One outstanding attribute from Herbert W. Armstrong’s life was the love he had for his Christian calling. From the moment God opened his mind to see spiritual truth, Mr. Armstrong was in love with the way of life revealed in the Bible.

“… I actually began to realize that I was finding joy beyond words to describe in this total defeat,” he wrote in his autobiography. “I had actually found joy in the study of the Bible—in the discovery of new truths, heretofore hidden from my consciousness. … Somehow I began to realize a new fellowship and friendship had come into my life. I began to be conscious of a contact and fellowship with Christ, and with God the Father. When I read and studied the Bible, God was talking to me, and now I loved to listen! I began to pray, and knew that in prayer I was talking with God. I was not yet very well acquainted with God. But one gets to be better acquainted with another by constant contact and continuous conversation.”

God called Mr. Armstrong in 1926 to raise up the sixth era of His Church, Philadelphia. The fifth era, Sardis, was dying. Although the Armstrongs enjoyed fellowship with the Sardis members, the overall condition of the Church troubled Mr. Armstrong. No gospel message was being delivered, revelation was rejected, and no work was being accomplished.

“Those brethren I came among were humble, sincere, strict Sabbath keepers, but as a whole, spiritually dead—especially their ministers,” Mr. Armstrong wrote in a Nov. 19, 1976, co-worker letter.

That is an astonishing assessment of the Sardis condition. And it’s a strong warning: You can be humble, sincere, and a strict Sabbath keeper—but spiritually dead!

“Soon we learned of the distinction, in the second and third chapters of Revelation. God revealed to me, plainly, in 1926–27, that in these two chapters Christ was speaking of the various conditions in His Church all through this age up until His return as King of kings in His Kingdom” (ibid).

Jesus Christ evaluates each of the seven Church eras in those two chapters. The faults evident in one era pertain in principle to all. We can take important warnings and instruction from all seven eras that will help us overcome our faults and achieve sublime spiritual success.

The love Mr. Armstrong had for his calling is actually quite rare. He kept that love burning brightly throughout his Christian journey. Conversely, a common fault throughout Church history is losing the first love. For many, the flame of their first love dwindles or dies.

Notice the evaluation of the first era, Ephesus. After several verses of praise, Christ says, “Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love” (Revelation 2:4).

“The first-century Church could not have had a better beginning,” writes Gerald Flurry in The True History of God’s True Church. “Jesus Christ and the men who knew Him personally provided the Church with everything it needed in order to flourish. But the Church developed a fatal flaw. …

“The biggest problem in this era was that the people of God had lost their first love. That is a common problem among God’s people even to this day. It applies to every one of us. Long-time members must ask themselves: Do I really still have that first love—and more—for God’s truth, the living Word of God? Am I still in that first-love spirit, yearning for more and more of God’s truth and God’s understanding, hungering for righteousness? The people in the Ephesus era lost that. They began to think, Yeah, I’ve heard that before. I already get that. But they didn’t really get it at all.

“Remember, this is a message for all eras of the Church. We all can lose our first love. If we are not careful, we will lose it! In this end time, 95 percent of God’s people—and 99 percent of the ministers—definitely lost that first love! What a searing message! What a colossal warning!”

Mr. Armstrong saw this too in his ministry. He worked hard to keep the first love alive in God’s people. During the sixth era, he told the Church in the same letter, “[T]he predominating condition in [the Ephesus] era was that they had lost their first love. But we in this Philadelphia era have too much of that fault, also. When first truly converted, it is like a romance, but we too soon cool down in our love for Christ and His Work.”

Mr. Armstrong’s life proves we can keep our first love alive. But when the Philadelphia era ended with his death, God actually sent strong delusion to test people’s love for the truth (2 Thessalonians 2:10-12). Because the love of so many had cooled, a great falling away ensued.

Consider how brightly the flame of your love is burning today. How can we avoid losing our first love? How can we make it stronger? And if we have strayed, how do we rekindle it?

Christ gives us the formula: “Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent” (Revelation 2:5).

Let’s examine this three-part formula to keep our first love alive.

Step 1: ‘Remember from where you are fallen’

Remember what it was like when your eyes were first opened to the truth. Remember your excitement in that state of first love. Remember how good it was to be so close to God, to be fired up spiritually. If you have slipped from that state to any degree, be honest. Acknowledge that you have gotten weaker spiritually; admit you have let that love dwindle.

God remembers that first love! If it’s not there as it once was, He agonizes over that separation.

Don’t wait for a massive slip-up or a long period of neglect before you stop, acknowledge the shortfall, and get back to God. Be sensitive to the moments when you fall back spiritually. Don’t let one bad day bleed into the next. Respond quickly and stir up the embers of love.

Remembering is where to start.

On one occasion—deep in family trials, prayers going unanswered—Mr. Armstrong beseeched God in a siege of fasting and prayer. Doing so, he realized that he had drifted spiritually. “By that time, I knew why my prayers had not been answered,” he wrote. “The stress of trying to earn a living and such cares had taken my time, and I had not been as close to God as I had previously been after my conversion. I guess the ‘first love’—or the ‘romance’ of conversion—had worn off, and my mind had been taken up with material cares. I had no longer been close enough to God. But … this fasting and prayer and soul-searching had brought me back into closeness with God” (Good News, January 1980).

