Ephesus

Ephesus was one of the great cities of the ancient world, on the western coast of Asia Minor (modern Turkey) near the mouth of the Cayster River, and the leading city of the Roman province of Asia. A bustling commercial and religious centre of perhaps a quarter-million people, it was famed for the Temple of Artemis (Diana), one of the Seven Wonders of the ancient world, and for the magic arts associated with it. Its harbour made it a hub of Mediterranean trade and a strategic gateway for the gospel into Asia.

Paul’s ministry made Ephesus a centre of early Christianity. After a brief first visit, leaving Priscilla and Aquila there (Acts 18:19-21), he returned on his third journey for about three years — his longest sustained ministry in any city. He taught daily in the hall of Tyrannus so that “all the residents of Asia heard the word of the Lord” (Acts 19:9-10), and extraordinary miracles accompanied him; many who practiced magic burned their costly books publicly (Acts 19:18-20). His preaching against idols so threatened the trade in silver shrines that the silversmith Demetrius incited a riot, the crowd chanting for hours, “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!” (Acts 19:23-34).

On his way to Jerusalem Paul summoned the Ephesian elders to Miletus and gave them a moving charge to “care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood,” warning of “fierce wolves” to come (Acts 20:28-31). He later addressed to the church his Epistle to the Ephesians, one of the richest expositions of God’s eternal purpose in Christ and the unity of the church (Ephesians 1:3-10), and stationed Timothy there to guard sound doctrine (1 Timothy 1:3).

Ephesus became the base of the apostle John’s later ministry, and tradition links the city with his Gospel and epistles. The risen Christ addressed the first of the seven letters of Revelation to the Ephesian church, commending its labour and its testing of false apostles, yet issuing the solemn rebuke, “you have abandoned the love you had at first,” and the call to repent (Revelation 2:1-5). Ephesus thus stands as a model of vigorous gospel ministry and a lasting warning that orthodoxy without first love grows cold.