Spiritual Lukewarmness

“And to the angel of the church in Laodicea write: ‘The words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of God’s creation. “‘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. For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen, and salve to anoint your eyes, so that you may see. Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me. The one who conquers, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne, as I also conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’”
(Revelation 3:14-22 ESV)

To many Christians these verses are a source of fear and uneasiness, especially when one fears that they have become lukewarm in their spiritual walk. Whenever one talks about the issue of spiritual lukewarmness, it is only a matter of time before the church of Laodicea in Revelation 3:14-22 comes up. Although few people realize that there are actually two ways of reading the passage. The first and more common way at the moment is to view the hot water as the Christians who are “on fire for Jesus”, the cold water as the lost that need to be saved and lukewarm water as the Christians who are not “on fire for Jesus” that make Jesus want to vomit. The second way and the one that I favor, is to view the passage within the historical context of the the city Laodicea. In short Laodicea was a very rich trade city build upon the junctions of major trade routes. The city was famous for its textiles, medical schools with its well known salve treating eye disease and its banks. Yet the city’s major weakness was that it was far away from any water supply, which had to be piped in through Roman aqueducts. The cold water was brought in from Colossae, which was ten miles away and the hot water came from the hot springs at Hierapolis, which were six miles away; both of which were lukewarm by the time the reached Laodicea. Thus it appears that Jesus was poking fun at Laodicea’s water supply. As the rest of His rebuke of the Laodicean church attacks what they through were their strengths, by them naked, blind and poor. So following this trend of interpretation, our next step is to take a closer look at the water. Cold water in general is used to stimulate and refresh, like washing one’s face with cold water in the morning or how nice it is to drink a glass of cold water on a hot day. Hot water has relaxing and soothing properties, as well as being useful for cooking and cleaning, like how relaxing in a hot tub sooths a sore body and lets not forget about needing hot water to brew tea. Lukewarm water on the other hand is not known for being good for anything useful. Although lukewarm water can give one an upset stomach and possibly vomiting when drank. Which goes to show why we normally chill or heat our beverages to some extend, instead of drinking them at room temperature. With that being said, I do not think the question is if should we be cold or hot as both have their uses as both cold and hot water are needed. Just like a Roman Bath has both a hot pool where people start out in to relax, it also has a cold pool to plunge into to cool down as its dangerous to remain in hot water too long despite the proven health benefits of hot tubs. Thus both are needed as it was a necessity for one spending an afternoon at the Roman baths to move from pool to pool. Also consider the typical water cooler filled with spring water, which has 3 faucets: one is blue and gives cold water for drinking, another is red and gives hot water for making tea or hot chocolate and the last one is white and gives lukewarm water yet is pretty much never used. Thus I think the point being made is that as Christians we should be useful to Jesus and His church in a way fitting our gifts, abilities and circumstances; rather than become indifferent and do nothing.

Finally the question comes up of what should one do when they discover that they have been in a lukewarm spiritual slump for a while that they are not sure how to break. To which I think the best answer is found within Luke 18:9-14: the parable of the Pharisee and tax collector praying in the temple. As simply being honest with God about with the situation we’ve fallen into and the sin of living as if He didn’t exist is clearly the best response. Especially since it wasn’t even possible to hid it from God to begin with, as He knew that we had fallen into a lukewarm slump before we realized it ourselves. As we are all stumble and fall into sin again and again as taught in Romans 7:14-25, yet God still loves us and wants us to get up again to start following Him again. In reality the worse thing we can do is that of the Pharisee and refuse to admit our sin nature by acting as if everything is fine with us spiritually, instead of being honest with God and confessing our sins to Him as He is faithful and will forgive us as taught in 1 John 1:7-10.

cheap grace?

If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.
~1 John 1:8-10 ESV

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
~Ephesians 2:8-9 ESV

What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.
~Romans 6:1-4 ESV

But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe–and shudder! Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless? Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar? You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works; and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”–and he was called a friend of God. You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. And in the same way was not also Rahab the prostitute justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way? For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.
~James 2:18-26 ESV

For we all stumble in many ways. And if anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle his whole body.
~James 3:2 ESV

Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”
~1 Peter 1:13-16 ESV

As I alluded to in my earlier post on speed limits the issue of real grace compared to cheap grace can be hard to nail down at times. As while Christianity teaches that one can not become good enough to be saved but through accepting by faith that God has already taken care of everything. Yet one can not escape that coming to grace under true saving faith is also sanctifying faith because if one really believes and becomes a son of God and heir to the Holy Spirit through Jesus Christ it will change how once acts. Yet once again it is also not Biblical to claim or teach others the need to be sinless here on Earth, although one should seek to avoid sin to the best of their ability by the grace of God. So how is one to draw the line in a way that the typical Christian can understand and put into practice? How about as viewing sin among Christians as breaking things in Jesus’ house. As we know that we will receive grace and forgiveness if we were to break something. We must keep in mind that we are not perfect and are bound to stumble from time to time and possibly knock a lamp off of the end table or drop a glass or plate in the process. However, simply going around with a baseball bat or sledgehammer and smashing everything in sight is an obvious abuse of the grace because we are deliberately breaking things. And it is where one falls into the mentality of breaking things simply because they feel that they can, is where the trouble of falling into cheap grace begins.

