Laodicea: February 2010
Table of Contents
Our Righteousness
Jesus, the Lord, our righteousness!
Our beauty Thou, our glorious dress!
Before the throne, in this arrayed,
With joy shall we lift up the head.
Bold shall we stand in that great day,
For who aught to our charge shall
lay,
While by Thy blood absolved we are
From sin and guilt, from shame and
fear?
Thus Abraham, the friend of God,
Thus all the saints redeemed with
blood,
Saviour of sinners, Thee proclaim,
And all their boast is in Thy name.
This spotless robe the same appears
In new creation’s endless years;
No age can change its glorious hue;
The robe of Christ is ever new.
Till we behold Thee on Thy throne,
In Thee we boast, in Thee alone;
Our beauty this, our glorious dress:
Jesus, the Lord, our righteousness.
Zinzendorf,
Little Flock Hymnbook, #45
Laodicea
Revelation 3:14-22
In reading through the articles of this issue, I am struck by the fact that if I am a Laodicean, I am not aware of it, and if you are, you don’t realize it either. Imagine being wretched or miserable or poor or blind or naked and not knowing it. Imagine my being all those things at the same time and yet thinking, instead, that I am rich and have increased in goods and have need of nothing. If I need eye salve, may the Lord in mercy work in my heart to answer His knock at the door of my heart.
“Yet even here, in the face of this most deplorable condition of things, the infinite grace and changeless love of the heart of Christ shine out in all their undimmed luster. He is outside; this tells what the church is. But He is knocking, calling, waiting; this tells what He is. Eternal and universal homage to His name! ‘As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent’ (Rev. 3:19). The gold, the white raiment and the eye salve are offered. Love has various offices to discharge, various characters in which to clothe itself, but it is the same love still — ‘the same yesterday, and today, and forever,’ even though it has to ‘rebuke and chasten.’ Here His attitude and His action speak volumes, both as to the church and as to Himself.”
Theme of the Issue
Laodicea - a Diagnosis and a Prescription
The address to the assembly in Laodicea might, at first glance, seem to be rather negative and even discouraging to one who wishes to honor the Lord. When we consider all the superlative blessings that God gave to the church, is all this to end (at least on earth) in what is described in Laodicea?
The Diagnosis
We must face the solemn fact that in every dispensation man has miserably failed in whatever responsibility God gave to him and that the church period has not been any better than those which preceded it. We might even say that we have been far worse, when we consider the much greater degree of light and privilege afforded to us, compared to past dispensations. Instead of being a faithful witness, the professing church has corrupted the truth committed to it, allied itself with the world, and will indeed, as a testimony, end up being spewed out of Christ’s mouth.
There is, however, real encouragement in what the Lord says to Laodicea, if we should find ourselves surrounded by this condition of things. First of all, we must remember that the last four assemblies addressed in Revelation 23 go on until the Lord comes. All are under the umbrella of Christendom. Thyatira (which, no doubt, represents Roman Catholicism and similar systems, such as the Greek Orthodox Church and the Coptic Church) and Sardis (which represents the many denominations of so-called Protestantism) will exist when the Lord comes. Then there will be Laodicea, which takes great pride in its own mind and judgment and does not realize its true poverty. But there will also be a Philadelphia until the end —those who keep His Word and do not deny His name. Doubtless there are distinct groups that display the character of either Philadelphia or Laodicea, but both represent a state of soul rather than a definite and identifiable system, as was the case with Thyatira and Sardis.
Laodiceanism is Philadelphian light and truth, but without the power of it in our walk. When God, by His grace, allowed a revival of the truth in these last days, many gladly took hold of it. But to walk in a path of reproach, to bear the cross for Christ, to walk in separation from this world — all this was “a hard saying” (John 6:60). As a result, we have often held the truth intellectually, but without the practical effect of it in our lives. This is the true character of Laodicea and results in human pride, a focus on ourselves, and the embracing of secular humanism, the prevailing philosophy of our day.
The Prescription
But God gives a remedy to those who will listen. First of all, Christ is presented as “the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God.” If man has failed all along, God now brings forward the One who is the Head of new creation. If man has spoiled the first creation, God will eventually create a new heavens and a new earth, which man will never spoil. If all around us we see the sad results of man’s unfaithfulness in Christianity, God points us to the One who never fails. If we are willing to take God’s remedy, we may admit the Lord, who stands at the door and knocks, and enjoy blessed fellowship with Him. He has not changed!
