And to the angel of the church in Laodicea write: "The words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of God's creation. I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot! So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth. For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen, and salve to anoint your eyes, so that you may see. Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me. The one who conquers, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne, as I also conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches."
Revelation 3:14-22
I've been pondering this passage for a couple months now, actually. I was originally going to write a blog post about this at the beginning of September, but I guess I got distracted.
I purchased this book while I was at Capernwray called "Rose Book of Bible Maps, Charts, and Timelines". It was extremely useful as a student in bible school. I probably flipped through it a thousand times in that one year. One chart in this book was a chart organizing the information given on the seven churches in the book of Revelation. It outlined the strengths and weaknesses of each church, the instruction given to each church by God and the promise God gave them if said instruction was followed. I stumbled across this chart again in my packing when I moved to my new resident at the end of August, and I noticed something interesting. Every church has a strength listed, except for one: Laodicea.
Under the "Strengths" column for Laodicea, it said none.
Ephesus had forsaken their first love (Jesus), but at least they worked hard, rejected evil, and had endurance. Pergamum was a worldly church, but at least they refused to deny Christ. Thyatira tolerated immorality and some faulty doctrine, but at least they served in deeds, love, and faith. Sardis was spiritually dead, but at least a few people among them managed to keep their faith. Laodicea was lukewarm, complacent, and indifferent, but at least... oh wait, God could not find any strength among them.
The words "lukewarm", "complacent", and "indifferent" can all be defined as having a lack of passion. The problem that Laodicea had was that they lacked passion. You cannot be lukewarm and be passionate.
Christ cannot be of lukewarm importance. As C.S. Lewis said, "Christianity, if false, is of no importance, and if true, of infinite
importance. The only thing it cannot be is moderately important.”
God's instruction to the church of Laodicea: be zealous and repent.
Passion is one of my favourite things. I love hearing a sermon where the preacher goes on rabbit trails about all the things they've learned through preparing it, shows that they are passionate about what they are speaking about. I went to high school with this guy who loved anything and everything to do with weather. When you'd talk to him about everyday life, most of his answers consisted of one sentence or even just one word, but when you asked him about weather, you probably wouldn't be able to get another word in for the next hour of the conversation because he'd be talking about weather. That's passion. I have a friend who only buys clothing and coffee that are fair trade, and she could talk your ear off about the sex trafficking issues surrounding us in the world. That's passion. I have a friend whose grades in university probably go down every hunting season because she's out in the woods hunting instead of studying. That's passion. My best friend's husband can talk pretty much endlessly about tractors. That's passion.
I guess I wanted to write about this passage, this church, because it hits close to home. I love passion so much, but I'm afraid I've drifted into the danger zone called lukewarm when it comes to being a Christian. I haven't had passion for that in a while, I'd almost venture to say a year or so. I can blame it on the move, or the stress university brings, or the loneliness I experienced at Cedarwood, or the abandonment I feel from people who were once my closest friends, but the truth is: I have no excuse.
I heard this quote from Francis Chan: "Lukewarm people are moved by stories about people who do radical things for Christ, yet they do not act. They assume such action is for 'extreme' Christians, not average ones. Lukewarm people call 'radical' what Jesus expected of all His followers." And it hit me. This is me. I'm moved by radical stories of faith, but I haven't actually stood up and done something radical with my own faith in a long time.
Radical doesn't mean extreme. Being a Christian in this crazy atheistic world is radical. Following Jesus is radical. Passion is radical. Passion isn't something that's given to you. Passion isn't something you earn. Passion isn't something you achieve. Passion is something you choose. God's instruction to the church of Laodicea was to "be zealous". It's not "pray for zealousness" or "strive for zealousness". It's just "be zealous". It's a decision you have to make.
So what happens if you're a lukewarm Christian? God seems to make it pretty clear that He doesn't like lukewarm. So what can a person do about it? Repent.
The solution to any sin-related problem? Repentance.
And I remind you, repentance is not simply asking for forgiveness. Repentance requires fleeing. (See The Pursuit of True Happiness for more about fleeing.)
God's promise to Laodicea and all who struggle with being lukewarm: communion.
Repent, be zealous, and live in communion with Him.
