The Church in Laodicea
14“To the angel of the assembly in Laodicea write: “The Amen, the Faithful and True Witness, the Beginning of God’s creation, says these things: 15“I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were cold or hot. 16So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will vomit you out of my mouth. 17Because you say, ‘I am rich, and have gotten riches, and have need of nothing;’ and don’t know that you are the wretched one, miserable, poor, blind, and naked; 18I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, that you may become rich; and white garments, that you may clothe yourself, and that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and eye salve to anoint your eyes, that you may see. 19As many as I love, I reprove and chasten. Be zealous therefore, and repent. 20Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, then I will come in to him, and will dine with him, and he with me. 21He who overcomes, I will give to him to sit down with me on my throne, as I also overcame, and sat down with my Father on his throne. 22He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the assemblies.”
While the beggar Lazarus lay at the rich man’s gate, starving as he begged for food, the rich man was dressed in purple, the color of kings, and holding a feast. Wrapped in purple and fine linen, he made a show of piety, yet the life he was enjoying was lived for himself alone. He had received God’s grace in abundance, but because he gave no thanks for it, he spent his days in the luxury of a king. When it came to giving and sharing, he was a miserly man. Even while Lazarus begged for something to eat, his mind was on his own eating and drinking. Lazarus tried to eat even the crumbs that fell from the rich man’s table, but the dogs the rich man kept got in his way, and so he could eat nothing at all.
A hardened heart will not share even the smallest crumb that falls from its table. So it is with those who were given spiritual things first: they grow hard when they fail to grasp God’s will fully, and that hardness is what makes them proud. The word of God and every possession in this world are gifts God has given freely. If we are grudging with them all the same, in the end we will come under God’s wrath and reproof.
Lazarus lived in poverty, but he kept the faith to the end, and because of that he came to rest in Abraham’s bosom. The rich man, so stingy in life, died and fell into Hades. The moment anyone puts off the body, the world in which they will live forever is settled, so we must hold fast to our faith while we are alive. In this life there may be a gap between rich and poor, but salvation is not decided by what we own. It is decided by faith in Jesus Christ. Whatever our circumstances, then, we who have set our hope on heaven must stand firm in that faith.
When the rich man saw Lazarus in Abraham’s bosom, he would perhaps have felt wronged, for he had always assumed that his faithful life was the reason God had given him so much wealth. But once he had put off the body, he found himself in Hades, while the beggar Lazarus lay in Abraham’s bosom. Parched with thirst, he realized he had sunk so low that he must beg a single drop of water from the very Lazarus he had so despised.
The rich man recognized Abraham, and that is likely a sign that he was a man who believed in God. This man, now pleading so desperately for one drop of water, had lived in such wealth on earth that he envied no one. Yet when he was in a position to give, he did nothing to display the glory of God. And because Lazarus held on to his faith even as he suffered, their places were reversed.
The pain of that thirst was beyond words, a torment he had never once known while he was alive. He begged Lazarus for just one drop of water. But Abraham told him to remember that in his lifetime he had been given many good things and had enjoyed them, while Lazarus had suffered. In other words, he had taken much from God’s hand and enjoyed it, yet he had been a hard-hearted man who would not share with his poor brothers.
And it means, too, that Lazarus, though he suffered in poverty, never once resented God and did not grumble even when the rich man would not share his food. Abraham told the rich man that faith in God had now divided them, one in heaven and the other in hell, so that even if Lazarus wanted to bring him water, he could not go to him. Once we put off the flesh and enter the eternal world, there is no passing back and forth, not even a chance to move over into the world of light where Abraham is.
While the rich man lived in luxury on earth, he would never have imagined that one day, in Hades, he would long desperately for a single drop of water. Of course, living like a beggar in this world is not in itself a condition of salvation. Lazarus’ life was so harsh that he had to beg, yet he did not let go of his faith, and he lived with his hope set on heaven. That is why he was saved.
When God gives wealth in abundance, he gives it so that we will share the grace we have received with the weak and the poor and bring them to salvation. That is God’s command, and for those who believe it is their calling. But the rich man lived for himself alone and sneered at the poor and the weak, which is why he did nothing to help Lazarus even while the dogs he kept were tormenting him. The same evil the rich man did to Lazarus was taking place in the church in Laodicea.
