I.　We need to take the lead to be patterns as elders and responsible ones:

A.　The Lord Jesus was a pattern of enjoying the Father as the richest grace and the sweetest love to live because of the Father for the Father's glory—John6:57; Isa. 7:14-15; John 5:19; 4:34; 17:4; 14:10, 24; 5:30; 7:18; Luke 22:27; Matt.20:26-28.

B.　The Lord Jesus charged us to learn from Him, taking Him as our pattern in being constrained by the Father's will and abounding in the work of carrying out the Father's will—11:28-30; cf. Eph. 4:20-21; 1 Cor. 15:58.

C.　Paul was a pattern to the believers of living Christ for His magnification by the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ for the Body of Christ—1 Tim. 1:16; Phil. 1:19-21a.

D.　Paul charged Timothy to be a pattern to the believers in word, in conduct, in love, in faith, and in purity—1 Tim. 4:12.

E.　Paul said that we should be imitators of God, as beloved children—Eph. 5:1; Matt. 5:48.

F.　Paul said that we should be imitators of him, as he was of Christ—1 Cor. 11:1;4:16; 1 Thes. 1:5-6; 2 Thes. 3:9; Phil. 3:17.

G.　The Thessalonians became a pattern to other believers and became imitators of the churches of God—1 Thes. 1:7; 2:14.

H.　Peter said that Christ left Himself as a model so that we may follow in His steps to become His reproduction—1 Pet. 2:21.

I.　John saidthat "even as He is, so also are we in this world"; this refers to Christ who lived in this world a life of God as love and who is now our life so that we may live the same life of love in this world and be the same as He is—1 John 4:17; cf. 3:3, 7.

II.　To love the Lord with the first love, the best love, is to give the Lord the preeminence, the first place, in all things, being constrained by His love to regard and take Him as everything in our life—Rev. 2:4; Col. 1:18b;2 Cor. 5:14-15; Mark 12:30; Psa. 73:25-26; 80:17-19:

A.　The beginning of love in everyone toward the Lord is a vision of His person; the leaving of the first love toward the Lord is the source of and main reason for the failure of the church throughout the ages; nothing but love can keep us in a proper relationship with the Lord—Phil. 3:8; Matt. 26:6-13; Eph. 3:16-19;6:24; Rev. 2:4-5; cf. 3:20.

B.　To love the Lord with the first love, to give Him the first place in all things, isto repent and do the first works; the first works are works that issue from the first love—2:5; 1 Thes. 1:3; 2 Cor. 4:5:

1.　In Song of Songs the Lord's banner over us is love, which means that love is our motto and that everything we do is based on our love for the Lord; the seeker in Song of Songs is also "sick with love," meaning that she is joyous in the Lord as love, to the point of exhaustion—2:4-5.

2.　God's love in Christ is a banner spreading over us, displaying, exhibiting, that we who are loved by God are always more than conquerors—Rom.8:31-39.

3.　We have a love that conquers everything if we live in His love.

4.　If we have left our first love toward the Lord and do not repent and do the first works, we will lose the testimony of the Lord, and the lampstand will be removed from us.

C.　To love the Lord with the first love, to give Him the first place in all things, is to have a personal, affectionate, private, and spiritual relationship with the Lord—S. S. 1:1-4.

D.　To love the Lord with the first love, to give Him the first place in all things, is to live a day-by-day life of morning revival so that we may satisfy Christ by being His young men like the dew from the womb of the dawn (Psa. 110:3), so that we may have the tongue of an instructed one to know how to sustain the weary with a word (Isa. 50:4-5), andso that we may fellowship with God, seeking God's will and pleasure for His gospel service (Mark 1:35).

E.　To love the Lord with the first love, to give Him the first place in all things, is to live a day-by-day life of consecration, becoming today's Nazarites, who are fully separated unto God and saturated with God in order to bless the children of God by dispensing God in His Divine Trinity into them—Psa. 110:3; Num.6:1-9, 22-27.

