Write this to Ephesus, to the Angel of the church. The One with Seven Stars in his right-fist grip, striding through the golden seven-lights' circle, speaks: "I see what you've done, your hard, hard work, your refusal to quit. I know you can't stomach evil, that you weed out apostolic pretenders. I know your persistence, your courage in my cause, that you never wear out. But you walked away from your first love--why? What's going on with you anyway? Do you have any idea how far you've fallen? A Lucifer fall! Turn back! Recover your dear early love. No time to waste, for I'm well on my way to removing your light from the golden circle." - Revelation 2:1-5

The Ephesians did everything right: hard, hard work; refusal to quit; they couldn't stomach evil; they were courageous in the cause for the Kingdom;, and they were persistent to the core. They were, in a real way, the "perfect Christians." But Christ found something wrong with them, and this "something" was so huge that it turned all their good deeds black as night and caused Christ to weep, "Do you have any idea how far you've fallen? A Lucifer fall!" While they were doing all the duty right, they had lost their original passion. Their passion for Jesus and Jesus alone had faded away and was replaced with something else, something totally unworthy. This grave fall drives Jesus to lament, "You'd better fix it now, or I'm gonna remove you from the light of the golden circle." When duty becomes more important than Jesus, we've abandoned the gospel. I believe that God would rather have five people who are passionate about Him but are always screwing up rather than 500 who do everything right but are without passion, being whitewashed tombs.

This is still a danger today. It's very easy to fall more in love with our Bibles than Jesus. It's easy to fall more in love with our prayers than Jesus. It's easy to fall more in love with our worship music than Jesus. It's easy to fall more in love with our families than Jesus, our careers than Jesus, our own lives than Jesus. It's easy to fall more in love with theology than Jesus. It's easy to fall more in love with Christianity than we are in love with Jesus. And all of these falls, even if they seem holy in a way--such as falling more for Christianity than Jesus--are seen in God's eyes as "Lucifer falls."