Lukewarm
I'm sorry for not posting in a while. I've been feeling lazy and brain-tired. My scribing project is going slowly. Anyway, here's my most recent interesting thought:
I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth. You say, 'I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.' But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see.We looked at this passage in church last week. It's pretty tough stuff - "scary" is how someone put it - and it got me thinking about all the times in the Bible when God tells someone they suck. The prophets do a lot of that. Jesus spends a whole chapter railing on the Pharisees. There's the "Away from me evildoers" bit, and so on.-Revelation 3:15-18
Here's what I noticed: I can't think of a time in the Bible when God rebukes people who are already aware of/feeling bad about their failings. I think the Laodiceans' real problem wasn't that they were "wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked"; God has a solution for that. Their problem was that they didn't realize that they were wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. They thought they were pretty good. Honestly, I'm not sure what is meant by "buy from me gold refined in the fire", etc. It seems that "wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked" is not the universal human condition, and that God expects us to transcend it, with his help. But I don't know how that works.
Anyway, it's comforting to think that God isn't angry with me for my wretchedness, and although he wants to see me cleaned up, he doesn't expect me to do it myself.
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It is a comfort to know that God does not reject us for being "wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked". However it is dangerous to think of how often I really regard myself as wretched or an object of pity, or materially destitute, or blind or naked. It is quite rare. I do have bouts of self-pity once in a while, and by necessity get naked for showers, and oh yeah my eyesight isn't twenty-twenty, but its really has been a while since I regarded myself as the above destitute charachteristics and took serious thought to what it might me about my relationships with God and others if I was truly like that.
I am lukewarm.
There is another script that I am reminded of when I read of the church at Laodicea:
But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God -- having a form of Godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them.
When I read this passage I am amazed at how this so resembles our culture and our age. Laodicia and I and the western Church identify with this. We have a form of Godliness but are denying the power of God. I may have overstepped my authority in blanketing that statement over the entire Western church, but I can speak on my own behalf. I know the basic tenants of Christianity, I know what it means to look and act like a Christian in our culture and yet I have not seen the transformitive, revolutionary power of the living God within me. Or the glimpses of such power I have seen have not satisfied.
I am lukewarm.
God says that he would rather have us cold or hot than lukewarm. Cold becuase like the prostitutes, the sinners, the subaltern, the losers of society we would know just what we were and how much we needed a change. The hot because we would have Godliness and some serious power of Christ indwelling us, and would be able to live a remarkable and focused earthly existence.
Now take that cold and hot may be both parts of a believer's life. But my question is what about the inbetween? If a spiritual journey is designed to go from cold to hot, will I not by necessity become lukewarm? And what of me then, having some resemblance to real Christianity, but still holding back the floodgates of love and power.
hmm.. yes. that's interesting. i've never thought of that before... that the big problem seems to be when you suck and don't know it. So if I know that I suck, that's okay then right? That's kind of a relief. a bit
I wonder what the Bible means by "cold"... I always assumed it meant "against Jesus", leading to the rather strange statement that Jesus would rather have committed enemies than lackluster allies... Call suggests an understanding that makes more sense, "cold" = losers"; a book I read suggested "cool and refreshing", so another positive... any other ideas?
I imagine the Laodicea prophesy would apply to most cultures in most days to some extend... certainly in both 1st and 3rd world Christians today.
Michigan, I would gather from the rest of Jesus' teachings that knowledge that one sucks tends to lead to humility, repentance, and reliance on God for improvements.. this is what Jesus wants, I think.
I'm not sure whether "cold" is supposed to mean good or bad. The conventional interpretation is that cold means just living in sin (bad) and that God would rather we be out there than fart around in church because if we're in selfishness and debauchery up to our necks, there's a greater chance that we'll be struck by the radical message of Christ.
But I've heard the other interpretation too. I'm not sure which is "right", but both messages are worth pondering.
I agree that God doesn't just want us to realize we suck, but then to realize our need for him to make us better. I'm not exactly sure how that works, but the passage certainly suggests that God expects us to become better, with his help.
I wonder what a "cleaned up" person looks like. Presumably, some people have attained that stage (unless it's meant to apply to life in heaven after death.) A great saint like mother Theresa? A Billy Graham? How about a flawed but influential Christian like Martin Luther or Martin Luther King? How will we know if we ever reach the "cleaned up" stage? Perhaps it's all a matter of degree, about being (to paraphrase CS Lewis) less filthy than we were before.
I'm not sure. I think the implication is that it's quite attainable. In fact, it seems to be expected. But what exactly "it" is, or how exactly it's attained, I'm not sure.
Unfortunately, this is a passage in Revelation, and, ipso facto, is enigmatic and heavy on metaphor. I guess we'll have to wait for the inevitable LaHaye/Jenkins novelization to find out what John really meant.
Ahh yes, Revelation Interpretation... I suddenly remembered I have a book called "Revelation Revealed", which promises to tell you exactly what he meant... guiding principle is "take everything in the Bible literally, unless God tells you to take it figuratively". Unfortunately it's now in Vryheid, so we might have to wait a bit to get our answer:)
I finally got my "Revelation Revealed" book back from Jack van Impe. I'm not a big fan, but here's what he assures us these verses mean...
"Lukewarm" refers to the church, for it is spiritualy poor (but materially rich). Misery is the trademark of the wealthy. They are "blind" because they don't see the need for evangelism, which makes them naked without Christ's Robe of Righteousness (Cor 5:21).
The Gold purchased from God is tried and tested faith (1 Peter 1:7) and the white clothes are the robe of righteousness (Isaiah 61:10). Gaining vision refers to the illumination of the saved (1 Cor 2:14)
Remember, these are not my words (well, they are, but I paraphrased his, they are not my ideas.)
Just to be clear... Jack van Impe is the author, not the guy who had my book.
Whoa. It's all so clear now!
ughhh... seems our Intepreter doesn't have the best track record. Back to square one;)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Van_Impe
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