“I wish that you were either cold or hot!”

Jesus, the Faithful and True Witness

“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 nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth.” Rev 3:15-16

Indifference. Lukewarmness. Why is that so repulsive to God that He would want to spit someone that is lukewarm out of His mouth? Maybe it is because it is an attribute that is so foreign to His character. Consider this: Was there anything lukewarm about subjecting His only Son to the horrible death penalty of someone else’s crime? Was there any apathy on the part of a Son who could say, “Father, not my will but thy will be done,” or “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.”

No. Such things are not possible to those satisfied with their current condition and indifferent to the cries of the lost. If you aren’t angry about the message of Jesus being the only way to God, or fool enough to declare it, now might be the time to examine yourself to see if you really are in the hunt for truth.

Perhaps we should look at the entire message to the church in Laodicea:

And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God;

I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot: I wish you were either cold or hot. So then because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue you out of my mouth. Because you say, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and don’t know that you are wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked: I counsel you to buy from me gold tried in the fire, that you may be rich; and white raiment, that you may be clothed, and that the shame of your nakedness do not appear; and anoint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent. Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hears my voice, and opens the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me. To him that overcomes will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and have sat down with my Father in his throne. He that has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

God was not content with His glorious power, wealth and knowledge while His children, and therefore all of creation, had become bound to the forces of decay and death by misusing the very free will He had given them. There is a love that burns within His heart that constrains Him to give of Himself to help and rescue others, even if it costs Him everything. And the eternal Spirit that moves in Him is the SAME Spirit that He poured out into the hearts of those who believe in Jesus’ resurrection from the dead. God purchased the right to give us that Spirit when Jesus paid the legal penalty of our crimes against God upon His cross.

If you don’t have His Spirit within you then you are still lost. If you claim to have His Spirit and yet lack a heart for the lost, then you are wretched, miserable, poor and blind as the scriptures say.

So what shall it be? Indifference is not an option.