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One of the wealthiest city of that area during Roman times, Laodicea was widely known for its banks, a medical school with a famous eye salve[1], and a textile industry famous for glossy black wool that was used for making tunics and cloaks. The church appears to have been as wealthy as the town. There's no mention of persecution, or trouble with the Jewish population, or any conflict with heresy.
The city worshiped a moon God named Men, a lord of the underworld. People counted on him for healing, safety, and prosperity.[2] Called ‘Lord of Two Horns’ by the Romans, [3] he was often depicted riding a horse and carrying a scepter, crescent moon rising behind him like two horns, with a slain beast at his feet. In A.D. 60, an earthquake leveled Laodicea (along with a lot of other places). Laodicea refused to accept Roman financial assistance because they had enough money to go it on their own. They were pretty proud of being rich enough to take care of themselves.[4]
The city’s major weakness was lack of a decent water supply. It was not hot, like the water from the hot springs of nearby Hierapolis; it was not “cold” like the water at nearby Colossae. Aqueducts brought water from these locations to Laodicea, and it was lukewarm and somewhat dirty by the time it arrived. The pipes that have survived are coated with calcification and minerals, some to the point of blocking the water flow almost entirely. This brings us to today’s text.
“To the angel of the church in Laodicea write: These are the words of the Amen,[5] the faithful and true witness,[6] the ruler of God’s creation.[7] I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot (from zeo, to boil) nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth. 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.[8] I counsel you to buy from me[9] 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. Those whom I love I rebuke (reprove)[10] and discipline.[11] So be earnest (from zeo, to boil) and repent. Here I am! I have been standing at the door and knocking.[12] If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person,[13] and they with me.[14] 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. Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” (Revelation 3:14-22)
Augustine, around 400 AD, wrote about the distinction between the City of Men and the City of God.
“The earthly city glories in itself, the Heavenly City glories in the Lord. The former looks for glory from men, the latter finds its highest glory in God, the witness of a good conscience. The earthly lifts up its head in its own glory, the Heavenly City says to its God: 'My glory; you lift up my head.' In the former, the lust for domination lords it over its princes as over the nations it subjugates; in the other both those put in authority and those subject to them serve one another in love... The one city loves its own strength shown in its powerful leaders; the other says to God, 'I love you, my Lord, my strength.'
French sociologist Jacques Ellul once noted of human cultures,
“The whole goal of the city of man is to be able to say, we did it ourselves, we did it our way, we did it our own, we have need of nothing.”
That’s Laodicea. That’s problematic enough. It gets worse when the City of Man becomes confused with the City of God. One biblical scholar wrote of Laodicea,
“No doubt part of her problem was the inability to distinguish between material and spiritual prosperity. The church that is prospering materially and outwardly can easily fall into self-deception that our outward prosperity is the measure of her spiritual prosperity."[15]
The link between spiritual complacency and material blessing came up time and again as I was studying this. This isn’t a new idea. Jesus warned that material comfort would make it challenging to enter the Kingdom of God. John Wesley, an English clergyman who founded the Methodists, made an interesting observation:
“I fear, wherever riches of increase, the essence of religion is decreased in the same proportion… as riches increase, so will pride, anger, and love of the world and all its branches.” [16]
This is not inevitable, of course. It’s not money itself that’s the problem. But the Bible sure does warn about how easy it is to love money and the material things of the world. This appears to be the source of the lukewarmness in the church in Laodicea. It led to (depending on whose study you prefer):
- works (“deeds”) that were barren and ineffective. Jesus didn’t say, “I know your heart,” though he surely does. There was something about their deeds.
- a self-sufficiency that caused them so say, “I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing,” which led them to live in a lukewarm fashion
- a lack of passion for the things of God (they weren’t ‘boiling’)
Ever heard the phrase “Go big or go home?” Something like that. Not that you have to do something grand, but do it wholeheartedly. It’s discouraging to watch your favorite sports team mail it in. At least try. Sometimes I’ll watch movies where I feel insulted by the level of artistic work that went into telling the story. Just how low did they think my standards were?
G.A. Studdert Kennedy, an Anglican priest and army chaplain for England during WW1, wrote a poem called “When Jesus Came To Birmingham,” which I saw referenced more than once as I was studying the church in Laodicea.[17] It’s intended to show the insult to God when we treat him casually.
When Jesus came to Golgotha, they hanged Him on a tree,
They drove great nails through hands and feet, and made a Calvary;
They crowned Him with a crown of thorns, red were His wounds and deep,
For those were crude and cruel days, and human flesh was cheap.
When Jesus came to Birmingham they simply passed Him by,
They never hurt a hair of Him, they only let Him die;
For men had grown more tender, and they would not give Him pain,
They only just passed down the street, and left Him in the rain.
Still Jesus cried, “Forgive them, for they know not what they do,”
And still it rained the wintry rain that drenched Him through and through;
The crowds went home, and left the streets without a soul to see,
And Jesus crouched against a wall and cried for Calvary.
If you love or hate Jesus, either way you have invested time and emotion in wrestling with the reality of Jesus. But to ignore him? To just take him lightly or for granted? I’ve been in the position where I have wounded others in a decision I made. That’s bad enough. It’s worse when I have to say, “I wasn’t trying to hurt you. I didn’t even think about you.” You think that’s going to make it better, and then you hear it come out of your mouth and you just cringe. I think that’s why we often hear that the opposite of love isn’t hate; it’s indifference.
The Laodiceans weren’t going through life hostile to Jesus. They just weren’t thinking about Jesus. Jesus would spit out lukewarm water; he promises to spit out such Christians. They disgust him. It’s a sobering image.
