Revelation 2:4

Nevertheless, I have this complaint against you: You no longer love each other and me as you did when you first [MTY] trusted in me.

Translation for Translators

In The King James Version

Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love.

In Context

3I know also that you continue to serve me steadfastly. Even when people ◄ caused you to suffer/persecuted you►, you continued to serve me because you believe in me, and you have not become too tired to keep on serving me.

5So, I tell you to remember how you used to love me and each other, and to realize that you no longer love as you did. I tell you to turn away from your sin of not loving me and each other, and start loving each other and me again as you did at first. If you do not turn away from your sinful behavior, I will come to judge you and cause your group to cease to be a Christian congregation [MET].

Read all of Revelation 2

Cross References

Jeremiah 2:2to proclaim to everyone in Jerusalem. He said that I should tell them this [MET]: “I, Yahweh, remember that you very much wanted to please me long ago. You tried to please me like a bride tries to please her husband; You loved me, and you followed me through the desert [DOU].

Matthew 25:7So all the virgins got up and trimmed their lantern wicks so that they would burn properly.

Philippians 3:13My fellow believers, I certainly do not consider that I have already become completely like Christ. But I am like a runner. A runner does not look backward [MET]. Instead, he leans/stretches forward as he runs straight toward the goal in order that he might win the race and get the prize. Similarly, I do not think about what I have already done.

2 Thessalonians 1:3Our fellow believers, we thank God very frequently [HYP] for you because we believers ought to thank God for each other, and specifically it is appropriate/right that we should thank God for you. We thank him that you are trusting in the Lord Jesus more and more, and that each one of you is loving each of the others more and more.

Revelation 2:14Nevertheless, I have this complaint against you: You permit some of your members to teach things like Balaam taught long ago. He taught Balak to persuade the Israeli people to sin. Specifically, he taught them to eat food that had been offered to idols, and to practice sexual immorality.

Revelation 3:14“Write this message to the leader [MET] of the congregation in Laodicea city: ‘I am saying these things to you. I am the one who ◄guarantees everything that God’s promises/confirms that he will do all that he has promised► [MET]. I am the one who testifies about God reliably and accurately. I am the one who God used to create everything.

Matthew Henry on Revelation 2:2-8

The Church in Ephesus. ( a. d. 95.) 1 Unto the angel of the church of Ephesus write; These things saith he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand, who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks; 2 I know thy works, and thy labour, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil: and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars: 3 And hast borne, and hast patience, and for my name's sake hast laboured, and hast not fainted. 4… Read the whole commentary →

This Verse In Other Editions

Study Revelation 2:4