The church of Ephesus can be found in Revelation 2:1-7 NIV:
“To the angel of the church in Ephesus write:
These are the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand and walks among the seven golden lampstands. I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked people, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false. You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary.
Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken the love you had at first. Consider how far you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place. But you have this in your favor: You hate the practices of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.
Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.
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This one strikes home a bit...Ephesus seemed pretty intense. They didn't tolerate wickedness, found that people were false, etc. Sounds like they've been through their own rodeo's. They sound like they didn't put up with false teaching whatsoever.
Then, it becomes sad. Ephesus had forsaken the love they had first - the love for Christ.
They did not put up with the Nicolaitans it mentions. Who were the Nicolaitans?
From the definition I have found, it mentions that it was possible they followed Balaam. They indulged in sexual immorality and greed. (more on this definition in the references).
While Ephesus had it's strong points, the weak points were addressed, too. These weaker points required repentance. It seems that God would've removed the place he once held them as, removed their authority, or passed along the will He needed to be done to another group as we see "remove your lamp stand from its place."
Instead of a bunch of questions for further study listed here - what is your impression when you read about the church of Ephesus? What comes to mind? biggrin
References:
https://www.biblestudytools.com/dictionary/nicolaitans/
