CHRIST WALKING
[p. 139] CHRIST WALKING
John 1:29 - 39; John 6:16 - 21; Revelation 2:1
JT These chapters speak of Christ walking. Certain circumstances and results are in view, first His sacrificial walk or movement, then His gathering walk — both these thoughts are seen in chapter 1. In chapter 6 His walk in superiority to circumstances; and then in Revelation His judicial walk.
Our first point is the sacrificial movement of Christ. John, seeing Jesus coming to him, says, “Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world”. That is the first feature of our subject to be considered. The Baptist discerns the movement of Christ and names the significance of it. The designation “Lamb of God” implies what is sacrificial.
WEM Would Abraham seem to have some light in his soul as to this — “God will provide himself a lamb” (Genesis 22:8)?
JT The designation used by John would spiritually link on with what preceded it of a sacrificial nature, inclusive of Abraham saying, “God will provide himself a lamb”. John shows that he is moving on cumulative lines, not assuming to start anything of his own, for he immediately goes on to say, “He it is of whom I said, A man comes after me who takes a place before me, because he was before me”. Any inauguration in view would be Christ’s, not John’s. It is well in a practical way to have this in mind, that we have come into what began long since. Other men have laboured and we have entered into their labours. On this line John proceeds to enlarge on the personal greatness of Christ. It says, “John bore witness, saying, I beheld the Spirit descending as a dove from heaven, and it abode upon him. And I knew him not; but he who sent me to baptise with water, he said to me, Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending and abiding [p. 140] on him, he it is who baptises with the Holy Spirit. And I have seen and borne witness that this is the Son of God”. So that the personal greatness of Christ is immediately linked on by the Baptist with the sacrificial thought seen in Christ’s movements.
SPF What would be the import of His coming to John as the Lamb of God?
JT John was baptising, which was a figure of the application of death. The Lord came to him, not as needing baptism, nor as needing to make any confession on His own account; but the fact that He came to him, and was known and discerned by John, brought out the thought of His sacrificial work whereby He should take away the sin of the world. “Him who knew not sin he has made sin for us” (2 Corinthians 5:21).
GB Would the godly remnant be on the look-out for the Lamb of God?
JT Well, it would seem so: certainly John had it in mind. What the godly remnant would look for is a very interesting suggestion — that is, what faith looks for. Luke relates how Simeon looked for things, and Anna spoke to all in Jerusalem who looked for redemption. Those who looked for divine things were in the first rank in the divine mind as to what was coming in in Christ. We are told that He “shall appear to those that look for him the second time without sin for salvation” (Hebrews 9:28). Great value is attached to those who expect on the principle of faith. But it was Jesus, as He moved to him, who reminded John of the sacrificial side of His work. The movement evidently carried with it, in his divinely enlightened eye, the thought of sacrifice, so that he names Jesus as “the Lamb of God”.
AAT Does the sacrificial thought include the judicial side?
JT Yes, it includes the judicial side as to what lay on man, what was in the world — primarily the question of the sin of the world — the great thought [p. 141] extending back to Adam: He has to take that away, but the judicial walk of Christ is not seen here. The judicial part in this matter would be God’s, for He came out of His place, as it were, to deal with sin in the sacrifice of Christ, but the judicial walk in Revelation is on the part of the Lord in His place amid the candlesticks in the christian profession.
HSH Does Hebrews 10:5 fit in with what you have before you? “Wherefore coming into the world he says, Sacrifice and offering thou willedst not; but thou hast prepared me a body”.
JT That enters into what is before us.
W Does the great question of the sin of the world form a background to declare the greatness of the Person spoken of?
JT Quite so. The immensity of the problem — the sin of the world! John uses the word “world” in various connections, but when he uses it to convey the volume of sin, then we have to come back to the beginning of it. It is the world as a system, and the sin is cumulative; it has come right down, there is not one item of it omitted! John sometimes uses the word “world” to convey what extends beyond Israel; this is an instance.
ABP Was walking first introduced after the fall?
JT Yes. Genesis 3 says that God walked in the garden and said to Adam, “Where art thou?” — sin was already there, that was the suggestion. Think of the accumulation of sin from that moment on! Think of the problem in heaven, what thoughts arose as to it, as the race moved on, enlarged and spread abroad, the flood dealing with it only partially; and then the descendants of Noah spreading themselves abroad — sin being carried down — what a problem! As it is dwelt upon, how the greatness of Christ arises in the mind! He takes it away.
