In the midst of spiritual growth and service, believers are cautioned not to forget their initial devotion to God. As seen in Revelation 2:4-5, the early passion and commitment can wane, and believers are urged to recall and rekindle their first love. The apostle John emphasizes the profound nature of God's love in 1 John 4, noting that love originates from God and is exemplified in His sacrifice for humanity. According to 1 John 4:19, believers love because God first loved them, highlighting the fundamental importance of abiding in this love.
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But I have this against you: You have abandoned your first love. Therefore, keep in mind how far you have fallen. Repent and perform the deeds you did at first. But if you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place.
There is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear, because fear involves punishment. The one who fears has not been perfected in love.
And love consists in this: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as the atoning sacrifice for our sins.
For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that everyone who believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.
And we have come to know and believe the love that God has for us. God is love; whoever abides in love abides in God, and God in him.
If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a ringing gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have absolute faith so as to move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and exult in the surrender of my body, but have not love, I gain nothing. Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no account of wrongs. Love takes no pleasure in evil, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be restrained; where there is knowledge, it will be dismissed. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial passes away. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I set aside childish ways. Now we see but a dim reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. And now these three remain: faith, hope, and love; but the greatest of these is love.