Lukewarm

Revelation 3:14-22 NASB

"To the angel of the church in Laodicea write:
The Amen, the faithful and true Witness, the Beginning of the creation of God, says this:
  ‘I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot; I wish that you were cold or hot.  ‘So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of My mouth.  ‘Because you say, "I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing," and you do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked,  I advise you to buy from Me gold refined by fire so that you may become rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself, and that the shame of your nakedness will not be revealed; and eye salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see.  ‘Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline; therefore 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 will dine with him, and he with Me.  ‘He who overcomes, I will grant to him to sit down with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne.  ‘He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’"

My thoughts -

Is there anything worse than being lukewarm? Consider pizza. Pizza is delicious when served piping hot out of the oven. But there are some that prefer cold pizza out of the refrigerator, especially for breakfast. But have you ever heard of anyone who likes pizza best when served a room temperature, cool enough that the cheese is no longer melty but has congealed but not cold enough to be considered "cold pizza"?

Or consider a basketball team. If you want to lose your fan base the best way to go about doing it is to just barely miss the playoffs each season. Your team isn't any good but isn't bad enough to get an impact player in the draft. There's no hope there. Your mired in mediocrity.

Or consider the addict. While painful recovery happens after someone hits rock bottom, when things are bad enough that they have to acknowledge there's a problem. When denial is no longer an option.

Laodicea is in denial. They are described as thinking they are rich (spiritually) while actually being poor. They don't know how bad off they are. They have enough deeds that they can talk themselves into believing that they faithfully serve while not actually doing so.

Here, Jesus through John is leveling his harshest criticism towards any of the seven churches. When reading through this section of Revelation you see a familiar pattern. There will be a list of good things about a church followed by "but this I hold against you". Here the pattern breaks.

The first sentence is an indictment. You are lukewarm. Because of this I spit you out. Both barrels are given right off the bat. No punches are pulled. No holds are barred. They are on the receiving end of a scathing, righteous lecture. Basically Jesus is telling them through John that really if they were anything other than that which they are they'd be a lot better off. And the worst part is they don't know it. They have no idea. They're in denial.

So that's bad news, right? But here's the good news. There is yet hope. They can turn. They can change. Jesus is calling each of these churches to repent. Laodicea can do so as well. Jesus is saying "I am at the door knocking. Let me in and I will eat with you." They can overcome their shortcomings. They can be restored to Jesus. All they have to do is repent.

But that's the thing with being lukewarm, isn't it. To repent you have to acknowledge sin and turn from it. They are still in denial. That is the indictment. They have no idea how bad things have gotten. They still think they're serving Christ.

Could Jesus hold the same thing against us?