Hot or Cold?
Laodicea
If ever there was a one-word cautionary tale, this is it. Laodicea is, like, the worst.
But if you were there, you wouldn’t have known it. Located on a major trade route, this city was connected to everything worth being connected to. Its local timber produced very unique, very dark, and therefore highly desirable lumber goods. Along with Thyatira and Sardis, Laodicea enjoyed all the benefits of the lucrative dye trade. And in the aftermath of the Great Earthquake of A.D. 60, Laodicea was the only city able to rebuild without Imperial aid from Rome.
Vomit
Why did God want to vomit her from His mouth? Didn't she exemplify blessing and success? And anyway, isn’t the state of lukewarmness higher up on the continuum from cold to hot?
Ah, but this isn’t a linear illustration. Lukewarmness is indeed neither cold nor hot. It is its own thing. And the text of Revelation 3 makes clear precisely what Jesus is talking about to John here.
Wretchedness
In Revelation 3.17 we see the juxtaposition of what Laodicea thinks it is with what Jesus knows it is. Laodicea, in all its lukewarmness, thinks it’s rich, wealthy, and that it needs nothing. But Jesus knows that it’s really wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked.
Lukewarmness fits this reality hand-in-glove, whether you see it as cause or as an effect. It doesn’t matter which comes first; lukewarmness and wretchedness go together like coffee and chocolate.
Material wealth—that is, the security derived from riches that are quite literally made from the dust of the earth—makes its slaves wretches.
It is a hideous illusion that we can buy safety, security, or eternal life. Nothing about the Kingdom of God can be earned by us. Jesus made this clear when He said, “It is the Father’s good pleasure to give you the Kingdom.” The Kingdom is therefore a gift and cannot be earned.
The riches of this world can only ever be earned and are the worst possible drug we could get hooked on because they are a lie.
The Middle Ground
Even worse is the illusion of the middle ground.
Is there middle ground between good and evil? Is there middle ground between light and dark? Don’t overthink your answer. At most what lies between good and evil or light and dark is a moment’s deciding. The transitional spaces of life are not where we set up camp; they’re too narrow.
Lukewarmness is the same thing. Either we follow Jesus or we abandon Him. Either we speak the truth or we tell a lie. And in regard to the difference, something that’s 99.9 percent true is 100 percent false because of the .1 percent that defiles it. Truth must be pure to be true. Light must be pure to be light. There is no middle ground, my dear fence rider.
The Motive
Bro. Harsh word. I hear you.
Where’s the love? I’ll show you.
It’s right there in the text of Revelation 3.14-21. Jesus offers the solution in v18, that He, the Source, has all the Laodiceans need. He doesn’t stop there. What He has is genuine and lasting, not bound to return to the dust as a consequence of having been made from it.
But v19 is even more important. He says that He only rebukes and chastens those whom He loves. There are other places in the Word that instruct parents on the fact that negligence is manifest hatred. We’re also told that open rebuke is better than hidden love. And is not hidden love synonymous with lukewarmness?
Jesus’ motive is love. Even when—especially when—He corrects us. And that’s the whole point of repentance: restoration to the Father. We’re all Laodiceans, we’re all prodigals. Not one of us is innocent. Few of us admit it.
Those of us who do admit it enjoy a life like no other, and when at the end of time the Judge commands the grave to give up its dead, we will enter in to the joy of our Master. Because of repentance, sure, but because of what enabled it: grace, working through the gift of faith.
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