Lukewarm

Joel and I are in a small group at church that meets every Sunday evening. It's really awesome--we study the Bible and fellowship and pray together. Right now we are studying the book of Revelation and this week we are looking specifically at the church of Laodicea. Let me tell you, this study has been CONVICTING for me. The members of the church of Laodicea were considered lukewarm to Jesus. Jesus saw straight into their hearts, as he does mine. Their lukewarmness made him sick. He called them wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked. Yet, Jesus still loved them enough to scold hem, showing that he hadn't given up on them yet!

I call myself a Christian, but as I think about my life, I can see much lukewarmness. In my head I am burdened for those I love to come to know Christ, but do I do anything about it? Do I spark conversations about Jesus? Rarely. Do I hunger for the Word of God every day? Not really. Do I think about how much I need Jesus moment by moment? Not often. But do I know that Jesus is full of grace and forgiveness? Yes. Do I know that he can change my heart and give me zeal for Him? Yes. Do I have love for Jesus deep in my heart? Absolutely. I will strive to become a Christian who is not characterized by complacency, indifference and compromise. Whew.

C-O-N-V-I-C-T-E-D. Thank you Lord.

Here is a part of the commentary on Revelation 3:14-22 (Church of Laodicea) by David Guzik. It is so good. God's Word is so rich. It pierces the heart.

I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot. So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth.

a. You are neither cold nor hot: This picture of lukewarmness would immediately strike the Christians of Laodicea because the water they drank every day was lukewarm. Jesus says “Just as the water you drink is disgustingly lukewarm, you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot.” In this spiritual sense, lukewarmness is a picture of indifference and compromise. It tries to play the middle, too hot to be cold and too cold to be hot. But in trying to be both things, it ends up being nothing - except to hear the words, “I will vomit you out of My mouth.”

i. Does Jesus mean to say that these Christians are intrinsically cold, but warmed up by their religious trappings? Or, that they are essentially hot, but cooled down by their apathy and self-reliance? Both are possible, but since He is talking to His church, there is an emphasis on the later.

ii. Has there been a greater curse upon the earth than emptyreligion? Is there any soul harder to reach than the one who has just enough of Jesus to think they have enough? The church of Laodicea exemplifies empty religion, and tax collectors and harlots were more open to Jesus than the scribes and Pharisees.

iii. Satan will have us any way he can get us, but he prizes a lukewarm religionist far above a cold-hearted sinner.

b. I could wish that you were cold or hot: What Jesus wants to change in us as much as anything is the deceptive playing of the middle, trying to please both the world and Jesus.

i. I could wish that you were cold or hot also points to another aspect of lukewarmness, as a picture of uselessness. “Hot water heals, cold water refreshes, but lukewarm water is useless for either purpose.” (Morris) It’s as if Jesus says, “If you were hot or cold I could do something with you. But because you are neither, I will do nothing.” The lukewarm Christian has enough of Jesus to satisfy a craving for religion, but not enough for eternal life.

ii. The thief on the cross was cold towards Jesus and clearly saw his need. The Apostle John was hot towards Jesus and enjoyed an intimate relationship of love. But Judas was lukewarm, following Jesus enough to be considered a disciple, but not giving his heart over to Jesus in fullness.

iii. Deep down, there is no one more miserable than the lukewarm Christian is. They have too much of the world to be happy in Jesus, but too much of Jesus to be happy in the world.

iv. But how could Jesus say, I could wish that you were cold? We know His deepest desire is that they be hot, with an on-fire love for Him (Revelation 3:19, where the wordzealous is associated with this same word hot). Yet if they would not be hot, Jesus prefers cold rather than lukewarm. “So the Lord is saying, ‘If instead of being lukewarm, you were so cold that should feel that coldness, then the very feeling of your need might drive you to the true warmth, but now in your lukewarmness, you have just enough to protect yourselves against a feeling of need.’” (Barnhouse)

c. Lukewarm prayers mock God. “O my brethren and sisters, have you ever really thought what an insult it is to God when we come before him with lukewarm prayers? There stands the heavenly mercy-seat; the road to it is sprinkled with the precious blood of Jesus, yet we come to it with hearts that are cold, or we approach it leaving our hearts behind us. We kneel in the attitude of prayer, yet we do not pray. We prattle out certain words, we express thoughts, which are not our real desires, we feign wants that we do not feel. Do we not thus degrade the mercy-seat? We make it, as it were, a common lounging-place, rather than an awful wrestling-place, once besprinkled with blood, and often to be besprinkled with the sweat of our fervent supplication.” (Spurgeon)

