Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel says, “The opposite of love is not hate; it’s indifference.”

This may help explain our tendency to hate now the same people we were enough in love with to marry at some point in our past. We love and hate the people we feel intensely about.

What do you think of yourself, from a spiritual perspective?

Romans 12:3 For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.

Galatians 6:3 For if a man think himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself.

Revelation 3:14–22
And to the angel of the church of Laodicea write: “The words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of God’s creation. I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were cold or hot! So, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold not hot, I will spew you out of my mouth. For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing; not knowing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked. Therefore I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, that you may be rich, and white garments to clothe you and to keep the shame of your nakedness from being seen, and salve to anoint your eyes, that you may see. Those whom I love, I reprove and chasten; so be zealous and repent. Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if any one hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.”

This is a letter from Jesus to the church at Laodicea in Asia Minor. It was given to John in a vision and had the purpose of saving the church from lukewarmness and possible destruction. It’s a message that every church needs to hear, These are solemn words of counsel and love to a church that is content with itself, and feels need of nothing.

Jesus Who Speaks to Laodicea

Because Jesus is going to deliver an awful threat and an incomparable promise in this letter, it is fitting that he identifies himself as one who has the credibility and power to say such things. When he says that he is the “Amen,” he means that he is reliable; he is God’s confirmation, God’s “yes” to all divine promises (2 Corinthians 1:20). 20For how many soever be the promises of God, in him is the yea: wherefore also through him is the Amen, unto the glory of God through us.

“Amen” is simply a transliteration of a Hebrew word that means firm or true or faithful. It is the Word of God, with all his firmness and truth and reliability behind it.

Revelation 5:13, 14 Christ is worshiped by every creature, but in 19:10 John’s attempt to worship an angel is strictly forbidden; only God is to be worshiped. The status of Jesus Christ is therefore much greater than a created angel, for he is to be worshiped.

Jesus’ Issues an Indictment and a Threat

“I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were cold or hot! So, because you are lukewarm and neither cold nor hot, I will spew you out of my mouth.”

His indictment against the church is that they are half-hearted in their relation to him. They do not have the fervor and warmth and zeal of a true lover of Christ; nor are they outright unbelievers who flatly reject Jesus and make no pretense of faith. They are halfway in between. Christ has a moderate influence on their lives. They are not uninfluenced by the Lord; but neither do they go overboard nor get very excited about the Creator of all.

They do not burn with a desire for more of God. They do not go hard after him in the secret place. They do not fling the door wide and welcome him into the innermost places of their emotions. But they keep him just outside the door and do their business with him coolly, lukewarmly, through the mail-slot.

Jesus’ threat to the lukewarm church is that he will spew them out of his mouth. Jesus Christ putting the cup to his lips in the hope of tasting a pleasing drink, and then spitting it out on the ground.

Surely the image of spitting people out of his mouth means that he has found them to be unacceptable and rejects them.

The faith that saves is not a lukewarm, half-hearted faith. And so he warns Laodicea, and every other church, if you do not repent and become zealous, or hot, then the mechanical, cool superficiality of your faith will be your destruction, and I will spew you out of my mouth.

Jesus makes it clear that an essential part of lukewarmness is ignorance of our true spiritual condition and satisfaction with the way we are.

“For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing; not knowing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked.” You can take your spiritual temperature by whether you feel in your heart a great need to seek God in prayer and fasting . The essence of lukewarmness is the statement, “I need nothing.”

The lukewarm are spiritually self-satisfied. To find out whether you are among that number, don’t look into your head to see if you think that you are needy; satisfied and lukewarm?

Jesus’ word to people who feel that they need nothing, “You are wretched and pitiable and poor and blind and naked.” And if such churchgoers don’t begin to do something to change their condition, Jesus will eventually spew them out of his mouth.

What is The Cause of Lukewarm Christianity?

verses 17 and 18: “Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing;” wow, what a church, they had it all together and were perfect. We don’t need anything,

You don’t know that you are wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked.

