Laodicea

From: Laodicea: February 2010

Narrator: Chris Genthree

Duration: 2min

• 1 min. read • grade level: 7

Revelation 3:14-22¹⁴And 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; ¹⁵I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. ¹⁶So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth. ¹⁷Because 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: ¹⁸I 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 eyesalve, that thou mayest see. ¹⁹As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent. ²⁰Behold, 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. ²¹To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne. ²²He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. (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. 3:19¹⁹As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent. (Revelation 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

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Laodicea: February 2010

• Our Righteousness

• Laodicea

• Laodicea - a Diagnosis and a Prescription

• Address to Laodicea, The

• Address on Laodicea

• Collyrium

• Laodicean Unreality

• Present Danger, A

• Remnant - Past and Present, The

• Church of Laodicea, The