What have you left?

[Rabbi Eric]

Shalom,

Scripture references are from,
The SET (Stone Edition Tanach) or the CJB (Complete Jewish Bible) for the OT
and the PNT (Power New Testament) for the NT unless otherwise specified.

Rev 2.1. “To the messenger of the congregation in Ephesus you must now write:
   ‘The One Who holds the seven stars in His right hand, the One Who walks among the seven golden lamp stands, says these things:    2. I know your works and toil and your patience and that you are not able to bear evil, and you tested those who say they are apostles and they are not and you found them false:    3. and you have patience and you endured because of My name and you have not wearied.    4. Nevertheless I have against you that you left your first love.    5. Therefore you must remember from where you have fallen and you must now repent and you must do the works you did at first: and if not, I am coming to you and I will remove your lamp stand from its place, if you would not repent.    6. But you have this, that you hate the works of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. (Ps 139:21)    7. The one who has ears must now listen to what the Spirit is saying to the congregations. To the one who conquers, I will give him permission to eat from the tree of life, (Gn 2:8, Eze 28:13, 31:8,9) which is in the Paradise of God.’”

As should be obvious to anyone who actually paid some degree of attention as you read this passage, this was written to "A" congregation and possibly to the "Only" congregation in Ephesus. Most likely to the same congregation to whom the Epistle to the Ephesians was written.

Rev 2:2. I know your works and toil and your patience and that you are not able to bear evil, and you tested those who say they are apostles and they are not and you found them false:    3. and you have patience and you endured because of My name and you have not wearied.    4. Nevertheless I have against you that you left your first love.    5. Therefore you must remember from where you have fallen and you must now repent and you must do the works you did at first: and if not, I am coming to you and I will remove your lamp stand from its place, if you would not repent.
Y'SHUA states that He knows that they are still standing and believing in Him as they are standing for His name's sake. In other words these are what many today would declare to be "True Believers"! That is that they are patient, enduring and have not wearied because of His name. So why is Y'SHUA upset with them? Why is it that He is willing to take away their lamp stand which illuminates their way to salvation?

What is the first stated purpose for the Tree of Life?
Gen 3:22  ADONAI, God, said, "See, the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil. Now, to prevent his putting out his hand and taking also from the tree of life, eating, and living forever -"
Basically the Tree of Life is that which will preserve us forever in the state we are found to be in at the time that we are given access to partake of it. This is another view of the healing properties of it's fruits. When you partake of the fruit it will heal you of whatever sin is within your life causing the death or dying of you up to that point. By healing you then it preserves you in a restored posture. In other words, the eating of the Tree of Life is what finalizes your salvation by cleansing you of the active results of sin waging within you; that it cleanses you of the wages of sin actively warring within you.

So then I must ask, "Where does Y'SHUA say the the Tree of Life is?"
Rev 2:7. The one who has ears must now listen to what the Spirit is saying to the congregations. To the one who conquers, I will give him permission to eat from the tree of life, (Gn 2:8, Eze 28:13, 31:8,9) which is in the Paradise of God.’ (emphasis added)
Is Y'SHUA a liar?
Did He ever Lie?
Could He have ever lied and still have been perfect or sinless?
Then, again, where is the Tree of Life and what is it's purpose?
Then are you "saved" while you are still alive on the earth or MUST this occur in the Heavens; in Paradise, either after death or after the Rapture of YHVH's Children?
Thus "Once Saved Always Saved" theology is true only as long as you agree that salvation only happens in the Heavens!

Along with this we must address the notion of "Eternal Security of the Believer". We must because they are often tied together under one banner. First we need to reread what Y'SHUA just said concerning this concept...
Rev 2.1. “To the messenger of the congregation in Ephesus you must now write:
   ‘The One Who holds the seven stars in His right hand, the One Who walks among the seven golden lamp stands, says these things:    2.  I know your works and toil and your patience and that you are not able to bear evil, and you tested those who say they are apostles and they are not and you found them false:    3. and you have patience and you endured because of My name and you have not wearied.    4. Nevertheless I have against you that you left your first love.    5. Therefore you must remember from where you have fallen and you must now repent and you must do the works you did at first: and if not, I am coming to you and I will remove your lamp stand from its place, if you would not repent.
Y'SHUA has just threatened to remove their light; their lamp stand from it's place in the Heavens!
He is threatening them that they will NOT BE SAVED if they don't repent even though they are still believers in Him and doing things in His name. They have been living an apparently conservative lifestyle in that they are unable to "bear evil" (vs 2). That they have "endured" because of His name and yet He states that they have left their "first love".
What is this "first love"?
Most "preachers" will tell you that this is Him; Y'SHUA, but that is simply not the case as He has just stated. That is merely "tradition" (Mk 7:13)!
That is what they have been taught and they are now simply parroting that belief. They are not raising YHVH's Children in the way that they should go thus they are not Pastors. Instead as parrots of what they were taught they are simply "preaching"; speaking at others what they have heard.
Thus they are perpetuating "tradition" and stopping YHVH from being able to lead the people because they don't have HIS Word within them for The HOLY SPIRIT to draw upon and lead them with.

What Y'SHUA is referring to when He states that they have left their "first love" (vs 4) is YHVH.
They have left YHVH!
Thus even though they are "believers" in Him they are no longer "Believers" in YHVH and this distinction; this separation is His.
Thus, the "Eternal Security of the Believers" is not that they believe in Him; Y'SHUA, but that they believe in YHVH.
As long as they continue to hold to a belief in YHVH they are secure; their lamp stand will not be removed but if they lose that belief then it will be removed even if, as these at Ephesus do, they still believe in Y'SHUA.
Don't get me wrong, there is still only one sacrifice by which we can come to YHVH and receive forgiveness and that is through the sacrifice of Y'SHUA but we can never even wrestle with that concept adequately if we lose our first love; our love and/or belief in YHVH.

