Lenten Reflection: Neither Cold nor Hot

The following is the last in a series of reflections on the letters to the seven churches in Revelation.

For more reflections on these letters, check out the hub page for the series.

I share these thoughts hoping they are of help to someone else.

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Neither Cold nor Hot

A Reflection on the Letter to the Church in Laodicea

And to the angel of the church in Laodicea write: The words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the origin of God's creation:

I know your works; you are neither cold nor hot.  I wish that you were either cold or hot.  So, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I am about to spit you out of my mouth.  For you say, "I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing."  You do not realize that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked.  Therefore I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire so that you may be rich; and white robes to clothe you and to keep the shame of your nakedness from being seen; and salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see.  I reprove and discipline those whom I love.  Be earnest, therefore, and repent.  Listen!  I am standing at the door, knocking; if you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to you and eat with you, and you with me.  To the one who conquers I will give a place with me on my throne, just as I myself conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne.  Let anyone who has an ear listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches.

Revelation 3:14-22 (NRSV)

'Cause I got a couple dents in my fender

Got a couple rips in my jeans

Try to fit the pieces together

But perfection is my enemy

And on my own I'm so clumsy

But on Your shoulders I can see

I'm free to be me

From "Free to Be Me" by Francesca Battistelli

Christ tells the Christians in Laodicea that He has examined their works and has found the congregation to be neither cold nor hot, but rather lukewarm.  Because they are only lukewarm, He is going to spit them out of His mouth, so to speak.  They think that they are doing well, but they have no idea how "wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked" they really are.  Christ urges them to take measures to correct their spiritual poverty, shamefulness, and blindness, reminding them that He is only saying these things to them because He loves them and wants the best for them.  He continues to knock at their door, spiritually speaking, hoping that they will respond to Him.

Christ tells the Christians in Laodicea, "Because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I am about to spit you out of my mouth."  Perhaps you've heard someone interpret these words to mean that, if you are not a "super-Christian" - if you are not "on fire for Jesus," so to speak - then you might as well not be a Christian at all.  Basically, one's "temperature" is thought to be analogous to one's fervor as a Christian.  Those who are "hot" are passionate Christians; those who are "cold" aren't Christian at all; and those who are somewhere in the middle are somehow less palatable than those who aren't Christian at all.¹

What if I told you that "hotness" and "coldness" are both good qualities?

In this letter, Christ is using an analogy that would have resonated with people who live in Laodicea.  N.T. Wright points out in his commentary on Revelation that the city did not have a good source of water.  Colosse, a city south-east of Laodicea, had streams of cold water that flowed down from Mount Cadmus.  Hierapolis, a city north of Laodicea, had a number of hot springs.  When water that flowed through either of these two cities reached Laodicea it was, in Christ's words, "lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot."  The water from the Hieropolis hot springs, which was channeled into the city through aqueducts, would arrive in Laodicea contaminated, hence Christ's comment about spitting - or rather spewing.²

Hot water is good because it is soothing, and cold water is good because it is refreshing.  Contaminated lukewarm water, on the other hand, is useless.³  Consider tea.  Hot tea can warm you up on a cold winter day, and it can provide you some comfort if you are suffering from a sore throat.  Iced tea can cool you down on a hot summer day, and it can be refreshing when you've worked up a sweat.  Lukewarm tea isn't really good for anything.

The problem with the Christians in Laodicea is not that they aren't passionate enough; it's that they are totally apathetic.  At one point, the word Laodicean became synonymous with the word indifferent.⁴

I wonder if maybe one reason we might end up "lukewarm" as Christians is that we think that being a Christian means being something we are not.  Maybe, at some point, you've thought that you weren't really a Christian unless you were like a particular person or a particular group of people - and maybe, at the same time, you didn't really want to be like this person or group of people.  For eleven years, I attended a Christian school connected to a fundamentalist church.  I graduated, thinking that "real Christians" were fundamentalists, yet I didn't particularly want to be one.  As I learned more about Methodism in my college years, I came to realize that, though I couldn't be a fundamentalist Christian, I could indeed be a Methodist Christian.

Christ tells the Laodicean Christians that they could be either hot or cold.  He just doesn't want them to be lukewarm.  He doesn't want them to be halfhearted Christians, but He does not tell them exactly what kind of wholehearted Christians they should be.  They don't have to be one particular kind of Christian; they have options.

Paul, in his letters to various congregations, compares the Church as a whole to a human body, and he compares individual Christians to parts of the body.  In one letter, he notes that not everyone can be an eye because someone has to do the hearing and that not everyone can be an ear because someone has to do the smelling.⁵  No two parts are the same, but each part is necessary.  Basically, each Christian has been given particular gifts by the Holy Spirit to carry out particular functions in the Church, so that, as the Church, we may work together to do Christ's work in the world.

Perhaps what can be said about spiritual gifts can be said about different styles of Christianity.  If you find that you cannot be one kind of Christian, then look for another kind to be.  The Church is big enough for all kinds of Christians, and all kinds of Christians, from energetic evangelicals to quiet contemplatives, have something to offer the Church as a whole.

Maybe another reason we end up lukewarm is that we agree to do things in the Church that are not ours to do.  I know that, in my life, there have been far too many times that I've halfheartedly committed to do something I was asked to do, just to make people happy.  In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says, "Let your yes mean yes, and your no mean no."⁶  Jesus is, of course, instructing us to simply say what we mean and mean what we say.  Perhaps He is also instructing us to say yes to something only if we can do so sincerely and to say no otherwise.⁷  Maybe a wholehearted no is better than a halfhearted yes.

If you are presented an opportunity to which you cannot wholeheartedly say yes, perhaps you should say no.  Allow someone else to have the opportunity to wholeheartedly say yes to it, and then find something to which you can wholeheartedly say yes.

There are many different kinds of Christians, and all kinds of Christians contribute to the Body of Christ as a whole.  We are all called to follow Christ, but we are all meant to follow Christ as our own unique selves.  If you cannot be one kind of Christian wholeheartedly, then be another kind.  Be a wholehearted Christian of some kind, but don't be a halfhearted Christian of any kind.

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Questions for reflection:

• Have you ever thought that being a Christian meant being something you are not?
• How has your understanding of what it means to be a Christian changed over time?
• Do you need to say yes or no to something at this time?

Notes:

1. Shane Hipps.  "Fool's Gold."  Mars Hill Bible Church, 04/10/2011.
2. N.T. Wright.  Revelation for Everyone.  2011, Westminster John Knox Press.  pp. 37-38
3. Hipps, "Fool's Gold"
4. Mirriam-Webster: "Laodicean"
5. 1 Corinthians 12:17
6. Matthew 5:37 (CEB)
7. Kent Dobson.  "Yes: 1."  Mars Hill Bible Church, 07/06/2014.

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