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Those who lost their first love deified Mary in the first century. But it is a warning against anything becoming more loved than Christ. Many love television, movies, the internet more than Christ. This IS measurable by the time spent doing those things. If in your work you do all things as unto the Lord, then you might count that on his side, but our wicked hearts deceive us to justify ourselves. It is a warning, not a justification. Be warned about the meaningless and counterproductive things that take up your time. The church is about teaching. If serving the poor replaces teaching, then we have lost our first love. As a reminder, when Jesus fed the 9000, they were not the poor, they were the ones being taught.
=Love=
Love is the opposite of Original or Universal Sin. Sin places oneself in to position of importance and preeminence. Love places others first. "The first shall be last and the last shall be first" is a cryptic riddle to say, there will be Love. Hate is merely putting someone in second position.
The law says that if you are chopping wood, and the ax head flies off and kills someone "if [you] have not previously hated" the person, you may flee to a city of refuge. The implication is that the accident is an act of hate. You did not put the other person's safety first; you did not love them.
When God "hated" Esau, it was not an animosity. He moved him from the first son, to the second son position, giving Jacob preeminence.
Love is putting others first. It is more than that.
When David sinned by stealing a man's wife and having him murdered, he repented saying "Against you alone have I sinned, Oh Lord" . He did not sin against the man or his wife, but against God, because the man and his wife belonged to God.
When we take offense at something someone does, we make ourselves equal to God. This is sin. Love absorbs the offense.
When you cheek is struck, you interpret it as an accident and there is no offense. You have absorbed the sin. When you give the item stolen to the thief, you have absorbed his sin. There is no theft when it is a gift. This is the love Christ demonstrated. Prior to the Wedding at Cana, he was not sure if he would give judgement (and rightly so as God incarnate) or grace to man. He chose then to give grace. So at the cross he says "Forgive them, they know not what they do." He was not talking about the Romans who had driven the nails, but of us, his bride , who was deceived by the flesh. He absorbed our sin by not taking offense.
When we realize we have sinned; making ourselves equal to God by taking offense, we repent by forgiving. Forgiveness is an act of repentance for not having loved.
=References=
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