F.　To love the Lord with the first love, to give Him the first place in all things, is to live a life of prayer—1 Sam. 12:23; Matt. 6:6; 14:22-23; Dan. 6:10; 2:17-18;1 Tim. 2:1; 2 Tim. 1:3; 1 Thes. 5:17.

G.　To love the Lord with the first love, to give Him the first place in all things, is to love, treasure, and muse on God's word—Psa. 119:11, 14-15, 23, 48, 72, 78, 97,99, 111, 113, 119, 127, 140, 147-148, 159, 162-163, 165, 167.

H.　To love the Lord with the first love, to give Him the first place in all things, is to be governed by the direct, firsthand presence of the Lord—Exo. 33:11, 14;13:21-22; 2 Cor. 2:10.

I.　To love the Lord with the first love, to give Him the first place in all things, is to love the church in the church-loving Christ—Eph. 5:25; 2 Cor. 12:15; 1 Cor.16:24.

J.　To love the Lord with the first love, to give Him the first place in all things, is to love the ministry that builds up the church—2 Cor. 8:5; 1 John 1:3; Eph. 4:11-12.

K.　To love the Lord with the first love, to give Him the first place in all things, is to live and walk by the Spirit, to serve by the Spirit, and to minister the Spirit—Gal. 5:25; Phil. 3:3; 2 Cor. 3:6; Zech. 4:6; Judg. 9:9; cf. 1 Sam. 2:30b.

L.　To love the Lord with the first love, to give Him the first place in all things, is to take Him as the fountain of living waters; God's intention in His economyis to be the fountain, the source, of living waters to dispense Himself into His chosen people for their satisfaction and enjoyment to produce the church, God's counterpart, as God's increase, God's enlargement, to be God's fullness for His expression—Jer. 2:13; John 4:14b.

M.　To love the Lord with the first love, to give Him the first place in all things, is to eat Him as the tree of life; eating Christ as the tree of life, that is, enjoying Christ as our life supply, should be the primary matter in the church life—Rev. 2:7.

N.　To love the Lord with the first love, to give Him the first place in all things, is to continually come to Him to contact Him, take Him, receive Him, taste Him, and enjoy Him—Isa. 57:20, footnote 1.

O.　To love the Lord with the first love, to give Him the first place in all things, is to take Him as our centrality—our holding center-and our universality—our everything; we need to take Him as the center, content, and circumference of our personal universe—Col. 1:17b, 18b.

P.　To love the Lord with the first love, to give Him the first place in all things, is to aspire and determine to gain the honor of pleasing Him in all things—2 Cor.5:9; Col. 1:10; Heb. 11:5-6.

Q.　To love the Lord with the first love, to give Him the first place in all things, is to have a clear sky like awesome crystal with God's sapphire throne above it; this means that there is nothing between us and the Lord and that we are filled with the heavenly atmosphere, condition, andsituation of His ruling presence-allowing Him to rule and reign within us—Ezek. 1:22, 26.

R.　To love the Lord with the first love, to give Him the first place in all things, is to hold Him as the Head, staying intimately connected to Him and enthroning Him as the ruler and decider of everything in our life—Col. 2:19.

S.　To love the Lord with the first love, to give Him the first place in all things, is to ask for the counsel of Jehovah in every detail of our Christian life and work—Josh. 9:14; Phil. 4:6-7.

T.　To love the Lord with the first love, to give Him the first place in all things, is to give the flow of life, the flow of the Lord Jesus within us, the preeminence in all that we are and do; then He is the shining One, the redeeming One, the reigning One, the flowing One, and the supplying One within us—Ezek. 47:1; Rev. 22:1-2.

U.　To love the Lord with the first love, to give Him the first place in all things, is to be dominated, governed, directed, led, and moved by our mingled spirit, caring for the rest in our spirit by being His captives and by praying, "Lord, make me Your captive. Never let me win. Defeat me all the time"—2 Cor. 2:13-14.

V.　To love the Lord with the first love, to give Him the first place in all things, is to enthrone Him with our praises; praise is the highest work carried out by God's children—Psa. 22:3; 119:164; 34:1.