Hot or Cold

"So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth." (Rev. 3:16)

These are the words of the Lord Jesus to the church in Laodicea. It had once been a church that was in love with Jesus. It had once been a white hot church. But now Jesus says they are lukewarm, and in fact nauseating to Him. The word spit is a modest translation of a word that literally means to vomit.

All my life I have read this to be a word to "lukewarm christians", but is it? Has there ever been a greater oxymoron than "lukewarm christians." A Christian, a genuine Christian, is one who has come to experience the incredible love of God through Jesus Christ. They have been given an incredible gift of the person of the Holy Spirit to live in their heart. They have been set free from the powers of the kingdom of darkness and become a child of the king. How can someone who truly knows God through Jesus Christ be lukewarm?

The counsel that Jesus gives to this church to buy "white garments to clothe your nakedness" and "salve to annoint your eyes so that you may see" are suggestive of salvation experiences. Could it be that the church in Laodicea was full of lukewarm religious people who have never been born again? Perhaps verse 20 is actually an evangelistic text after all. "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."

So today, let me ask you a question. Are you white hot crazy in love with Jesus, or are you absolutely cold and indifferent? Or perhaps today you would say, "I am lukewarm." Maybe it is time to do what Paul suggests in 2 Cor. 13:5, "Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith."