“I will vomit you out of my mouth!” -Jesus
Laodicea: The Apostate/Lukewarm Church {AD 1900? – ?}
(Rev. 3:14-22)
*Commendation: none given.
*Condemnation: You are lukewarm, wretched, poor, blind, and naked.
*Counsel: Buy from Me refined gold and white garments so you may be rich and cover your shame, anoint your eyes, be zealous and repent.
*Challenge: “To him who overcomes…” I will grant to sit with Me on My throne.
Laodicea was named after Laodice, the wife of (though he later divorced her) Antiochus II who founded the city circa BC 260. The city was liberated by the Romans in BC 129, eventually blossoming into a very influential city of material prosperity, offering upper-scale commerce and recreation, hot springs, a popular medicinal eye salve, and a rich wool industry. Such prosperity naturally birthed metropolitan pride, but by the end of the first century AD a spiritual pride also developed within the Laodicean church, inviting Christ’s distinct condemnation concerning their adherence to worldly wealth and empty religion rather than His righteousness.
Of course, the spiritual pride and apathy of Laodicea percolated for decades. Thirty years prior to Jesus’ revelation to John we see the apostle Paul writing to the neighboring church in Colossae, specifically admonishing a church shepherd named Archippus to fulfill his ministry and see to it that the Colossian epistle is likewise read in Laodicea (Colossians 4:16-17). Archippus eventually became the first bishop of the Laodicean church, for better or worse I cannot say; but Paul (and then John) certainly took note of any seeds of compromise and sought to root them out.
Again, prophetically appropriate meaning is found in the Greek definition of laodicea, derived from two words: laos (people) and dike (judgment)–judgment of the people.
“I Will Vomit You Out of My Mouth!”
Jesus’ comment in Revelation 3:15-16 that the Laodicean church is “neither cold nor hot” but “lukewarm” clarifies that He would have us be boldly for or against Him rather than wallow in noncommittal cowardice, having a form of godliness but denying the power thereof (2 Timothy 3:5). Indeed, Jesus offers the graphically terse analogy of “vomiting” from His mouth those who would practice an illusory piety.
Consider that Jesus Himself voiced each message to each church–the blessings and the curses! But He had nothing good to report of Laodicea! Many who would call themselves Christian today cannot bear the thought that Jesus would utter one harsh word to anyone or that He would let anyone end up in hell, particularly if they held good intentions (though left undone). Souls such as these distort, dismiss, or ignore, Jesus’ hard truths that would require the commitment, travail, and sacrifice of actual discipleship. And it is to souls such as these that condemnations such as that leveled against the Laodicean church are intended.
Jesus said, “Apart from Me you can do nothing” (John 15:5). Paul explained that without the Spirit nothing of God can be discerned, and that to such a soul the things of God appear foolish for lack of understanding (1 Corinthians 2:14).
From the 1940s to today the Western Church has become more about building committees, programs, and organizations than about building God’s kingdom. It has also largely forsaken the relational Christlike example of discipling for the conveniently impersonal aspects of social groupthink. Discipleship is no longer understood as a way of life but rather a six-week study one may fulfill and be done with.
True worship in spirit and in truth has been redefined toward an emotional salve that entertains and indulges the “worshiper” (rather than God) via emulation of worldly music shows. Corporate prayer for theocratic revelation by the Spirit has been substituted with planning by strictly democratic rule. Individual prayer has become tainted with selfish appeals to an aloof god of the imagination as one hopes for the best! The Holy Spirit has been replaced with endless resources dumped on our culture by an often not-so-Christian industry, leading to an accumulation of information devoid of spiritual transformation. And biblical policy has been displaced by church politics.
In sum, though there is neither male nor female in Christ Jesus (Galatians 3:28), the Western Church has been emasculated–there is no power. Truly there are real followers of Jesus in the West, but North American mainstream Christianity is falling fast into the Laodicean apostasy that will characterize a rapture-stricken global church that will cry, “Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?” To which Jesus will reply, “I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!” (Matthew 7:22-23)
The Doom of Self-Deception
As the Sardis church era represented a dead church transitioning toward enlightenment, so the Laodicean church era represents a once enlightened church transitioning back toward death. This results in Jesus proclaiming His love for all, including those He rebukes and chastens, for He offers abundant (but not unlimited) grace even for those who would deny Him (Rev. 3:19).
