The Letter to the Church in Laodicea
Rev. 3: 14-22
The book of Revelation is often viewed as a strange book full of mysterious symbols that are difficult or impossible to understand. Yet the Bible states just the opposite! The word "revelation" means "to unveil" or "to explain." In the very first verse we read that God inspired the book of Revelation "to show His servants things which must shortly take place" (Revelation 1:1). God further states, "Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written in it; for the time [of fulfillment] is near" (Revelation 1:3). The prophecies of Revelation—including the letters to the seven churches—were meant to be understood—especially by Christians of all ages.
There can be no doubt that Revelation is an end-time book, that its message is for “the crisis at the close.” The book of Revelation is the only book in the bible that says, ‘If you read me, you’ll be blessed.’
John addressed the book of Revelation "to the seven churches" (1:4), indicating that the letters to each church were to be read in all the churches.
Laodicea has the grim distinction of being the only Church of which the Risen Christ has nothing good to say.
Laodicea had certain characteristics which have left their mark on the letter written to it.
(i) It was a great banking and financial centre. It was one of the wealthiest cities in the world at that time. In A.D. 61 it was devastated by an earthquake; but so rich and independent were its citizens that they refused any help from the Roman government and out of their own resources rebuilt their city. Tacitus writes: "One of the most famous cities of Asia, Laodicea, was in that same year overthrown by an earthquake and without any relief from us recovered itself by its own resources" (Tacitus: Annals 14: 27). No wonder that Laodicea could boast that it was rich and had amassed wealth and had need of nothing.
(ii) It was a great centre of clothing manufacture. The sheep which grazed round Laodicea were famous for their soft, violet-black, glossy wool.
(iii) It was a very considerable medical centre. This medical school was famous for two products throughout the then known world -ointment for the ear and ointment for the eyes. The more popular was the ointment for the eye and the King James and Revised Standard Versions speak of it as eye-salve.
Jesus’ seventh and last message to the congregations of Revelation 2 and 3 was in stark contrast to His previous one to Philadelphia. Whereas Philadelphia is unique in that it did not receive any condemnation, Laodicea is unique in that it does not receive any commendation.
In the ancient world there were at least six cities called Laodicea and this one was called Laodicea on the Lycus to distinguish it from the others. It was founded about 250 B.C. by Antiochus of Syria and was named after his wife Laodice or after Laodice, daughter (or possibly niece) of Antiochus I Soter. .
Of the seven churches, none received a more scathing condemnation than Laodicea. Outwardly, the church in Laodicea appeared strong and prosperous. Clearly the people who worshiped there considered themselves happy and blessed. They lived in a town others envied.
However unlike Smyrna, there seems to have been no persecution, and, unlike Pergamum, no false doctrines . We find nothing corresponding to the gross immorality of Jezebel and her corrupt legions of Thyatira. Laodicea was a comfortable place to live and go to church.
Let us see how Jesus begins His Letter.
(i) He is the Amen. This is a strange title and may go back to either of two origins.
(a) In Isaiah 65:16 God is called the God of truth. Amen is the word which is often put at the end of a solemn statement in order to guarantee its truth. If God is the God of truth, he is utterly to be relied upon. This would mean that Jesus Christ is the One whose promises are true beyond all doubt. In John's gospel Jesus' statements often begin: "Truly, truly, I say to you" (e.g. John 1:51; John 3:3; John 3:5; John 3:11). The Greek for truly is Amen. The meaning would be the same, Jesus is one whose promises can be relied upon.
(ii) He is the witness on whom we can rely and who is true. A witness must satisfy three essential conditions. (a) He must have seen with his own eyes that of which he tells. (b) He must be absolutely honest, so that he repeats with accuracy that which he has heard and seen. (c) He must have the ability to tell what he has to say, so that his witness may make its true impression on those who hear. Jesus Christ perfectly satisfied these conditions. He can tell of God, because he came from him. We can rely on his words for he is the Amen. He is able to tell his message, for never did man speak as he did.
(iii) As the Revised Standard Version has it, he is the beginning of God's creation. This phrase, as it stands in English, is ambiguous. It could mean, either, that Jesus was the first person to be created or that he began the process of creation .
The connection of the Son with creation is frequently made in the New Testament. John begins his gospel by saying of the Word: "All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made" (John 1:3). "In him," says Paul, "all things were created" (Colossians 1:15; Colossians 1:18). The insistence on the Son's part in creation was to offset the teachings of the heretics who explained about sin and disease by saying that the world had been created by a false and inferior god. It is the Christian insistence that this world is God's creation and that its sin and sorrow are not His fault, but are caused by the disobedience of men. As the Christian sees it, the God of creation and the God of redemption are one and the same.