FGS Is it the greatness of the Person here? “Who takes away the sin of the world”.
JT That is the idea, so that the Baptist immediately proceeds to tell us more about this great Person. We can understand how John would shrink in his own estimation in the presence of this problem, and the One who could face it and deal with it!
BG Does faith see the greatness of the Person in His every aspect? Abraham has been referred to: when Abraham saw the Lord’s day, would he by faith see Him here walking?
JT Well, I suppose we may say that, but I have understood that the allusion in John 8 is to the weaning of Isaac rather than to the sacrifice of Isaac. The weaning was the inauguration of Christ’s day, typically; he was fully owned in the house, Ishmael being cast out.
PL The upright remnant having, through baptism, given John their ear in relation to the Lord sacrificially, would be prepared for the Father’s declaration regarding His beloved Son?
JT Well, quite so. According to the synoptic accounts of this great incident, heaven came in immediately to evidence its delight and to call attention to Him; but here it is John who witnesses to His sonship. Heaven’s own voice, the Father’s own voice, witnessed to it, according to the synoptic gospels. So your thought is that He was speaking in the ears of the upright, those who had come to John to be baptised?
PL The foundation being laid in the appreciation of the sacrifice, you can have the great structure built up in the soul regarding His varied glories.
JT I think we all begin with this, really. I mean, believers do normally begin with Christ as the Lamb of God, the One who was sacrificed.
SPF Among other things, would “the Lamb of God” suggest His spirit and character?
JT Quite so. As regards the passover, “Christ our passover is sacrificed for us” (1 Corinthians 5:7). The lamb had to be selected from the flock, indeed, “seized” out of it,
[p. 143] and kept in the house of the Israelite for four days, so that it would be objectively before them for those days. What His character was, what Jesus was, would be before their minds, typically, before He was slain. Another beautiful thought that comes in is how He moved here: it was to John, which would carry with it what He was as having this great problem in mind, for, as we have said, John was baptising.
Ques Do you limit the taking away of the sin of the world to what is sacrificial, or does it include the acts of power of the Lamb in Revelation?
JT It includes all that is necessary to accomplish this great result — the taking away of the sin of the world. We know in ourselves how the Lord acts so that sin might be taken away from each of us in a practical sense, that it might cease to operate. It requires not only His own death sacrificially, but the discipline that is needed in us to judge sin and to bring us to a deep judgment of sin as God judges it. The passover is intended for that, so that we eat it with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth, which operates with the sacrifice of Christ in us to produce the state of uprightness and self-judgment.
AFM You referred to the four days — the lamb being kept in the house four days: is the suggestion to endear Christ to our hearts?
JT Well, that is what I thought. We can understand how the children of the family would be affected by the presence of the lamb in the house; so that in the antitype those who came to love Jesus, who saw His movements and heard His words, learned something of His life — how they felt in regard to His Person!
HC Do you connect with this the passage in Hebrews 9:26, “But now once in the consummation of the ages he has been manifested for the putting away of sin by his sacrifice”?
JT Certainly. He appeared in the end of the age to do it in His own Person by His own sacrifice. The [p. 144] closing verse of that chapter is connected with the end of our present period; then Christ shall appear “to those that look for him”. John represents those who had the sacrificial work of Christ as “the Lamb of God” in mind: he looked for Him. We know how the types instruct us and how the exercises of the saints in the Psalms instruct us as to this matter; the prophet, too, used the very word, “he was led as a lamb to the slaughter” (Isaiah 53:7). Faith would take hold of all that. You take hold of what has come in since, and look for Him: “unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation” (Hebrews 9:28).
FGS Does the sacrificial thought enter into the second speaking? “Again the next day after John stood ... and looking upon Jesus ... saith, Behold the Lamb of God!”
JT It is the sacrificial thought now as entering into His gathering movements, that is, the second movement has in mind the gathering up of the results of the sacrifice, for these must be taken care of; so we see how He became the centre, for one idea in John is that He gathers on the principle of attraction. Luke would stress the going after souls, but John sees them gathered on the principle of attraction. John also speaks of Christ as Shepherd, having in view the “one flock”.
The words here allude to His walk. John saw Jesus coming to him, that is, His face was in that direction, and His movements would reflect what was in His mind, and John was able to name that. It suggests to us the matter of naming what we see spiritually. As Adam began to name the creatures of old, so this chapter shows how John is able to name what he saw according to movement, and now Jesus looks on Peter and names him, too. Peter is the sort of material that He specially takes notice of — “thou shalt be called Cephas” (John 1:42). So that in gathering He names [p. 145] what comes to Him.
