The Modern church is the church of Laodicea

The modern church is a church that thinks it is rich and self-sufficient like the Church of Laodicea. It thinks that while the Bible commands it to seek first the Kingdom of God (Matthew 6:33), it has a "right" to seek earthly things - it thinks it has a right to seek after money, food, and clothes, things which the pagans seek. Jesus said, "Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (For after all these things do the Gentiles [pagans] seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things" (Matthew 6:31-32).

What does the modern church do? Seek after earthly things - money, food, clothing and jobs, all under the pretext of the command that " if any would not work, neither should he eat" (2 Thessalonians 3:10). The typical modern Christian argues, "but I need to care for the (earthly, temporal) needs of my family". Such is the typical excuse for its is an easy excuse to give. No wonder the world thinks that the modern church is hypocritical in supporting capitalism, thinking the capitalism is good for keeping families intact, but yet claiming to follow Jesus who said that " If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me (Matthew 16:24), and "If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple" (Luke 14:26). 

If you do not seek after God first and love God as your first love, you will not truly love your family. If you do not seek after God first, you do not truly seek after God wholeheartedly. In the case of the Christian, where he does not seek God first, he is caught up with idolatry, and therefore under the spirit of mammon.

The excuse many Christians use to justify the evil anti-Christian system of capitalism, which is of mammon, is that if anyone shall not provide for his family, he is worse that an unbeliever (1 Timothy 5:8), and that if anyone not work, he shall not eat (2 Thessalonians 3:10). This is a foolish excuse. Truly loving your family is to seek to lead them to wholeheartedly obey God with all one's heart, soul, mind, spirit and strength, not seek their earthly "needs" first. 

Matthew 16:26 says: "For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?". Likewise, what shall it profit a person if he provides for the earthly needs of his family, but that they lose their souls?  Even the unsaved can provide for the earthly needs of his family. Even the vile fornicators and adulterers can do that! That is the spirit of 1 Timothy 5:8, which is not saying that it is of a good and righteous person that one provides for one's family. Unrighteous and vile people also provide for their families. No where in Proverbs does it say that the unrighteous and wicked neglect their families for such an action is only a very basic moral obligation which only requires a person to have not become a vile reprobate given over to their reprobate minds like the homosexual paedophiles who "adopt" children solely for the purpose of abusing them or the lesbians to sexually abuse their children. Looking after one's family is by no means an indicator that one is even a decent person, which the unsaved can be.

Providing the earthly needs of one's family, while failing to lead them to obey God profits nothing. Leading one's family to obey God and fear Him is more profitable above all things. Even the term "basic needs" is an earthly term because it implies that one has some needs to one must seek after, when it is really God who provides all things. The term "basic needs" also implies that one has "right" to seek these things when no one even has a right to one's very breath in first place. 

One professing Christian who is under the spirit of mammon once asked scornfully, "we can't just breath air can we?" in response to my article that capitalism reverses the God-given purpose and order for work. Capitalism makes work to be a means working for mammon through seeking earthly needs, instead of working for God. She complained saying, "if we do not have resources, how can we help people?" What a fool!  She thinks she is so wise in saying that if we do not have resources, we cannot help people. The reason behind why their a materially poor people is because of the whole mammonised system of wealth accumulation, not in spite of it. She is implying that she has a "right" to her own wealth accumulation because she needs it to help the poor who she pretends to sympathise with. If you are so keen on helping the poor, why don't you give up your wealth then to help the poor, since they have very little? Such is the attitude of the typical under-the-spirit-of-mammon Christian of the modern church. 

It is right that it should help the poor, but so enslaved to mammon because it yields to his temptations and thinks it is legitimate to seek and live by one's earthly needs, deceived into thinking it is possible for seek one's earthly needs and seek God first at the same time. Jesus said this is impossible: "No one can serve both God and mammon. You will love one and hate the other" (Matthew 6:24). He did not say you might, or may love one and hate the other. He said you will love one and hate the other.  Seeking one's earthly needs itself is to hate God and love mammon. It is an expression of distrusting God, an attack on His character, but one of hostility towards Him, that there is nothing good that He gives, and there is nothing to be thankful for. 

All humans, regardless of their (relative) poverty, or their circumstances no matter how hard should be thankful for the very breath God has given to them. God would be justified in burning all of humanity in Hell for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). Falling short of the glory of God and breaking God's Moral Law itself hostility against God. After King David sinned against God, God said to him, "Now therefore the sword shall never depart from thine house; because thou hast despised me, and hast taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be thy wife" (2 Samuel 12:10. God would totally be justified in burning us all in Hell. God has an obligation to give us our breath even much less than a judge has an obligation to give a guilty murderer a pardon. 

Instead of being the salt and light of the world, the church has in yielding to mammon, and trusting him and his instruments, and their earthly needs, more than God, failed tragically in doing so. The church in the 21st century has only sought to fight certain evils, such as human trafficking, abortion and homosexuality. What the world sees from this is a church that follows only moral rules, instead of giving up one's life being completely filled with God's Love and consumed with love for both God and people. 

As much as the world should perceive the church to be hateful towards it, it should also perceive the church to be consumed by an overpowering, deep, fervent love for God, the people of the world and one's fellow believers. Love is what the church should be known for by the world which is softened, and warmed by true genuine pure love, even when it is the most hardened and dominated by hate. John 13:35 says: "By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another". 

If one is serving mammon or trying to serve him, in the case of true Christian, how can one love? No wonder the world thinks the modern church is hypocritical, not just the secular west, but the Muslim and the Buddhist world. 

They rightly perceive the church  to be hypocritical as it is trying to serve mammon which means that one cannot love, but yet preach Jesus who commanded His followers to give up one's life, so that one can truly love God and other people.