The last of Jesus’ letters in Revelation, to Laodicea, is probably the most well-known, & perhaps the most powerful. Jesus says: `I am about to spit you out of my mouth!` He looks at a church and says in effect: `You make me feel like vomiting!`
Well: this is to a church, not a person, but — might He ever say something similar to me? If so, what shall I do about it? Maybe it’s a good review question for the start of the year! How does this letter walk me through answering?
Laodicea was a wealthy place, well dressed and fashionable. And the church’s mentality was equally upbeat. `Affluent` might be the word: `You say, “I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing”’ (v17, NIV as usual). So here’s the first question this poses: is this how I – even unconsciously – feel about myself? In so many parts of Scripture God brings up the dangers of affluence. Matthew 19: `Jesus said to his disciples` (and He meant it), `Truly I tell you, it is hard for someone who is affluent to enter the kingdom of heaven`. (Why? Because their (my?) faith and security will really tend to be in their (my?) financial resources?) Proverbs 30: `Give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread. Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you and say, “Who is the Lord?”’ And James 2 says that the poor are blessed [true: eg God’s Church grows fastest in the global south], because they are rich in faith, and God has chosen them to inherit the kingdom… (Have a look also at the practical advice in 1 Timothy 6:17-19 (coming as it does after vv6-10).)
Maybe, then, a good way to think of accumulated riches is as weights, perhaps necessary but not totally advantageous; like at airports, there’s a 20kg weight limit if you really want to fly?
So — is our European church weak in faith because we’re mostly rich by global standards? Without doubt our money and possessions can distract us from Christ. Jesus presents two alternatives in Matthew 6: `Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. FOR, where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.` (Let’s be honest: I find even arranging our family finances distracts me a little from spiritual things.) So the action point here perhaps: instead of `storing up` on earth, maybe there’s a habit to establish of giving things away!
Then there are other kinds of felt affluence, and other `blind spots`. `Because you are lukewarm`, says Jesus, `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.”’ These serious words can apply to our sense of financial resources, and to where we’re really putting our trust. But they can apply equally to our felt abundance of other kinds of resources: numerical, or intellectual resources; theological, or personnel resources. These are God’s great gifts; yet because of them we may not feel the need to have faith, or live by faith, in Christ Himself; which is serious. Our trust and security, our heart, are really in our resources, whether financial or otherwise; not in Jesus; and as a result we can become fatally lukewarm. Or another application can be our overconfidence that we’re spiritually rich, that we’ve got more of what really matters than other believers, eg those on the other side of the reformed/charismatic divide; feeling, secretly perhaps, that we’re part of a spiritual elite. Any gift or enriching from God can hinder our faith-dependence, making us lukewarm. So: What is the wealth – or even, perceived need for it – that might lead my heart away from Christ, or from His best plan for me – like, disastrously and to his huge loss, the rich young ruler (read Matthew 19)?
Let’s ask ourselves the question directly: have I become lukewarm? I’ve never forgotten a talk by Gordon Probert, an elder at the church I went to as a student. If ever I was more committed to Christ than I am now, he said, I am a backslider; if ever I was more evangelistically active, more eager for Scripture, more eager for prayer and holiness, then I’m a backslider. That hits home! Well; what do I do? The starting point, says Jesus, is recognizing my situation: `Be earnest, and repent!` (Rev 3:19). True repentance is inseparable from earnestness; eg making time for God by deliberately dropping other commitments. `I counsel you`, says Jesus [wow!], `to buy from me gold refined in the fire.` I have to buy back that lost sense of His presence, eg with time; or perhaps fasting (not necessarily from food, maybe rather from other things that have usurped my heart?)…
And then He builds on that with the astonishing v20: `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.` It’s a powerful picture; Christ outside (evidently our self-sufficiency actually excludes Jesus’ presence) – yet knocking. What astounding grace that He asks – it is His house after all! And it’s `if any one`: even within the church they may be a rarity?- individuals who hear Christ’s call, to act determinedly to recover His presence. That’s hopeful: when the sense of His presence has been lost, it seems even one person can `hear My voice` and express it again (but let’s beware of pride, if we think this is us), and bring it back to the church.
But, tragically, at this point Christ’s voice is coming from outside this church. And let’s be aware: it is Christ the Judge (cf 2:5,16,22, 3:3) who is standing there knocking. `Through sickness and sorrow, suffering and loss’, writes Tatford, `through the Scriptures or through circumstances, those gentle taps make themselves heard on the door of life; and the Master stands and seeks to enter.` And this is from my old IFES colleague Brad Wathen: `I now understand that the antidote to lukewarmth is listening for His knocking & opening the door, day by day, moment by moment… If the goal of the Christian life is transformation into the likeness of Jesus, and the realization of that goal depends on spending time in His presence, then I must become more sensitive to His knocking. I have begun praying the following: “Jesus, help me to become aware of Your knocking throughout the day—or even in the middle of the night—& give me the grace I need to open the door & let You in.”` Brad asks: `Will you join me in praying that?`
So with that, let’s note Jesus’ loving words in v19 again: `Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest and repent.` Let’s aim (prayerfully) not to doubt that love of His when He disciplines us! `“My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline, and do not lose heart when He rebukes you; because the Lord disciplines the one He loves, and He chastens everyone He accepts as His son”`, says Hebrews 12. So `Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as His children. For what children are not disciplined by their father?… No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.` Nothing (do I believe this?) is worth more than being brought back to God’s presence… But let’s be hugely encouraged by something else here too. Jesus presents Himself to Laodicea as `the ruler of God’s creation` (v14). The searching light of these verses may make us feel discouraged, or even close to abandoning hope. But, says Wilcock in the IVP Bible Speaks Today commentary, we can be sure Jesus is `the one able to go right down into the chaotic abyss of Laodicea’s failure` (and mine), `and remake her anew, as He once made the world`!
And lastly let’s take note of this: Jesus says an amazing thing to Laodicea, that He says to no other church!: `To him who overcomes, I will give — the right to sit with me on my throne`!! He really (and astonishingly) wants our company, and our partnership on the grand scale! Thank you Lord!
Lord Jesus, by Your Spirit, please help me grasp, and apply, all of this…
