Revelation Chapter 3
(As taken from, The Keys of Revelation)
VERSE 15 “I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot.”
While the comparison here is boiling hot and icy cold, it is the intermediate state of lukewarmness that is, in reality, most accentuated. There is more hope that the cold of the world, who have not yet been warmed by the gospel call, may become hot and fervent Christians than for the lukewarm, who have already been brought within the proximity of the holy fire but were not heated by it into fervent zeal.
If the lukewarm state is a mere transitional stage to greater warmth and fervency, it can be considered in a favorable light; but if it indicates a changing phase towards coolness and abandonment, it will result in a most fatal condition unless speedily rectified.
What Jesus is severely castigating is an abiding lukewarmness, the condition of a mere sufficiency of religion (faith) to lull the conscience into a false sense of security and drowsiness (A great percentage of professed believers fall prey to this deception). This in-between condition he refuses to recognize, for it is better for mere nominal professing Christians, who have not yet made a public commitment or a private vow to serve the Lord, to cease their false pretensions as “tares” and to become either “hot” or “cold.” As for those who have indeed at one time or another covenanted to serve the Lord, the admonition is to do so with fervency and zeal.
VERSE 16 “So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of my mouth.”
Being “cold” indicates not mere cool indifference, but blunt and frank opposition to dispensational truth.
Being “hot” signifies fervency of spirit for doctrine and instruction with accompanying zeal for service in the truth.
Being “lukewarm” describes the present condition of the nominal Church as a whole, which is neither hot nor cold in its reaction to the responsibilities of the Word. This lukewarmness is manifested by those “having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof” (2 Tim. 3:5).
Surprising perhaps to some, the Lord looks more favorably upon active antagonists of present truth than he does upon professed lukewarm followers of his cause. Jesus’ remark “I would thou were cold or hot” is tinged with sarcasm to underscore his disapproval of the indifference of his nominal followers to his instruction.
It is also true that lukewarm Christians with lethargic, putty like dispositions can seldom be roused to zealous activity in the Lord’s service. He is looking for “jewels” who display firmness of character and who enthusiastically mirror forth divine grace and truth in their lives (Mal. 3:17).
Far more hope exists for those who are now cold in receiving the instruction of God’s Word; in some instances, their hearts may be loyal to God, but their heads and energies are misdirected in the path of Christian duty. Remember how violently Saul persecuted the early Church and thus thought that he was doing God a service, until his eyes of understanding were opened by Jesus on the road to Damascus (Acts 8:1–3; 9:1–22). Thereafter, the converted Saul—i.e., the Apostle Paul—was just as faithful and zealous in his defense and espousal of the truth as he previously had been in his opposition.
Because of the current lukewarm condition of the professed Church as a whole, Jesus implies there is little or no hope of bestirring the nominal mass to a favorable reception of his counsel. There was a time when stewardship of the Word was entrusted to the nominal Christian Church, who were God’s ministers of reconciliation to the world, commissioned to teach and preach the gospel to the spiritually poor. “Babylon [mixture of Catholic and Protestant church systems] hath been a golden cup in the Lord’s hand” (Jer. 51:7). Jesus’ remarks (Verse 16) indicate this privilege would be revoked; indeed a fulfillment along these very lines has already commenced.
Prophetically, the Master declares it is merely a matter of time before he will “spew out” (utterly disavow or vomit forth) the church systems per se, which for all practical purposes heretofore served collectively as the Lord’s mouthpiece either to the world without or to his body members within.
Throughout the gospel dispensation the apostate Church (the nominally professing church) has exerted a “Nicolaitan” spirit over God’s people or heritage as well as over the profane or secular public. Having formerly exercised all the prerogatives of judgment, it condemned to the fagot and torch any who questioned the assumed role of clerical authority.
As a climactic conclusion to this gospel era, the balance of power is to be reversed (not before, however, a brief “hour” in which a police state with orthodox religious associations will predominate). As a result of the reversal, all religious perversions will be disallowed. Those who have exercised judicial abuse will themselves experience retributive justice; they will become a “judged people,” as the name Laodicea suggests.
Samson fell asleep in Delilah’s lap and was subsequently bound, fettered, and blinded in servitude to the false Philistine system of “Dagon” control and worship. The religious public at large have likewise been blinded with superstition, ignorance, and prejudice to serve mystic Babylon. Ultimately, as their counterpart Samson did, they will in blind fury tear down the temple structure of society, thus accomplishing the divine purpose of judgment (Bringing to end the present order of things).
The apocalyptic vision contains an implied irony and a meaningful choice of words. That religious system (the Nicolaitans) who lorded it over the people (masses) in the Dark Ages is now, in turn, to be judged by the people during the Laodicean period. This judgment is to progress in two stages:
(1) Marking the commencement of this period, there was a legal and mental rejection of Babylon by the Lord.
(2) Marking the termination of this era, there will be a stern execution of the sentence divinely decreed. Thank God, the Kingdom of Messiah, when inaugurated following this judgment and the close of the Gospel Age with its seven stages of development, will usher in a promised era of reconstruction and lasting happiness!
We move on to Verse 17 in our next post.
