THE THREE THINGS OUR DEEDS, OUR SPIRITUAL LEVEL, AND OUR LOVE FOR GOD ARE INTERRELATED.
‘I know your deeds and your labor and perseverance, and that you cannot tolerate evil people, and you have put those who call themselves apostles to the test, and they are not, and you found them to be false; 3 and you have perseverance and have endured on account of My name, and have not become weary. 4 But I have this against you, that you have left your first love. 5 Therefore, remember from where you have fallen, and repent, and do the deeds you did at first; or else I am coming to you and I will remove your lampstand from its place—unless you repent. Revelation 2:2-5 [NASB]
We all have one spiritual state or level. Our spiritual level should be gradually increasing to see the great things of God. It is because we have to change into the likeness of Christ. Does that not mean that our spiritual condition has to go into perfection? Our spiritual level can be measured by the things/deeds we do. The deeds/actions we take indicate our spiritual level. It is through the action we show that how much we love God. The three things our deeds, our spiritual level, and our love for God are interrelated. Consider the Word of God in this regard: But I have this against you, that you have left your first love. 5 Therefore, remember from where you have fallen, and repent, and do the deeds you did at first;… Revelation 2:4-5 [NASB]. We know that above passage was written by God for the church in Ephesus. However, the gist of that passage also applies to our personal lives. Remember our early days when we accepted Christ as Savior. How great was the interest we showed? Are our devotional actions at the beginning higher than the present ones? Or are our present devotional practices worse than they were then? We must note this. Our acts of devotion include: reading the Bible, praying, participating in church activities, listening to the Word, and being in greater fellowship with God’s people, worshiping Him, having the mindset to go to church, and so on. Are we so interested now? It should be noted that our interest in these has decreased which means our level of devotion has decreased. Does the lowering of our spiritual level mean that our first love for Him has diminished? If your answer is yes, then you need to think seriously about it.
No one wants to be degraded from a spiritual state. In fact, in many cases, we unknowingly slip out of the spiritual state. Degradation from the spiritual level is not a one-time process. It happens slowly and gradually. But we do not recognize it. The damage is done before we even notice it. Read this passage in this context: Now King Solomon loved many foreign women along with the daughter of Pharaoh: Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sidonian, and Hittite women, 2 from the nations of which the Lord had said to the sons of Israel, “You shall not associate with them, nor shall they associate with you; they will certainly turn your heart away to follow their gods.” Solomon clung to these in love. 3 He had seven hundred wives, who were princesses, and three hundred concubines; and his wives turned his heart away. 4 For when Solomon was old, his wives turned his heart away to follow other gods; and his heart was not wholly devoted to the Lord his God, as the heart of his father David had been. 5 For Solomon became a follower of Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, and of Milcom the abhorrent idol of the Ammonites. 6 So Solomon did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, and did not follow the Lord fully, as his father David had done. 7 Then Solomon built a high place for Chemosh, the abhorrent idol of Moab, on the mountain that is east of Jerusalem, and for Molech, the abhorrent idol of the sons of Ammon. 8 He also did the same for all his foreign wives, who burned incense and sacrificed to their gods. 1 Kings 11: 1-8 [NASB]
In the beginning Solomon was very pious. He obeyed the Lord God very much. God freely blessed him with wisdom and riches. Solomon knew God’s laws. God has said that if you associate with people who do not know God, they will distance you from the living God. But, we see Solomon neglecting this. Among his wives were many who did not know God. It may not make sense to him when he marries one after the other. However, in the end, the Word of God says that they turned him to their gods. For Solomon became a follower of Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, and of Milcom the abhorrent idol of the Ammonites. 1 Kings 11: 5 [NASB]. Why did it happen? God’s abandonment of Solomon did not happen all at once. We can see that it happened gradually. Do you leave the living God if someone tells you to follow other gods? You say that you can’t do it right away. Would not Solomon be like us? Depending on this, we can observe a gradual decline from the spiritual state. This we do not notice. Even if we observe, we do not take it so seriously.
Such mischief happens without us realizing it. So we need people who can tell us our spiritual state. Or we have to test ourselves every day. As we examine in the passage quoted earlier, God tells how the Ephesian church has its spiritual level. God said that the church had patience, endured hardships, did not tolerate the wicked, and found the false apostles. But God also said that the first love for God in the Church is gone. Our situation is the same. We think our devotion is so good considering the few good deeds we have. We need people to tell us about our spiritual condition. Those who warned Solomon when he was going to marry foreign women would not appear. Wouldn’t his situation have been like this if he had received such warnings? We can know our spiritual levels, at least through them, if we continue to associate with Church, God’s servants, brothers, or sisters who are devoted to Christ. If we want to know our spiritual levels for ourselves, it is the devotional actions we are doing that are indicative of us.