Are we willing to take God’s remedy? No doubt, the reference to buying gold, white raiment, and eye salve has a voice for those who are not real, but the believer needs this remedy too, although the application may be different. The unbeliever needs to understand his true sinful condition before God and realize that he can have no righteousness before God without the blood of Christ. The believer, however, having become infected with religious pride and the spirit of the world around him, may also need to be brought back to the cross and to realize that “in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing” (Rom. 7:18). We cannot have feelings of pride if we stand at the foot of the cross.
The unbeliever needs to have white raiment as a result of having his sins forgiven, but the believer may need to change his outward walk and ways, for we read in Revelation 19:8 (JND) that “the fine linen is the righteousnesses of the saints.” If the true child of God already stands before God in all the perfection of Christ Himself, then God looks for a walk that corresponds to this. This may be sadly lacking in us today, so that the world sees no difference between us and the unbeliever. Our clothes may have become soiled so that we resemble the unbelievers around us.
Eye salve speaks to us of the Holy Spirit. The unbeliever, who is not indwelt with the Holy Spirit, finds it impossible to see clearly in moral and spiritual matters. He needs new life in Christ and the Holy Spirit to enable him to understand the things of God. But the believer who is walking in the flesh will also find his vision clouded and his spiritual perception dulled. He too needs to judge his ways, so that the Spirit that dwells within Him can once again minister Christ to His soul and enable him to see clearly what would please the Lord.
His Counsel
In love, the Lord counsels His own to avail themselves of these remedies, for He has not changed, and He earnestly desires their fellowship. The One whose love took Him to Calvary’s cross wants the company of those for whom He died. We will have it with Him for all eternity, but how blessed to enjoy that fellowship now, where He is still rejected!
This dispensation may end in Laodiceanism, but all the resources that God gave at the beginning of the church period are still ours to draw on. If we will take God’s remedy, He is able to produce a Philadelphian character in us today!
W. J. Prost
The Address to Laodicea
The Lord presents Himself to Laodicea in a way that utterly condemns the condition of the church, and yet is of the greatest encouragement to the overcomer. He is “the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God.” As the Amen, He is the One in whom all the promises of God have been taken up and affirmed in all their bearings, to bring to pass every good and overthrow every wrong, and eternally glorify God in so doing. As the Faithful Witness, He was ever loyal to the One who sent Him. He loved the Father and came to do the Father’s will. Whatever the cost to Himself, He never deviated from that will and never flinched from carrying it out. He is the beginning of the creation of God, which, in all its vast extent, will be marked by the will of God.
In the perfection of His way as the Amen, the faithful and true Witness, the beginning of the creation of God, He eclipsed all others. He was fairer than the children of men. And yet alas! He who should have been exclusively before the church as the One beyond compare is the very One who is excluded by the church of the Laodiceans and treated with callous indifference. The church was set to shine for Christ, to bear witness to the grace of God, and to exhibit the qualities of the new creation. Alas! it has failed in all its responsibilities. It should have shone for Christ, in a dark world, by pointing to Him as the One in whom all the promises of God have their complete fulfillment—that He is the “Yea” and the “Amen,” and that every blessing that God has for man is found in Him. Then, indeed, the church was set in the world to be a faithful and true witness to the grace of God. Alas! so far from being a witness to grace, in the last stage of her history the great mass are strangers to grace and even opposed to God.
Lastly, the church should have been the “firstfruits of His creatures,” exhibiting the fruits of new creation — “love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance” (James 1:18; Gal. 5:22-23; 6:15). How little are these new creation fruits to be found in the professing Christian circle! Is not Christendom marked by hatred, misery and war, rather than love, joy and peace? Alas! is it not true that nothing on the face of the whole earth is so diametrically opposed to God as unconverted Christendom?
Thus we learn, in the way Christ presents Himself to the church of Laodicea, the way in which the church should have represented Christ before the world.
