The Church
@ Laodicea - the lukewarm church
Christ
tells John once again to write to the representative of this church
- Christ says I know
your works, I know, I am aware of your activity
- What I know is that
your attitude is neither hot nor cold
- Because you are
lukewarm [neither cold nor hot] I will vomit you out of my mouth
- I know that you
think and say that you are rich and in need of nothing
- You are wretched
- You are miserable
- Poor
- Blind
- Naked
The tragdey is that you don't even know it
- So here is what I
am telling you to do
- Buy gold from me,
pure gold -without impurities
- You will have
proper wealth or riches
- Clothe yourself in
proper garments
- Anoint your eyes so
that you can see
- I am outside your
church, knocking to come in
- If you let me in I
will fellowship with you
What
Does It Mean to be Lukewarm?
John used the Greek word cliaros
It means warm or tepid
It is not used in the LXX or in the NT
However it is used metaphorically in Rev 3 to describe the
love/commitment of the Laodicean Church
--warm or tepid - slightly warm, room temperature
This church is mediocre in regards to spiritual things or the
things of God
They were not outright spiritually destitute but they had no
spiritual fervor
- They were not hot -
they did not possess a healthy spiritual temperature
- They were not cold
- they were indifferent to spiritual fervor
The waters of Hierapolis was hot or boiling - they provided
some medicinal value
The waters of Colosse were cold - they provided refreshemnt
The "water" of Laodicea was tepid, lukewarm and did
not provide anything beneficial
It is interesting, at least to me, that Jesus prefers the
church to be either or. It amazes me that Christ would prefer the church to be
ineffective. I can understand him
wanting the church to effective, but being ineffective or cold or dead is
better than being busy with no love or fervor for God at all.
Christ would rather have rejection and even hostility than to
say that you possess Christianity but remain untouched or unmoved by its
"life" and "fire." There seems to be more hope for the open
enmity but little or no hope for the absolute indifferent.
Who
Are the Lukewarm?
An important question to me is who are those who are being
charged with lukewarmness? Are they believers or are they unbelievers?
Some have suggested that these are Christians in the church
(majority) who are "backslidden"
Some have suggested that these are individuals in the church
who have heard the gospel, but responded without the aid of the HS or
regeneration
Some have suggested that these are individuals who are
unbelievers who have rejected the gospel openly and aggressively
- I do not think
these folks are Christians
- First - Christ
would not reject Christians (vomit you out of my mouth) Christ would
chastise and correct His wayward, disobedient, or apathetic children
- Second - Christ
would not "evangelize" Christians - "buy from me what you
need"
- Christians aren't
wretched - we are blessed having been accepted in the beloved
- Christians aren't
miserable - we are not destitute
- Christians aren't
poor- Christ became poor to make
believes rich
- Christians aren't
blind - with regeneration we now have spiritual ears and eyes
- Christians aren't
naked - we have been clothed with Christ's righteousness
To be continued…
