I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear with those who are evil, but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and found them to be false. I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name's sake, and you have not grown weary. But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first.
It
is significant that the Lord Jesus Christ, when He reproved the church at
Ephesus, began with praise. When a Christian evaluates himself (as every person
does continually), it is important for him to evaluate himself accurately. An
accurate self-perception involves a clear understanding not only of what is
wrong and needs to be corrected, but also of what is right and pleasing to God.
Too often parents focus only on the wrong, and consequently, their children
tend to evaluate themselves inaccurately. Their self-perceptions become
distorted rather than sober (Romans 12:3) and true (Philemon 4:8). I suggest to parents
that they learn to keep their children regularly bathed in a solution of praise
so that when reproof and correction are administered, these measures will be
perceived as one more element of balanced biblical love.
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