Struggling to Develop a Strong Love for God After Initial Conversion
The struggle to sustain fervent love for God after conversion appears throughout Scripture and Christian tradition as a recognized spiritual reality. Christ's rebuke to the Ephesian church captures this precisely: "Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love" [3]. The church at Ephesus maintained doctrinal orthodoxy and endured persecution, yet their original ardor had cooled—they "did not retain that strong and ardent affection for God and sacred things which they had when first brought to the knowledge of the truth" [5].
This pattern reflects a deeper truth about human nature after the fall. The Psalmist observed Israel's chronic instability: "For their heart was not steadfast toward Him, Nor were they faithful in His covenant" [2]. Christ himself diagnosed the religious leaders of his day: "I know you, that you do not have the love of God within you" [1]. The problem is not merely behavioral but dispositional—a matter of the heart's orientation.
The Nature of Conversion and Growth
Reformed theology emphasizes that conversion involves both an initial act of God and an ongoing process. Calvin defines repentance as "a real conversion of our life unto God, proceeding from sincere and serious fear of God; and consisting in the mortification of our flesh and the old man, and the quickening of the Spirit" [6]. This mortification and quickening is not instantaneous but progressive. Believers are "renewed by that regeneration into the righteousness of God from which we had fallen" [10], a renewal that Scripture describes as moving "from glory to glory" [10].
The struggle itself does not indicate false conversion. Augustine notes that believers "cling to Christ by love, not by fear of punishment" [9], yet this clinging requires cultivation. The issue at Ephesus was not that love had vanished entirely but that it had diminished from its initial intensity. Correct theology and faithful action become "just an empty shell of Christian life if dynamic love is absent" [7].
Hodge observes that conversion involves "the commencement of a series of holy acts" [4], not a single completed transformation. The Spirit's work in regeneration produces love, but this love must be exercised and deepened through ongoing communion with God [8]. The struggle to love God more deeply is thus not evidence of spiritual failure but the normal terrain of sanctification.
Sources
- John “John 5:42 (BSB) — but I know you, that you do not have the love of God within you.”
- Psalms “Psalms 78:37 (NASB) — For their heart was not steadfast toward Him, Nor were they faithful in His covenant.”
- King James Version “[KJV] Revelation 2:4 — Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love.”
- CCEL (Reformed (Old Princeton)) “Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology, Vol. 3, section 5: the commencement of a series of holy acts. In his discourse on Regeneration, the first proposition which he undertakes to establish is, “that the Spirit of God, in regeneration, produces nothing but love.” This is maintained in opposition to those who say that the Spirit produces a new nature, principle, disposition, or taste. “Those in the state of nature,” he says, “stand in no need of having any new power, or faculty, or principle of action produced in them, in order to their becoming holy. They are just as capable of loving as of hatin”
- Revelation (Methodist/Wesleyan) “Adam Clarke on Revelation 2:4: Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee - The clause should be read, according to the Greek, thus: But I have against thee that thou hast left thy first love. They did not retain that strong and ardent affection for God and sacred things which they had when first brought to the knowledge of the truth, and justified by faith in Christ.”
- CCEL (Reformed) “John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, section 58: both derivations, for it is substantially this, that withdrawing from ourselves we turn to God, and laying aside the old, put on a new mind. Wherefore, it seems to me, that repentance may be not inappropriately defined thus: A real conversion of our life unto God, proceeding from sincere and serious fear of God; and consisting in the mortification of our flesh and the old man, and the quickening of the Spirit. In this sense are to be understood all those addresses in which the prophets first, and the apostles afterwards, exhorted t”
- Revelation (Protestant academic) “Tyndale House on Revelation 2:4: 2:4 You don’t love me or each other as you did at first: When the church was first established, their love for Christ and for each other had been strong. Struggles with false teachers and persecution had caused that original love to grow cold. Correct theology, action, and even suffering (2:2-3) are just an empty shell of Christian life if dynamic love is absent (1 Cor 13).”
- CCEL (Reformed (Old Princeton)) “Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology, Vol. 2, section 50: believers make the channel of their communion with God, and the medium through which they express their most intimate religious convictions, that we must look for the universal faith. From the faith of God’s people no man can separate himself without forfeiting the communion of saints, and placing himself outside of the pale of true believers. If these things be admitted we must admit the doctrine of original sin. That doctrine has indeed been variously explained, and in many cases explained away by theologians and by councils, but it is ”
- Schaff ANF/NPNF (Patristic) “NPNF1 Vol 1: Augustine — Confessions, Letters — TO ANASTASIUS, MY HOLY AND BELOVED LORD AND BROTHER, AUGUSTIN SENDS GREETING IN THE LORD. (part 5): the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."2 Observe how he does not say simply, "Who shall separate us from Christ?" but, indicating that by which we cling to Christ, he says, "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ ?" We cling to Christ, then, by love, not by fear of punishment. Again, after having enumerated those things which seem to be sufficiently fierce, but have not sufficient force to effect a separation, he has, in the con”
- CCEL (Reformed) “John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, section 58: the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord.” Again, “Be renewed in the spirit of your minds” and “put ye on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.” Again, “Put ye on 516 the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him.” 310 310 2 Cor. 3:18 ; Eph. 4:23, 24 ; Col. 3:10 ; 2 Cor. 4:16 . Accordingly through the blessing of Christ we are renewed by that regeneration into the righteousness of God from which we had falle”