Revelation 2:4

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4 Nevertheless [alla] I have [echo] somewhat against [kata] thee, [sou] because [hoti] thou hast left [aphiemi] thy [sou] first [protos] love. [agape]    KJV-Interlinear

4 'But I have this against you, that you have left your first love.    NASB

Although, through the letters of Paul we learned of the initial love that the Ephesians originally demonstrated, they have waned in their love, and their spiritual lives had changed from one of obedience to God and His mandates, to one of mechanical and shallow and superficial mimicking of spiritual behavior.

How do we know this?  Because God has a charge against them.Any charge from God is sin related, or anti-truth related.  That is the only time that God takes charge against anything.

Second, they ‘left,’ departed, went away, from their first habit.

Third, they left their ‘agape.’  ‘Agape’ is a reference to the detailed principles, mandates, precepts of Bible doctrine.

As in today’s society, there are many Christians, but most do not obey Gods commands.They obey their own ‘idea’ of Gods commands, but their obedience is to their emotions, to the things that are convenient to them, and not to the daily grind of scriptural study.A daily study is too boring, too inconvenient, too tedious, not interesting, not attention getting, not fun, it is not working for Jesus as they believe that they should be doing.

And therefore the Ephesians lost their first love, adherence to Gods will, and started down the path of adherence to their own will.

After all, shouldn’t God accept our works as being just as good as His?Especially if we are sincere, especially if we use all of the right language, especially if we have good intentions?

And the answer to that is, ‘No.’ 

Any departure from Gods truth to mans good intentions, is pursuing the path of lies, of distractions, of setting the bad example, of saying to those who observe your behavior, that a Christian can do anything so long as it is sincere, or of good intentions.  Thus teaching lies, and setting others on a course of bad habits, and failure in their spiritual life.  ‘Oh,’ but you say, ‘I just want to do good things for Jesus.’When if fact you are pursuing a hate of Jesus, by being disobedient.  When in fact you are only doing what you do, in order to gain some attention for yourself.

All works done in truth, work for Christ.  All works done outside of truth, are against Christ.

If you broadcast random or arbitrary quotations, or phrases for attention (that is the real approbation behind them), or random or arbitrary or inconsistent study habits generating inconsistent or invalid conclusions, then you are thinking of self only.  If you do the things that do not comply with Gods mandates, then you are thinking of self only.

Real truth resides within the soul, not in external attention getting or emotional feel good expressions.To do other than Gods will, means that you fall onto Gods bad list, thinking all the while that you are doing His will.

And even worse than that, when you are called on your behavior, you probably will tend to ignore the correction, making your transgression even worse through disregard.  Thus God establishes the real depth of your disobedience.

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