Christianity. Everything we do for God will be an attempt to trade our works for His benefits and blessings.
And isn ' t that what has happened today? Here ' s an obvious example. In many churches, before the offering is received each week, the congregation is primed with a twenty-minute manipulative talk on ' giving '. " You will be blessed if you do and cursed if you don ' t!" " Sow a seed for your financial harvest!"
This shows us, 1) what the speaker really thinks about God. He doesn ' t want to bless you, but He can be bribed; 2) what the speaker thinks of the congregation. I know you don ' t want to give to the Lord ' s work, but consider the benefits of doing so! And so when we operate like this, just like the church at Ephesus, we have left our first love. Our motive is no longer love, but fear, greed, unbelief, etc. Remember, this church was full of good works, but they were no longer the first works, i. e. performed on the basis of first love. The message to this church was not: