Revelation 2:5

repent Neither this word, nor the cognate subst. repentance, is used in St John's Gospel or Epistles.

do the first works He does not say, "Love with the first love," though the works were only valuable as proceeding from love: for to love, though depending on the state of the will, is not a directly voluntary act. But He says "do the first works," for that is in thy power. Do again what love made thee do, that thou mayest learn to love again. The paradox is as true of spiritual graces as of natural virtues (Arist. Eth. Nic. II. Rev 4:1-2) that the good habitual character is only gained by good acts, while really good acts are only possible as the product of the good character.

I will come Literally, I am coming the verb having, from its own nature, the sense of future time: cf. Revelation 1:4 and note.

remove thy candlestick out of his place i.e. make thee cease to be a Church. It seems scarcely relevant to point to the destruction of the city by the Turks, and its present desolation, as a fulfilment of this threat. We may presume that the Church of Ephesus didrepent, as it was famous and prosperous, and fertile in Saints, for centuries. It is likely enough that the Turkish conquest was God's judgement on the sins of the Eastern Empire and its Churches: but we cannot conclude that the Church of Ephesus was in the 14th century more corrupt than e.g. that of Smyrna, because it was more entirely exterminated.