So what was the problem in Ephesus? It was the lack of the love the Ephesian Christians had had at first. Somewhere between the vital, transforming social witness described in Acts and Jesus’ word to the church in John’s vision, the Ephesian church had become a community of cold orthodoxy—maintaining its “faithfulness” in isolation from the world, not allowing the world to subvert it, but having no transforming impact on the world around. Corporate spirituality without social spirituality results in the death of corporate (and individual) spirituality.
