First love

This church is an example of most believers. We start out strong and fervent in love, but end up losing our zeal for following the law. We must return to our first love. The way we loved Him when we first met Him.

The works other Nicolaitans refers to the believers who followed the false teacher, Nicolas who taught them to abandon themselves to pleasure living a life of self indulgence. This teaching perverted grace in that you can live for yourself and He will be gracious towards you. It also replaced liberty with license in that the freedom to follow Christ was replaced with the religion to follow the law. The Ephesus church hated this teaching as does Jesus. I hear this same type of teaching in the church today when preachers teach the audience to themselves or to their church. And when preachers teach the audience that grace is about God forgiving you when you intentionally sin. Grace is about Him giving you the power to conquer and overcome sin, not to sin against Him intentionally. When we first come to the Lord we are disgusted with anything that looks like sin and this is what love does. When we love Him with both zeal and following His commands we live a pure Holy life.

Created 5 months ago