Laodicea: The Loathsome Church

The Church at Laodicea: Revelation 3:14-22

Introduction

We say perception is reality, but that depends upon whose perception. Jesus knows the difference between appearance and reality when the whole world has gone insane. When moral blindness calls light darkness and darkness light, only Jesus can end the scam. The Church at Laodicea is the second among the Seven Churches of Asia to have a reputation that is unwarranted. Sardis had a reputation of being alive but Christ calls it dead, and Laodicea believed itself to be rich but Christ calls it morally bankrupt. If there is one thing worse than failure, it is gaslighting spectators to call that failure success. Down through the centuries--two millennia by now--this church has curled the nostrils of saints and sinners alike. Why? Self-love is still the most disgusting thing that the heathen recognize in professing Christians. But when professing Christians worship their own undeserving celebrities, we know time is soon running out, for Paul tells Timothy that love of self will characterize the apostasy of the Last Days (2 Timothy 3:1-5). Tragically, spiritual narcissism seems to have no cure.

Tough Luck: When Reputation Meets Reality

When human "authenticity" replaces divine authority, people's perception of spirituality perpetuates hypocrisy. In short, spiritual narcissists fool a lot of people. Whether manifesting as pride or false humility, narcissism normalizes sin by framing it as "the authentic struggle." It also lures fans to jump on the bandwagon of apostate self-importance in the very act of declaring their "faith." We aren't very good fruit inspectors these days, as a rule--apparently because we would rather eat rotten fruit than "judge" what we are eating.

But Jesus tells it like it is: "I know your works." His authority to speak reality into any appearance of "authenticity" results in an assessment of each church that begins with His own attributes--traits that invariably dictate that church's diagnosis. And Christ's judgment is never arbitrary. Neither is it premature. He may wait all but forever to pound the gavel, but when He does, the verdict is final. "These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God" (Revelation 3:14). He is the Author and the Finisher of our faith--and of our fate.

I can imagine the Church at Laodicea reading all six letters with a sense of swelling anticipation. Not a hair out of place; not a qualm of conscience; not a paint-chipped fingernail. Only ten thousand "likes" on its social media post: we are the biggest, snazziest megachurch in Asia (actually, Ephesus was). Then, boom! "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 spue thee out of my mouth" (Revelation 3:15, 16). I once saw this happen right across from me when I was eating at a Cracker Barrel in Tallahassee, Florida. My department chair had driven our summer group attending classes at Florida State to an afternoon out. Taking a gulp of her fresh coffee, she immediately spewed it out all over the table for all the world like a human gargoyle--not because it was lukewarm but because it was too hot.

Spewing out the lukewarm is like gagging on unsweetened oatmeal or eating slippery tofu. Imagine being so gross to the Lord Jesus that He can no longer stomach your pretense. You would think that you were the only one fooled, but the real tragedy of Laodicea is that their delusion is contagious. Lukewarmness spreads and seldom reverses. How else do we explain the Great Falling Away? This church epitomizing the spirit of the Last Days shows all the earmarks of apostasy. These are the very traits against which Christ warned His own disciples in the Sermon on the Mount. As the light of the world, we are to stand shining on a hill. As the salt of the earth, we are to keep our savor. But when we lose that, we are quite literally "good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men" (Matthew 5:13).

How does a Christian lose his savor? By losing the blessing of the Lord that He showers upon the poor in spirit; those that mourn; the meek; those who hunger and thirst after righteousness; the pure in heart; and those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake (Matthew 5:3-10). But how does a church lose this blessing of God? Look at what the Lord says next: "Because 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" (Revelation 3:17). It loses the blessing by focusing on blessings--for how can we be blessed if we think we no longer need the Blesser Himself? When Christ makes His appeal to the will of this condemned body of self-satisfied, delusional pretenders, we realize that they lost the blessing by trading Jesus for something else.

Tough Love: When Rebuke Provides Remedy

I watched a video clip this weekend in which a caller was asking an "Ask the Pastor" if he was implying that the Laodicean church was lost. "Of course!" the pastor replied. My wonderful pastor in High Point, North Carolina, would often say, "You can't be saved until you know you're lost!" If the Church at Laodicea is a picture of the Bride of Christ whom He called wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked, heaven help us! This is not the spotless Bride Christ is coming again to take unto Himself! This is a total caricature of salvation. And it is time we raise the bar, differences in theological leanings notwithstanding. Someone posted a comment to this video saying (paraphrased), "But Christ said he loved that church! They must be saved!" Oh, no, not a chance! Christ also loves the one lost sheep--so much that He leaves the ninety-and-nine to fetch it.

But the caller (perhaps the same person as the commenter) got one thing right: Christ loves even the wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked--enough, in fact, to tell them they are lost! Notice what He says after he posts the "condemned" sign on this spiritually dilapidated door: "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 [so much for "authenticity!]; and anoint thine eyes with eye salve, that thou mayest see" (Revelation 3:18). This sounds like a wastrel in a Charles Dickens novel begging on the streets of London--except that Laodicea thought it needed nothing.

