Your First Love
January 25, 2024 | by: Dale Thiele | 0 Comments
Posted in: Pastoral Encouragement
Do you remember when you first realized you loved Jesus? It may have been when you first placed your faith in Jesus as your Savior. Or, it may have been later, connected with some circumstances that awakened in you a love for Jesus.
I grew up going to church and placed my faith in Jesus as my Savior as a child. While I believe that Jesus died for my sins, I would not have said I loved Jesus at that point. That came later when I was in high school.
During the summer after my freshman year, I went on a missions trip to Jamaica. We served with an organization that built schools for deaf children. Since Jamaica frequently is in the path of hurricanes, all the construction was with concrete block. A bunch of high schoolers, with their youth ministers, don’t know much about construction with concrete. Wisely, the organization provided a concrete expert to work with our team and direct our mortar mixing and block laying. This expert went by the name of Brother T. He grew up in Jamaica.
As a fifteen-year-old from the suburbs of America, I had never met anyone like Brother T before. He showed up every morning ready to work with a huge smile on his face. He worked harder than any of us all day long. And this was the first week of August in Jamaica. It was hot and humid. Brother T was patient and kind with us, even when we made mistakes that he had to fix. When Sunday came around, we attended Brother T’s church. His affectious smile was beaming as he sang the worship songs with gusto. And then, after church, he brought our group to his home. This almost broke my heart. He owned a single room home that was constructed from random scrapes of material: sheet metal, wood pallets, and whatever else he could find. He was not ashamed, however, of his home. He was delighted to have guests in his home.
When I returned home and started my sophomore year of high school, I couldn’t stop thinking about Brother T. What made him so happy? He had so little, but he was so full of joy.
Our church youth group studied Paul’s letter to the Philippians that Fall. It all clicked for me when we came to study Paul’s incredible statement in 1:21, “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” Paul is in prison but recounts the reason why he rejoices. The good news of Jesus was still being proclaimed. His greatest joy in life was Jesus. And he had full confidence that, even if he died, he would be with Jesus. Nothing could take away he delight in Jesus.
Paul reiterates this singular delight in Christ in Philippians 3:8, when he says, “Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.” For Paul, nothing compares with knowing Jesus. And nothing could steal away this delight from him.
Brother T was following in the footsteps of the apostle Paul. Brother T was not in prison and was not threatened with execution, but, in the world’s eyes, his circumstances were devastating. And yet, Brother T was filled with joy. At fifteen years old I came to realize that Jesus could be the same source of joy in my life. I needed to follow Paul in saying, “I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus.”
After that Bible study on Philippians 1, while praying, I told Jesus that I loved him for the first time. The worth of knowing Jesus was capturing my heart.
Jesus wants us, even commands us, to love him. Do you? Do you remember what first stirred your love for Jesus? Jesus confronts the church at Ephesus as having lost their love they had at first. He says in Revelation 2:4, “I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first.” This was a church that was busy doing good things for God, but they lost sight of their love for Christ. Jesus prescribes a path to recover their first love: “Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first.” Sometimes we need to remember the circumstances that first brought us to love Jesus. In the busyness of life, our hearts can become distracted and drift. Let’s remember, repent, and return to our first love for Jesus.
