The Letter To Laodicea

The Letter to Laodicea

Revelation 3:14-22

Michael H. Koplitz

This letter to the church at Laodicea is the most negative of the seven letters. Jesus tells us that He doesn’t like lukewarm followers. This means those passionate for God when they want to be and cold toward God when they don’t want to follow God’s direction. Jesus is telling this church and us that those types of people are not acceptable to Him. Jesus would rather have us passionate for God or completely divorced from God. Lukewarm just doesn’t cut it.

Verse 20 tells you all about the picture that is hanging behind me. Jesus is at the door knocking and waiting for us to open the door. That door is the gateway into our hearts. Jesus wants each of us to open our hearts and to let Him in. He is waiting for us and is constantly knocking at the door.

That constant knocking we call prevenient grace. No matter how many times we may slam the door shut into Jesus’ face, He will keep coming back and will keep knocking. Jesus tells us through this letter that He will never give up on us. Jesus asks of us that when we open our doors to our hearts that we fully accept Him. There is no partial acceptance of the Lord. To have Jesus come into our hearts means that we will worship Him, love Him, and obey the laws and commandments that God has set forth for us in the Bible. That is the only way that He will come into our hearts and will reside there.

Verse 17 of this letter is one of those biblical statements that middle-class and above Americans don’t like to hear. It flies in the face of our society and culture because it strongly warns us about accumulating wealth. If you read it very carefully, the verse says that those who accumulate wealth and decide that they don’t need God are poor and naked. They are poor and naked because they will not be clothed in the righteousness of Christ on the Day of Judgment. Instead, they will stand alone, that is, naked and exposed.

Remember that it is more important to accumulate treasures in heaven rather than treasures on earth. It doesn’t matter how much money or wealth one has on Earth because we can’t take it with us!

This verse calls all of us to be generous with the wealth that God has bestowed on us. Jesus wants us to support the ministries of His Church. Not just the local ministries of the local church but also the worldwide efforts of the church. Jesus is saying to Laodicea and to the churches today that those congregations who have wealth but are not supporting Christ’s work with that wealth will not be favored in Heaven.