Laodicea is the epitome of the curse of affluence within a congregation. If you were a first century Christian in the city of Laodicea, you would probably call yourself blessed materially. The city had a booming economy because it was located on the major trade routes of its day. Goods came from all over the world and made its marketplace rich and lavish, and ultimately people in Laodicea benefited from all its abundance. It was also known for its eye salve, a medicine to treat eye problems and people came from far to purchase it. In sum, Laodicea was a prosperous city and Christians who live there were mostly well off and benefited from all its resources.
But the city had a major water problem, it didn’t have any good water sources and had to pipe it in from its neighboring cities, Colossae and Hierapolis. Colossae got its water from the mountain snow melt. It was cool, refreshing and tasted wonderful. Hierapolis, the other neighboring town had these marvelous hot springs that had medicinal benefits. But Laodicea was stuck with bad water because they had to pipe it in from these two cities. By the time the water got to Laodicea, it picked up minerals along the way and it was neither hot nor cold but lukewarm and tasted awful. This gives us tremendous insight into the spiritual condition mentioned by Jesus in His letter to Laodicea.
Allow me to also discuss another interesting event of the Laodiceans that spoke volumes about their spiritual makeup. In AD 17, an earthquake completely devastated Asia Minor, significantly impacting Laodicea as well. Rome extended an offer to assist them in rebuilding the city, but they courteously declined, informing Rome that they were capable of reconstructing the city on their own.. This sums up how self- sufficient the people of Laodicea were.
Now that we have the historical context of the city of Laodicea, let’s look at Revelation 3:14-22,
The Passage: Revelation 3:14-22
14 “And to the angel of the church in Laodicea write: ‘The words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of God’s creation.
15 “‘I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot! 16 So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth. 17 For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked. 18 I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen, and salve to anoint your eyes, so that you may see. 19 Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent. 20 Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me. 21 The one who conquers, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne, as I also conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne. 22 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’”
How Does The Living Christ Introduce Himself To The Church: V14?
Jesus presents Himself as the Amen, the Faithful and True Witness, and the Origin of God’s Creation. Before we delve into the analysis of verse 14, let’s address how Jehovah’s Witnesses misconstrue the phrase “the beginning of the creation of God”. They interpret this to imply that Jesus was the first entity created by God. This is a complete misinterpretation; “the beginning of the creation of God” signifies the origin or source of God’s creation, in other words, the Creator. To accurately interpret verse 14, it’s crucial to consider the context in which it was written. Christ’s declaration directly pertains to the spiritual state of the Laodicean Church. I came across a commentary that, I believe, explains this well, and I will quote it,
Jesus is described as the Amen, which is a Hebrew equivalent of faithful and true. The only place in the Bible where Amen is used as a name is Isaiah 65:16. And what is the God of Amen? It is translated as God of Truth. And what is the blessing of this God of Amen? It is nothing other than the creation of a new heavens and a new earth- a new creation, of which Christ in His resurrection is the Beginning. Christ identifies Himself to the Laodiceans as the Amen, the faithful and true witness, precisely because HE is the beginning fulfillment of Isaiah’s new creation prophecy in them. Not only that, they need His resurrection power as the firstborn of the new creation, for they are spiritually dead and need to be live, which will no doubt lead to effective witness in the pagan culture.
G. K. Beale
Now you see why Jesus Christ introduced Himself as the Amen, the Faithful and True Witness, and the Origin of God’s creation. The Laodiceans were not being faithful in their witness and Christ wanted them to understand who HE WAS, the ultimate model as a faithful and true witness, the One through whom all the promises of God are Amen, the One we must emulate as children that have been adopted by the Father. Next Jesus is going to expose their spiritual condition.
The Laodicean’s Spiritual Condition: Verses 14-15
Just like their disgusting water, they were neither cold nor hot , but lukewarm. You better believe that the message was well understood when they heard it, because they knew about their atrocious water. So the Living Christ used something they were familiar with to make His point clear without ambiguity. They were lukewarm; most people consider hot to be good, lukewarm to be mediocre and cold to be bad. If that’s the case, why would Christ say that He would prefer them to be cold rather than lukewarm? This is exactly why prior to interpreting a passage , we need to understand its context. We mentioned the poor condition of Laodicea’s water due to the fact that they had to pipe it in from Colossae and Hierapolis. Like their water, the Laodiceans’ faith and witness did not have a healthy effect on the people who lived around them. So Christ exposed the spiritual condition of the church to be no better than the city’s water by asserting that He would spit them out of His mouth. In other words, if the Laodiceans wouldn’t identify faithfully with Christ in their culture, then neither will Christ identify them as faithful witnesses together with Him.
Now this takes us to next verses, how did the Laodiceans see themselves?