It is this end to the active waging of war within us by sin that in effect Y'SHUA is addressing when He states...
Mat 10:28. And do not be afraid of those who kill the body, but they are not able to kill eternal life: but you must rather fear the One able to destroy both life and body in Gehenna.     29. Do not two sparrows sell for a sixteenth of a denarius? And not one of them will fall on the Earth without the knowledge and consent of your Father.    30. And of you, even all the hairs of your head are numbered.    31. Therefore stop being afraid! You are worth more than many sparrows.”
   10:32. “Therefore everyone who will confess Me in front of people, then I will confess him before My Father, the One in the heavens:    33. but whoever would deny Me before people, then I will deny him before My Father, the One in the heavens.”
   10:34. “Do not think that I have come to bring peace upon the Earth: I did not come to bring peace but war.     35. For I came to set one against another
   ‘a man against his father
      and a daughter against her mother
   and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law,
36. and a man’s enemies will be of his household.’ (Mic 7:6)
37. The one who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me, and the one who loves a son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me:    38. and who does not take his cross and follow behind Me, is not worthy of Me.    39. The one who has found his life will destroy it, and the one who has lost his life for My sake will find it.”
   10:40. “The one who receives you is receiving Me, and the one who receives Me is receiving the One Who sent Me.    41. The one who receives a prophet in the name of a prophet will take a prophet’s reward, and the one who receives a righteous person in the name of a righteous person will take a righteous person’s reward.     42. And whoever would give a cold drink to one of the least of these, only in the name of a disciple, truly I say to you, would not lose his reward.”

In verse 32 when Y'SHUA is speaking of confessing men before YHVH, He is addressing the issue that salvation will be completed in The Heavens. That when He confesses to YHVH those who have stood for YHVH in or through standing in belief of Him and in service to Him that it is then that the active wages of sin will finally be defeated. It is then that there will be no more sorrow there!

Phil 2: 9. On this account then God raised Him to the highest rank and He freely gave Him the name above every name,    10. so that at the name “Jesus!” every knee of the heavenlies and the earthly and those below the earth would bow    11. and every tongue would confess that Jesus Messiah is Lord in the glory of God our Father. (Is 45:23)
For now we can worship YHVH through our worship and praise of Y'SHUA as the One which YHVH has given authority over all the earth. Y'SHUA earned this honor by His sinless life which He laid before YHVH The FATHER to do with as it pleased The FATHER.
Deut 6:4  "Sh'ma, Yisra'el! ADONAI Eloheinu, ADONAI echad [Hear, Isra'el! ADONAI our God, ADONAI is one];    5.  and you are to love ADONAI your God with all your heart, all your being and all your resources. (emphasis added)
Y'SHUA left "all of His being" before YHVH to use in whatever way, shape or form YHVH needed or wanted to. Y'SHUA lived not seeking any "thing" for His self but rather all things for YHVH. This was an attribute which He first learned from YHVH.

For Y'SHUA to be born YHVH first demonstrated how Y'SHUA was to live. YHVH spoke to the mother of Y'SHUA; Mary, through an angel. YHVH's WORD came to Mary. Once Mary willing accepted what YHVH was saying that which was spoken had to separate itself from that which it was and that which would be manifest. For YHVH's WORD to become a man The WORD would first have to lay aside attributes such as authority, honor, exaltation. This meant that HE would have to relinquish all aspects of being Deity! To be a man one could not be YHVH and yet YHVH could not be made less either.
Phil 2:6. Who was in the form of God, yet did not think that this equality with God was to be eagerly clung to or retained,   7. but emptied Himself of His own equality, taking the form of a servant, when He came in a likeness of men: and, when He was found in a manner of life as a man,
In order to become a man, that which was spoken had to "empty" HIMself of being YHVH. That which was YHVH had to remain as YHVH in The Heavenlies. In short, in order to become a man, Y'SHUA was made in the image of YHVH (Gen 1:26) but He was not YHVH. Because He was the Firstborn to do this and then still follow this example unto death, YHVH then honored or rewarded Him by exalting Him above all other names; by giving Him a name before which all others will bow except YHVH HIMself (1 Cor 15:28). YHVH exalted Him to be Lord over all "things" because He; Y'SHUA never abandoned His first love; His love of YHVH. It is this "love" to which Y'SHUA is calling the congregation at Ephesus to reconsider. It is this "love" which most of the world today has abandoned and many sit with congregations all over the world and even in pulpits!

Rev 2:2. I know your works and toil and your patience and that you are not able to bear evil, and you tested those who say they are apostles and they are not and you found them false:    3. and you have patience and you endured because of My name and you have not wearied.    4. Nevertheless I have against you that you left your first love.    5. Therefore you must remember from where you have fallen and you must now repent and you must do the works you did at first: and if not, I am coming to you and I will remove your lamp stand from its place, if you would not repent.
This congregation at Ephesus still resists evil; it still rejects the sins of mankind and it still declares the "name of Y'SHUA" but in all honesty it no longer accepts YHVH. It has exalted itself to the point that today it would be seen as an arrogant denomination which constantly considers itself and it's teaching to be "right"! This congregation does not accept homosexuality, premarital sex or lying but it has lowered YHVH to a level where they can worship something or someone else equal to or above YHVH. They have left their first love!
What have you left?