d. Lukewarm lives turn people away from Jesus. “Now, lukewarm professor, what do worldlings see in you? They see a man, who says he is going to heaven, but who is only travelling at a snail’s pace. He professes to believe that there is a hell, yet he has tearless eyes, and never seeks to snatch souls from going down into the pit. They see before them one who has to deal with eternal realities, yet he is but half awake; one who professes to have passed through a transformation so mysterious and wonderful that there must be, if it is true, a vast change in the outward life as the result of it; yet they see him as much like themselves as can be. He may be morally consistent in his general behavior, but they see no energy in his religious character.” (Spurgeon)

i. “The careless worldling is lulled to sleep by the lukewarm professor ("Christian"), who, in this respect, acts the part of the syren to the sinner, playing sweet music in his ears, and even helping to lure him to the rocks where he will be destroyed. This is a solemn matter, beloved. In this way, great damage is done to the cause of truth; and God’s name and God’s honor are compromised by inconsistent professors. I pray you either to give up your profession, or to be true to it. If you really are God’s people, then serve him with all your might; but if Baal be your god, then serve him. If the flesh be worth pleasing, then serve the flesh; but if God be Lord paramount, then cleave to him.” (Spurgeon)

f. The name Laodicea means “rule of the people.” This church well represents a church run by majority rule instead of God. “Its name designates it as the Church of mob rule, the democratic Church, in which everything is swayed and decided by popular opinion, clamour and voting.” (Seiss)

i. This is reflected in Jesus’ address to the church: the church of the Laodiceans (Revelation 3:14). For the other churches, it was the church of Ephesus (Revelation 2:1) or the church in Smyrna (Revelation 2:8) or the church in Sardis (Revelation 3:1). But here, it is the church of the Laodiceans.

ii. We might even say that lukewarmness is the natural tendency of our fallen natures. “Alas, this state of lukewarmness is so congenial with human nature that it is hard to fetch men from it. Cold makes us shiver, and great heat causes us pain, but a tepid hath is comfort itself. Such a temperature suits human nature. The world is always at peace with a lukewarm church, and such a church is always pleased with itself.” (Spurgeon)

“If they did so, then they could be convinced of their error and brought to repentance; but on the other hand they are neither hot for the truth, nor hot for conversions, nor hot for holiness, they are not fiery enough to burn the stubble of sin, nor zealous enough to make Satan angry, nor fervent enough to make a living sacrifice of themselves upon the altar of their God. They are ‘neither cold nor hot.’” (Spurgeon)

h. I will vomit you out of My mouth: How are churches in the mouth of Jesus?

• They are in His mouth because they spread His Word
• They are in His mouth because He prays for them constantly

What a terrible thing - in either of these ways - to be expelled from the mouth of Jesus!

Therefore be zealous and repent: He commands them to make a decision to repent, and to continue in zeal. “Turn your way,” Jesus says. “Don’t look to your own riches and resources, because they are really bankrupt. Turn around and look to Me.”

i. The ancient Greek word zealous comes from the same word as hot in Revelation 3:16. Though Jesus detests their lukewarmness, He would really have them be hot with zeal rather than cold.

ii. “When you and I shall be stretched upon our dying beds, I think we shall have to regret, above everything else, our coldness of heart. Among the many sins . . . perhaps this will lie the heaviest upon our heart and conscience, ‘I did not live as I ought to have done; I was not as earnest in my Lord’s cause as I should have been.’ Then will our cold sermons, like sheeted ghosts, march before our eyes in dread array. Then will our neglected days start up, each one seeming to wave its hair as though it were one of the seven furies, and to look right into our hearts, and make our very blood curdle in our veins.” (Spurgeon)

iii. We need to make our life following Jesus, not just a hobby or an occasional activity. This goes against the spirit of our age, which was long ago expressed by a famous Englishman when he read a sermon by G.W.E. Russell: “Things have come to a pretty pass when religion is allowed to invade the sphere of private life.” (English statesman William Lamb [1779-1848])