When a situation can go ‘either way,’ it doesn’t exactly engender excitement. There’s a sense of foreboding that the good half might be cancelled out by the bad. Jesus was not playing around when he told the Laodicean church that their ‘neither hot nor cold’ status was making him sick (Rev.3:16). Their ‘half in – half out’ theology was not going to be tolerated. But this accusation would have been the furthest thing from their minds, and Jesus’ condemnation a shock to them. Jesus pointed to their deeds. As far as Jesus was concerned, they were indicative of the actual state of their Christian zeal and passion—Lukewarm. However, you may as well have tried to convince a person in a Ponzi scheme that they were heading for poverty, than convince the Laodiceans that their wealth and independence had nothing to do with real spiritual value. To them, they had made it, and had everything to show for it. Jesus told them that they were instead ‘wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked’ (Rev.3:17). They were in no position to overcome the devil and one day sit with the Lord in eternity (Rev.3:21). Love demanded that they receive the discipline of public rebuke and a call to repentance (Rev.3:19). Their repentance was to be defined by their change in shopping habits. Jesus was to be their sole supplier. They were to purchase from him alone: 1. ‘Gold refined by fire’—Richness in Faith. It’s works tested and purified by the fires of persecution; 2. ‘White clothes’—To regain the purity lost after removing the covering of Christ that they had been clothed with in baptism; and 3. ‘Salve to put on their eyes’—The eyes of their hearts will be opened. Spiritual insight and wisdom will return to their vision. It is only to wholehearted that Christ says, “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches” (Rev.3:22).
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