But notice how Christ closes this most compelling of invitations embedded in an indictment: "As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent" (Revelation 3:19). The call to repentance is unmistakable, but so is the offer of mercy. This one statement fuses the heart, the will, and the mind in Christ's masterfully persuasive claim: I love you; I judge you; I alone can heal you. The rhetorical appeals are inescapable. And yet the lostness of this church is clinched by the closing image that Hoffmann captured in art: that of Christ knocking at a door without an exterior handle. "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" (Revelation 3:20). So much for irresistible grace. This is an invitation from a Prince. But the fact that He stands outside the door proves this church is lost!

Tender Loyalty: When Repentance Meets Reward

How is it possible that this church did not repent? Listen to Christ's promise to those who overcome: "To 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" (Revelation 3:21). And here we see that Christ climaxes the last of the seven letters with the ultimate "prestige" worth dying for: to share in His kingdom and to reign with Him. The Church at Laodicea was so enamored with the things of this world--their precious black wool industry, their banking privilege, and their mineral springs--that they lost sight of eternal values. No wonder spiritual boredom set in. There seemed to be nothing to do but gaze into the mirror of their own beauty--but that mirror on the wall superstitiously cast back on them the beauty in the eye of the beholder rather than Christ's beauty.

What Accounts for the Laodicean Lukewarmness?

In some ways, there would be no end of answers--but we might simply say "one ice cube at a time": one cinematic singer here; one charismatic preacher there. The cooling off from leaving the fire of "first love" to Christ alone; the inability to suffer refining fire (and turn into gold) like Smyrna in favor of pursuing profit; the poison of worldliness and compromise like Pergamum; the blurring of profane and holy things like Thyatira; the unearned reputation and unforced errors of Sardis: all this wedged into one pew!

We can always find the answer in Christ's words. In Matthew 24:11-12, we find the progression that infected this church and every church like it: "And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many. And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold." In this Olivet Discourse, the Lord laid out the clear timeline of cause and effect leading to apostasy: it always begins with deception. We must assume that these false prophets are highly engaging, charismatic, and, of course, "successful" people. We may also assume that every last one of them is a narcissist. As dangerous as they are, narcissists are magnets for anyone with an ego.

Consider what the Psalmist says--and in what context--to this effect: "Be not thou afraid when one is made rich, when the glory of his house is increased; for when he dieth he shall carry nothing away: his glory shall not descend after him. Though while he lived he blessed his soul: and men will praise thee, when thou doest well to thyself. He shall go to the generation of his fathers; they shall never see light. Man that is in honor, and understandeth not, is like the beasts that perish" (Psalm 49:16-20). False prophets promise your "best life now," omitting, of course, the fine print that, "where your treasure is, there will your heart be also" (Matthew 6:21).

Is it really as simple as money? No, it's mammon, and that is a very different thing. Mammon is the things money can supposedly buy: praise, prestige; power, and pleasure. These are the "treasures." Only to a miser is money itself the treasure--and to a curator who collects endless doodads. "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world" (1 John 2:15-16). Mammon is the world.

And What of Us? What of the Church Today?

But times have changed, right? The celebrity spirit has earned its keep. Spectacular saints abound with bank accounts to beat the band. Social media has normalized sin and the elephant in the room--the idolatry the Christian church commits with its idols--is cloaked in such alluring music that we have slipped into our easy chairs drifting off on clouds of unprecedented popularity and poise. When was there ever a better time to be a Christian? But in reality, the inclusive church has lost its distinctiveness, and the steeple once pointing to God alone has quite literally fallen. Churches have minimized their own distinctiveness for so long that now they have been beaten in their own game.

And what of the Laodicean today? Is this one church a footprint of megachurches or a whole stampede of cultural Christians--those who ask for prayer when a loved one is sick but use vulgar language over trivia? And what examples are celebrities setting--especially those millionaire preachers who peddle the prosperity gospel? Have you checked recently the proofs of their trade? Among this list I will include Christian worship leaders because as surely as we are sitting here, they are "preachers" and teachers in worship settings today. The "darling" among them, Kari Jobe of Elevation Church, is reportedly worth between $5 and $10 million, with one source reporting over $100 million. Brandon Lake--a close colleague of Jobe's and an associate of Bethel and the New Apostolic Reformation (a movement with strong political aspirations)--boasts a net worth between $2 and $8 million. Lake often charges an average concert ticket price of $375 and requires from $1 to $1.5 million to book a high-end private event. A backstage pass goes for as much as $3,500.

Is this really necessary? And those like Dallas Jenkins, who have earned millions from Christian media, have a love affair with tournament poker which is no longer called gambling but a game of skill. But none of this is greed, right? When people are raking in millions to praise and serve Christ, I seriously wonder what Christ. We will answer for our lesser loves that have become idols. Let us not cool our convictions but stand up where others--like Bunnie Xo, sex-symbol wife of Jelly Roll (now new stage-mate with Brandon Lake)--reportedly "lean into their Christianity" (and keep X-rated media in balance with their reputation).

In order to stand and not lean or fall, we first must kneel. Full surrender alone keeps one red-hot for Christ during the Great Falling Away. The Laodicean church--though long since dead--is tragically alive and well in these times, lukewarm though it be.