Revelation 3: Meet the Bride in Laodicea

Today’s reading is Revelation 3.

If we are too hasty, we may actually miss the warning Jesus offered the manifestation of His Bride in Laodicea. Jesus said, “I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot! So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth” (Revelation 3:15-16, ESV). Most see this as a comment on the Bride’s fervor for the Groom. She’s not completely turned off by Him, but she’s not super-excited either. She’s in the middle. She can take Him or leave Him, if you will. In that frame of mind, it almost sounds like the Groom is saying, “I’d rather you hate my guts than be lukewarm about me.” Maybe this is Jesus’s point. On the other hand, may I suggest the warning is actually a different one? Perhaps it is an even more shocking one within the metaphor of the Bride and Groom?

Jesus brings in another metaphor to this letter. He speaks of Laodicea like a drink. He wishes the drink were either hot or cold, but because it is lukewarm, He will spit the drink out. Why would Jesus prefer a hot or cold drink to a lukewarm one? Because the hot drink and the cold drink are useful. A hot drink provides comfort on a cold day. A cold drink provides refreshment on a hot day. A lukewarm drink does neither. How does a drink become lukewarm? Whether the drink started cold or hot, the drink becomes lukewarm by being impacted by its surroundings. The drink becomes useless because it has become too much like its environment.

Meet the lukewarm manifestation of Christ’s Bride in Laodicea. She had been too impacted by her surroundings and become too much like her environment. The church in Laodicea had become too much like the worldly city of Laodicea. Here’s the critically shocking point. Having read the entire book of Revelation, we already know how John’s vision represents the worldly city attacking God’s city. In Revelation 17, we meet the Great Prostitute, the competitor with the Bride. She seems rich and is clothed in purple and scarlet. She has prospered and seems to need nothing. That is exactly how Jesus claims His Bride in Laodicea views herself. Do you catch the point? The Groom did not rebuke His Bride because she had a lackadaisical attitude toward Him. He rebuked His Bride because she was becoming too much like the Prostitute. She talked like the Prostitute, thought like the Prostitute, valued like the Prostitute, prioritized like the Prostitute.

The real key on this is seen when the Bride in Laodicea not only said, “I am rich, I have prospered,” but also because of that, “I need nothing.” That is, she didn’t need Jesus, she didn’t need anything from Jesus. Having spent so much time around the Prostitute, the Bride had essentially decided she didn’t need the Groom. Jesus explained her perspective was skewed. She needed to realize she was actually “wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked.” She absolutely needed what Jesus had to offer. She needed to heed the Groom’s counsel. She needed to purchase what the Groom had to offer: gold refined by fire, white garments, eye salve. Certainly, Jesus chose these metaphors because of specific markets in Laodicea. But don’t miss the point. The Bride needed what Jesus had to give, not what Laodicea the city had to give. Jesus was not going to marry the Prostitute, but the Bride. And if the Christians in Laodicea wanted to be invited to the wedding feast, they needed to repent and be the Bride.

The message to us today is not that Jesus would rather us be completely against Him than only halfway for Him. Maybe that’s a true statement. I don’t know. But it’s not what Jesus was telling Laodicea. The message for us today is Christians and churches need to stand out. We need to be different from the world. We need to be the influencers rather than the influenced. If we keep watching the world, become more like the world, think like the world, it won’t matter if we’re meeting in a building that says “church” over it on Sundays, we won’t be His church. We won’t be His Bride.

We are the Bride of Christ. Let’s act like it.

Tomorrow’s reading is Revelation 3.

PODCAST!!!

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PATHS:
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How does Revelation 3 prompt or improve your hope in God?

Psalm 101: I Will Walk with the Faithful

As king under the Ultimate King of steadfast love and faithfulness, David determined he would walk in integrity and he would refuse to walk with the wicked. That, however, did not mean he would walk alone. David provides a bit of a chiasm in vss. 5-7. In vss. 5 and 7, he refuses to walk with the wicked. However, in the middle of those two negatives, in the place of importance and emphasis, David committed to walk with the faithful.

