Ephesus is the first to be addressed. Jesus commends them for their "patient endurance" (Rev. 2:2). These are hard times, and he commends them for their magnificent stand against evil. But this is followed by a most devastating rebuke: "But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. Remember then from what you have fallen" (2:4-5). A congregation without love? This doesn't sound like an ideal congregation.
No, the Ephesian church is not the ideal church.
