Cold or hot

In Revelation 2-4, Jesus makes a series of direct statements to seven specific churches. Even though these specific church bodies he was addressing are no longer in existence today, the statements he made to many of them continue to have application to many churches and individuals today. At some point in each of these statements Jesus would say, “He that has an ear to hear, let him hear what the spirit says to the churches.” Knowing that He is “The same yesterday, today and forever,” we do well to give close attention to the comments Jesus made in these chapters as we seek to hear what the spirit is saying to the church today.

In Revelation 3:14-22 we find Jesus’ comments to the church at Laodicea. In his opening statement to that church, Jesus made the following, rather harsh comment:

“I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot; I wish that you were cold or hot. So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth.”

Over the years there have been several different ideas as to what exactly the Lord meant by this statement. The city of Laodicea was a wealthy, well-situated trade city, but had no water supply of its own. Consequently, water was brought in via aqua ducts from a hot springs located several miles outside the city. Naturally by the time the water reached the city it had become lukewarm. From this historical fact, we can at least see why Jesus chose to use this metaphor. But this still doesn’t tell precisely what Jesus meant.

Some people believe that in referring to the church as neither cold nor hot, Jesus was saying that they brought neither refreshment for the spiritually weary, such as cold water would bring, nor healing or healing for the spiritually sick, such as therapeutic hot springs were believed to bring. Others view this statement similarly, but see “hot” as a reference not to the healing properties of warm water, but to its cleansing properties. Those who hold this view understand this to mean this church would not say anything unpleasant or decisive, even though it might be precisely the cleansing word a brother needed to hear.

Both of these views have merit and can serve as lessons for us today. But the easiest and probably the most common way to understand Jesus’ words are to see “lukewarm” as a synonym for indifference. In his commentary on this passage, Bible commentator Matthew Henry takes this view, making the following observation:

“Indifference in religion is the worst temper in the world. If religion is worth any thing, it is worth every thing; indifference is inexcusable.”

This perspective is certainly confirmed elsewhere in scripture. Consider these verses:

“He who is not with me is against me; and he who does not gather with me scatters.” “No one, after putting his hand to the plow and looking back is fit for the kingdom.”

As Christians we carry the very gift of life within us. That we should have this “treasure” within us and not be “hot” with excitement to give it to others is unthinkable; it would be better not to have it. Perhaps its time we asked ourselves, are we cold or hot?