making Jesus puke

“I know all the things you do, that you are neither hot nor cold. I wish that you were one or the other! But since you are like lukewarm water, neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth.”

- Revelation 3:15-16, NLT

In our home is 20-gallon water heater which sits in a cabinet underneath the kitchen countertops. It didn’t take long for my wife and me to figure out that after 5 minutes in the shower, it’s time to get out. At that point the water isn’t hot anymore; even with the hot faucet opened full throttle, the water is, at best, lukewarm.

 

Jesus wrote a letter to a church located in the city of Laodicea in Asia Minor (what is now Turkey). From his vantage point in heaven, he observed a congregation that was much like tepid bathwater. It was neither hot nor cold. Some, reading Jesus’ statement, “I wish that you were one or the other,” have suggested that he prefers outright opposition to indifference. But I’m not certain that is an accurate interpretation. After all, hot water is good, and so is cold water. Hot water is used for cleaning, among other things. And cold water is refreshing. In Laodicea, Jesus saw neither. The church had no heat: It was not cleaning; it didn’t stand against the moral decay of society; people were not being convicted of sin. Nor was there coolness: It no longer proclaimed the Word; souls were not being refreshed by the good news of Jesus.

 

Instead, Laodicean Christians were stuck in a halfhearted in-between. Jesus, hoping to remedy the situation, chooses a metaphor they would understand. For all of its affluence, the citizenry lacked a reliable water supply. They could draw water from the rain and melting snow of nearby mountains, but by the time the water arrived it had warmed. Another source was an aqueduct that piped water from a nearby hot spring; but along the journey the water cooled. Understandably, Laodiceans were frustrated that they could enjoy neither hot water nor cold water. Seeing his opportunity, Jesus says to them, “You know how your room-temperature water disgusts you? That’s how I feel about your church.”

 

Ouch. Why would Jesus say such a thing, and to Christians of all people? He answers near the end of the letter: “I correct and discipline everyone I love. So be diligent and turn from your indifference” (verse 19). Jesus was still invested in Laodicea; he envisioned great things for its people. The church had an enormous opportunity. Laodicea was a hub of economic activity with its financial industry, designer-label wool outerwear, and medical institution; it was a crossroads through which people from all over the empire – if not the known world – passed. The city church quite literally had an opportunity to reach the world with the Gospel.

 

I sometimes wonder: If Jesus wrote a letter from heaven to our church, what would it say? He most certainly would say, “I know all the things you do,” as he does in some form to each of Revelation’s seven churches. But what would the verdict be? Would we be lukewarm like Laodicea? Alive and well like Smyrna? Dead like Sardis? Faithful like Philadelphia? Friends, these letters are written to us that we may learn from the successes and mistakes of our forebears. May Jesus find us passionately and faithfully seizing the opportunities he has given to us.