Indifference to Christ
So absolutely has the church failed in its witness for Christ that, in the last stage, the Lord can find nothing to commend. All He finds is a state that is utterly nauseous to Him. He says, “I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot.” The Lord sees a condition that has neither the coldness of death, as in Sardis, nor the warmth of devotion, as in Philadelphia. There is that which, in His sight, is more hopeless to man and more dishonoring to Himself than the coldness of death, for the Lord can say, “I would thou wert cold or hot.” He sums up this condition, in its last phase, in the solemn words, “Thou art lukewarm.” What is this but indifference to Christ, and what is always linked with indifference but toleration of evil? In the last phase of Christendom there are those who take the name of Christ and make a profession of Christianity, but when tested by the great question, “What think ye of Christ?” are found to be utterly indifferent to Him.
The improvement of man, the uplifting of the masses, the betterment of social conditions will deeply interest them, but the glad tidings concerning Christ, the interests of Christ, and the people of Christ awaken within them but a languid interest, and to Christ, Himself, they are wholly indifferent. As long as people are sincere, charitable and respectable, the Laodicean cares not what they believe concerning Christ. His deity may be denied and His perfect Manhood defamed; the Laodicean is quite indifferent. The atonement may be set aside, the inspired words of Christ denied, the coming of Christ made a matter for scoffing, and yet all is of the utmost indifference to the “broad-minded,” easy-going, lukewarm Laodicean.
Such a condition is absolutely nauseous to Christ. The Lord expresses His abhorrence by warning this church that the end will be their complete rejection as a church. He says, “I will spew thee out of My mouth.”
Self-Satisfaction
There is, however, further condemnation, for, linked with indifference to Christ, there is the most arrogant assumption and self-satisfaction. Laodicea says, “I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing.” Though indifferent to Christ, the Laodicean church is full of herself and her claims. The church that was left here to witness for Christ has fallen to such depths that it not only ceases to witness for Christ, but it commences to witness to itself. The church ceases to speak of Christ and talks about the church. The assembly is made much of and Christ is belittled. The assembly seeks to attract to herself and not Christ. It usurps the place of Christ by claiming to be the vessel of riches and grace. Christ is outside, and yet it can say, “I . . . have need of nothing.”
Such then is the condition of the Laodicean church, indifferent to Christ, self-occupied, and self-satisfied, and yet withal utterly ignorant of its true condition before the Lord. “I know,” the Lord can say, but, “Thou knowest not.” In their own estimation, the Laodicean had need of nothing; in the sight of the Lord they needed everything, for He has to say, “Thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked.”
“Buy of Me”
Having exposed their terrible condition the Lord gives them counsel. He says, “I counsel thee to buy of Me” — words which show their need of Christ and that there is no blessing apart from Christ. They must come to Christ for true riches. What grace that invites, not simply sinners confessed, but these self-occupied, self-satisfied professors to come to Himself! Does it not blessedly set forth the attitude of grace that Christ still takes toward the Christless profession? They profess to have riches, so the Lord, taking them up on their own ground, invites them to come and buy. The only cost will be the letting go of their own self-righteousness, for, after all, the positive blessings that the Lord has to dispense are without money and without price.
They are invited to buy “gold tried in the fire,” speaking of divine righteousness secured through the judgment of the cross; “white raiment,” speaking of practical righteousness, that, so clothed, the shame of their nakedness does not appear. Their lack of practical righteousness before men was a solemn proof of their lack of divine righteousness before God. “By their fruits ye shall know them” (Matt. 7:1520). Further, they need the eye salve that they may see, speaking of the anointing of the Spirit that enables us to see our need of Christ, as well as the perfection of His person and work to meet our need and to supply us with true wealth and suitability to the glory of God.
The Rebuke of Love
The Lord, however, is not content with speaking to the consciences of these lukewarm Laodiceans. He will seek to reach the heart of any true believer that may still be found in Laodicea. He says, “As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.” The church had long since left first love, but the Lord never left His first love for the church. No longer can He speak of their love, yet He can still speak of His love. It is not, however, the love of complacency, but a love that has to act in rebuke.
The Knock at the Door
Further, the Lord lingers in grace at their door. He speaks to the conscience; He appeals to the heart; He stands at the door; He knocks at the door. There is the call to repentance, but there is no expectation that the mass will repent, for this last appeal is only to the individual. “If any man hear My voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with Me.”
