Revelation 2:1-5

Remembering

1. Why do you think the first works of new believers may sometimes be more commendable than those afterwards? Consider how it is with you now and how it was at the beginning when you were a new believer. Did you do things differently then compared to now, in terms of your manner, motivation,
or spirit of behaving?

2. Remembering is not simply an act of the memory, it is also a conscious exercise of the conscience and affections after self-reflection. What could happen if we did make a regular practice of self-reflection and comparing our present condition with the past? What dangers are there if we just forget or neglect to do it?

1 John 1:5-10

Repenting

3.   “When believers fall they must follow the same way in which they first repented and believed in order to recover.” How do believers continue to need the gospel and to keep coming to Christ by faith and in repentance? What happens if we neglect to do this?

4.  Christ warned the Ephesian Christians that if they didn’t follow His instruction, the church at Ephesus would cease to be a church of Christ. In what ways can a church cease to be a church? How can our unfaithfulness help create the situation that leads to this? Why should the possibility of this be an alarming thought that spurs us into repentance?

Romans 12:3-13

Doing the first works

5.  Doing the first works means that believers should recover what they had once been doing in worship to God and in duties to one another. What practical steps can you put in place to help you “do the first works” towards God and others?

6. It’s not enough just to start doing something again that we have neglected. What importance does Christ place on our motives as well as our actions? Why does it matter that these first works should be done with a spirit of grace rather than with a spirit of self-righteousness?