To the Church in Laodicea.

Revelation 3:14-22

Theme

Lukewarm Christianity.

This week’s lessons teach us about the importance of getting on fire for Christ.

Scripture

14"To the angel of the church in Laodicea write:

These are the words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the ruler of God’s creation. 15I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! 16So, because you are lukewarm–neither hot nor cold–I am about to spit you out of my mouth."

–Revelation 3:14-16

Lesson

The church in Laodicea, along with churches in Hierapolis and Colossae, must have been founded during Paul’s two-year ministry in Ephesus (described in Acts 19:10), though not by Paul himself. The church was probably founded by his colleague Epaphras, who is commended in Colossians 4:12, 13 for his hard work among the Christians of these cities. Paul considered Laodicea to be part of his missions field (Col. 2:1) and asked the Colossians to convey greetings to the believers there, among whom were "Nympha and the church in her house" (Col. 4:15). Paul says he wrote a letter to this church (Col. 4:16), but it has been lost, unless it was a copy of the letter to the Ephesians, as some hold.

By the time John wrote Revelation the spiritual condition of the church in Laodicea had deteriorated badly. The church members had become just like the people around them. They had the same proud attitude. They thought their wealth was a proof of God’s special favor to them. Worst of all, they had no awareness of sin. They did not think they needed to repent because, well…they were doing just fine. The church in Sardis was described as nearly dead, but at least it had a remnant of faithful believers. No remnant is mentioned for the church in Laodicea. What Jesus tells the Christians in Laodicea is that he is disgusted with them. They make him sick. He is ready to spit them out.

What terrible language! Anyone who has read Dale Carnegie’s best-selling self-improvement book How to Win Friends and Influence People knows that you do not get people to do what you want by criticizing them, least of all in language like this. But Jesus does criticize this church. What is more, he begins this letter by insisting that his evaluation of the church is right since he is "the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the ruler of God’s creation" (v. 14).

These descriptive phrases do not go back to the vision of the risen Christ that John reports in chapter 1, but the words "faithful witness" are found in John’s own introduction of Jesus in Revelation 1:5. Jesus is the one who told "the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth" in his trial before Pilate, and who continues to speak the truth today, however painful it may be. Here his witness is called both "faithful and true."

"Amen" is a common word, meaning "truly" or "so be it," regularly used to express assent or agreement. It occurs many times in the Bible, ten times in the book of Revelation alone. Only twice is it used as a name, however–here and in Isaiah 65:16, which makes us suspect that John is thinking of the verse in Isaiah when he describes Jesus as "the Amen." In the New International Version Isaiah 65:16 is translated "Whoever invokes a blessing in the land will do so by the God of truth…." But in the Hebrew text the words are literally "the God of the Amen." Therefore, when Jesus calls himself "the Amen, the faithful and true witness," he is not only stressing the total truthfulness and reliability of whatever he says but is also joining himself to God the Father as the entirely faithful one. Paul has a somewhat similar use of "amen" in 2 Corinthians 1:20: "For no matter how many promises God has made, they are ‘Yes’ in Christ. And so through him the ‘Amen’ is spoken by us to the glory of God."

"The ruler of God’s creation" stresses Jesus’ role as the source of and Lord over all created things, above all over the Church which is God’s new creation. Paul uses the word in this sense in Colossians 1:18, where our version renders the word as "beginning." He says of Jesus "He is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy."

Study Questions

• How did the church members in Laodicea view their wealth?

• What did these believers have no awareness of?

• What did Jesus mean by referring to himself as "the Amen"?

Further Study

To get a fuller understanding of Jesus Christ as "the Amen," study the following passages that were mentioned in today’s lesson: Revelation 3:14, Isaiah 65:16,  2 Corinthians 1:20, Colossians 1:18.

This daily devotional study is from the Bible teaching of Dr. James Boice on the broadcast The Bible Study Hour. You may order the audio version of his studies here.