Well, we’ve come to the end of the letters from Christ to the seven churches. Our last letter, to Laodicea (Rev. 3:14-22), is of particular interest. The oft-quoted line, “So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth,” is the crux of the letter. As a lighthouse shines out a warning beacon to ships at sea, so this vivid imagery is a severe warning to the Laodiceans of sure danger ahead; it’s also a warning to us. Take some time to really mull over the depth and profundity of Jesus’ words in this letter. Here are a couple of questions to guide your thinking/meditating:
- In what ways are hot or cold better than lukewarm?
- How did the Laodicean church become lukewarm? How do we?
- What was the source of the Laodiceans’ confidence? What your source of confidence?
- What would it mean to be spit out?
- What does the Lord’s discipline look like? Have you ever experienced it? (c.f. Heb. 12:3-11)
For a great sermon by John Piper on this letter, spend a few minutes and read this.
I don’t know that this has depth of profundity, but I was just sitting here catching up on my blogging and drinking some hot chocolate. It is great stuff! Anyways, I really got into reading something and the hot chocolate isn’t so hot anymore. Not so good. Now, I have also had frozen hot chocolate, and this is quite delicious. I can’t say it is good to be a “cold” Christian, but at least you have made a decision one way or another. I must say that the lukewarm version definitely is worse than these two. To continue with the analogy, I think we can become lukewarm when we get distracted, in my case by reading, but in our lives by things that take our focus off the goal – like drinking the hot chocolate while it is hot. Now, how do things come to the lukewarm state? In science class, we teach that energy, in this case heat, moves from areas of high concentration to areas of low concentration until the temperatures have reached equilibrium. In order to keep something hot or cold, you have to put energy in to the process. This furthers my theory that if we put energy in, either in the hot or cold direction, we are showing our decision by our actions. If we just sit back and let thermodynamics take over – let ourselves be distracted from the goal – we get some nasty chocolate sludge. Just some thoughts…
By: Mrs. Berger on November 16, 2007
at 8:45 pm
When I first saw the title of the Piper sermon (“How to Buy Gold When You’re Broke”), I thought maybe you had accidentally linked us to one of those prosperity gospel sermons I know you’re so found of.
But seriously, thanks for the link. Piper, as usual, is very helpful.
By: Mikel Berger on November 17, 2007
at 12:27 am