FWB John bears witness to what he had seen.
JT Well, that is the point here. “I have seen and borne witness”, he says, “that this is the Son of God”. The One who sent him to baptise with water gave him a sign, “Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending and abiding on him ...”; but he discerns Him in His walk, His movements.
WEM Should it not be affecting to our hearts that the Lamb of God and the Son of God are the same blessed Person?
JT Quite so. It is intended to make us worshipful of the Lord Jesus. John the evangelist would bring that out, that the Son of God is discerned and we worship Him. He speaks of the blind man in chapter 9 as an example of this; he worshipped the Son of God.
MB-h Is the baptising with the Holy Spirit in view of the sacrificial work and of the greatness of the Person?
JT It would carry the thought that the Lord negates and displaces sin by the baptism of the Holy Spirit. It is the world filled with the Spirit, as it were; the results of the Spirit that are in mind.
We may now go on to verse 35. “There stood John and two of his disciples. And, looking at Jesus as he walked, he says, Behold the Lamb of God”. The second comment of John does not stress the sacrificial thought, that is already there; this is additional, namely, that He is now attracting the results of His death — as it were, drawing them to Himself. He does not gather otherwise than on sacrificial ground. “Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone”. So that the sacrificial movement is followed by this second walking, meaning, I think, that His movement now is attractive.
SS Do we get a fresh glory of His Person now: having seen His greatness as bearing away the sin of the world, we now see Him as bringing in a sphere for God, permeated by the Holy Spirit and thus held in power and affection?
[p. 146] JT That is right. Baptism with the Holy Spirit would include the work of the Spirit, so that there is a world filled with that instead of with sin, and it applies to everyone of us. We are all baptised by one Spirit into one body. It replaces the activity of sin. This gospel treats of the great subject seen in characteristic examples, of “Christ in us”. If Christ be in us — that is, if He has come into our souls, as we see Him walking — the body is dead on account of sin, and the Spirit is life on account of righteousness. That takes the place of sin. The body becomes the vehicle of life by the Spirit.
W Is one right in thinking, from verse 35, that the testimony is always in movement and that the Spirit of God would have us intelligent as to those movements?
JT That is what is in mind here. The ministry of John the baptist is not presented in this gospel as in the synoptic gospels. He just says something about Christ, which is the outcome of how he was affected by what he saw. He is not speaking officially; here indeed he is standing, which would suggest that his work is finished, because Christ has come on the scene; and he just speaks as he is impressed by Him. He looks on Jesus as He walked! “There stood John and two of his disciples. And, looking at Jesus as he walked, he says, Behold the Lamb of God”. It is not a question of official ministry, but of one’s admiration of Him and expressing it in the hearing of others — that is all. So that every christian may have part in such testimony. If I am affected by Christ, affected by Him personally, then I shall affect others: everyone may affect others by speaking admiringly of Christ.
SS Delighting now in the light of the Person.
JT Well, this is the Person of Christ, but still the Lamb of God; for I apprehend if we are drawn to Christ it is as sacrificed, as One who has had to do with sin sacrificially; the assembly is really formed that [p. 147] way. We are drawn to Him as in this character, for we are in a world of sin. He has dealt with the matter, but He is now walking. What is He walking for? That is left open. It is what an admirer sees — what He is; and as he expresses himself, it has a gathering effect: they leave John and follow Jesus.
MM Would it be right to think that although these features are unique in the Lord Himself, yet they can be worked out among the saints today?
JT Certainly. We are to walk as He walked; John the evangelist says that later. It involves that we are persons who deal with sin; we do not come under sin, we judge it and have done with it.
JWG Do the movements of the two here come under the direct notice of the Lord — Jesus having turned and seeing them following?
JT Well, that is the position which is so beautifully presented here. He was quite alive to what John had said and the effect of it. May we not see that in a person who has come to admire Christ in the gospel? The Lord is looking for some results in that person. He is going to gather up that result and make much of it. That is what is going on every day.
HM What time is referred to when He will gather together in one all the children of God scattered abroad?
JT You are quoting chapter 11:52: “not for that nation only, but that also he should gather together in one the children of God that were scattered abroad”? It is the present time. It is not Israel that is in mind, it is the children of God.