I probably can’t overstate how bad it was going in Laodicea. In my Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture series, there is a loooot more the church fathers have to say about Laodicea than any other church. Like, they had strong opinions. Commentators are in agreement: the idea that God would just vomit them out is a gross image for a reason. The description of the reality of their condition doesn’t ease up – and it nails them at the point of their false security.
- “wretched" and "pitiful"— a state when everything one owns has been destroyed or plundered by war. It had to be a shocking image to people doing really well materially. But the reality was they had lost the war. They had been spiritually plundered, and they didn’t even know it. It turns out that when you don’t think about Jesus, you don’t stay neutral. The more comfortable we are in the world, the more it’s the world that shapes us. It’s the world that defines what’s normal, what the good life looks like.[18] We think we are cool and comfortable and knocking it out of the park, but in reality we are being plundered by the beast.
- Poor – bring no spiritual ‘gold’ to the world and they have no spiritual wealth
- Naked - no virtue; righteousness; no spiritual armor
- Blind – no vision. They don’t see the world as God sees it.
There are many sayings about doors that need to be opened found in the writings of the ancient rabbis. One example will suffice.
John’s audience knew what was being asked of them: repentance.
And if they repent? Jesus who has conquered, and who is sitting with the Father in power (“on the throne”), will offer them a seat with them.
The self-sufficient Spirit of Laodicea begins to find renewal in acts of repentance and disciplines of dependency.[21] How do we become refined gold? The Church Fathers had some opinions:
- “Filth is burned out by fire.” (Cyprian)
- “…standing firm in good works...” (Caesarius of Arles)
- “…made brilliant in the fire of temptation.” (Andrew of Caesarea)
- “…flame of afflictions…” (Bede)
N.T. Wright recounts that Teresa of Avila once complained to the Lord about what she was suffering. ‘This’, he is said to have replied, ‘is how I treat my friends.’ Teresa, who by then prayed in the good, direct and biblical style, retorted, ‘Then you shouldn’t be surprised that you have so few of them.’[22] But the letter to each of the 7 churches reminds us that faithfulness of true friends will be rewarded.
Naked - no virtue. How do we become clothed in a white raiment? Those who are naked are “destitute of the works of righteousness…he is clothed who is vested with the baptism of Christ, for…’as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.’” (Primasius) Note the inevitable two-part connection: faith and deeds. James would be happy reading this J We are baptized into Christ, and from that flows a life inspired, empowered and ordered by Christ in us. “I know your deeds” is more than just saying, “I know what you did.” It’s saying, “I know whose you are.”
Blind – no vision. How does one get the eye salve that clears up bad eyesight?
- “The commandment of the Lord is clear, enlightening the eyes.” (Primasius)
- “…acquire an understanding of the holy Scriptures through the performance of good works.” (Bede)
- “For mixing together the seed of the divine word with the thistles of wealth, you have become unaware of your poverty in spiritual matters and of the blindness of your spiritual eyes and of your nakedness in good works….the salve is poverty.” (Andrew of Caesarea)
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[1] Laodicea was the home of a medical school in the first century. One of its graduates was Demosthenes Philalethes, an ophthalmologist who wrote an influential textbook on the eye. An ancient healing formula called Phrygian powder was also linked with the city. (Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary Of The New Testament)
[2]https://oxfordre.com/classics/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780199381135.001.0001/acrefore-9780199381135-e-4088
[3] https://atlanticreligion.com/2014/08/13/sabazios-and-the-phrygian-moon-god-men/
[4] A snapshot of Babylon’s materialism shown in Revelation 18.
[5] Isaiah 65:16 speaks of “the God of the Amen.”
[6] See Revelation 1:5; 19:11.
[7] Paul wrote the book of Colossians for the church at Laodicea. See Colossians 1:15-18 .
[8] Note the contrast with the church at Smyrna: "I know . . . your poverty—yet you are rich!"
[9] Isaiah 55:1, "Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost." See also Revelation 21:6 and 22:17.
[10] John 16:8; Ephesians 5:11; Ephesians 5:13
[11] See Proverbs 3:11–12; Hebrews 12:5–6.
[12] Luke 12:35, 36, "Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning; and ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their lord, when he will return from the wedding; that when he cometh and knocketh, they may open unto him immediately."
[13] In the ancient world, a meal invitation to an estranged person opened the way for reconciliation. Jesus offers to accept and renew intimate fellowship with those who repent, anticipating the final Messianic banquet in Revelation 19:9. (NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible)
[14] Note this act of grace: the self-deluded members of the congregation are being invited to an act of fellowship with Jesus. (NIV Study Bible Notes)
[15] Both quotes found in Seven Deadly Spirits: The message of Revelations letters for today's Church, T. Scott Daniels
[16] Seven Deadly Spirits: The message of Revelations letters for today's Church, T. Scott Daniels
[17] From collected poems in an anthology called “The Unutterable Beauty.”
[18] Salvian the Presbyter (5th century) wrote of Laodicea, “They learn good and do evil…they have the form of knowledge and of truth in the law. They preach that they must not steal, yet they do steal. They read that they must not commit adultery, yet they commit it. They glory in the law, yet by transgression of the law they dishonor God. Therefore, for this very reasons, Christians are worse because they should be better.”
[19] Shir Hashirim Rabba, fol. 25, 1
[20] N. T. Wright, Revelation For Everyone
[21] The idea of “disciplines of dependency” comes from Seven Deadly spirits: The message of Revelations letters for today's Church,written by T. Scott Daniels
[22] N.T. Wright, Revelation For Everyone
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