Jesus continues saying, “I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot. So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth” (verses 15-16). Jesus likened their indifferent spiritual condition to their city’s poor water supply.
While Laodicea appeared to have everything, it lacked the most basic of resources — water. Unlike the mountain towns that had cold water streams or nearby Hierapolis that had access to hot springs, Laodicea had no water supply of its own. Water had to be piped in through aqueducts. By the time it arrived, the water was lukewarm and full of sediment. Cold water is good for drinking and hot springs were reputed to have healing qualities, but lukewarm, sediment-filled water neither refreshes nor heals. It is disgusting.
Jesus tells the Laodicean church that they are just like their water. “I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot! So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth” (Rev. 3:15–16).
After comparing the congregation’s works to the temperature of the city’s water, Jesus continued the analogy to reveal His reaction to their spiritual condition. Just as drinking distasteful or contaminated water can cause people to vomit, Jesus said He would vomit them out of His mouth. What a detestable picture!
The problem in Laodicea was not unusual. The Bible has numerous warnings regarding humanity’s deceitful nature. Jeremiah 17:9 says the human heart is “is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked.” Proverbs 14:12 and 16:25 say, “There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death.” And sadly, self-deception continues today, especially in religious matters.
What’s another way to describe “lukewarm” water? Room temperature. What do you need to do to make water room temperature? Nothing. Leave water alone and it will become room temperature. Suppose you want hot water. You’ve got to do something to make it hot. And if you want cold water. You’ve got to do something to make it cold. Under normal circumstances, water will never become cold or hot by itself.
So here is the indictment: The Laodiceans were not guilty of some intentional sin, such as committing immorality, promoting false doctrines, or tolerating false prophets. To be guilty of those things, they would have had to do something. They would have had to make some sort of decision to move in that direction.
A lukewarm Christian is nothing more than a “room temperature” Christian who has become just like his or her environment.
Why does Christ hate lukewarmness so much? Mostly because a person in this condition doesn’t even know it. A person slips into a state of such total indifference that he or she doesn’t care about his or her own spiritual condition. Nothing matters. After all, “room temperature” is comfortable by definition. It feels right. A lukewarm person is the same as everyone else around him or her
If you never live out your faith and if you never tell anyone about your faith, you are a lukewarm Christian You’re not hot and not cold. And Jesus will spit you out of His mouth!
The charge against the Laodiceans is their lukewarm attitude (Revelation 3:16). Their wealth and prosperity fosters an attitude of worldliness. They are lukewarm about the truth, about obedience to the commandments and about their mission to do a work. They are very independent, and have "need of nothing" (Revelation 3:17). Laodicea had a medical school noted for its eye-salve, yet the Bible describes its people as being blind to their own spiritual condition. Their intellectual sophistication prevented them from seeing their own lack of spiritual discernment. Laodicea produced fine black wool clothing, yet the Bible calls them naked, in need of white garments (Revelation 3:17–18)]
In a sense, naked Laodiceans lack vital pieces of spiritual armor— faith, love, perseverance, commitment to truth and fear of the Lord.
Jesus is not saying that He wishes they were either spiritually hot or spiritually cold rather than being spiritually lukewarm. Nowhere does God desire for His people to have cold hearts. Rather, Jesus explains what He means by being lukewarm in the next verse. “For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked” (v. 17). The lukewarm person is not one who is mildly passionate about God. Rather, the lukewarm person is one who has lost his dependence on God. He believes he has no need of Christ’s righteousness because he has enough of his own.
Whenever we take pride in our own moral goodness, we have fallen into the perilous sin of the Laodiceans. We are like lukewarm water. We are forgetting that all of our righteous deeds are nothing more than filthy rags (Isa. 64:6). He will spit out of His mouth all those who think that they are rich in their own righteous works.
Unless we see that we are poor and needy, Jesus will have no part of us., We begin the Christian life spiritually bankrupt. As we grow, we come to understand even more the depth of our sin and our great need for a savior. It is only when we see our poverty and need of help that we can truly become rich. That is why Jesus says, “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” (Rev. 3:18). Christ is not calling us to wallow in our spiritual poverty but to delight in the riches of His grace.
Be ruthless in rooting out spiritual pride. Remember that Jesus is nauseated by self-righteousness. Whenever you are feeling self-sufficient, ask God to open your eyes to your own nakedness. When you see your own bankruptcy, cry out to Jesus so that you may delight in the riches of His grace.