PL Is this principle not seen in Moses’ song as he passes on from the sacrificial side to the “greatness of thine excellency”, both thoughts furnishing the basis for Israel’s assembly movements in Exodus 16, issuing in the encampment at Sinai?
JT Quite so. All that intervened from the Red Sea to Sinai had in mind what would take place at Sinai. The saints are taken on in a new way, on the [p. 148] principle of being gathered as an assembly. Here we have to observe that John does not say, Behold the Son of God — although according to what he says, he knew that He was the Son of God. The reason is, I think, that the Spirit of God had in mind that the One who is the Centre of gathering is the One who deals with sin. The assembly is to be imbued with the idea of dealing with sin.
AFM Does that refer to the totality of sin — “the sin of the world”?
JT Yes; we ought to have a judgment of sin; we have to deal with it when it comes in amongst us. In the very fibre of our being this is to be, that we have taken on the idea of dealing judicially with sin.
WJC You mean that those who are actually gathered amongst us have a judgment about sin?
JT If they have not they will be a trouble to us: anyone who comes in amongst us and has not dealt with sin in himself, will be a troubler.
EJF Would that be seen in the early days of the assembly? In Acts 5, after Ananias and Sapphira were dealt with, there were additions, believers were added to the Lord.
JT Well, exactly. That is a good illustration of what we were saying as to the judicial side. God dealt with sin judicially in the sacrifice of Christ. Christ dealt with it, too, for He confessed and took on the sins that He bore as judging them; He took them on as judging them and owning them before God — He owned them before God as taking them on vicariously. So that in the case of Ananias and Sapphira, Peter brings the three divine Persons into the matter of the sin of these two persons. He says, “Why has Satan filled thy heart that thou shouldest lie to the Holy Spirit ... Thou hast not lied to men, but to God” and “Why is it that ye have agreed together to tempt the Spirit of the Lord?” “God”, “the Lord”, and “the Spirit” — All brought into this matter of Ananias [p. 149] and Sapphira. It was God who was offended in His assembly, and Peter dealt with it as one who understood and named the sin; but it did not hinder the work of gathering because many, multitudes both of men and women, believed and were added to the Lord.
HF Would the thought of judging sin by separating from it be brought out in 2 Timothy?
JT That is the idea in our own time. The basis of the present position is, “Let every one who names the name of the Lord withdraw from iniquity” (chapter 2:19). If we take up this ground of judging sin, that is, are drawn to Christ as the Lamb of God walking (for if He walks in this world it is as judging it — He judges sin), we shall have troublous waters to walk on, troublous circumstances, we shall have the wind blowing against us. Chapter 6:17 says, “And it had already become dark, and Jesus has not come to them, and the sea was agitated by a strong wind blowing”. We ought to note that in chapter 1 those who were drawn to Christ as the Lamb of God walking, wanted to be taught — they called Him, “Rabbi”. He was not only judging sin, but teaching: opening up the truth in this way as to God, and they came under this teaching as with Him, where He abode. But as learning thus from Him, we shall find troubled waters; we ought to expect them, and not be disappointed if they arise. The sea becomes troubled! Never has the sea — the condition of things in the world — been more troubled than it is now.
FG S. Do you think abiding with Him, as suggested in chapter 1, for “it was about the tenth hour”, would fit us for this agitation of the waters?
JT I think so. You get near to Him where He abides and learn how He looks at things. “They abode with him that day” — they saw how He finished the day. We are now at the finish of the day, and we are to learn how to be in the finish, and how the Lord looks at things where He abides. We may thus see how restful He is about it, yet thoroughly taking all into account,
[p. 150] knowing exactly what is current, and which way things will go.
JWG As we are attracted to the Lord in these conditions, the Lord comes to us.
JT That is the idea. We are attracted to Him, but He comes to us in our time of trouble. Chapter 6, to which we have alluded, speaks of a time of trouble. It says, “when evening was come, his disciples went down to the sea, and having gone on board ship, they went over the sea to Capernaum. And it had already become dark, and Jesus had not come to them, and the sea was agitated by a strong wind blowing. Having rowed then about twenty-five or thirty stadia, they see Jesus walking on the sea and coming near the ship”. They are allowed the experience, the trouble: the Lord allows us to go through certain things; we learn by them, and then He gives relief.
ALB Does the rowing “about twenty-five or thirty stadia” suggest that they had made some progress in spite of the difficult conditions?
JT I think that is right. They were making some headway, they were rowing, the passage says.
MC Why is the distance they had rowed not defined exactly?