The church in Laodicea was well off, since many wealthy people attended it. Yet instead of pursuing the work of leading people to salvation, they adorned their church building to make it ever more splendid and imposing, and made it the measure of their faith and the thing they boasted of. The members decked themselves out in pride and extravagance to raise themselves up, and they liked being waited on by the poorer members. With wealth they had received from God, they exalted their own names rather than his.
Revelation 3:15
15“I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were cold or hot.
The Lord’s word that our faith must be hot means that anyone who knows God’s will must take up their calling in the fullness of the Holy Spirit. If we look to God alone and serve him faithfully with a faith that burns and overflows, he will help us do still more for him.
And when he says that our faith must be cold, he means this: the world is a place of chaos, emptiness, and darkness under Satan’s rule, so when we meet greed, lust, and temptation, we must have the resolve to cut them off coldly and dispassionately. Unless a full faith enables us to cut away our own righteousness and our own desires, coldly and firmly, we will never be able to keep the faith.
Those whose faith is lukewarm say they believe in God, but because they love the world as well, they stand halfway between God and the world. A heart like this wavers easily in its decisions of faith and lives in constant regret. At the same time, they want to go to heaven too, and that keeps them from leaving the church.
But for anyone who has received Jesus Christ, there is no middle ground. There are only two colors: the black of loving the world, or the white of serving God. Even so, some hold on to gray and insist that, being both black and white, they can fit in anywhere. God has said that people who stand in the middle like this, claiming to love both God and the world, so disgust him that he will vomit them out.
Where do you stand? Are you hot or cold? Or are you lukewarm? If your faith is neither one thing nor the other and you hesitate between the world and heaven, God will rebuke you severely. People who stand in the middle like this will tell themselves that they have succeeded in the world and served God as well, and that everyone needs them, and they will be quite satisfied with themselves. But God will never use such people.
Heaven is the place for those who have been born again by the grace of Jesus Christ and are filled with it. But if lukewarm people in gray garments are standing among the saints dressed in white, God will pick them out as one picks out weeds. Of course, living by the word in this world is never easy. But that is what a believer is: someone who keeps striving to live by the word. So we must not try to live by human strength. Only when we labor to live clothed in God’s grace can we live as his people.
Hard iron does not snap at a single blow. We ought to break off our greed for the world at once, but because we fail to, God will melt even a heart as hard as iron in the furnace if that is what it takes to save us. Now that you have been called as God’s children to be holy saints, I hope you will live the precious life of sharing grace and sharing the word with a mature faith.
Revelation 3:17
17Because you say, ‘I am rich, and have gotten riches, and have need of nothing;’ and don’t know that you are the wretched one, miserable, poor, blind, and naked;
Like the rich man who fell into Hades, the Christians in Laodicea thought they lacked nothing in this world. They also believed that such blessings would last as long as they lived. With their offerings they had built a vast sanctuary, and the wealthy and powerful had gathered among them in great numbers, so they could not help but grow complacent. Yet they had no understanding at all of why they were going to church, or why God had entrusted so much wealth to them. Blessed so richly with the things of this world, they never suspected for a moment that God would rebuke them. But God sees blessing differently from the way people do, because to him how much or how little we have has nothing to do with faith.
God saw that the Laodiceans were content with what could be seen. Having forgotten the atonement Jesus made for them, they were living for the world. When we serve God faithfully and give ourselves to him, he does give us wealth and ability in this world so that we can take on still greater work for him. But they took fleshly pride, rather than spiritual fullness, to be faith, and so their whole walk with God had wandered from the truth. To give no thought to the suffering of the cross, as they did, is sin; to defile one’s own heart, the temple where God’s Spirit dwells, is sin.
Until Jesus, the light, came into the world, sinners were imprisoned in darkness. To people who could see nothing in the dark he gave light and opened the eyes of their spirit, but they could not let go of the lusts of the world, and they shut their eyes again. The rich man had met God, yet he did not live by the will of the Lord, who is the water of life. So it was that he fell into Hades, where there is not a single drop of water. The church in Laodicea, too, had cast aside God’s will and sought only human satisfaction; in this it was little different from the rich man and the evil he had done.