The gold, white garments, and eye salve that Christ offers are representative of spiritual wealth, righteous purity, and the ability to see/discern truth (Rev. 3:18). The offer, however, is refused out of Laodicea’s perception of self-sufficiency. James 5:2-3 speaks to such pride:
Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver are corroded, and their corrosion will be a witness against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have heaped up treasure in the last days.
The endgame of this church is evident in the coarse fact that no commendation is offered by Christ, underscoring the need for watchfulness and sound doctrine on behalf of the true Church as the path toward doctrinal defection (a.k.a apostasy) becomes more heavily trod.
Though truly faithful Christians are scattered throughout modern Christendom, the Laodicean church era solidifies and ushers in a haughty, compromised, and spiritually blind church that is nothing more than an empty religious shell that will act as a conduit for the rise of the “great whore of Babylon” (one-world religious system; Rev. 17) until Antichrist no longer needs her “charms” (realpolitik) and demands worship of himself which provokes the final push toward Armageddon and Christ’s Second Advent (Rev. 17-19).
Churches Without Christ
Being that the Laodicean church receives only condemnation from Christ, it is logical to ask whether or not this is due to an absence of all true believers, for Jesus does not reference (as He did for previous churches) even a small percent within this church that yet “hold fast” to truth (Rev. 3:19-20).
Recalling Jesus’ warning to remove a church’s lampstand when His authority is no longer recognized as sufficient (Rev. 2:5), we see that the Laodiean church indeed suffered this fate. Though the Laodicean lampstand is not mentioned as being taken away, Jesus standing outside the church is proof enough (Rev. 3:20). J. B. Smith observes, “Next to Calvary this is one of the most pathetic and heart-rending scenes in the entire Bible.”[1]
What can we learn from this stark and sad scene? The image of Christ standing and knocking at the door is simultaneously an invitation (to receive Him into one’s heart) and a warning of His soon return to receive/rapture His Church unto Himself and taker her back to His Father’s house (John 14:2-3; 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17) before God’s wrath descends upon the earth!
The church overall having rejected Christ as Head, and with few to none who faithfully proclaim His Gospel, leads to Jesus personally making appeals to the individual: “If any one hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him…” (Rev. 3:20) The picture of Christ dining with the one who opens their heart to Him conveys fellowship via the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and foreshadows the Marriage Supper of the Lamb that takes place in heaven following the rapture of the Church and prior to the Second Advent.
The church (and individual) in this apostate condition is unaware of its wretchedness, nakedness, and blindness and therefore continues its unholy revelry oblivious to the fact that Jesus Christ and His Holy Spirit have exited the church outright. Jesus cannot abide in the hearts of the disobedient and worldly:
Why do you call Me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do the things which I say? …For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words, of him will the Son of Man be ashamed when He comes in His own glory, and in His Father’s… (Luke 6:46; 9:26)
Following His rebuke Jesus counsels (Rev. 3:18) the guilty to purchase (i.e. surrender in humility and sacrifice) from Him spiritual riches–refined gold (salvation, trials; Job 23:10), white garments (Christlikeness; 1 Peter 1:19), and eye salve (spiritual discernment of truth; Ephesians 1:17-18). Then He admonishes zealous repentance before it is too late (Rev. 3:19).
Anyone prayerfully surveying church history from its beginning through to the present will discern the trends forecast in Jesus’ letters to the seven churches, including the clear and present danger of the Laodicean tragedy. Indeed, the Laodicean church is a prophetic shadow revealing the destiny of the Papal/Catholic, Orthodox, and Reformed/Protestant churches as they trend toward apostasy and ultimate judgment as a result of neglecting their lamps and oil supply.
Notes:
1. J.B. Smith, A Revelation of Jesus Christ, (Scottdale, PA: Herald Press, 1974), p95.