Laodicea – Cold – Hot – Lukewarm – To vomit up – Why?

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The last church of God, called Laodicea, has something “special” about it. Its characteristics differ in some respects from those of its predecessors. Most notable is its lukewarm state, neither cold nor hot.

Laodicea – Cold – Hot – Lukewarm

“I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.“. These are the harsh words of Jesus about the general condition in the church of Laodicea (Revelation 3:14-22).

The church of Laodicea is the last of a total of seven churches that existed literally in ancient times, but also have a prophetic aspect (Info).

John, who received the revelation from Jesus Christ through an angel (see Revelation 1:1-2), was commissioned to deliver the revelation to each church, addressing each church elder personally and offering individual words of praise, rebuke, and even admonition. The last church, Laodicea, stands out for one particular characteristic. Jesus Christ had no praise for this church.

The rebuke of the church also has a distinct character from the previous churches. While the criticism of the other churches primarily concerns their apostasy from the true faith and the creeping in of fornication and idolatry, the rebuke of Laodicea is directed at the general condition of the church members and their completely false self-assessment (Info).

Laodicea – A popular health resort

Laodicea was a well-known and popular town in the territory occupied by Rome at the time. A true spa town in the classical sense. Connected to a hot spring (thermal spring). Since the spring was many kilometers away, the hot water was only lukewarm, but it still offered relaxation in the numerous baths. However, due to its temperature, it was rather disdained as a medicinal drink. Drinkable cold or hot, but lukewarm?

Another specialty of this spa town was the locally produced healing ointment for eyes. Laodicea thrived economically. Not only the well-known sought healing, relaxation, and pleasure there, but also the “ordinary” legionnaire on vacation. After an earthquake and the resulting fire, Laodicea suffered considerable damage. Rome even offered aid, but was “gratefully declined” by the local inhabitants. The town’s own financial resources were sufficient for (independent) reconstruction..

Only Rebuke for Laodicea

The “cold or hot” aspect stands out particularly in Jesus Christ’s rebuke of Laodicea. The Savior would even prefer the church to be “cold” rather than lukewarm. “Hot” would also be preferable. Lukewarm is so abhorrent to Jesus Christ that He even wants to spit it out of His mouth. This is truly not a delicate aspect of a meaningless triviality.

Hot, in true faith, is the ideal state. But why is cold better than lukewarm faith? To understand this, one simply needs to consider that through true faith and the resulting visible good works (deeds) of the believer, God is glorified. Humanity’s actions according to the will of the Father in heaven are proof of God’s love, care, and justice. After all, everyone is watching what is happening in this fallen world with interest (1 Corinthians 4:9).

Even the angels are spellbound

Even the angels in heaven are eager to understand what is actually happening here according to the gospel. In Revelation 10:7, the gospel is even referred to as the “mystery of God.” Long guarded as a secret (in the kingdom of heaven), it was proclaimed to humanity through the prophets when it was “due.” 1 Peter 1:12 makes it clear that the angels also want to study the proclaimed message of salvation.

One can easily imagine how horrified the inhabitants of heaven must have been when Jesus Christ was led to Golgotha ​​and crucified. A “snap of Jesus’ fingers” would have been enough to mobilize legions of angels to free him (Matthew 26:53). But Jesus Christ wasn’t thinking about that. He wanted to see it through to completion. The love of God was thus proven, not merely asserted and affirmed by Him.

Lots of love, zero anger

While God’s love is presented today in all sorts of false light, His equally inseparable and eternal justice remains completely ignored. “God is love and therefore cannot punish,” is one of the common theories. Yet it doesn’t even require a deeper study of the Gospel to discover God’s final, great wrath.

The understandable first logic would be that “cold” is no faith at all, i.e., nothing. Lukewarm is a “little faith,” i.e., something. “Something” is better than “nothing,” isn’t it?
In this case, however, not at all. God doesn’t primarily want to prove His justice to mankind, but rather to the inhabitants of heaven who existed long before us. After all, Satan had managed to win a third of these inhabitants over to his side (Revelation 12:4) to rebel against God.

But this sowed the seeds of doubt on a widespread scale. While this seed may not take root among the majority of angels who remained faithful to God, it will eventually take root. “Does God truly love, is He truly just, or is He truly the arbitrary ruler, as Lucifer claimed?” This question would remain unanswered if God had simply wiped all His adversaries from the universe with the breath of His mouth.

The whole world watches in fascination.

The person faithful to God, who does God’s will despite his fallen condition, despite the countless temptations and the growing opposition in this fallen world of ours, IS the living proof of God’s justice and love. And the world, both visible and invisible, watches in fascination.

