The Compromising Church

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.

Rev 3:15-16

Laodicea was a church that was neither hot nor cold, it was merely lukewarm. They were suffering from what someone has well called the leukemia of non-commitment. Archaeologists have discovered an interesting fact about this city. It had no local water supply but obtained water through an aqueduct from the hot springs at Hierapolis, some six miles away. If you were staying in a motel in Laodicea and turned on the tap to get a cold drink, and tasted the water, you would probably spit it out again because it was lukewarm. Traveling that distance, the hot water had partly cooled down, and it would be repulsive. The word our Lord actually uses here is not spit out but vomit. He will vomit out the church because it was nauseating to him. What created this condition? There is only one answer. It is compromise! When you want to make something lukewarm, you mix together hot and cold.

We do this continually with regard to air temperature. There are times when I arrive at church in the morning and it is very cold. Some are even wearing overcoats! We humans do not like extremes of temperature. We do not like it to be cold, and we do not like it when it is hot. So what do we do? For our comfort we mix the two together. We come out with what is comfortably warm.

That is what was happening in the church at Laodicea. They were compromising spiritually for comfort's sake. It is much more comfortable to attend a church where nobody takes doctrinal issues very seriously, where, for comfort's sake, you avoid discussions over issues. This church was compromising its teaching for the sake of peace. They had enough truth to salve the conscience without becoming fanatics, but enough coolness to calm their wills without freezing people out. It was a comfortable church. You could have attended this church for years and it would have probably been very pleasurable, but nothing much would be happening. You would not be challenged, rebuked, corrected, or exhorted, but only encouraged and respected, because it was not only a comfortable church, but also a compromising church. What does Jesus think of a church like that? Yuck! It’s nauseating! Repulsive! The people may like it, but Jesus does not. It may make them comfortable, but it makes him sick!

Search my heart, Lord, for ways in which I have become lukewarm in my walk with you. Amen.