Do I Make God Sick?

Do I Make God Sick?

Revelation 3: 15&16 NKJV

15 “I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot. 

16 So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth. 

   I used to meditate on this passage a lot.  I just couldn't understand how being lukewarm could be a sin so bad that the Lord Jesus reprimanded them for it.  What's wrong with being lukewarm? What’s wrong with being in the middle of the pack?  Being there is safe and you’re doing OK, right?  Why would anyone complain about people plodding along silently and patiently, never bothering anyone?  And why does the Bible declare that it’s better to be cold than to be in a lukewarm condition?

   So I asked myself, “What is being lukewarm anyway?”  Being lukewarm is a state of being passive; a state of not moving forward or moving backward.  You are stuck in rut with no desire to either get out or lay down in the mud, you just stand still.  A lukewarm person has reached a state of mind where they are afraid of losing what little they have, and won’t take the risk to gain any more.

   If a person is in a cold state of mind, they can at least be shown that they need more from God.  If they are miserable and in pain, they can be shown that they have a need for healing and a touch from God.  But when they don't want to move from where they are, when they are too comfortable to be really miserable and don’t know they’re unhappy, what words can lure them out of the comfortable grave they have made for themselves?  What can prompt them to love and find the real meaning to the life that they don’t even realize they’re missing when they’re too blasé to even want to change?

   One of the bi-products of lukewarmedness (is that a word?) is empty religion.  One of the worst curses ever on the earth is empty religion.  The hardest to reach with the Gospel is the one who has just enough Jesus to think they are saved but with no conviction of sin in their hearts.  I think Jesus spent more time with the tax-collectors and harlots and others sinners because His words could reach them.  The Scribes, Pharisees and Sadducees were too close to their religion to see they were too far away from God.  I also think that Satan rejoices over the lukewarm religionists who do no harm to him and never point anyone to the cross.

   Jesus’ cry here is, “I wish you were either hot or cold!”  If you were hot He could use you to further the Kingdom of God.  If you were cold, He would send someone to you to witness the Gospel to you.  But you are lukewarm and do not hear His call to you.  I feel Judas had a lukewarm heart and followed Jesus just so far but never let his heart warm to his Master.

   The letter in this passage is written to the church of the Laodiceans.  Laodicea means “Rule of the People.”  I picture a church there ruled by the will of the majority, never letting the Spirit of God move them.  The curse of political correctness grows in churches like this.  They come to accept anything because they won’t stand against anything.  Jesus acknowledges this condition in this church in His salutation to them.  The first six churches He writes to are greeted differently - the church OF Ephesus, the church IN Smyrna, IN Pergamos, IN Thyatira, IN Sardis, and IN Philadelphia.  But this church is the church OF THE Laodiceans, this church is the people’s church.

   The lukewarm Christian is just as happy in a church with a lot of programs as he is in a cold church with little activities.  He will not give his heart to anything and serenely floats from week to week.

   Examine your heart.  Does the cross still draw you?  When you pray, is your heart moved?  Are you excited when you read the Word?  If you answered “no” to any of these, it’s not too late.  Christ waits with open arms for you to come closer. 

Stephen Cram                    January 23, 2011               Colossians 2:8