Saturday
Saturday
The Letter to Laodicea—Wholeheartedness
I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other!
Revelation 3:15
Christ’s message to the Laodicean church is plain. He wants them to be characterized by wholeheartedness. He is very outspoken. He prefers his professing disciples to be either hot in their devotion to him or icy cold in their hostility rather than tepid in their indifference. He finds apathy nauseating.
Directly opposite Laodicea, across the River Lycus, stood Hierapolis, whose hot springs sent lukewarm waters over the cliffs of Laodicea, leaving limestone deposits that are still very visible today. So the adjective Laodicean has entered our vocabulary to denote people who are lukewarm in religion, politics, or anything else. Laodicea represents a church that is outwardly respectable but inwardly uncommitted, one of the purely nominal churches with which we are familiar today.
When the metaphor changes to naked, blind beggars (v. 17), one wonders whether the members of the Laodicean church were genuine Christians at all. Then it changes again to that of an empty house (v. 20). Christ stands on the front doorstep, knocks, speaks, and waits. If any individual opens the door, as I did in February 1938, he enters according to his promise, not only to eat with us, but to take possession of the house. This is the essence of the wholeheartedness to which Christ calls us.
True, the church has always been scared of what it likes to call “enthusiasm.” John Wesley and his friends knew all about this, for the bishops dismissed them as “enthusiasts.” But enthusiasm is an essential characteristic of every authentic disciple of Jesus. This is not fanaticism, which is zeal without knowledge.
Looking back over this week’s studies, we have seen the risen Lord patrolling, inspecting, and supervising his churches. As he does so, he pinpoints the seven marks he wants his church to display—love for him and willingness to suffer for him, truth of doctrine and holiness of life, commitment to mission, together with sincerity and wholeheartedness in everything.
For further reading: Revelation 3:14–22