Such is the last stage of the church’s history on earth. That which was set to bear witness for Christ on earth becomes a witness to its own wretchedness and shuts Christ outside its door. In the condition of Laodicea, do we not see the full result of the first departure in Ephesus? The beginning of all departure was leaving first love to Christ; the end, total indifference to Christ in a church that is well content to have Christ outside its door. The last stage of Christendom, that with calm indifference shuts the door on Christ, seems almost worse in its callousness than the last stage of Judaism that, in its hostility, nailed Christ to a cross.
Even as Christ lingered over corrupt Judaism with tears, so He waits outside the door of Christendom with infinite patience, if perchance there is “any man” in the Christian profession that will open the door to Him. For the mass there is no hope; it is about to be spewed out of His mouth, but until that solemn act of final rejection comes to pass, there is this loving invitation held out to the individual who will listen to the voice of Christ. If there is one whose conscience has been reached by the Lord’s exposure of Christendom, who has been aroused by His warnings, who has listened to His counsel and been touched by His love, let that one but open the door and, even at this last stage, Christ will come in to him and sup with him, and he shall sup with Christ. What is this but the sweet communion of first love? Does it not prove that in the last stage of the church’s history on earth, when judgment is about to fall upon the great mass of the profession, it is possible for the individual to be brought back to first love? The Lord does not speak of any recovery of public witness to Himself, but of secret communion with Himself.
To the Overcomer
To the overcomer there is the promise of sitting with Christ on His throne, even as Christ also has sat down with the Father in His throne. The one who overcomes the indifference of Laodicea and opens the door to Christ, in the day when the great mass have closed the door upon Christ, will enjoy, not only secret communion with Christ, in the day of His rejection, but will be associated with Christ in display in the day of His glory. Christ overcame a world that rejected the Father and has sat down on His Father’s throne; the one who overcomes a world that has rejected Christ will sit down with Christ on His throne.
The address closes with the appeal to the one with the hearing ear. It is well for us to pay heed to what the Spirit says to the church of Laodicea, for does it not set forth a condition that may develop even among the Philadelphians? But for the grace of God, the very light and privileges that are given may lead to Laodicean self-complacency. May we have the needed grace to hear what the Spirit has to say to the churches.
H. Smith
Address on Laodicea
“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.” The character of Christ given here is remarkable. We find a new, special revelation of Himself according to the circumstances of the church addressed. It is not the same traits of His character as those John had seen in the vision; a fresh revelation of Christ is made for the need of the church. When that which bears the name of the church of God is going to be spewed out, then a double measure and peculiar character of grace is needed to sustain the faithful ones in the narrow and often lonely path in which they will be called to walk.
The Lord is here going to judge the professing church which takes the place of the church of God, as the testimony for God in the world. If the church as a vessel of testimony for God is set aside by the Lord in disgust, then the Lord comes in Himself as the “Amen, the faithful and true witness,” not so much in the dignity of His Person, as shown in chapter 1, but as the One who is going to take the place of that which had so entirely failed as God’s witness on the earth.
The professing church is not yet fully ripened up into the final condition of Laodicea; if it were, there would be no use in warning it. God is holding the bridle and does not yet allow the evil to be so fully developed. It started in Ephesus, the moment the church departed from her first love, but we do not find it developed till the Laodicean state. Let us remember that it is the professing church that is thus spewed out, and not the church of the living God, the body and bride of Christ.
“the Amen”
The moment Laodicea is spewed out, God is done with the church as a testimony. Then Christ replaces it as the “faithful and true witness” of God. Christ is the Great Amen of all God’s promises; the church should have shown how all the promises of God were Yea and Amen in Christ Jesus, but it has failed to put its amen to God’s promises.
Amen means “firm verity and truth” — see Isaiah 7:9. “If ye will not believe, surely ye shall not be established,” that is, “if you will not believe [or amen, for it is the same word], ye shall not be established [amened].” The meaning is, if you will not confirm My promises, you shall not be confirmed. Of course, there is not a thought of the possibility of God’s failing in His purposes in Christ, and therefore the church, the body of Christ, will be in glory with its Head, but if it is a question of testimony on the earth, then truly the church has not practically put its amen to the promises of God in Christ. The church was called to manifest the power of its heavenly calling on the earth, but it has not in its walk given the answer to that which God has affirmed. Therefore Christ immediately presents Himself as the Person who is going to seal up all the promises and prophecies, the One who puts the great amen to everything as the “faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God.” As is often said, “the corruption of the best thing is the worst of corruptions”; so there is nothing on the earth so diametrically opposed to God, as professing Christianity.
