Neither Hot nor Cold

Ice Cold Tea is soothing …. Steaming Hot Tea hits the spot! But lukewarm, room temperature tea is disgusting! Listen to Jesus’ commentary of a church that had become complacent in their relationship with Christ and how he described their apathy:

“Write this letter to the angel of the church in Laodicea. This is the message from the one who is the Amen—the faithful and true witness, the beginning of God’s new creation:
“I know all the things you do, that you are neither hot nor cold. I wish that you were one or the other! But since you are like lukewarm water, neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth!… I correct and discipline everyone I love. So be diligent and turn from your indifference.
“Look! I stand at the door and knock. If you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in, and we will share a meal together as friends." Revelation 3:14-16;19-20 NLT

One of the books that I have been reading is the book entitled Crazy Love by Francis Chan. In the chapter entitled “When You’re In Love,” the author discusses the problem of being “lukewarm” in our commitment to Christ by writing the following words:

“Lukewarm living and claiming Christ’s name simultaneously is utterly disgusting to God. And when we are honest, we have to admit that it isn’t very fulfilling or joyful to us, either.

But the solution isn’t to try harder, fail, and then make bigger promises, only to fail again. It does no good to muster up more love for God, to will yourself to love Him more. When loving Him becomes obligation, one of many things we have to do, we end up focusing more on ourselves. No wonder so few people want to hear from us about what we ourselves feel is a boring guilt-ridden chore!” (Crazy Love by Francis Chan)

So what is the answer? The answer is found in realizing that we are called to a relationship with Jesus Christ and when we see that our commitment to him has grown cold or even worse … lukewarm, then we are called to reconnect in our relationship with Jesus and to “fall in love” with him all over again!

In Revelation 3, the promise is to the Christians* who recognizes that they are lukewarm in their commitment to Christ that if they will simply open the door that Jesus is there knocking and waiting at the door ready to embrace us and enrich our relationship with him!

How do we open that door? … simply asking God to open our hearts and to create in our hearts a greater love for Christ. You see Jesus didn’t say … to the Lukewarm Laodiceans … try harder, or add to our daily check-off list … instead he says … “open the door.” For some of us we simply need to be honest with God … “open the door” and tell him … “I have been lukewarm in my love and commitment to you … please change my heart … please allow me to become “hot” in my love for you!!”

*Just a quick personal note: This is a passage that is not written to the person who has not yet become a Christian, but instead to a lukewarm church composed of people who had come to know Christ, but who had allowed their relationship with Christ to become stale. To learn more about becoming a Christian … click on the link to the right that is entitled Seeking to Become a Christian.