To the Church in Laodicea
To the angel of the church in Laodicea write:
These are the words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the ruler of God’s creation. I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—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.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see. Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest and repent. Here I am! 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. To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I was victorious and sat down with my Father on his throne. Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.
A couple months ago, I was preparing my bread dough, a new recipe so I read into the details of making the perfect batch. The trickiest part of bread dough is the yeast, of course. Bread recipes and bakers will advise to let the yeast soak into lukewarm water. Lukewarm water is ideal for yeast to be absorbed and your bread will rise faster. Cold water does absorb the yeast but it takes the dough much longer to rise. But the thing you never want to do with yeast is to absorb it with hot water. Hot water kills the yeast and the dough will not rise.
I have made bread many times before without knowing the reason for avoiding hot water. This new lesson in bread making reminded me of yeast in the Bible. In most instances, the Bible speaks of yeast negatively, like the yeast of the Pharisees and Saduccees-- their hypocrisy (Matthew 6:6-12). Paul likens yeast to false teaching (Galatians 5:9).
As Paul is addressing a situation involving a sexually immoral brother and the Corinthians improper handling of the sin, he writes:
Your boasting is not good. Don’t you know that a little yeast leavens the whole batch of dough? Get rid of the old yeast, so that you may be a new unleavened batch—as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old bread leavened with malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth (I Corinthians 5:6-8).
To attain the nice-looking, puffy loaf of bread we Americans are accustomed to, we soak our yeast in lukewarm water since the yeast thrives in lukewarm. To our shame, we Americans—in some areas of the church—have attained a nice-looking, puffy church, with the yeast of sin able to thrive in our lukewarm spirituality.
Lukewarm spirituality was the mighty rebuke of Christ to the church of Laodicea. The strong image of Christ vomiting the church out of his mouth causes me to shudder and wonder. It seems that Christ is so sickened by indecision, flip-flopping, people trying to please both God and man, so sickened by a church that confesses Christ with their lips but their hearts are far from him (Isaiah 29:13), that He would vomit. He would actually prefer us to be cold over lukewarm! At least we and the outside lost would know where we stand if we were cold. Lukewarm makes it hard for an unbelieving world to distinguish truth from all else.
This church, and its direct implications to the church age in which we live, seems doomed and condemned as Christ proclaims that [we] are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. And we think we are rich.
For us and for Laodecia, a hopeless state. Sin runs rampant even in the church, and like the Corinthians, we not only tolerate it, sometimes boast in it. In the name of tolerance and living down to the standards of the world, we are afraid to share the intolerance God has for sin. We are afraid to tell people of their impending judgment before the Almighty.
We refuse to share the truth of John 3:36, Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him. The wrath of God is a destructive force and nothing can assuage it except Jesus Christ Himself. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! (Romans 5:8-9) If people cannot understand our death sentence, people cannot understand why we need Jesus.
And with the Joel Osteen’s, Benny Hinn’s, and Rob Bell’s shaping so much of the American church, the “good news” is reduced to lukewarm, ho-hum news. That we would reduce our Jesus and His sacrifice to nothing seems the great sin of our lukewarm American experience. We seem to have no more truth to offer or good news to share. If the “people walking in darkness” don’t see their need for rescue, will they follow the Light even when they see it, as He reveals Himself? Will we open the door to Jesus who declares “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock”?
I could write pages on the aforementioned men, but what about me? How rapidly does the yeast of my pride—sin—rise in my lukewarm spirituality? How often can I be confident that I am “hot” for Jesus? How foolish of me to not remove the plank plunged into my own life. I thank God that while He will not tolerate lukewarm, He gives us hope. He gives me hope: Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest and repent.
Unlike other churches, Jesus had nothing with which to commend Laodicea. But His love is deeper still. Because He loves us Laodiceans, He warns us with rebuke and discipline. That we would repent in earnest before it is too late!
The Counselor says we are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see.
The refining fire is hot, it will kill sin in the process of purification. As we put our trust, hope, even our very lives into Jesus, He will give us white clothes of His righteousness. Come now, let us reason together, says the LORD: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall become like wool. Jesus Himself initiates reconciliation and restoration. I pray that we would follow the counsel of Jesus and rub our eyes with the Word of God, the Word Became Flesh, and see Jesus for who He is. Then we will recognize His knocking at the door of our church.
Hot is the only temperature that kills yeast. If we let the Spirit of Christ overtake us, we can only be hot for Him—He allows no cooling. And the yeast—our pride and sin—will die. And we will open the door.
If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me. To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I was victorious and sat down with my Father on his throne. Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.