The cause is summed up in two phrases: “thou sayest,” and “knowest not.” Their indifference was caused by their ignorance. They didn’t even know what their need was. Their greatest need was to see their need.

The lukewarm Christian is generally the last one to know that he is a lukewarm Christian.

I wonder to whom he’s speaking? Is God speaking to you, to me?

There are none so blind as those who refuse to see. There are none so deaf as those who have ears but will not hear. That’s the reason He says, “He that hath ears to hear, let him hear what the Spirit saith to the church.”

Jesus’ Counsel to the Church

Therefore I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, that you may be rich, and white garments to clothe you and to keep the shame of your nakedness from being seen, and salve to anoint your eyes, that you may see.” The will of Christ for the church is that our poverty be replaced by spiritual wealth; that our nakedness and shame be covered with the robes of righteousness and good deeds; that our blindness be healed so we can see things as they really are and escape from the dream world of self-satisfaction.

And there is only one place we can get these things, from Jesus himself.

Jesus says, Buy from me gold! Jesus knows we’re broke. He just said so in verse 17. And not just broke, but blind, we can’t work. And not just blind, but shamefully naked, we can’t even leave the closet. So how do you buy gold and garments and salve when you are poor and blind and naked?

We can not go out and get his gold, on our own, by works, we can do nothing, we don’t go out;

We must invite Jesus in. 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.

This verse can be applied to an unbeliever, and it is often used that way, but that is not its purpose here. It is addressed to lukewarm Christians who think they have need of nothing more of Christ. It is addressed to churchgoers who do not enjoy the riches of Christ or the garments of Christ or the medicine of Christ because they keep the door shut to the inner room of their lives. All the dealings they have with Christ are businesslike lukewarm dealings with a salesman through the door on the porch.

But Christ did not die to redeem a bride who would keep him at a distance while she went on with her life in the house.

Jesus will for the church is that we open the door, all the doors of our life. He wants to join you in the dining room, spread a meal out for you, and eat with you and talk with you. The opposite of lukewarmness is the fervor you experience when you enjoy a dinner with Jesus Christ in the innermost room of your heart.

How do you get this gold, how do you fix your life?

You pray, and trust the promise: “I will come in to you and eat with you, and you with me.” There is an intimate communion and fellowship with Christ. Because when he dwells in the inner room of our affections, he brings the power we want more than anything, the power to conquer selfishness and live for others.

“I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see.”

Laodicea was famous for three things: for its famous wool, for its wealth in gold, and it was a medical center where they treated blindness. And so God the Holy Spirit is making a play here on words, and He says, “In spite of your wool and your wealth and your medicine, you are not what you think you are.

I wonder if these were people who’d bought into the health and wealth gospel that’s preached on television today by the happy boys. “I have need of nothing, and knowest not that thou art miserable, wretched.”

The Cure for Lukewarm Christianity

They needed the gold of God’s glory, gold that had been through the fire

They needed the garments of God’s righteousness. “ they thought they were clothed. They’d taken themselves up and come to the worship service; they looked so fine. God says, “You’re sitting there naked.”

“Buy of me white raiment, that you may be clothed.” The white raiment speaks of righteousness. “And eye salve, anoint thine eyes with eye salve, that thou may see.” They said that they saw, “but the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God … neither can he know them; they’re spiritually discerned” (1 Corinthians 2:14).

“As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.” Lukewarmness is a horrible, a hateful, a heinous sin. The greatest commandment is to love God with all of your heart (Matthew 22:37–38). the greatest sin is not to love God with all of your heart. If the greatest commandment is to love God with all of your heart, the greatest sin is not to do it.

Jesus Makes a Promise

“He who conquers, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne, as I myself conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne.” Christ conquered sin and Satan and death by never veering from the path of love.

It cost him his life; but he gained the world. And now he writes to the church, and this is as real for us this morning, he writes to offer us a share in his universal rule if we will conquer, if we will overcome the menace of lukewarmness and spiritual self-satisfaction. And there is only one way to get that kind of power and victory, namely, by taking all the locks off the door and asking the living Christ to come in and eat with you.

Yield your life and let Him fix it.