A Few Bible Thoughts For Your Day

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Date: Oct 26 2016 1:43 PM

Hey Everybody,

I hope your week is off to a great start. Fall is here, and I am excited about the change in season.

Feel free to join us tonight at 7 as we continue our journey through Genesis.

But for now, here are a few thoughts.

The First Love of the Church

Revelation 2:1-7 tells commendable things about the Ephesian church at the time the Lord sent this message to them: (1) They labored with patience in His cause. (2) They would not tolerate evil. (3) They tested those who claimed to be apostles. (4) They had not become weary in their labor for His name's sake. (5) They hated the deeds of the Nicolaitans (a group of people that was willing to compromise the truth and even uphold immorality). Yet they had departed from their first love.

What was the Lord referring to in saying that they had left their first love? One can be doctrinally correct and very zealous, but if the motive is not genuine love for God and mankind, it will profit the person nothing (1 Corinthians 13:13; 1 John 4:12-13; 5:1-2). The Ephesians were zealous for the Lord and His work, but they had lost that genuine tenderness and concern for the lost and for the struggling believer.

We can be doctrinally correct and despise the unbeliever or the erring brother. This we must not do if we are to remain in a right relationship with our Lord. You will recall that in the first chapter of Revelation the Lord was seen by John, holding seven stars in His right hand, being in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks (Revelation 1:12-13,20). The stars are the angels (messengers) of the seven churches and the candlesticks are the seven churches. Ephesus was one of these churches. If they did not repent and return to their first love the Lord would remove the candlestick (Revelation 2:5). This means that they would be eternally lost.

Paul taught that a Christian “... must not quarrel but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient, in humility correcting those who are in opposition, if God perhaps will grant them repentance, so that they may know the truth, and that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him to do his will” (2 Timothy 2:24-26).

Have a great week.

Mitch Robison

Enon Church of Christ

1366 Enon Road

Webb, AL 36376

[email protected]

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