Laodiceans’ Self Assessment: Verse 17
In contrast to Christ’s assessment, the Laodiceans considered themselves to be in good condition because of their material prosperity. When Revelation uses the words rich and wealthy, it usually refers to those who have prospered by association with the corrupt and ungodly world system. And here the Laodiceans had allied themselves with the local economic forces to idolatry and immorality. Jesus talks about something similar to this in Mark 4,18-19
18 And others are the ones sown among thorns. They are those who hear the word, 19 but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it proves unfruitful
This is a warning to all of us, because an all consuming pursuit of wealth can easily lead to idolatry. We need to also clarify that being poor materially doesn’t mean that we are spiritual. We also need to be careful not to condemn Christians that are wealthy and using their wealth for the advancement of the kingdom of God.
The Laodiceans perceived themselves to be in good condition, and it was quite plausible that they equated their material prosperity with divine favor. In ancient times, wealthy individuals were often viewed as blessed by God. Therefore, there is a high possibility that the Laodiceans were fully misled by this erroneous mindset. While they saw themselves as being rich, and needing nothing ( remember they rejected Rome’s offer for help), Christ revealed their true condition- they were poor, blind and naked. The word poor is meant to convey their spiritual bankruptcy which they failed to recognized. The words blind and naked also are meant to convey the same thing, a spiritual bankruptcy that unless pointed out by another, they themselves could not see. People came from all over the world to buy the eye salve from Laodicea, yet the church was blind and needed the true eye salve from Christ.
Jesus didn’t leave them in their spiritual bankruptcy, Verse 18 mentions the solution.
The Cure To Laodicea’s Problems : Verse 18
Jesus Christ mentioned three things that plagued the church in Laodicea, poverty ( spiritual poverty), blindness ( lack of spiritual discernment), and nakedness ( man’s righteousness) and He gives the remedy for each of them. To combat their poverty, they needed to buy from Him gold refined by fire. This alludes to purity, they were impure in His eyes and the way they were going to be purified was through the refining work of Jesus Christ. Peter makes mention of this in 1 Peter 1:7,
7 so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
The next thing He mentioned was to buy white garments to cover their nakedness. This is alludes to them being covered in the righteousness that comes from Christ, an alien righteousness which He imputes to those whom He Has saved. You see Adam and Eve tried to cover their nakedness by sewing fig leaves and that didn’t work until God covered them Himself. This is the idea here, the Laodiceans needed to experience the true righteousness of God which made them right with God and gave them the ability to live as He would want them. And the last element Jesus mentioned is His eye salve to cure their spiritual blindness. The gold, the white garments and the eye salve all point to one thing – Jesus Christ. Laodicea’s illness could only be remedied only through a renewed relationship with buying true spiritual resources from Him. It is interesting that Jesus mentioned buying things from Him; HE wasn’t literally going to sell anything to them but the deeper meaning is the cost of following of Christ, which is one’s entire life, as the Scripture says in Matthew 16:25,
For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.
In Christ indeed are true riches, clothing and insight. Even if the Laodiceans lost all else, they would have everything they really needed.
Christ Hasn’t Given Up On Them: Verses 19-20
Those whom HE loves He reproves and discipline, So Christ wasn’t condemning but rather disciplining the Laodiceans because of His love for them. If He didn’t love them He wouldn’t discipline them. So His rebuke was a sign of His love for this church and that should teach us a valuable lesson about being disciplined by God. Jesus stands at the door of their lives and knocks, inviting them to renew fellowship with Him. The tense of both verbs i.e stand and knock indicates a present, continuing action on the part of Christ. He is always standing at the doors of the hearts of those believers who have become cold in their love and entangled in the pursuit of what this world has to offer. The invitation is not for the hearers to be converted but to renew themselves in a relationship with Christ which has already begun, as is apparent from verse 19 ( those whom I love, I reprove… be zealous and repent). This is the cry of God’s heart toward those whom HE loves. He calls them to dine with Him, to return to the fellowship they knew in days gone by.
Verses 21-22: The Promise To The Conqueror
Who is the one who conquers, it is the one who hears the spirit of God and renews his zeal for Christ and return to Him. Whatever we lose on this side of eternity for the sake of Christ does not compare with what we receive from Him, a share in the rulership in God’s eternal kingdom. The church in Laodicea is certainly close to the situation in many western churches, especially in the US where most of church attendees are very comfortable materially. We need to adjust our priorities to place the kingdom first and be willing to give up what we cannot keep to gain what we cannot lose- our share in the kingdom of GOD.
The letter ends again with an exhortation to him who has an ear to hear what the Spirit says in order to discern Christ’s message in this letter so that the reward of reigning with Christ will be consummated.
PS: I started Tayibs.com for the sole purpose of exploring difficult questions about the Christian faith that most of us shy away from. All the content generated on this website is thoroughly analyzed prior to being shared. And the site is run solely by myself, your generous support is very much appreciated
My name is Tayib Salami and I started Tayibs.com for the sole purpose of exploring difficult questions about the Christian faith that most of us shy away from. In 2017, I entered a very dark time in my life and it’s only by the grace of the Living God that I’m still alive today. It led me to really go deeper in my faith and consider a myriad of questions that I never thought about asking myself or others before. Welcome and enjoy the ride with me.