Health & Fitness
Your Faith - Hot, Cold, or Lukewarm?
Last summer, my family and I had the pleasure of spending a week at the Word of Life Family campground which is located in the beautiful Adirondack Mountains of up-state New York. We went there again this summer as well but last year having never been there before, at the time I was pleasantly surprised at the atmosphere and environment, half retreat / half vacation, where each morning was devoted to seminars and Bible studies and each afternoon was open for all sorts of the fun typical to camping including boating, fishing, tubing (I was the only one to get launched), volleyball, basketball, and softball tournaments, campfires and really great desserts (waffle sundaes, yummmmm).
We had some really good speakers during the morning sessions and one of them briefly touched on a topic that resonated with me and left me feeling just a tad (well, maybe more than a tad) convicted as well, that of “lukewarm” Christian. Since a personal goal I have been working on before going into that trip was to get more involved in God’s Word, not just reading it more but digging into what I was reading for greater insight, I was intrigued and wanted to explore what God has to say to us in his Word about the concept of a lukewarm faith.
In the Chapters 2 and 3 of the Book of Revelation, Jesus speaks to seven churches in seven cities of Asia Minor, that area which is now western Turkey. The strengths and weaknesses of those churches that Jesus was talking about and to then symbolize the same strengths and weaknesses of human character present today.
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In Chapter 3, Jesus strongly rebukes the Church in the city of Laodicea for being lukewarm in their faith, and content with their own prosperity.
Rev 3:14-21 (NKJV)
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14 “And to the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write,
‘These things says the Amen, the Faithful and True Witness, the Beginning of the creation of God: 15 “I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot. 16 So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth. 17 Because you say, ‘I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing’—and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked— 18 I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich; and white garments, that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and anoint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see. 19 As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore be zealous and repent. 20 Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me. 21 To him who overcomes I will grant to sit with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne.”
Before we delve into the Word, some background on the city of Laodicea is helpful to fully understand Jesus’ rebuke to the Laodicieans.
Laodicea was a prosperous city with a large Jewish community, a great banking and finance center which was also known for clothing manufacture and it’s black wool. As you can see from the map, Laodicea was to the west of and lay between the cities of Hierapolis and Colossae. Hierapolis, seven miles to the northeast of Laodicea was known for its hot springs while the city of Colossae, located about 10 miles to the southeast was known for its cold, pure mineral laden waters. As prosperous as it was, Laodicea had neither though and the hot waters of Hierapolis and cold waters of Colossae were piped in for the populous. As you can imagine, by the time the water made it’s respective journeys from source to destination, it was likely neither all that hot or all that cold. And after travelling many miles through open air aqueducts or old dirty fired clay piping, it was likely not very clean or refreshing by the time it reached its destination. The word tepid or….lukewarm comes to mind.
Before we go any further, what it would be beneficial to define what it is we are talking about. The dictionary defines lukewarm in two ways: “mildly warm or tepid” and also as “Lacking conviction or enthusiasm; indifferent, neutral. “
Some people feel the idea behind Jesus’ words to the city promote an either / or stance - “I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot.” They see the “hot” as having a fire or a passion for Christ and the “cold” as ambivalence or dismissal of God and think Jesus is saying “Just pick a side, for me or against me, because your indecision bugs me”. I can see how idea that was arrived at but I personally do not feel that is the way this Scripture is meant to be viewed as I do not think Jesus would never condone the idea that being separated from God is acceptable as a choice.
Keeping the previously mentioned definition in the back of our minds - Clean hot and cold water both have their respective uses and would be of great value to the citizens of the city (especially in those days where clean water was not readily available like it is today). However, tepid dirty water has none of the benefits and value of clean hot or cold H2O. Therefore, I humbly submit that Jesus is NOT saying, “Be saved, be lost, whatever, just make a choice already” but rather by way of a clever confluence of timely scriptural context and the reality of the city’s fresh water supply, he is calling them out on the current apathetic state of their faith.
I believe one of the tools to a greater understanding and insight of scripture is to try to put it into your own words (without changing the intent or context ,of course) so to paraphrase (Richaphrase?) it might go something like this - “Supposed Laodiciean believer, just as your lukewarm dirty water supply is lacking and useless to you, so is your woefully pathetic self-centered faith equally lacking and useless to me.”
And we need to fully know that neutrality is simply NOT possible in the Kingdom of God either. It is succinctly and clearly stated in Matthew 12:30 that “He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters abroad.” As a committed follower of Christ, straddling the fence with regards to your faith is simply not an option.
And to further illustrate just how totally unacceptable a situation he finds this, in verse 16 Jesus says “So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth.” Can you imagine Jesus saying to a purported believer (in another Richaphrase) that his relationship and faith with God is actually so thoroughly useless and unpalatable that it made him want to puke?!?!? And he said this of an entire Church!!
Strong words of rebuke from our Lord indeed, pray they never be heard by any Church.
Now that we have seen how totally unacceptable Jesus finds the lukewarm Christian of those days to be, let’s take a look at what that means for us today.