“the Beginning
of the Creation of God”
Christ comes in here as the blessed witness that God will yet set up creation according to His own will, Christ Himself being the chief and center of it all — see Proverbs 8. In this character, Christ replaces the church in the manifestation of the purposes and promises of God, which cannot fail. If the church be irrevocably gone, Christ as the witness remains, and that will be the stay of the faithful. Here it is that faith is sustained; here is solid ground that nothing can touch, the strength on which the soul can stay, for the stay of every soul is trusting in Him.
It is indeed most fearful to think of apostasy bearing a religious character as it does! How soon did the spirit of it come in! How very soon was there cause to say that “all seek their own, not the things of Jesus Christ”! May the Lord graciously open the eyes of His saints to see the real character of these last days! Though He has had long patience while He is gathering out souls for salvation, His judgment, though delayed, is not changed. The only remedy for the present evil is judgment.
Pretension to Spiritual Riches
From the very beginning we see the principles of corruption coming in. The tares were sown, and the mystery of iniquity was working. As a result, we find there are two points of special importance as characterizing this church of Laodicea — great pretension to spiritual riches in itself, and neither hot nor cold as regards Christ. It is not positive hatred to Christ, but it is not positive zeal for Christ. It is the church going on in worldliness and, at the same time, making great pretensions to spiritual riches, which is a sure sign of poverty. And why? Because those riches can only be found in Christ. When the church boasts of riches within itself, it neither puts its “amen” to the promises of God in Christ Jesus, nor is it the true and faithful witness for God, for the moment the church is what I am looking at and not Christ, I am looking to IT instead of to Him, however much I may pretend to honor Him.
In Philadelphia they had but a little strength, and the Lord could say that they had kept His Word and had not denied His name. While there was felt poverty in the church, Christ was delighting in them. But when there is the pretension to riches in itself, there is an expression of positive disgust — “I will spew thee out of My mouth.” The church of Laodicea, having the thought of fullness and riches within herself, was perfectly ignorant of her state before God. Therefore, says the Lord, “I counsel thee to buy of Me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich, and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eye salve, that thou mayest see” (Rev. 3:18).
The church was not looking to the Lord for these and therefore was wanting in every one of them. Gold is divine righteousness — that which characterizes the standing and foundation of the saints. “The white raiment” is the works of the saints, which are consequent upon the possession of divine righteousness. Those at Laodicea were lacking even the righteousness of saints, for, being without divine righteousness, they could have no practical, spiritual righteousness, no saintly works, for the “fine linen is the righteousnesses of the saints” (Rev. 19:8 JND).
They were also wanting in “eye salve,” for they were blind as to the things of God and without spiritual discernment in anything. Thus, having neither divine righteousness nor the consequent fruits of the Spirit, and still remaining in the blindness of nature, Laodicea lacked everything.
The Lord Outside
There was abundance of pretension, but the Lord does not yet give up all dealing with them. Here in Laodicea the Lord takes an outside character, for when the nominal church has got practically into a Jewish position, then the Lord takes His stand outside and calls to individual souls that are within: “Behold, I stand at the door and knock, if any man hear My voice.” The Lord desires to gain attention; He wants to be admitted. He warns the church of positive judgment, but until that judgment is executed, He goes on necessarily in the exercise of His own blessed grace. But its objects are individual, for the church is given up. “If any man . . . open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with Me”; he will have his portion at My table.
The Promise
“To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with Me [on] My throne.” This is apparently a great promise, but to me it seems the very least, as it is merely a place in the heavenly glory. They are told of no special association with Christ, such as we find in the promise to Pergamos, or even to the faithful in Sardis or in Thyatira, nor is any thought of individual nearness, exclusively the portion of the bride, revealed as a motive. Reigning with Christ is merely the public display of reward and glory, which is a very different thing from the secret intimacy of the “hidden manna” and the “white stone.” The knock was heard and through grace obeyed, and they go up to heavenly glory. They have overcome, and, therefore, surely they must have their reward, “to sit with Me on My throne.” But there is not the same intimacy, there is not the special delight, there is not the Philadelphian joy of Christ having the church for the sake of herself, and the church having Christ for the sake of Himself. Still they get their place in the glory.