Christ reveals that the problem is in the heart. And until the heart is changed, nothing can change. Note that little phrase “You say.” I am rich I am clothed I can see I do not need anything “ Arrogance had blinded the Laodiceans to their true spiritual condition. Money has a way of doing that to all of us. Money is almost hypnotic. We can’t take our eyes off it. But Money is not the problem; it’s the love of money that gets us into trouble. And the worst of it was, the Laodiceans thought they were doing just fine.
The one impossible attitude to Christianity is indifference. The man who will not submit to Christ has necessarily resisted him.
Hard as it may sound, the meaning of this terrible threat of the Risen Christ is that it is better not even to start on the Christian way than to start and then to drift into a conventional and meaningless Christianity.
The tragedy of Laodicea was that it was convinced of its own wealth and blind to its own poverty. Humanly speaking, anyone would say that there was not a more prosperous town in Asia Minor. Spiritually speaking, the Risen Christ declares that there was not a more poverty-stricken community. Laodicea prided itself on three things; and each is taken in turn and shown at its true value.
(i) It prided itself on its financial wealth. It was rich and had acquired wealth and had need of nothing--so it thought. The Risen Christ advises Laodicea to buy gold refined in the fire. It may be that gold tried in the fire stands for faith for it is thus that Peter describes faith (1 Peter 1:7). Wealth can do much but there are things that it can never do. It cannot buy happiness nor give a man health either of body or of mind; it cannot bring comfort in sorrow nor fellowship in loneliness. If all that a man has to meet life with is wealth, he is poor indeed. But if a man has a faith tried and refined in the crucible of experience, there is nothing which he cannot face; and he is rich indeed.
(ii) Laodicea prided itself on its clothing trade. The garments made there were famous over all the then known world, and the wool of the sheep of Laodicea was a luxury article which all men knew, But, says the Risen Christ, Laodicea is spiritually naked; if it wants really to be clothed it must come to Him. The Risen Christ speaks of "the shame of the nakedness of Laodicea."
(iii) Laodicea prided itself on its famous eye-salve; but the facts of the case show that it was blind to its own poverty and nakedness and Laodicea had no wish to see itself as it was.
Revelation 3:19 is one whose teaching runs throughout Scripture. "I rebuke and discipline all those whom I love." There is a very lovely thing about the way this is put. It is a quotation from Proverbs 3:12, but one word is altered.
Christ does not love Hs children because he corrects them: but he corrects them because he loves them. Be zealous therefore, and repent.
Let us see how the idea of discipline runs through the Bible
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It is very characteristic of the teaching of Proverbs. "He who spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is diligent to discipline him" (Proverbs 13:24). "Withhold not correction from the child; for, if you beat him with a rod he will not die. If you beat him with the rod you will save his life from Sheol" (Proverbs 23:13-14). "Faithful are the wounds of a friend" (Proverbs 27:6). "The rod and reproof give wisdom; but a child left to himself brings shame to his mother. . . . Discipline your son and he will give you rest; he will give delight to your heart" (Proverbs 29:15; Proverbs 29:17). "Blessed is the man whom thou dost chasten, O Lord, and whom thou dost teach out of thy law" (Psalms 94:12). "Behold, happy is the man whom God reproves; therefore, despise not the chastening of the Almighty" (Job 5:17). "We are chastened of the Lord that we may not be condemned along with the world" (1 Corinthians 11:32).
"For the Lord disciplines him whom he loves and chastises every son whom he receives. It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is testing you as sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons" (Hebrews 11:6; Hebrews 11:8). "He that loveth his son will continue to lay stripes upon him, that he may have joy of him in the end. He that chastiseth his son shall have profit of him and shall glory of him among his acquaintances" (Ecc 30:1).
It is, in fact, God's final punishment to leave a man alone. "Ephraim is joined to idols; let him alone" (Hosea 4:17).. There is no surer way of allowing a child to end in ruin than to allow him to do as he likes. It is a fact of life that the best athlete and the finest scholar receive the most demanding training. The discipline of God is not something which we should resent, but something for which we should be devoutly thankful.
Be zealous therefore and repent’. This ‘change of heart and mind’ is only demanded of four churches, one of them because of the heresy in their midst (Pergamum), one because they have lost their first love (Ephesus), and the other two (Sardis and Laodicea) because of the failure of the whole church as a result of their lax state. Refusal to hear means the lampstand being removed from it place (Ephesus), an attack with the sword of His mouth against the offenders (Pergamum), and the arrival of Jesus as a thief to catch them unprepared by His coming (Sardis). To the church of Laodicea He gives similar warning of His coming.