How would you (yes you) define a lukewarm Christian? In my view, a lukewarm Christian is one who may have his hand upon his Bible, but his feet are still firmly planted in the world. A lukewarm Christian may be able to quote Scripture but is indifferent to adopting its teachings. As our Pastor so frequently and astutely says, a lukewarm Christian “Makes a profession of faith but has no possession of faith.” Talking the talk or walking the walk is the difference between being a lukewarm fan of that Jesus guy or a committed follower of Jesus Christ, Lord and Savior.
I know what you are thinking, “Dude, are you talking to me? Your Richaphrases rock, but ME? Lukewarm for God?!?! No way!!” And you may very well be spot-on 100% correct. I do not mean to imply insult, only to provoke honest self evaluation, so if the shoe DOES NOT fit, honestly my friend, good on you and thank you for your service, you are a real blessing to all of us and a treasure to God.
However for everyone else though (me included) and except for that guy above (you know who you are, thanks again), humbly and respectfully submitted as a simple gut-check, here are some questions you might wanna to ask yourself:
Do you attend church because you think it’s expected of you and because you really like to hang out with the people there?
Do you want to be saved FROM sin or saved from the PENALTY of sin?
When a coworker says to you at lunch that “Hindus, Buddhists, Muslims, Christians, whatever, to each his own, who am I to say one is any truer than the other?” do you politely agree thinking you don’t need this hassle today and then change the subject?
In Sunday service, at the very first note of the very first worship song are you the very first person to stand and lift your hands high in praise only to walk out to your car after service and have the radio tuned to the latest profanity laced shock radio personality?
Is your prayer activity directly tied to the levels of your difficulties (i.e. no difficulty = no prayer)? And not AT ALL to your blessings…?
When you sit down at service and see dust on a wall railing, do you say to yourself “Someone should really clean this place up, we will never attract new members with the Sanctuary looking like this” or “I bet I can snag the Pledge from the cleaning supplies and knock this out in 10 minutes after service” ?
…And if you did snag the Pledge and did knock it out in 10 minutes after service, afterwards did you MAKE ABSOLUTELY SURE that the Pastors, Deacons, and Elders, the lady in the nursery, the people eating bagels, and some random guy walking past the front door on his way to the brake shop ALL knew that was YOU who did it…?
Do you ask yourself “How much time reading the Bible is enough?” rather than “How can I find more time to read my Bible?”
Do you sin and smile to yourself because “grace abounds” rather than go to your knees in conviction and repentance?
When someone asks you if you are saved, is your response “You bet I am. I go to Church almost every Sunday. Well, except if it is raining and sometimes I forget to do laundry and have to catch up and sometimes I am out late and end up sleeping in and sometimes I really like to go out to breakfast and don’t quite make it to Church. But my Bible is in my car when I am eating so that counts for something right?!?!”?
Do you try to figure out at EXACTLY what point something becomes sinful or do you seek greater opportunity to become pure?
Do you gauge your success by the standards of the world (bigger is better – more bigger is even more better, what’s mine is mine – if you want some, go get your own, enough is never enough) or the standards of God (blessed are the humble, the meek, the generous of spirit)?
I know, some are kind of silly but I think you can see the intent. Feel free to elaborate and add more questions of your own in a reply.
So how do we break free from a tepid apathetic walk with the Lord? How can we enable a hot spring of faith to well up inside us and then enjoy a cool refreshing glass of living water? How Jesus instructed the Loadicieans to break free from this pattern of indifferent behavior is still applicable his Church today.
Verses 18-19 state - ”I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich; and white garments, that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and anoint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see. 19 As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore be zealous and repent.”
Per our Lord we are to:
1. Seek you, your rewards in Heaven, rewards refined in devotional self service and sacrifice for Christ’s sake and God’s glory, rather than the empty “riches” of this earth.
2. Recognize that without being clothed in the righteousness of Christ, you are spiritually destitute, naked and pitiable before God and subject to His wrath.
3. Understand that some of what Jesus teaches us can be tread on our feelings or make us uncomfortable but you must truly understand that it is only to our benefit. Humbly accept that the Holy Spirit will take you out of your comfort zone and that “attention getter” thrown your way on occasion is for your own good, is a way towards a greater knowing of God and maybe a better understanding of your place in his community.
4. Get to know God and cultivate a relationship with him and a zeal for Him. To me, this is a progressively beneficial relationship as the more you see him working in your life, the more zealous for him you will become; and the more of him that you zealously seek, the more of him that you will find at work within you.
5. Finally simply this: repent of your sin and seek forgiveness from the Lord. The plain and simple truth is that we ourselves are sinners living amongst other sinners in a fallen (and apparently ever descending) world. Despite our best intentions, we sin and un-confessed sin is a barrier between us and God. But that barrier is instantly broken down when we go to our quiet place and admit our shortcomings before the Lord and seek his forgiveness.
In closing I would like to end with this thought from Paul, this attainable goal for all of us who count themselves as members of the Kingdom of God…
Galatians 2:20 “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”
By the way, THANK YOU for reading this and any other of my postings you took some time out of your busy day to peruse. I am always looking for comments (pithy and snarky a plus!!), honest feedback, and certainly correction if botched up something, so feel free to post a reply to this in the comments section.
Have a blessed and happy day in our Lord
Rich