The Professing Church
Spewed Out
The solemn testimony of the Lord is that the professing church is to be spewed out of His mouth, and this ought to come home with more sorrow in our hearts than the judgment of the world, having a much more terrible character to the heart than the judgment of Antichrist himself. It is something that disgusts Christ —that is nauseous to Him — from its having had a kind of outward connection with Himself. The professing church in the day in which we live, commonly called Christendom, bears the name of Christ, but in works denies Him. The professing church may now be the pride and boast of man, but at the end it will as such be spewed out of Christ’s mouth. It has every pretension, but nothing that gives Christ His value, but attributes all the value to itself, accrediting itself with it.
May the Lord keep us in the Philadelphian condition — it may be with but very little strength — yet keeping the word of His patience and in the sensible enjoyment of perfect association with Himself, who has set before us an open door and will keep it open until He comes and takes us to Himself.
J. N. Darby, selected
Collyrium
What is collyrium (some may prefer the spelling kollourion)? It is a transliteration of the Greek word for “eye salve.”
It is hard to imagine a greater loss in the whole realm of nature than that of the eyesight. A blind person can no longer look on familiar scenes or on loved and cherished faces; he is in perpetual darkness. The exquisite organ which has played so prominent a part in his life and fortune is unavailing now, and he is necessarily dependent on the kindly guiding hand of another.
Spiritual Blindness
Now, much of Christendom has lost its spiritual eyesight. It has become blind! This was not always the case. It was not always “dull of hearing,” nor spiritually insensible, but, alas, when, as a system, it is outwardly triumphant and can boast of learning, wealth and worldly position, He who walks among the seven golden candlesticks says to Laodicea, “Thou . . . knowest not that thou art . . . blind”! Solemn charge! And, just as we see in Ephesus the church in her first and fairest phase, so we find in Laodicea her final condition; while in the intervening histories of Revelation 23 we see her varied stages of spiritual decline, relieved, admittedly, by a bright remnant in the dark days of Smyrna, and a yet still brighter and fuller expression in Philadelphia. But the trend, the deep undercurrent, is ever steadily downward. The fatal lapse was in Ephesus leaving her first love. Nothing could be more serious than this. Labor and endurance, even for the name’s sake of the Lord, could not compensate for the loss of first love.
The slow but sure result of such a loss is found in the absolute carelessness of Laodicea to Christ. His truth, His grace, His interests are all heartlessly ignored, while humanism fills their place.
How sad thus to report, and how humbling to feel, as we should, the dishonor and sorrow brought upon our blessed Lord, as we daily learn the true character of this closing Laodicean phase! Yet hearts that love Him cannot help but feel and mourn the dreadful corruption of the very best thing ever communicated to man. Such hearts are truly Philadelphian and will not cease to beat until the Lord shall come.
Two facts demonstrate the absoluteness of the ruin: First, Laodicea says, “I have need of nothing,” and second, and as a consequence, Christ says, “I stand at the door and knock.” Where there is no felt need, there can be no place for the Lord. Grace may knock forever while self-sufficiency reigns within.
Need of nothing is the boast of the day, and that which is desired least of all by Laodicea is the holy presence and operation of the Lord.
Eye Salve
“Buy of Me,” says the Lord, “eye salve to anoint thine eyes, that thou mayest see” (Rev. 3:18 JND). Yes, He who charged her with being blind bids her buy of Him eye salve, so that the blinded eye might be anointed and spiritual perception gained. Gold and white raiment, too, were equally required, and each was to be bought. The purchase might be costly. There would certainly be the humbling acknowledgment of poverty and nakedness, as well as blindness, but such was His counsel.
What is this eye salve? How can the film be removed from the eye? How is spiritual perception to be acquired?
Clear Spiritual Vision
The first part of the payment is to confess our need, our fall, our destitution, and to admit that the world and pride have dimmed and blurred the eye till, like Isaac of old, we mistake man for man and error for truth.
And may we expect even this first part of the price to be paid by Laodicea? I fear not! Too long has that patient and tender hand been knocking outside her firmly closed door; too long she has said, “I have no need of Thee”; too long has abundance filled her and pride blinded her eyes to make us expect from this fallen system any general humiliation. But He who knocks so patiently appeals at last individually, and generously adds, “If any man hear My voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with Me.”
