“To the angel of the church in Laodicea write:
These are the words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the ruler of God’s creation. I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth. You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see.
Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest and repent. Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.
To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I was victorious and sat down with my Father on his throne. Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”
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Wow. Just...wow. This one is a heavy one!
Interestingly enough, Laodicea was another wealthy city. This city was more well known during the Roman period and were connected to multiple major trade routes like Sardis.
Laodicea was known for producing textiles and banking. It is also possible that the church itself was also incredibly wealthy as we read above how it touches upon the rich and how they say they don't need anything else because they have plenty already. In this, a lot of them possibly lost sight of where they were headed on their walk with Jesus.
The thing that always gets me is verse 16 that states, "So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth."
I mean, has anyone perhaps been on a playground on a hot day and went to the water fountain, hoping for a nice cool drink only to get a mouthful of warm, awful tasting water? It reminds me a lot of that...perhaps this is a common thing in the desert xd but really, it's an awful experience. I would think it'd also be terrible to get a bowl of ice cream that was lukewarm, too - yuck.
These people seemed to count upon their riches in place of the Lord, this also reminds me of another Bible verse that tells us in Matthew 6:24 NIV:
“No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.
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The Bible is clear, we cannot love and worship money and at the same time worship God. We will be more devoted to one than the other and woe to the one that chooses their money over the Lord. I have been there and done that and I can say that it's not a road you'd be happy on. God does use his efforts to turn you around and it's not a pleasant time.
Either way, this reminds me of a true story when considering verse 17:
You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked.
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There was a time that my husband and I were attempting to outreach to others at a city park. There was a woman that joined us (long story), but we noticed an old man walk by the table we were at. He had his small dog on the leash and the woman that was with us had asked, "Good morning, sir! Is there any way we can pray for you today?" This lady was bold, it had me almost terrified as I was pretty shy...this man said, "No, there's nothing." She said, "Nothing? Nothing at all?" and he's like, "Nope, I already went to church today." The man then walked away. It was kind of interesting. I don't know if it was anything about his wealth, if he had a hard time letting others in or perhaps he felt he went to church so that's all he really needed to do as far as God goes. We'll never know, but he seemed pretty rude to us.
In the end, I don't know about you, but I wouldn't want Jesus to turn me away...
So it seems in this walk with Christ that we are 100% in or we are 100% out. We are fully with God or we are against him. Which will you choose?
This church had many that needed to repent and dare I say it - seems that this church was more into worldly desires.
Questions for further study:
1. How are Laodicea and Sardis similar? How are they different?
2. What do you feel the term "lukewarm" here means?
3. In a world where Christians were persecuted - would it have been easier for them to trust in their money or their Savior? Perhaps try to pretend they weren't Christian to hide?
4. Does Laodicea remind you of any places you've been? Why or why not?
References:
https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/biblical-sites-places/biblical-archaeology-sites/church-of-laodicea-in-the-bible-and-archaeology/
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Revelation 3&version=NIV