Even though the Laodiceans had become lukewarm and spiritually blinded, Jesus did not reject them or disassociate Himself from them. He warned them to wake up and change. And He gave them advice on how to do this. “I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich; and white garments, that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and anoint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see,” said Jesus (verse 18).
In this statement, Jesus used three well-known local products to illustrate spiritual principles.
First, was “gold refined in the fire.” While Laodicea’s wealth meant it had a great deal of gold within the city, the concepts Jesus had in mind were related to spiritual character. Almost 500 years earlier, the prophet Malachi wrote of Christ’s second coming, “But who can endure the day of His coming? And who can stand when He appears? For He is like a refiner’s fire and like launderers’ soap. He will sit as a refiner and a purifier of silver; he will purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer to the Lord an offering in righteousness” (Malachi 3:2-3).
Similarly, Peter wrote, “In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 1:6-7). Jesus advised the Laodiceans to buy this kind of gold.
Secondly, while local Laodicean merchants produced fine garments from the black wool of the area, Jesus advised buying “white garments.” In doing so, He wasn’t simply referring to a different colored garment—but different behavior. In Revelation 19:8, at the marriage of the Lamb, Jesus said His wife, the Church, “was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.” In the context of the great battle that will take place at Armageddon at Christ’s return, He also said, “Behold, I am coming as a thief. Blessed is he who watches, and keeps his garments, lest he walk naked and they see his shame” (Revelation 16:15). Jesus told the Laodiceans they needed to be concerned about their spiritual clothing.
Thirdly, Jesus spoke of their need for eye salve so they could see. While the Laodicean’s famous medication was widely used for eye problems, Jesus was referring to spiritual insight, wisdom and understanding. Upon the successful return of 70 of His disciples who had been sent to various cities to preach the gospel of the Kingdom, “Jesus rejoiced in the Spirit and said, ‘I thank You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and revealed them to babes’?” (Luke 10:21). Jesus told the Laodiceans they needed the spiritual vision to see their real condition and change.
Lest some think He was uncaring in His correction, Jesus concluded His warning with an explanation of why He had been so critical: “As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore be zealous and repent” (verse 19). Because He has no desire to see anyone suffer (2 Peter 3:9), Jesus’ strong words of correction were delivered to the first century Laodiceans and us today. It is His hope that those who are in need of this advice will be zealous (eager) to repent.
Revelation 3 verse 20, one of the most well-known and oft-quoted scriptures of this book “Behold, I stand at the door and knock.”
Those who respond to Jesus’ words are promised a great reward: “If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me. To him who overcomes I will grant to sit with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne” (verses 20-21). What a wonderful blessing and opportunity!
It appears that Christ was not in the Laodicean Church, He has been shut out and He is knocking at the door of this church wanting to be a part of the church and the congregation, but first He has to be let in.
We also see the pleading of Christ. He stands at the door of the human heart and knocks. The unique new fact that Christianity brought into this world is that God is the seeker of men. No other religion has the vision of a seeking God.
The promise of the Risen Christ is that the victor will sit with him in his own victorious throne. We will get the picture right if we remember that the eastern throne was more like a couch than a single seat. The victor in life will share the throne of the victorious Christ.
Every letter finishes with the words: "Let him who has an ear hear what the Spirit is saying to the Churches." This saying does two things.
The leaders at Laodicea took great pride in their financial wealth, an extensive textile industry and a famous eye salve. Just as in today's society, some believers falsely assume that numerous material possessions are a sign of God’s spiritual blessings. Laodicea was a wealthy city and the members of the church were also wealthy. They were full of the world, comfortable and feeling self-sufficient. And their church had become a religious ritual.
The Lord Christ was presenting to the Laodiceans that the true value wasn't in material possessions, but obeying His Word. That is the right relationship. Their possessions and achievements were valueless compared to the everlasting future in the Lord's Kingdom. .
Isn’t it amazing that the worst church, the most disgusting church in the whole series gets the best invitation? After exposing their indifference, He offers them the way to come back.
Jesus concludes this message saying, “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches” (verse 22). This message and the ones to the other cities were not intended only for the instruction and correction of first century Christians, but for the entire body of Christ in all ages and parts of the world.
Those who are part of this body will undoubtedly resemble these first century congregations in both their actions extolled by Christ and in their sins and weaknesses. God, as a loving parent, will deal justly and fairly with all. The rewards and punishments will remain the same regardless of the age. May God grant us today the spiritual wisdom and understanding to heed our Savior’s advice in His messages to His Church.