I will look with favor on the faithful in the land,
that they may dwell with me;
he who walks in the way that is blameless
shall minister to me.

Psalm 101:6 (ESV)

David knew he needed counselors in his work as king. He would seek the counsel and ministry of those who walked the blameless way. Those who walked in truth and would not live by lies could live with him.

I know as children we learned to “stand alone on the Word of God.” The point was even if I’m the only person in the world who will serve the Lord, I will serve the Lord. Certainly, there is truth to that. However, I praise God such is not the reality. There are others who serve the Lord. Remember when Elijah thought he was standing alone? God explained there were 7000 others in Israel who had not bowed the knee to Baal (1 Kings 19:18). When I’m “standing alone,” it’s likely not out of great spiritual conviction, but out of unobservant blindness to the others striving to stand on God’s Word as well.

The fact is every one of us needs others. No matter how self-disciplined we are, we all have times when we need others’ discipline. No matter how spiritual we are, we all have times when we need a swift kick in the pants by other spiritual people. Not for nothing did the Preacher declare two are better than one (Ecclesiastes 4:9-12). We all fall sometime. We all get attacked sometime. We all need support sometime. Let’s make sure the people lifting us up, defending us, and supporting us do so with truth and faithfulness. On our jobs, in our families, in our communities, in our personal walk we need the counsel of those who will faithfully walk in truth. And other will need us to provide counsel for them. Let’s not stand or walk alone. Rather, let us stand so close together with those who stand on Christ and His Word that none of us can fall down.

Tomorrow’s reading is Psalm 101.

PODCAST!!!

Click here to take about 15 minutes to listen to the Text Talk conversation between Andrew Roberts and Edwin Crozier sparked by this post.

PATHS:
Discuss Today’s Meditation with Your Family

How does Psalm 101 prompt or improve your hope in God?

Psalm 101: I Will Not Walk with the Wicked

Today’s reading is Psalm 101.

About a hundred psalms ago, the psalmist declared:

Blessed is the man
who walks not in the counsel of the wicked,
nor stands in the way of sinners,
nor sits in the seat of scoffers…

Psalm 1:1 (ESV)

Now, a hundred psalms later, David makes that opening psalm personal. He will not simply declare some no-name person out there is blessed if that person refuses to walk with the wicked. He commits to the God of steadfast love and justice that he personally will not walk with the ungodly. He will avoid the counsel of the wicked, the way of the sinners, the seat of the scoffers.

As king, David must be very careful of his counselors, advisors, ministers. Bad advisors would not simply lead him astray, but the entire nation. He would not associate with slanderers or the haughty. He would not allow liars to continue as his counselors or even remain in his house. In fact, not only would he not allow them in his administration, he would cut them off from the land.

You and I are not kings, but is that any reason to hang out with the wicked? Of course, those who care for the lost are right: we cannot bring the gospel to the lost if we hole up in supposedly holy enclaves, always avoiding those still in their wickedness. We could not have been saved if some righteous person had not interacted with us while we were still in our sins. True, Jesus ate with tax collectors and sinners. However, be clear: He did so because the tax collectors and sinners came to Him to be influenced by Him, not because He came seeking their approval. When the worldly become our best friends, we are in danger. As Psalm 1 said, their direction, guidance, counsel will not draw us closer to God, but lead us to the way that perishes.

We are not in governing roles making judicial decisions about the wicked, therefore we will not exercise some of the extreme judgments the king claims in this psalm. We may not destroy slanderers and liars, but we must destroy their influence in our lives. We may not cut off evildoers from the land, but we must cut off their counsel in our behaviors.

Be prepared. They will be surprised when we do not join them in their flood of debauchery. They will malign us (see 1 Peter 4:3-4). But God is just and they will give account to Him.

Let us refuse to walk with the wicked.

Tomorrow’s reading is Psalm 101.

PODCAST!!!

Click here to take about 15 minutes to listen to the Text Talk conversation between Andrew Roberts and Edwin Crozier sparked by this post.

