The Church with a misplaced focus.

 ' “Write to the angel of the church in Ephesus: Thus says the one who holds the seven stars in his right hand and who walks among the seven golden lampstands: I know your works, your labor, and your endurance, and that you cannot tolerate evil people. You have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and you have found them to be liars. I know that you have persevered and endured hardships for the sake of my name, and you have not grown weary. But I have this against you: You have abandoned the love you had at first. Remember then how far you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. Otherwise, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent. Yet you do have this: You hate the practices of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. “Let anyone who has ears to hear listen to what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God. ' Revelation 2:1-7

The Church with a misplaced focus. If not familiar with this passage from Revelation, though who hasn't heard of the church that lost its first love, most Christians have probably heard of the church of Ephesus. This was the church that in Acts Paul spent 3 years ministering at. It was the only church that Paul gave a farewell speech to the elders, actually warning them to be on the lookout for everything that Jesus praises them for. By this point this church was keeping faithful to the faith. They were regularly attending church, reading the Scripture, testing their teachers and pastors to make sure they weren't teaching a false gospel. They were speaking out against various sins with zeal. So, what did Christ have against them? They lost the love they had at first. Now some may think this meant they turned away from the faith, but they were still being faithful, all their actions were done because of and for their faith. The problem is that they lost that zeal for Christ that caused them to have that million-dollar bonfire without being prompted to they decided to burn all of their pagan books. Their focus shifted, ever so slightly at first, from looking to Christ and have everything else follow until they were looking to everything else and expecting Christ to follow, and ended up way off track and Christ someplace else because of that misplaced focus. That zeal and pure worship of God died out as they became more concerned about keeping true to the Gospel, keeping out false teachings, keeping out false practices, speaking out against sinful behaviors, etc. until that was all they were focused on and their faith was just a reason for it. They were no longer actions produced from a desire driven by love, but actions followed because of their faith. Just like in a boat if it is pointed just a fraction of a degree off course, further down the line they could be miles away from where it should be if the course is never corrected. This is why every day we need to seek God and ask if we need to do a course correction before it becomes too bad. Remember anytime your focus shifts off of Christ you are no longer heading towards God.