15 I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! 16 So, because you are lukewarm – neither hot nor cold – I am about to spit you out of my mouth. 17 You say, “I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.” But you do not realise that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. 18 I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so that you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so that you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so that you can see. Rev 3:15-18

I read that historically, the city of Laodecia was between Colossae and Hierapolis. The springs would have produced fresh cold water in Colossae and very hot water in Hierapolis, but the tepid water produced at Laodecia didn’t have the same kind of use as the water in the other two places and they would have known what it felt like to try and drink it for example and to have to spit it out instead.

Laodicea was also a very rich city and essentially the problem here was that the Laodecians were too preoccupied pursuing wealth they neglected their spiritual condition and relationship with Jesus. They became indifferent about spiritual things. They became apathetic, lacking motivation, enthusiasm and even concern. In the physical they were wealthy, but they forgot that Jesus said “a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions” and that in actual fact they were poor. They were proud to wear fine clothes but Jesus calls them naked. And they were now so caught up in themselves that they became blinded to the fact that their lives were actually in a mess and desperately in need of intervention.

Sadly, this is what has become of many of us today. Our focus and attention has shifted to the things of this world and we have lost our passion and zeal for the things of God. Our Christianity is then not lived out with the power and vitality that it truly has. A Biblical commentator said of the Laodecian Church: “This was a church filled with self-deceived hypocrites. The church is nominally Christian, but Christ Himself has been locked out.” Let that never be said of God’s Church today. Let us repent and open the door for the Owner to come back in and take His rightful place. Let us allow Him to turn us into a thriving and fruit-bearing community, that is alive to God and on fire for Him!

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