Revelation mentions a number of churches that were praised and rebuked by Jesus (sometimes both). One such church was Laodicea, mentioned in Revelation 3. This body of so-called believers received a warning that at the return of Christ, he would not accept them. What was wrong with the Church of Laodicea, and how is the warning to them also a warning to us?
“I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot!” (Revelation 3:15-17).
God’s problem with this church was that they lived as though they had one foot in the world and one foot in heaven, but they were foolish if they thought he would permit such wavering. “You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God” (James 4:4).
The Laodiceans imagined they were safe because they believed Jesus was the Risen Lord, even though they did not act as though Christ’s life, death, and resurrection had impacted their hearts.
Laodicea was located near modern Denizli in Turkey, and the city was wealthy. Paul referenced this church in his letter to the Colossians, where he asks members of that church to give them his greetings (Colossians 4:15). He makes no direct mention of any spiritual strife there.
Stephen Baker described how “a vast wall encompassed the city, and several prosperous industries bolstered the economy, which included banking, clothing manufacture, and a medical school.”
The Christians of this city had permitted wealth to dull them spiritually; they became prideful and independent. In fact, they behaved as though they did not need God. The land provided for them; they had enough water.
If life had been harder, perhaps they would have cried out to the Lord. Instead, ease and comfort cooled their zeal for Christ. Their “lukewarmness,” wrote Marshall Segal, “was a symptom of a more serious condition: self-reliance.”
Jesus said something positive to all of the seven churches he addressed in Revelation 2-3, except for Laodicea.
Even at Thyatira, whom Jesus rebuked for tolerating Jezebel, “who calls herself a prophetess and is teaching and seducing my servants to practice sexual immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols” (2:20), Jesus also “praised their “love and faith and service and patient endurance” (2:19).
Being neither hot nor cold is a serious problem: the Laodicean church was in greater danger than a sister church, which tolerated sexual immorality.
Sexual immorality was frequently top of the list of sins the apostles warned people against, so how could a mere lack of passion be so important? Laodicea was not alone in facing this criticism, and other sins emerging from spiritual dozing are mentioned elsewhere.
Some of the Pergamum Christians “hold the teaching of the Nicolaitans.” One source says that Nicolaitans were sexually immoral, and they ate food offered to idols.
Jesus did not find the works of the Sardis Christians “complete in the sight of my God” (Revelation 3:2). They had fallen asleep.
These two examples alone show that being lukewarm disables spiritual endurance against sins of commission and omission.
When a Christian takes his eyes off Christ, he or she begins to tolerate sin. Tolerance leads to adopting sinful practices such as worshipping other gods and adultery.
In the case of the Sardis Christians, the problem was perhaps their blindness to the needs of people around them, not serving others as Christ had served them. “I have not found your works complete” (v. 2).
Completed works are not a sign of moral perfection, but they demonstrate a full and life-giving understanding of the gospel and obedience to Christ’s command that believers would share the good news. That same news, penetrating the heart of a Christian, leads to fruitfulness inwardly and outwardly.
Paul encouraged the Galatian church, “Let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up” (Galatian 6:9).
Not only is this a sign that we are living fruitfully for Christ, but there is a reward — “The one who conquers will be clothed thus in white garments, and I will never blot his name out of the Book of Life. I will confess his name before my Father and before his angels” (Revelation 3:5).
The opposite is true for those who doze instead of being totally revived. “I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come against you” (3:3).
There are no days off; faithful living is a lifelong commitment made possible by the Holy Spirit working inside the hearts of people who truly worship King Jesus.
Our bodies need sleep, but we cannot take a break from loving Jesus. Revelation 2-3 seems to be saying that if we want to go on a spiritual holiday, then Jesus is not in us. We have not loved him.
It is impossible, once we truly submit to him, to wish we were apart from him, living life according to the flesh. Once a person meets Jesus, nothing is better.
Being neither hot nor cold is like believing that all one has to do is satisfy a minimum requirement to be saved, but Jesus wants all of us. We are either all in or all out.
Before we are too harsh on the Laodiceans, we must remember that this is a typical spiritual problem. The Jews frequently lost their zeal for Almighty God, often immediately after he performed some kind of saving miracle.
Paul wrote, “Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord” (Romans 12:11). Jesus warned, “Because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold” (Matthew 24:12). Spiritual slumber, lukewarmness, is our problem too.
This is not a letter of irrevocable judgment. God is merciful, so he gives Laodicea an opportunity to come back to him.
He also offers them the way: to respond to Jesus. “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me” (3:20). There are at least three features of this renewed relationship:
1. Jesus starts the action. He is first to reach out to those who have rejected him but who now also repent and yearn to live for him once more.
2. Jesus offers a warm reconciliation, not a mere fact of life over death. His offer to them indicates whom they are saved for, not merely what they are savedfrom.
3. Fellowship with Jesus is satisfying even at a physical level. We will eat and drink with him.
Although we will be bodily resurrected, and this statement points to the fact, there is also a here-and-now application to this invitation.
We can enjoy fellowship with Jesus in our mortal state today, which is more satisfying than any of the physical temptations evoked in 2 Corinthians 12:20 by Paul as he wonders if Corinth has become lukewarm:
For I fear that perhaps when I come I may find you not as I wish, and that you may find me not as you wish — that perhaps there may be quarreling, jealousy, anger, hostility, slander, gossip, conceit, and disorder.
The chaos of sin cannot satisfy; only Jesus can. As we see in Paul’s letter, there is no peace for one who rejects God, even when rejection is characterized by apathy rather than obvious acts of hurtfulness towards others.
Nothing and no one will ever compare to Jesus. This call to Laodicea addresses even people today who believe they are saved because they said a prayer asking Jesus into their lives once upon a time.
If our spirit is reclined in a comfortable chair, a mug of tea in hand, we have forgotten Jesus’ call on our lives.
We must rouse ourselves to the knocking and let Jesus in to be Lord of our lives, or else we have not truly invited him to be Savior and King. In that case, we are neither hot nor cold, and our souls are in grave danger.
For further reading:
How Do We Stop from Becoming Lukewarm Like Laodicea?
7 Signs You’re Falling into a Lukewarm Faith
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