Lukewarm Faith
14 And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God; 15 I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. 16 So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth. 17 Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked: 18 I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see. 19 As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent. 20 Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me. 21 To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne. 22 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. - Revelation 3:14-22
As you can see, Jesus had nothing good to say about the church of the Laodiceans. Even the way he addressed the letter showed His disapproval. With every other church, their letters were addressed to the "church of [insert city]" or "the church in [insert city]." This time, the letter was addressed to the church of the Laodiceans. In other words, the church of the people. The Lord recognized how the people viewed the church as "theirs" rather than "God's.” No wonder this church made Him sick!
That being said, can you imagine Jesus saying He wants to spit you out of His mouth? That's some tough love right there! But the Laodicean church was just going through the motions. They showed up on Sundays but had no passion or zeal for God. Their faith was like a cup of tea that's been sitting out too long—not hot enough to be soothing and not cold enough to be refreshing. In a word, yuck!
Unfortunately, that's where many churches are today—going through the motions, checking all the boxes, and attending services out of duty or routine but nothing more. Are we just warming the pews every week, listening politely but not truly worshipping from the heart? When we look at our lives, is there fire and enthusiasm for serving Christ, or have we grown complacent and bored?
We all struggle with lukewarm faith at times. Life gets busy, and routines set in. We know all the right things to do—attend church, give an offering, read our Bibles occasionally—but where's the joy and excitement? The Laodicean church was wealthy and thought they had it all, but Jesus saw how spiritually bankrupt they were. He was outside the door, knocking to get back in! And He's doing the same with churches all across the world today.
Here's an excerpt of Spurgeon's commentary on the Laodicean churches of today:
They have prayer-meetings, but there are few present, for they like quiet evenings home.
When more attend the meetings they are still very dull, for they do their praying very deliberately and are afraid of being too excited.
They are content to have all things done decently and in order, but vigor and zeal are considered to be vulgar.
They may have schools, Bible-classes, preaching rooms, and all sorts of agencies; but they might as well be without them, for no energy is displayed and no good comes of them.
They have deacons and elders who are excellent pillars of the church, if the chief quality of pillars be to stand still, and exhibit no motion or emotion.
The pastor does not fly very far in preaching the everlasting Gospel, and he certainly has no flame of fire in his preaching.
The pastor may be a shining light of eloquence, but he certainly is not a burning light of grace, setting men's hearts on fire.
Everything is done in a half-hearted, listless, dead-and-alive way, as if it did not matter much whether it was done or not.
Things are respectably done, the rich families are not offended, the skeptical party is conciliated, and the good people are not quite alienated: things are made pleasant all around.
The right things are done, but as to doing them with all your might, and soul, and strength, a Laodicean church has no notion of what that means.
They are not so cold as to abandon their work, or to give up their meetings for prayer, or to reject the gospel.
Ouch! The truth hurts, doesn't it? So what's the fix? We've got to stir up the flames and re-devote ourselves to God daily. Pray with passion! Worship with wild abandon! Get excited about studying the Word and blessing others in Jesus' name! Let's not let our faith grow cold, friends. Instead, let's fan those flames by seeking God with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength.
I believe God wants to do amazing things through us as a church. But it starts with each of us tending the fire in our souls. Let's help each other stay blazing hot for God.