To him! Charming exception! To him who hears and opens shall this grace be given! What the proud mass shall lose, the lowly soul shall enjoy.
To such a one is this collyrium sold — this precious, heavenly eye salve which produces clearness of spiritual vision and a blessed appreciation of Christ as rejected and outside of His own house, but as unchanged as ever in His unspeakably patient love and grace.
The true perception of Christ, who He is, where He is actually and morally, and what He is in holiness and love, is the highest and most commanding privilege of the Christian in this day of ecclesiastical corruption and difficulty. But this perception has to be bought; it will surely cost something.
J. W. Smith
Laodicean Unreality
In writing to the Corinthians, Paul uses the expression “man’s day” (1 Cor. 4:3 JND), and we are living in a day when men and their principles are plainly manifested as such. As a result, many are spiritually unable to detect where the rights of Christ or the principles of truth are encroached upon. A character of professed Christianity has sprung up which finds its appropriate expression in the title “human.” Separation has come to mean toleration; unity of the Spirit, coalition; unworldliness, as much of the world as you can keep; that which scripture designates as covetousness means being prudent.
There is nothing in this attitude that would outrage the conscience; it is not a denial of the truth. On the contrary, the truth is owned, except where the acknowledgment of it would interfere with the world which so many hold fast! Satan’s great aim is to present in the same person or company an acknowledgement of the truth with a certain credit and at the same time present a practical denial of it. In this way, he especially damages the truth, because it is exhibited by those on whose conscience it has no power. It is equally true as regards the position to which the truth conducts the soul: This is boasted in so that the truth and the ecclesiastical position suited to it are both accepted. Herein consists the greatest snare of lukewarmness! That the truth can be accepted without any divine answer to its claims is worse than if openly refused, because in the latter case it might be supposed what effects would follow. But the other presents the glaring inconsistency of truth accepted and its practical power denied; this is the moral swamp in which Satan will land the church, so nauseous to Christ. This leaven is rapidly at work and finds its most apt expression in principles and ways openly adopted and contended for on every side. There is nothing so well suits the devil as saints holding a position without practical effect, while open worldliness and looseness creep in unchallenged, under the garb of divine position. In 2 Timothy 2:5, the Apostle by the Spirit describes the state as “having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof.”
How solemn! May the Lord keep us very near and true to Himself! Where this principle is not detected, the Laodicean haze blinds the eye. The leaven is permeating the church rapidly. Man has been acknowledged instead of ignored, addressed through his intellect or senses, given a place, so planting the seeds that ripen in the end. The state of characteristic indifference is tested by Him who is “the faithful and true witness.” May the Lord in mercy in the midst of this growing evil preserve to Himself a few of whom it may be said, “They that feared the Lord spake often one to another” (Mal. 3:16).
W. T. Turpin, adapted
A Present Danger
One of Satan’s most successful devices is to band people together (even Christians) for the purpose of attacking a manifest evil while he is endeavoring to strengthen and establish a more subtle and dangerous iniquity. This has often been witnessed in the history of the church, as, for example, when the enemy has persuaded men to defend the truth of God by resorting to the sword or by calling in the assistance of the civil powers in the way of persecution. The Lord Himself warned His disciples that the time would come when they who killed them would think that they were doing God service. In such ways Satan often carries out his own designs through the mistaken zeal of the children of God. Over one hundred years ago, many antagonistic forces were united against ritualism and against Roman Catholicism in particular. The sad spectacle was presented of politicians, of nominal and of real Christians, uniting against what they deemed a common foe. More recently we have seen the overthrow of much more human tradition, supposedly in the name of seeking the truth.
Warring Against Ritualism
The evil of ritualism and human tradition cannot be overestimated. For a long period it has been helping to quench the pure light of the gospel of the grace of God. However, a danger as great, if not greater, is concealed in the controversy which is now being waged. That danger is rationalism, or secular humanism, which in its true essence is infidelity. Thus there are in the ranks of the aggressors upon ritualism many who deny the inspiration of the Scriptures, who are unsound as to the person of Christ, and who do not accept the scriptural presentation of the atonement. When ritualism is swept away, it is only to make larger room for that rationalistic infidelity which is corrupting the channels of spiritual life on every hand through the literature of the day.
