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The Letter to the Laodiceans and What It Means to Us

 

Revelations 3:14 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 would you were cold or hot.  16 So then because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spit you out of my mouth.  17 Because you say, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and know not that you are wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked: 18 I counsel you to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that you may be rich; and white raiment, that you may be clothed, and that the shame of your nakedness is not visible at all; and anoint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see.  19 As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.  20 I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me. 21 To him who overcomes will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne.  22 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

This is an amazing passage.  Laodicea is a Greek word that means: People having the rulership or power.  It indicates that Christians are letting themselves be influenced by society and popular opinion.  In fact, Laodicea could be translated to mean: Democracy.  They are lukewarm.  When a person dies, they begin to go from 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit to room temperature.  The are no longer able to maintain their body temperature since they are dead and they are soon at room temperature which is known as lukewarm.  When a person dies, they immediately start  to be molded by the environment and eventually reach the exact same temperature.  When a Christian thinks that they are rich in Christ and don't realize that they are wretched, miserable, poor, and blind, they become dead in their faith and they start to be molded by the environment.  That's because being a Christian is being a Christ follower.  To follow Christ, you must hear His Voice and respond to Him.  If you do this, the road is always upward to higher heights in Him.  You realize that the best is yet to come and that what you have already attained in Christ is but a foretaste of what He has for you.  You realize that you need more of Christ and you long for it with all your heart.

Read the Bible and ask God to show you the things in your life and in your church that are not according to the pattern.  God wants to bring these things in line by the power of the Holy Spirit.

God can't stand a lukewarm Christian.  It is sickening to Him.

"gold tried in the fire"  Gold is a type of deity.  When Christ died for your sins, He paid the price for this gold and you can touch God and God then can dwell inside of you.  But this gold is all mixed with your sin nature, so it must be tried in the fire to burn off the sin nature.  That's why the Bible says that it is through many trials that we must enter the Kingdom of Heaven.  The way you purify natural gold is to heat it up until it melts and the impurity rises to the top.  As the impurity rises to the top, the goldsmith takes out the impurity until all that is left is pure gold.  God wants to transfigure you and me into the very image of Christ.

"white raiment, that you may be clothed" When the manifestation of the sons of God, which the Bible speaks about, takes place, it will be wonderful for those who are mature.  For those who are not mature in Christ, it will be a terrible day.  If you were to be walking through the shopping mall among thousands of people and suddenly to be stripped naked, it would be very embarrassing to you.  There is a reason that this is shameful, although some people are becoming so seared in their consciences that they have no shame.  However, when the manifestation of the sons of God takes place everyone will be thrust into the very presence of God.  For those who are fully clothed in righteousness and holiness, that will be glorious.  For those who are not clothed because they have failed to consistently listen for God's voice and obey it (this is what causes maturity/being clothed with righteousness) that will be a terrible time.  They will gnash their teeth in defiance and wail in pain.

"anoint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see"  As you walk in the Spirit, your spiritual senses become more keen.  One other Scripture speaks of those who have their senses exercised by reason of use.  There is a little animation on every page of the website the explains exactly how this works, so there is no need to go into it here.

"As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten"  Sometimes, when things seem to go wrong, we wonder what God is doing.  However, God rebukes and chastens every person if He loves that person.  Like a good parent, rebuke and chastening is for the purpose of forming us in the right way.

"be zealous therefore, and repent"  Zeal is a God-generated energy to move toward the goal.  Repentance is literally to have a new mind.  When you listen to the Voice of God and allow Him to do His works through you by grace, then your mind is changed from glory to glory to be like His mind.  This is the new mind that He is giving you.

"I stand at the door, and knock"  Jesus is standing at the door of your heart and knocking all the time.  He needs to have your whole heart, not just half-hearted service.  If we let Him in consistently, all the time, then we will not be spiritually dead and having our temperature dropping to match the temperature of the dead culture around us.  We will be constantly rising to a higher level in Christ.  We will see His pattern and how we fit into that pattern.  And He will give us the ability to attain the fullness of His will for our lives.



Author/Compiler
Last updated: Aug, 2012
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Revelation 3:10 God generally keeps His people through the trial and does not entirely take them away from the trial

Revelation 3:14, The Word to the Lukewarm Church who Think They Have It All.

The Letter to the Laodiceans and What It Means to Us

Revelation 3:20 God's desire is to fellowship with us.


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