The last church is Laodicea, located about 50 miles southeast of Philadelphia. This completes the clockwise circle that started with the first church in Ephesus, mentioned in an earlier lesson. With this church it seems the Lord saved the worst for last. The passage is found in Revelation 3:14-22.
“These are the words of the Amen, the faithful and true Witness, the Beginning of God’s creation.” I quote this portion of verse 14 to point out the phrase “the Beginning of God’s creation”. This does not mean that the Son of God is the first thing God created, as some might suppose. It simply means the Son, that is, Christ began creating all things in the beginning. We have discussed this in previous lessons. En arche is usually translated “in the beginning”, but would be more accurate “in a beginning that was not the beginning”, or “at a fixed point in the dateless past”. When speaking of an eternal being, how can a “beginning” be applied?
There is another verse similar to this that is misleading to some. When speaking of Christ, Paul says in Colossians 1:15, “He is the exact likeness of the unseen God, the Firstborn of all creation.” Again, this doesn’t mean Christ was the first One created. It means He existed before anything was created in heaven or earth. When you read on through Colossians 1:16-17 you see that everything was created “by Him” (di autou) and “for Him” (eis auton). The same word translated “firstborn” in Colossians 1:15 (prototokos) is found in Hebrews 1:6 and has the same meaning. And not to belabor the point any further, Christ is an eternal, pre-existent being with neither beginning nor end (Micah 5:2, John 1:1-3, Revelation 1:8).
This brings us to verses 15-16. “I know your works, that you are neither hot nor cold. I would rather you were one or the other. So, because you are lukewarm and neither hot nor cold, I will vomit you out of My mouth.” This is, of course, illustrative language. Those in the Laodicean church were not completely void of any spiritual values, but they were not the least bit enthusiastic about them either. “Lukewarm” is from chliaros, meaning, tepid or slightly warm. They maintained some appearance of faithfulness to Christ, but had no real devotion to Him. So, “lukewarm” is used to illustrate indifference. They didn’t care about truth. As verse 17 will show us, they had discovered the worldly, material opportunities religion had to offer.
Then, verse 17 tells us why the Lord is ready to vomit them out of His mouth. “Because you say, I am rich, I have grown wealthy and have need of nothing; and yet you are wretched, to be pitied, poor, blind and naked.” Here’s the application in this passage. Look at the difference between the Laodicean estimation of themselves and the Lord’s estimation of them. Obviously, they were completely ignorant of their true condition.
We should already know the principle. The Lord tells us in Matthew 6:24, “No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and riches.” This is what happens when men use religion as an opportunity to gain worldly wealth. The word “hate” above is from miseo, a word used to show preference towards one thing over another. When your preference is to use religion to gain wealth, you have to sacrifice truth to do it, as one is antithetical to the other. However, the world has always gauged success in terms of material wealth. And, those who are successful in some type of religious activity usually assume their success is a result of God’s blessing. So, they are deceived and soon become ignorant of their true condition.
Further evidence of this deception is found in the Lord’s advice to them in the next verse (18). “I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined by fire, that you may be truly wealthy, and white clothes to cover you to keep the shame of your nakedness from being seen, and salve for your eyes, so you can see.” OK, there are three things in this verse that the Laodicean church is lacking. The gold refined by fire represents true faith strengthened by testing (I Peter 1:7). And remember our definition of faith. It’s not what you believe, or what you’ve been taught. Faith is defined by your real experiences with God, a personal relationship in the truest sense.
The second thing is white clothing. This represents the righteousness of the saints or God’s own people – those who are in right standing with God and accepted by Him (Revelation 4:4; 7:9, 13; 19:8, 14). Then the third is salve for their eyes. This represents enlightenment by both the word and the Holy Spirit (Psalms 19:8, Ephesians 1:18, I John 2:27).
This brings us to verse 19, “ As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten, be zealous therefore and repent.” This verse could be translated, “Those whom I love, I tell their faults and discipline and instruct them. So show some enthusiasm and change your attitude towards truth.” This is the Lord’s answer to verse 16, where He says the church is lukewarm or indifferent to truth.
Verse 20 contains the well-known invitation, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if any man hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him and he will eat with Me.” This is great illustrative language describing intimate fellowship. Christ is standing at the entrance to man’s heart. If any man opens his heart to Him, He will come in. Then, they will “sup” together. This is from deipneo, the main, evening meal. This was generally a long, leisurely time enjoyed with family and friends. Here, Christ is saying, “let Me into your heart and we’ll enjoy each other’s fellowship.
The message ends with another promise to those who overcome. “He who overcomes, I will grant to sit beside Me on My throne, just as I overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne.” (Verse 21) This is another example of the believer’s relationship with Christ in eternity; best described as the same, but not equal. Paul uses sugkleronomos, translated “joint-heirs” in Romans 8:17 to illustrate the believer’s personal equality based on equality of possession. In other words, the believer will have all the blessings promised Christ, but not the authority that is His alone.