JT It says “about”, it is left open; the point is, that they had rowed a considerable distance. It may be either the one or the other, but the fact remains that they make some headway.
PL Love is generous in its estimate?
JT Yes. The more generous you are, the more likely you would be to say that they rowed thirty stadia. The fact that they were frightened shows how cloudy we are in these circumstances, in a crisis. We are peculiarly apt to mistake persons and their movements. Here the Lord says, “It is I”.
WJW He does not rebuke the sea. It is a greater thing to see Him walking? He says, “It is I”.
JT The circumstances are not changed, nor do we get Peter walking here. It is simply that He says, “It is I; be not afraid”. “They were willing therefore to receive him into the ship”. Willingness is a good point in regard of difficulties. They were not effusive about it: “they were willing therefore ...” It is a great point if people are willing to take on what is of God, and it will work out in time.
FWB How do you regard the ship?
JT I suppose it is still Jewish circumstances, but whatever it be, they are critical circumstances. The ship would be Jewish circumstances, or in our own times the public position. It was their own movement and they intended to reach a certain place, they were definite.
HF Would you apply this to help our brethren particularly who are suffering from oppression?
JT This incident should be of practical help to them. The question is whether they are rowing. John has movement in mind. What kind of energy has there been? Has any headway been made? I mean to say, where our brethren are hindered, where the wind is agitated against them, and the enemy is apparently getting the upper hand, what headway has been made? Is it judicial on the part of God, or is it merely a matter of Satanic power? Do you not think that those questions should come up with us?
HF Yes. Rowing would suggest unity, would it not?
JT Yes — according to stroke and against the wind and the waves.
PL Does not the Lord rebuke Sardis for its lack of movement? “A name that thou livest, and art dead” (Revelation 3:1). Might we not link up “the opened door” in Philadelphia with His word here to the disciples, “It is I; be not afraid”?
JT Quite so. Revelation 3:8 says, “I have set before thee an opened door, which no one can shut”.
[p. 152] If there be a shut one now anywhere, why is it? Is it because Philadelphian conditions are not existent?
PL Would the allusion of the Lord to Philadelphia and “a little strength” connect with the brotherly love in which we learn to row together against the stream?
JT Clearly. With a little strength, although the winds will be against us, we shall make some progress.
GRW Is not the principle, “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s” (Mark 12:17), very necessary in view of present troubles? And does the way we accept what is happening prove whether our judgment is on a spiritual basis?
JT It requires great thought as to what is happening. We have to name the thing, and that tests us. Is it an act of God or an act of Satan? An act of Satan may be indirectly an act of God. Satan moved David to number the people; but we are told in another place that God did it, evidently through Satan. So that we have to see what it is, what is at work; if it is a judicial act, we have to wait and see how God will work it out, whether we have learned what He intends us to learn in it; if it is a purely satanic act we have not to be dilatory, but must know how to face it.
ALB Is it important in such circumstances to discern Jesus walking on the water? Though Satan himself is behind the opposing circumstances, Jesus is able to walk upon them, indicating His superiority to them.
JT That is the point here. He is superior to the movements of the enemy in agitating the sea. They are not called upon to walk. It is a question of rowing, as has been suggested, the holding on to the principle governing the position, whatever it be; whether, as in our scripture, it be judaism or, as for us, the assembly, there are principles involved. In holding on to these principles, the strong wind will blow (as it has been in our own circumstances and will continue to be) and [p. 153] the sea will become agitated, but we must row. There is to be energy in spite of the strong wind and the waves. It is a different lesson from Matthew 14, where Peter goes out on the water; they do not go out here, but are willing to take the Lord in, as the passage says, “They were willing therefore to receive him into the ship; and immediately the ship was at the land to which they went”. In taking Him in, what caused fear is now seen clearly. As we receive Him willingly, all becomes clear. In such circumstances there is some issue, and every issue is really in regard of Christ. The position may be cloudy, but we come to see it all clearly as we receive Him willingly.
Ques “It is I”. It is not a title brought forward. What has been before us in the earlier part, was the Lamb of God and the Son of God and the Teacher. Is this not a challenge as to how much we know Him personally?
JT Quite so. It is the Person that should be known. His presentation of Himself, as here, is to persons who know Him. “It is I”, not in any given feature of His Person, but Himself. John himself says later, in another cloudy situation, “It is the Lord”.
M Would it not be an encouragement to each one of us to bring the Lord into our circumstances?
