Revelation 3:14-22 – “To the angel of the church in Laodicea write: These are the words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the ruler of God’s creation. 15 I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! 16 So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth. 17 You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. 18 I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see. 19 Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest and repent. 20 Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me. 21 To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I was victorious and sat down with my Father on his throne. 22 Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”
“I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see.” V17 reveals that the church at Laodicea thought they were rich, but Jesus says that they were poor. This city that had no natural defenses learned to survive by compromise and keeping their faith to themselves. The believers at Laodicea held on to what they thought kept them safe in the world. Since they stood for nothing, no-one ever got mad at them. This is how they survived in business. They did not explain to people that the idols they served were not God. They went by the motto to “live and let live.” They did not preach that Jesus is the only way and there is no other (Acts 4:12). They never stood for Jesus (Matthew 10:33). They expressed their “religious beliefs” in the same way they expressed their politics. They didn’t. They kept these things out of business and government. They likely held to a same belief that many compromisers in our times do, to never talk “politics or religion.” They avoided controversy even if that meant not standing up for the truth. They did not want controversy around them. They wanted nothing to do with rough waters. They just wanted to get along. It was better for business and easier on their personal lives if they just get along with everyone. But they were poor in the faith.
Jesus told them how putrid and defiled their faith was. When someone has just gotten through telling someone that they think they are something but they really are nothing, when someone tells someone that the way they act makes them sick, then the natural conclusion is that the person who has expressed this judgement would never again want something to do with that person. Well, that is how the world would act, but that is not who Jesus is (Isaiah 53:4-6). Jesus was correcting them, not casting them away (John 6:37). He told them what they needed to do so they could be right with God (John 6:68-69). He told them that He has the answers, that He is the Answer, and that to get out of their poverty they needed to repent and get purified gold from Him.
During those days, smelters of the day would purify gold by putting it into extreme heat. Gradually all the impurities would rise to the top and the smelter of the day would scoop out the impurities in order to leave only the gold behind. How did the smelter know when the gold could be taken out of the fire? How did he know when all the impurities were gone? It was when he could look into the gold and see his reflection in it. To the Lord, we are what is valuable. The Lord is less concerned about us being comfortable in this world and more concerned about us being all that He has called us to be. Family, Jesus is telling us to not eschew the heat, but to desire it, that we might be a purified (1 Peter 4:12-13). As a purified people we will glorify our God who saved us. We will increasingly be who we were created to be and the peace of God will reside with us. Jesus wants us to be purified for our sakes, not His. When we are right with God that pleases Him, but does not add to who God is, or completes God in any way. God is complete and perfect within Himself. He does not need our love in any way. He just desires our love toward Him because He loves us and it is what is best for us. Jesus is telling the Laodiceans to run toward the fire. In it we are purified and become more like Him. Being like Jesus, that is true richness. Having the salvation that only comes from Jesus, that is true richness.
Jesus talks to the Laodiceans in ways that they could understand. As was earlier mentioned, the city was known for a healing eye salve. The city was famous for their medical school. Jesus let them know that while their physical eye sight may have been fine, they were spiritually blind. He let them know that only those who seek Him can understand the spiritual. Only they are not blind to the true meaning of the Word of God. Only from Jesus can we know the truth, only Jesus is the Truth. Those who don’t know Jesus as their Savior and Lord are spiritually blind and don’t even know that they are. Those who are His disciples have the Spirit of God within and He reveals to them the things of God (1 Corinthians 2:6-15). Such are we who love the Lord.
Family, our greatest treasure, our highest goal, is to please God. With that being so, comfort, societal acceptance and the riches of this world decrease in importance and loving and pleasing God becomes our highest and increasingly, our only great goal in life. Take the world, but give me Jesus! Before God we are naked. He knows all our thoughts and every single thing we have ever done. Scary? Yes if Jesus is not one’s Savior and Lord. But if He is we needn’t have any fear. Jesus has saved us to the fullest (Hebrews 7:25). If we have Jesus we have all that is eternally good. If we don’t have Jesus, we have nothing that is eternally good. Let us pursue God and let our focus be to please Him. Let us take a strong stance for Him and do the works He has called us to do. In that is peace, love and rest. Praise God!
Psalm 150:6 – Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Praise the Lord!
Micah 7:7 – But as for me, I watch in hope for the Lord, I wait for God my Savior; my God will hear me.
Micah 6:8 – He has shown You, O man, what is good; And what does the Lord require of You but to do justly, to love mercy, And to walk humbly with Your God.