The same thing is happening in the church today: the more people own, the more they think God has blessed them richly because they have faith. If that is so, are the missionaries who go to distant lands and die as martyrs not blessed? Are those who endure in countries without religious freedom, simply in order to live by faith, people God has not blessed? Are those who give their utmost in newly planted churches to extend the Kingdom of God and keep his word people without faith?
In my view, this has come about because corrupt pastors, holding a false faith like the rich man’s, have for years diligently indoctrinated their congregations with a prosperity gospel. Now that people have taken up this faith that seeks only blessing, the faithfulness that once offered its own possessions to God is disappearing.
What is sadder still is that pastors of newly planted churches put up church buildings as a way to survive rather than teaching the word, and it is true that the buildings weigh heavily on their people. We ought to believe that if we preach the word, even if only one soul is saved, God will work out all the rest, yet we do not. And as this kind of faith has spread, little notice is taken even when the most precious of God’s people stumble and fall away.
There is an irony here: when putting up a church building is dressed up as faith, people will once again give until they have nothing left, believing they are being faithful. Outward things like these do help the work of evangelism, and that is why you must still share the gospel and, when many have gathered, build a place of worship. What I am saying is not that you should never do these things, but that we must set God’s will at the center, act according to it, and grow in that way.
Revelation 3:14
14“To the angel of the assembly in Laodicea write: “The Amen, the Faithful and True Witness, the Beginning of God’s creation, says these things:
When Jesus Christ introduces himself this way, he is telling us to live with an unchanging faith, like the Lord who works to the very end to accomplish the purpose for which he created all things. Only when the church knows what Jesus Christ counts important now can his people know how they ought to live in this world.
The church in Laodicea was founded by Epaphras, and together with the church in Colossae it was under Paul’s guidance. Yet this was the church rebuked for a lukewarm faith. The apostle Paul, who had thrown away his distinguished family, his schooling, his learning, and his wealth as so much refuse and was living by the word of Christ, taught them the word. Even so, the church in Laodicea could not let go of the world’s way of thinking, its knowledge, or its own righteousness. Through Laodicea we learn that however well God’s word is taught, if the hearers do not receive it and change, even that word is cast aside. Paul, faithful to death, taught them the word, and still they loved the riches of the world more than spiritual fullness; because of that, in the end they were not acknowledged as believers.
Like the rich man, the church in Laodicea had received much and enjoyed much. Had they grasped the truth, given themselves to God, and cared for their brothers and sisters, God would have poured out still more grace upon them. The Laodiceans had been raised up as an instrument to accomplish God’s great purpose and had been given the opportunity to bring him glory, but they did not do so. Living only for themselves, they were not faithful; taking no part in God’s work, they failed to live as his people.
Revelation 3:17
17Because you say, ‘I am rich, and have gotten riches, and have need of nothing;’ and don’t know that you are the wretched one, miserable, poor, blind, and naked;
The only fruit God received from the rich man and from the church in Laodicea was rotten fruit: spiritually poor, needy, wretched, miserable, blind, and naked. Rotten fruit will not sprout even when it is planted, and since it can yield no more fruit, there is nothing to do but throw it away. The Laodiceans thought they had done a great deal for God, yet God found not one fruit among them worth receiving.
This is how important it is for the church to know God’s will. God’s will is that we know Christ. Those who know Christ know that they are sinners, and so they obey the word even to the point of death and do not betray God. God entrusts a calling to his people not when they use him to get ahead in the world, but when they love him and give themselves to him. Only with this blessing are we kept from being robbed by Satan; only then is the shame of our nakedness covered, and only then can we be brought into a place of spiritual riches.
I hope you will receive this blessing. When you serve God, not clinging to the world to get ahead in it but seeking to lift up his name, God will exalt you in your humility and give you glory.
Revelation 3:20
20Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, then I will come in to him, and will dine with him, and he with me.
When God created human beings, he must have given them a heart that longs for his grace and earnestly desires to meet him. Even people who do not know God bear this out: they too want someone to lean on, someone to protect them. To fill that empty place in their hearts, people worship nameless idols and go to fortune-tellers.
