But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first.
(Revelation 2:4 ESV)
Knowing God and being a Christian involves loving the Lord Jesus Christ. Again in John chapter 14 verse 21 says, Jesus is speaking again here, “He who has My commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves Me and he who loves Me shall be loved by My Father and I will love him and will disclose Myself to him.” There the whole of the Christian relationship is summed up, God loves us, we love God and therefore we keep His commandments. Verse 23 similarly says, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My Word and My Father will love him and we will come to Him and make our abode with Him.” If we were to turn that verse around and read it backwards, when God takes up His abode with us He loves us and we keep His Word because we love Him.
Jesus wanting to identify the spiritual condition of Peter in John 21 asked him three times the same question…Peter, do you…what?…love Me? Therein is the substance of spiritual identity manifest. Those who are Christians love the Lord Jesus Christ. In fact, in 1 Corinthians chapter 16 and verse 22 it says, “If anyone does not love the Lord, let him be accursed.” People who love Christ are the saved and the blessed. People who do not love Christ are the accursed, the damned. Peter reminds us in 1 Peter 1:8 that we love Him even though we’ve never seen Him.
So that love for the Lord Jesus Christ is present in all Christians. But it is subject to fluctuation as to intensity. All Christians love the Lord Jesus Christ. All Christians do not love the Lord Jesus Christ with all their heart, soul, mind and strength as they ought to. There is unquestionably a fluctuation potential in that love relationship. And no better illustration of the seriousness of a waning intensity of love than this letter to the church at Ephesus.
Knowing God through His Word ... Day by Day 
What a great post–thank you!
howficklemyheart.wordpress.com
new post: Disqualified from God’s Love?