There is one problem that this church needed to fix immediately, and that was their abandonment of the love they used to have. The point is not that the saints of Ephesus lost all love for the Lord; the compliments of Revelation 2:2–3 suggest the contrary. Instead, we need to think here of how the love that a couple has for one another when they get married loses some of its shine through the passage of time. It’s not that the love is completely gone but that the sparkle is absent, and going the extra mile no longer happens. In our marriages we might call that normal and be content to live with this absence of the first love, but Jesus, perfect Bridegroom that he is, is not content with this development.
4 But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first.