Rationalism
It may then be helpful to consider briefly what the Scriptures have to say concerning rationalism. In Colossians 2 Paul warns us against three enemies of Christianity, rationalism, ritualism and superstition, and it may be observed that he puts rationalism first. These are his words: “Beware lest any man spoil you [lead you away as a prey] through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.” What then is meant by philosophy and vain deceit? It is the application of the human mind, human powers of reasoning, to the Scriptures and to divine things, and the expression of man’s competency to sit in judgment upon the Word of God and what that Word reveals. This is done, and the right to do it is claimed on all sides. The effect upon souls is that they do not know what to believe, and accordingly they lapse very much into the state of Pilate as embodied in the question he addressed to the Lord, “What is truth?” The evil is spread far and wide, and it is spreading ever more widely. It has penetrated unnoticed into many a godly family circle and has filled the minds of many of the young with doubts and questionings, if not with infidelity.
The Christian Friend, 1899,
adapted
The Remnant - Past and Present
As to Laodicea, nothing can be more striking than the contrast between it and Philadelphia. We have here the last phase of the professing Christian body. It is just about to be spewed out as something insufferably nauseous to Christ. It is not a question of gross immorality. It may, to man’s eye, present a very respectable appearance, but to the heart of Christ its condition is most repulsive. It is characterized by lukewarmness and indifference. “I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee out of My mouth” (Rev. 3:15-16).
The Attitude Toward Christ
How solemn to find the professing church in such a condition! And to think how soon we pass from the attractions of Philadelphia — so gratifying to the heart of Christ, so refreshing to His spirit — to the withering atmosphere of Laodicea, where there is not a single redeeming feature! We have heartless indifference as to Christ and His interests, combined with the most deplorable self-congratulation. “Thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked: I counsel thee to buy of Me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eye salve, that thou mayest see” (Rev. 3:17-18).
How solemn is all this! People boasting of their riches, and of their having need of nothing, and Christ outside. They have lost the sense of divine righteousness, symbolized by “gold,” and practical human righteousness, as symbolized by “white raiment,” and yet are full of themselves and their doings — the very reverse of the dear Philadelphian company. There, He reproves nothing; here, He commends nothing. There, Christ is all; here, He is actually outside, and the church is all. It is perfectly appalling to contemplate. We are just at the close. We have got to the last, solemn phase of the church as God’s witness on the earth.
Christ’s Attitude
Yet even here, in the face of this most deplorable condition of things, the infinite grace and changeless love of the heart of Christ shine out in all their undimmed luster. He is outside; this tells what the church is. But He is knocking, calling, waiting; this tells what He is, eternal and universal homage to His name! “As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent” (Rev. 3:19). The gold, the white raiment and the eye salve are offered. Love has various offices to discharge, various characters in which to clothe itself, but it is the same love still — “the same yesterday, and today, and forever,” even though it has to “rebuke and chasten.” Here His attitude and His action speak volumes, both as to the church and as to Himself. “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear My voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with Me” (Rev. 3:20).
Here it is not to the outside sinner, but to the professing church the Lord makes this most solemn and weighty appeal. It is not Christ knocking at the door of the sinner’s heart (true as that is also), but at the door of those in the professing church.
The Individual
In the church of Sardis the remnant is spoken of as “a few names”; in Laodicea there is an “if” as to one. But even if there be a single hearing ear, if there be one to open the door, that one is assured of the high privilege, the immense favor, of supping with Christ — of having that precious One as guest and host: “I . . . with him, and he with Me.” When the corporate witness has reached the very lowest point, individual faithfulness is rewarded with intimate fellowship with the heart of Christ. Such is the infinite and everlasting love of our beloved Saviour and Lord!
C. H. Mackintosh, adapted
The Church of Laodicea
This church is characterized, not by any definite evil either of doctrine or practice, but by pride of acquirement and by self-sufficiency, accompanied with indifference to Christ. While boasting itself in being rich and in need of nothing, it was wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked. Man in his self-satisfaction is the main feature, and Christ is not appreciated. It represents the arrogance of rationalism and higher criticism in the latter days of the church on earth. Christ is outside but still appealing, knocking for admission to the individual heart.
Concise Bible Dictionary