Therefore, it is not possible for a person to keep his sins secret. These may remain hidden from his fellow human beings, but not from the closely participating, observing world. Every good deed of a person born of true faith glorifies God, and the world is a witness. The overcoming of sin, thanks to the work of the Holy Spirit in man, is the glorification of God.

What would it look like if a person presented himself to his fellow human beings as a true Christian, even as a pastor of a church, but in his own home visited shady websites, cheated on his elderly neighbor, drank one bottle after another in the bar, and spoke badly about his own wife in a swingers club? In short, that is gross hypocrisy.
Such a “Christian” acts according to his self-portrait in public “in the name of Christ,” but secretly does the exact opposite of what would be God’s will.

God cannot be deceived.

Fellow human beings may be deceived, but not God, nor the heavenly observers in their capacity as witnesses. “Such a person acts in this way, and this as a professing Christian?” This is not the glorification of God, but the exact opposite, and in this way also concerns a commandment of God.

The Third Commandment, “You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God!.” It is not about how “YHWH” or “Jesus” (“Yehoshua”) should be “pleased” to pronounce correctly—that is Pharisee ideology—but rather about the attributes of God, His character. It is about not dragging His love AND justice through the mud, no matter how.

The “cold” person lives in this world, according to this world and with the customs of this world and its defined morals. However, they do not hold up Jesus Christ as their great role model, but rather deny Him. This is to their own detriment, but they are not hypocritical. The “lukewarm” person lives similarly or in part to the “cold” person, but claims to be led by Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. Rejecting Jesus Christ is one quality, but dragging Him through the mud based on the behavior of a “lukewarm” person is quite another.

The “lukewarm” a miserable role model

From this perspective, it again seems logical that the “cold” person causes less harm than the “lukewarm.” For the still uninhibited Jesus seeker orients himself toward believers, and unfortunately, even toward these “lukewarm” believers. The open unbeliever makes no effort to conceal his unbelief. In this world, this is actually the easiest path. The “half-baked believer,” however, is more appearance than substance and thereby conveys that his behavior and way of life are completely in line with the gospel.

Until decades ago, the majority of Christians effectively represented the lukewarm. Today, this phase is long past. Spiritualism, idolatry, fornication (Romans 1), and even more lies and deception have crept in. The regression to the “mother church” of Rome has long since been completed at the institutional level. However, Laodicea is not referring to Christian-oriented humanity, which can merely spell the word “Jesus” flawlessly, but to the Church of God. The seventh and thus final Church of God.

Only God knows in advance

Daniel had already known in his time that the “king of the north” would also set up his tents between the seas in the glorious mountain of the sanctuary (Daniel 11:45). The king of the north has now done so. As things stand, he will soon hear the “rumors from the north and the east” at great volume. Due to the influence of the king of the north, there has also been widespread apostasy from the pure gospel in the church of God. Therefore, a so-called sifting will also take place in the church of God.

God knows in advance exactly who is holy and who is merely hypocritical. But only He knows, and no one else. The witnesses, who are ultimately to be convinced of God’s righteousness and thus also of His just judgments, do not know. Therefore, God always acts as if He Himself did not know, so that the world can testify that God has given everyone the opportunity to choose one path or another. Anyone who rejects the truth, for whatever reason, has ultimately made that choice themselves.

Wheat and weeds show their differences

To visibly separate the wheat from the chaff, God will allow the adversary to pour out his “great temptation” upon this earth. This will be accepted by all hypocrites and unbelievers. True believers, however, are able to recognize this temptation as a false temptation (into sin) and will also avoid it (2 Thessalonians 2:9-12). For, as always, God is truly faithful and just, 1 Corinthians 10:13:
“There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.“

God will allow this. True believers will pass through without harm (to God), but unbelievers and hypocrites will slip on this slippery slope and slide directly into the abyss. This, however, will be the result of their own decisions, which ultimately led them to the point where they will ultimately end up in open rebellion against God. They simply weren’t willing to accept the truth. And the “father of lies” is, after all, known.

Therefore:
Hot – Perfect
Cold – Unbelieving, own decision
Lukewarm – Hypocrite

Jesus Christ advises the members of the church in Laodicea to buy gold refined by fire (the unadulterated Word of God, faith), to get white garments (the righteousness of Jesus), and to rub their eyes with eyesalve (to regain spiritual sight). Jesus Christ’s thoughts on hypocrites can be read in Matthew 23.

Bible verses from King James Version (1611)