus 23 with such an obscure term. The word therefore gives no authority for an exception to the consistent counting to Pentecost.