He remembered having been much closer to God. Realizing his fault, he did something about it. He changed. He repented.

Step 2: ‘Repent’

“Mrs. Armstrong was remarking to me that she was so happy every single one baptized so far has been really and thoroughly repentant—wholly surrendered to God, just like a little child,” wrote Mr. Armstrong in a co-worker bulletin during a 1946 baptismal tour. “They have had that spirit of the ‘first love,’ and it has been a precious thing for us to see” (Aug. 13, 1946).

Igniting the initial first-love flame requires repentance. That is also needed to rekindle your first love if it has cooled.

But what causes our first love to cool?

“We have known so many who came at first to Christ in that meek spirit—so changed from their former selves—and yet who later permitted worldly interest or associates, self-desires or temptations of the flesh to come in and choke off that sweet and lovely spirit with which God had filled them at the first” (ibid).

If that first love has cooled, we definitely need to repent of losing our first love. But think about the term first love in terms of the First Commandment. If the flames of our first love are barely flickering, then something else is smothering them. Other things have come between us and God. Those are things we need to repent of and change in our lives. Then we need to do something else.

Step 3: ‘Do the first works’

Flames flicker. Sometimes they glow brighter, sometimes dimmer. We’ve all had our highs and lows. This step shows us how to fan the flame and keep it burning.

“Remember, dear friends, you can retain that yielded, meek spirit and that first love only if you grow daily spiritually by being fed daily on spiritual food—prayerful study of God’s Word and private prayer and communion with God—that is, getting closer to God and separating yourself from companionship and fellowship with the world. That is the basic essential to your ultimate salvation, for he that endureth unto the end shall be saved, and one can endure in the spiritual life no other way” (ibid).

Think of this like the loving companionship between a husband and wife. If that relationship gets strained, what should they do? The first works. If they date, communicate, reciprocate and express outflowing love like they did at the beginning of their relationship, they will rekindle their love.

Mr. Armstrong’s life, and the spiritual endurance of so many faithful brethren, proves we can keep our first love. “I found the greatest and most absorbing joy of my life in continuing to dig out those gold nuggets of truth from God’s word,” Mr. Armstrong wrote in his final book, Mystery of the Ages. He also wrote in that book that his “study of God’s revelation of truth … never ceased.”

Remember, this love is the outflowing love of God. The word love in Revelation 2:4 in Greek is agape—the love of God. The word for works in verse 5 is ergon—meaning deed, labor, act.

Remember: God called us today for a purpose: to do His Work. Again, Mr. Armstrong wrote, “When first truly converted, it is like a romance, but we too soon cool down in our love for Christ and His Work” (co-worker letter, op cit).

Those members in Sardis were in God’s Church, but they weren’t doing the Work. “Still there were some among them who had that first love of the truth,” wrote Mr. Armstrong. “But they did not proclaim Christ’s gospel of the Kingdom of God, nor even understand what it was” (ibid).

This is what happened during the Ephesus era and, in more recent times, the seventh Church era, Laodicea. “Around a.d. 100, the Ephesus era came to a sad ending. The Church had lost its first love (Revelation 2:4),” Mr. Flurry writes. “Facing intense persecution, the people were no longer excited about preaching the gospel around the world. They grew ‘weary in well doing.’

“Though Mr. Armstrong preached God’s gospel around the world in this end time, the church he founded also lost its first love (Matthew 24:12). The people stopped loving God and His Work above their own lives. Like the Ephesian church, they grew ‘weary in well doing.’ The Philadelphia era became the Laodicean, or lukewarm, era (Revelation 3:7-21)” (op cit).

There is a strong connection between proclaiming the gospel, or doing God’s Work, and keeping the first love alive! It takes love to do the Work, and by doing the Work, we grow in love!

“[I]f you have all this truth and you don’t distribute it, you don’t declare it—then where does that leave you?” Mr. Flurry asked in a 2001 sermon. “Well, that leaves you with losing your first love. What good does it do if God gives us all this revelation and we don’t distribute it or declare it to the world?”

We have to love the truth—and we also have to love sharing it.

Pray for others as they experience the initial glow of their first love. It starts small and is easily extinguished in this dark world. “Don’t forget, or neglect, brethren—pray every day for this Work over here in general as a whole, and for this new flock in particular,” Mr. Armstrong wrote in a 1956 letter. “They are in that ‘first love.’ Their faces show how happy they have been to receive this truth, new to them. There is joy written all over their faces, and it comes from their hearts. But remember the parable of the sower and the seed—how many endured but a little while. These people need your prayers! They will now meet persecution and real temptation for the first time” (June 16, 1956).

There is a beautiful simplicity to the Revelation 2:5 formula: “Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works ….” Applying these admonitions will ensure the flame of our first love will shine brightly forever.