While preparing this message about Christ’s words to the Laodicean church, an email appeared in my inbox with the subject line “Sins of the church in Laodicea”. It was the very subject that was already on my mind. A second thing that caught my attention is that the email was in German. It did, however, have a few introductory lines in English that set the expectation that this letter is highly important. It said, “Could you make this email accessible to all members of your community or could you endeavor to have this e-mail printed out in the Advent newspaper for all Adventists in your country?”
That is a large communication task. What it told me is that the writer felt this was important. I don’t read all my emails, even when they are in English. But I wanted to see what this one was all about. I used Google’s translation tool and read the letter.
The letter describes a large problem that many of us have. Then it offers a solution.
Let’s pause here and notice how central problems and solutions are to our lives. One thing we all have in common is problems. Life on this earth is an endless series of encountering problems and searching for solutions. On a large scale we have the problem of sin and the solution of Jesus. Problems and solutions shape our lives on a smaller scale too. When you hire someone, you are problem solving. When you put on a jacket, you are problem solving. When you change your child’s messy diaper, you are problem solving. Life is woven around problems and solutions. So much of succeeding in life is a result of seeing the problem and pursuing the right solution.
From the subject of the email, you might be able to guess what the problem is. In general, the letter identifies the problem the same way that Revelation 3 does. We are lukewarm. The general solution offered is to get hot. This is all Biblical. The place the letter strays away from Jesus’ message is when it elaborates on the conditions of lukewarm and hot. Then it really doesn’t sound like the Bible when it prescribes just what we should do to get hot. The email gave me permission to share this letter, so I will. I included it in a file below.
Here is how the letter described the problem of being lukewarm. Remember, it is a translation.
- “You have no white robes of justice, salvation has not yet been ascribed to us!!!
- “Jesus is not yet in our hearts with His love.”
- “We don’t go to look for the lost sheep of Jesus’ fold.”
- “God is probably very disappointed by this.”
- “If we don’t reform, Jesus doesn’t give us salvation.”
- “He will punish us severely.”
Here is how the letter described the solution of getting hot:
- “If you don’t get hot (don’t get more like Me), you won’t get eternal life.”
- “How was Jesus? Jesus did not sin.”
- “Salvation is a gift, we cannot earn it but it is conditional, we must follow Jesus in His conduct!”
- “God will be incredibly proud of us when we start doing this.”
The letter includes several general exhortations to be like Jesus through preaching, serving, healing, and giving to the poor.
And this is how the letter prescribed that we might get hot:
- “The most important thing for heaven at this time is to introduce the three angels message and food reform.”
- We need to proselytize like the Jehovah’s Witnesses and the Baptists
- There are phases that promoted our own works as conditions for salvation like, “Jesus is certainly ready to forgive us everything if we are still productive in our lives we decide to change and we will go to the people with His love.”
- And there are overly prescriptive suggestions like, “Go to the people for 2 – 3 hours on Saturday afternoon, do evangelism and give bible lessons, or every second Sunday in the morning 2 hours of missionary work and during the week in the afternoon 1 – 2 hours of Bible lessons.”
That’s it. The solution is to become hot and the suggested way to get there is to do more spiritual deeds. I just don’t find that very helpful.
The letter uses general phrases I can agree with like, “There is no more important task for man than to seek the kingdom of heaven and its righteousness and help other people.” But then I don’t agree with the applications of those statements.
The letter ends with these words, “The god has gifted me with strong feelings of happiness.
We should show the blind (Adventists too) the way, otherwise the god will seek their blood from us.”
We don’t all agree on what the problem is. For some it is climate change. For others it is taxes.
We agree even less about what the solution is. One says it is a vegan diet the other says it is keto.
And there is mass confusion on what to do about it.
We need to know more than the problem and the solution. We need to know how to do it. And everyone has an idea about that. This is when we need to see a counselor. This is what is so great about the message to the church in Laodicea. Jesus gives free counseling. In the text, Jesus tells the problem, then the solution, then he says, “I counsel you…” How valuable would it be to have a one-on-one counseling session with Jesus where he told you what you need to do to grow spiritually?
Make that appointment right now. He has availability.
After a careful assessment of your spiritual condition, he doesn’t leave you hopeless with a bad diagnosis. He tells you how to grow.
You can read if for yourself in Revelation 3:18.
I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen, and salve to anoint your eyes, so that you may see.
These are all things that we buy from God. You cannot purchase the gifts of God with money (Acts 8:9–24, Isaiah 55:1). We don’t buy God, He purchased us (Revelation 5:9). But we cannot receive them unless we give up the idol we hold in their place. Think about it. We escape the fatal condition of lukewarm spirituality by giving up the idol and replacing it with God.
Gold
Your counselor Jesus wants to talk to you about riches, about your values! You will not be lukewarm if Jesus is your treasure! He wants you to be rich with the things that are truly valuable. The lukewarm condition is a distortion of value. At the Bible study group, we are all going to say that Jesus is #1. Does your life confirm it?
It is not easy to correct our distorted values. We have strong affections for the riches the world offers. In the process of following Jesus those thing lose their value and Jesus looks more attractive.
Consider the riches that are in Christ. How valuable is peace? What price would you place on the experience of unconditional love? What luxury home can compare to sinless eternity?
This counseling session is practical. Here is your assignment. Celebrate any bit of riches you experience in Jesus. In celebrating them, your perceived value of them will grow. You will retrain your affections. When he becomes your treasure, you are not lukewarm about it.
Clothes
Your counselor Jesus wants to talk to you about purity! In you counseling session, Jesus must point out an embarrassingly obvious thing, you’re not wearing anything. Right at the center of the gospel is the truth that Jesus saves us by covering us with his robe of righteousness. Underneath those perfect robes there is still some shameful nakedness. Jesus is not telling us to live sinless. He is offering purity in Him.
So long as we wear our own clothes, we will stay lukewarm. We will never have the spiritual experience Jesus wants for us when our purity is rooted in our own works.
When you experience the grace of Jesus that covers you with His righteousness, you don’t stay lukewarm.
We do need purity. We should have a high standard. We need to repent and forsake sin. But no amount of personal reform will break us out of lukewarmness. That happens when we put on His robe.
The counselor gives you this practical assignment, received the righteousness of Jesus. Study the doctrine of righteousness by faith until the truth hits you with the glory of grace. If you are not excited about it, you didn’t understand it.
Eye Salve
Your counselor Jesus wants to talk to you about vision! Imagine being blind and not knowing it. Or imagine that there is a sixth sense that exists, and we have lived our whole lives without knowing it. This is life changing. The contrast being having sight and not is huge. One of the reasons we stay lukewarm is that we don’t have the vision to see what our experience actually looks like and how much better our experience could be.
When God opens our eyes to see the world more like he sees it, we don’t stay lukewarm.
Revelation 3:20
Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.
Not sure how to buy gold, clothes and eye salve from God? Spend some time with Jesus. He doesn’t just tell you to do it, he knocks at the door to come in and help you do it. You have a counselor who is eager to help with your spiritual condition.