PATHS:
Discuss Today’s Meditation with Your Family

How does Psalm 101 prompt or improve your trust in God?

Beware the Yeast of These

Today’s reading is Luke 12.

Jesus warns against the yeast of the Pharisees. Exposure to their hypocrisy is subtly influential. A Pharisaic influence even suckered Peter and Barnabas in Galatians 2:11-13. We’ve often heard about the leaven of the Pharisees. However, I can’t help but think about this concept of leaven or yeast as influence in general. This leavening effect is not exclusive to the Pharisees. After all, in Matthew 16:6, 11, 12 it was also applied to the Sadducees. In other words, we need to beware who and what are influencing us. Whether we are considering false teachers, secular worldviews, ungodly outlooks, immoral examples, political strivings, cultural consensus, or any other person or perspective that runs counter to Christ, we must beware. Clearly, we can’t leave the world. We will always be surrounded by ideas, behaviors, worldviews, perspectives, and outlooks that oppose Jesus. We can’t isolate ourselves from or shut ourselves off to all the people around us. In fact, we don’t want to. How can we be the influence we are supposed to be if we do? However, we need to beware. The influence of the world is subtle. Like yeast that spreads imperceptibly through an entire lump of dough without even really knowing that it is happening, sin and sinfulness can alter our perception and perspective until what we consider faithfulness to Jesus Christ doesn’t look anything like Jesus at all. In fact, perhaps we should take a long hard look even today to make sure we are becoming like the Lord and not like a cultural caricature of Him. Beware the yeast. It is all around us.

Tomorrow’s reading is Luke 12.

Our Household in God’s Household

Today’s reading is Titus 2.

Yesterday, we learned there were insubordinate, empty talking, deceivers who were upsetting whole families teaching for shameful gain what ought not be taught. At the beginning of today’s reading, Paul turns that around on Titus. “No matter what anyone else is doing, Titus, you teach what accords with sound, healthy, faithful teaching. Those other guys are upsetting households, you settle them.” And then he talks about how everyone in a household should behave, whether male or female, whether old or young. But keep this in the context. Paul didn’t write this here so when we are preaching a series through Titus we could preach some lessons on the home. He is actually describing the battle in the vile culture of Crete. Please see, the battle isn’t won on Facebook. It isn’t won in a courthouse. It isn’t won on the floors of Congress. It is won in our households. Sure, it is great when laws get passed that support truth. But in the midst of Crete, Christians fight the good fight of faith not by conducting political battles but by living in their own households distinctly and differently, living soberly, steadfastly, lovingly, self-controlled, exemplary lives in a way that the ungodly are put to shame as they try to find some way to make an accusation against us. I think this may be a needed teaching for us today as well.

Tomorrow’s reading is Titus 3 .

Whose Leaven?

Today’s reading is Matthew 16.

If I were a betting man (which I’m not, but that is a different post entirely), I would bet my last dollar you have heard about, thought about, even talked about the leaven of the Pharisees. We know those jokers. Hypocrites, legalists, loophole seekers, all around jerks. But that isn’t the only one Jesus mentions. He also says we are to beware the leaven of the Sadducees. Now, I wouldn’t bet my last dollar on this next one, but pretty close. If I were a betting man, I would bet you haven’t spent any time contemplating the leaven of the Sadducees. Of course, with you individually, I might be incorrect. However, ask around. See how many people have thought about that at all. My point today is not to define the leaven of the Sadducees for you. Rather, it is to highlight something we all need to be careful about. We all do it sometimes. We all skip bits on occasion. We all gravitate to the easy part we’ve heard about a lot and read past the parts that don’t get discussed much. For many people. This is one of those things. Granted, it is probably not essential to your salvation to know exactly who the Sadducees were or what their leaven and influence might specifically be. Well, not anymore than knowing the leaven of the Pharisees. But, of course, we won’t know how essential it is until we ask the question. My encouragement: keep your eyes open while reading. What are the questions you haven’t asked about the verse, paragraph, chapter, book you are reading right now? Why not ask that question and see what you learn?

Tomorrow’s reading is Matthew 17.