People long to be filled spiritually, but a heart already seared cannot hear the Lord calling its name, and cannot see the Lord knocking at its door. No matter how often Jesus Christ knocks and asks us to open, a heart crammed with greed and self-righteousness cannot welcome him: there is no room for him there. Afraid that the moment they open the door of their hearts, all the righteousness and merit they have piled up will come crashing down, people keep it shut; they stop their ears and will not listen. Christ must have the most precious place in your heart. Only then is Satan unable to attack you, and only then can you love the brothers and sisters whose faith is weak.
There is something we must not misunderstand. Jesus does not mean to save only the poor and cast off every rich person. Whether we have much or little makes no difference at all to God. The standard by which he judges faith is whether we live as people who know we are in God’s debt.
The church in Laodicea was probably not hard-hearted from the beginning either. But as its wealth increased and the church grew, its people would have begun to want others to wait on them. Then, to raise themselves higher still, they must have begun to covet the power of the world rather than Jesus. Once the faith they had offered in purity and the prayers they had lifted up in thanksgiving came to exist only for their own happiness, their fervent faith went cold. So if you hold an office in the church, you must always examine yourself.
Seeing how the Lord reproved the church in Laodicea, we must examine whether our own church is going astray, and if it is, turn back from the road we are on. When the Lord promises that if we will only open the door of our hearts he will dine with us, he means that he will be with his people whatever their situation. Those who open their hearts in this way are spiritually full, and so the hardships of this world bring them no shame at all.
We have now looked at all seven churches. There were Christians who, even as they suffered, fought against the schemes of Satan, and there were churches that betrayed God although he had entrusted great possessions to them so that they would serve him with what they had. Jesus praised or rebuked each of them according to what they had done.
God’s holy people, in spite of difficult circumstances, bought gold refined by fire and were filled with faith; they overcame Satan and were clothed in white garments; and they had clear spiritual eyes that could see Satan at work. Their faith grew according to their efforts and their choices, and that growth brought them the commendation of Jesus Christ and overflowing grace. And for those who choose so well, the final blessing is salvation.
Revelation 3:19
19As many as I love, I reprove and chasten. Be zealous therefore, and repent.
Jesus Christ said that he reproves and chastens those he loves. Chastening here does not simply mean punishment; it means training, a testing that puts us through the fire. In other words, he wants the church in Laodicea to repent and be faithful. Just as no parent simply looks on while their child does wrong, he made plain his resolve to stop those who are following Satan down the road to hell, stepping in with a strong hand, with the rod of men and the stripes of the children of men. No one rejoices in testing and chastening. Yet the training he gives in love, to keep us on the right path, makes us bear the peaceful fruit of righteousness, and for that reason it does us good.
If we trust and follow the way Jesus Christ opened through the cross and the resurrection, we can surely overcome. Just as Jesus defeated Satan and sat down on the throne, all who overcome will share in the glory of heaven that Jesus Christ gives. But if any of us do not take this training seriously and run off into the world, Christ will perhaps not stop that person from becoming Satan’s servant. This is because, though they were loved, they cast God’s love aside.
Laodicea will have shown you how proud a heart is when it gives no thanks for God’s grace, and how sternly God rebukes such a heart. It is God who gives, and it is God who takes it all away. So if our hearts grow proud, in the end we will lose everything we own and even our lives. The wealth and power God the Creator has entrusted to us are worth less than dust. If we use them for our own pleasure instead of giving thanks, we will lose not only the wealth and power of this world; our very souls will fall into darkness. We must not become fools who cling to a world that is vanity of vanities. When God gives us the opportunity in this life, we need to repent.
I have come to see that the rebukes and exhortations Jesus Christ gave the seven churches are a hope he is giving to us today. His words to the seven churches are words Jesus Christ speaks to every church in this world. They are the heart of God, full of love, teaching us in detail what kind of faith we must have to come into heaven.
Had he meant only to point out the wickedness of the seven churches and cast them off, he would not even have exposed their sins. He wanted them to hear the word of Jesus Christ and turn back; he wanted them to repent and recover their first love. So to each church he promised that if only they would repent, he would give them abundant grace. Now that we too have received that promise, if we repent of what we must repent of and take up our calling with a full faith, Jesus Christ will be with us in still greater grace.
May you be people who know how to give thanks for what you have received from God, and who give yourselves to the Kingdom of God. I bless you in the name of Jesus Christ.