In this challenging exposition of Revelation 2:2-6 Alexander Strauch examines the alarming rebuke Jesus Christ delivers to his own church. The first part of the book presses the point that an individual or a congregation can teach sound doctrine, be faithful to the gospel, be morally upright and genuinely hard-working, and yet be lacking the one thing without which Christ threatens to remove them altogether.

The second part turns to the remedy Christ himself names: remember, repent and do the first works. Strauch treats love not as a feeling to be summoned but as a set of practices to be resumed, and he is specific about what that means in a congregation's ordinary life. A short, uncomfortable and much-needed book, particularly for churches that pride themselves on doctrinal precision. Published by Lewis & Roth.