JT Yes, you are willing to let Him in. “It is I”. He says nothing about the sea or the troubles; “It is I”, that is the point! Their difficulty is not the sea; they are frightened because of Him; but He says, “It is I”.
RMB Would Psalm 91 help here? Verse 9 says, “Because thou hast made Jehovah, my refuge, the Most High, thy dwelling-place, there shall no evil befall thee”. Does it help to see Him as in the abode in John 1, and to carry that forward into chapter 6?
JT It does. It is the Person; it is not simply a knowable Person, but a Person that is known: “It is I”, One whom you know. They were willing to take Him [p. 154] into the ship, and that is the end of it: immediately they were at their destination: “the land to which they went”.
WJW How do you view the land to which they were going? What corresponds to it at the present time?
JT The movement was in keeping with what the Lord was doing and He helps them, as coming to them, to attain their end. It is said to be “land” in verse 21, but verse 17 says, “they went over the sea to Capernaum”. Land, as over against the sea, is sure ground.
The passage in Revelation 2 contemplates the walk of Christ, “in the midst of the seven golden lamps” — His judicial walk. It is not said that John sees Him walking, he sees Him in the midst of the lamps. He says, “I saw seven golden lamps, and in the midst of the seven lamps one like the Son of man, clothed with a garment reaching to the feet, and girt about at the breasts with a golden girdle: his head and hair white like white wool, as snow; and his eyes as a flame of fire; and his feet like fine brass, as burning in a furnace; and his voice as the voice of many waters” (chapter 1:13 - 15). That is clearly a judicial garb and attitude. But the Lord says to Ephesus that He is the One that walks in the midst of the seven golden lamps, meaning that He is not only in the midst of them, but He moves about — as a judge would, in a circuit.
HP What is suggested in the seven stars in the right hand?
JT They are said to be the angels of the seven assemblies, representatives of the seven assemblies. Our verse, Revelation 2:1, says that He holds these stars; later on it says that He has them. “These things saith he that has ... the seven stars” (chapter 3:1). He is not said to hold them in addressing Sardis, but in addressing Ephesus He is. The public position is still owned and supported of God, but He is walking, nevertheless, in it in those early days. Paul had already said that all they that were in Asia had turned away from him — from him personally. Something had [p. 155] arisen against Paul in that section, and permeated the whole. Now the Lord is saying, I am walking in the midst of the seven golden lamps, meaning that He will see things as they are in the assemblies. He will have first-hand knowledge of everything. He is visiting them, not in open affection, but in a judicial way. For things have already ceased to be just what they should be: there had been a fall, hence He says, “I have against thee” — the assembly at Ephesus had left its first love.
ALB Does this run parallel with what Peter says, “the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God” (1 Peter 4:17)?
JT It does, exactly.
PL Could the Lord walking in Solomon’s porch, in winter (John 10:22,23), be likened to His walk judicially in winter conditions amidst the seven lamps? His feet like fine brass are seen in Revelation 1.
JT That is a good connection.
SS Ephesus is held responsible as having had the whole counsel of God declared to them.
JT Yes. It had been declared to them by Paul, and evidently they had taken it on, too, but now they had left Paul. In the beginning they loved Paul, but their love for him waned, and not only waned, but they turned away from him. It was a question of Paul. It does not say they turned away from the Lord, but their love for Him had waned. Leaving Paul would reflect their reduced love for Christ. Jehovah said to Samuel, “They have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me” (1 Samuel 8:7). The rejection of a servant like Samuel meant the rejection of Jehovah, and rejection of Paul meant rejection of Christ, in principle, at least, so the Lord is taking the matter up.
SPF They did not cease to love the Lord, but “thou hast left thy first love” (verse 4).
JT I should not say much about their love, if the Lord says that. If you have left your first love there is not much left. You are on the way to give up [p. 156] all. That is why it is judicial; there is something wrong. It is not the mere external question, there is a root there; the enemy had got in. Of course, it does not only refer to Ephesus; what the Lord says bears on the whole period, for He is walking in the midst of the seven golden lamps, right down to our own times, down to Laodicea. It is a very solemn matter that the Lord moves thus even now.
FWB Does that mean that if the Lord is giving light to the assemblies in regard of a matter, it is universal, its bearing being to all the assemblies? He is taking account of it when it is refused in this way.
JT Certainly. He gives us to understand that He is taking notice; He has first-hand knowledge of everything. When He comes in in His judicial attitude He judges; His business is to deal with the assemblies fully.