Divine Accountability

Yesterday during my drive to meet up with Paula in her hometown I was surprised by the variety of signs around the speed limit signs which included: “Strictly Enforced”, “Enforcement Zone”, “Enforced by Radar” and “Enforced by Aircraft”. Although I will admit that I see value in the warning signs about action being taken against aggressive drivers given the increased problems with road rage but feel that those serve as equivalent remainders to the speed limit signs. I’ll be quick to admit that I am fairly legalistic when it comes to speed limits and know from firsthand experience how that annoys people people. I’ve lost count of the number of times people have illegally passed me because the speed limit wasn’t fast enough for them but have two favorites. The first was when a police car passed me in a no passing zone when I was going the speed limit and the second was a person who got annoyed that I slowed down all the way to 15 MPH in a school zone so they passed me while blowing their horn at me. To me this extends much deeper than explaining why a lot of people say that I drive like an old lady, as it goes into obeying the law. Personally I found it both funny and sad that many areas put up extra signs under or above the speed limit signs to tell people that they really mean it and that the speed limit is being enforced in that area. After all if the speed limits are not supposed to mean anything then why not go the German route and say the only speed limit is as fast as you can drive safely? If I was a police officer looking to set up a speed trap one of those areas with the extra speed limit and we really mean it this time signs would be the last place that I would choose, as I feel that the signs to educate drivers on the speed limit should be sufficient. Yet it seems as if too many people feel that they can drive however they want to as long as the police are not around and buy radar detectors to warn them when there is a police presence in the area. Although I must add that it has been rightly said that the true test of character behind the wheel is how one drives when there are not any police around. In a similar way some people in a way often view God like the police when it comes to sin, even though in the end the comparison ultimately falls short in the end. As it rightly gets that like the police God takes notice of wrongdoing, although unlike the police God’s vision is perfect so everyone, every time they sin gets caught in the act by God. Yet one must realize that God is not ultimately some cosmic cop out to get people in the act of sinning, but it is right in the sense of seeing God as a judge. Only God is a righteous judge and is much more graceful than anything that you would likely find in US Judicial system. Not to say that that our justice system is unusually harsh and unjust or that God perverts justice by letting people off the hook. Just that as far as God is concerned, Jesus has already paid the price of the sins of those who ask and start following Him. This is not to say that Christianity gives people a license to sin as they please but the issue of abusing grace will be addressed in a follow up post within a week.

Are are focued on the wrong enemy?

“More persistent and more troubling was the practical deism that had wormed its way into the churches of colonial New England, paving the way for theological deism and Transcendentalism to follow. Such practical deism is alive and well today, even in churches that take their stand on the Bible. However correct their statements in Bible studies or Sunday school classes may be, in practice many Christians really assume that God’s “interference” in people’s lives pretty much came to a halt sometime in the past - perhaps in the apostle’s time, perhaps at the Reformation or some revival of bygone days, but surely before our time. Would we say this out loud? Never! But our meager prayer lives, our anxiety, our dependence on novel techniques in evangelism, our hope in technology to solve spiritual problems, our doubt that loving discipline can restore wandering brothers or sisters to repentance and reconciliation - all these testify to our unspoken assumption that God’s real action is in the past and in the future but not in the present. We act as though Jesus wound up the church and then flung us out on our own when we say, “Our church can’t grow in this neighborhood,” or “I won’t apologize until she does - and she won’t!” or “He says he’s sorry but he’ll do it again,” or “What will become of us?” Could any of these attitudes survive if we were convinced that God is present and at work among us? The presence of his power would dispel our discouragement. His authority would melt our stubbornness. His terrible purity would banish our temptation to compromise. Surrounded by his peace, we would laugh at our fears”
~an excerpt from The Message of Acts by Dennis E. Johnson pages 16-17

Ask most Christians what the number one threat to the church is today and most likely the spread of Islam will be one of the most popular answers. As I would have said myself up until fairly recently or at least for the West since while worldwide Christianity is the fastest growing religion worldwide, Islam is in the West. Regardless I’m starting to fear that we may have become too concerned about what is going on outside of our doors that we have let in a Trojan horse that now needs to be fought off from within. As the whole idea of the existence of a Christian Deism heresy thriving within the Church was very alarming as well as disturbing. At the same time, I wonder if this Deism within the church is at all related to the lukewarmness of the church of Laodicea in Revelation that Jesus threatened to vomit out if they didn’t chance? If so it forces the equally difficult question of how much of the professing US Church is really Deist merely deceiving itself in believing that it is Christian when in reality it is not? It is clear that the issue of the general lack of expectations of God’s continual interaction in the world is Deistic in nature is something that needs to be given more attention and focus.

casting out the darkness

No idea if this is of any significance or not but I consider it worth mentioning its still on my mind hours later. Today when I started reading out of the Bible by a window the clouds suddenly shifted and darkened out the sunlight that I was reading by, forcing me to reach over and turn on the light. The freaky or ironic thing depending upon one’s point of view is that of all passages I was starting to read the Gospel of John and the clouds blocked out the light when I was in the middle of the light and darkness section. As the passage suggests, it is important to keep in mind that God is not the only force at work in the world even though He is the strongest. Or as my one seminary professor said in regards to the spiritual world that there are two deadly mistakes one can make the first is to conclude that it doesn’t exist or is not significant. The second is to give it too much attention to the point of falling into the whole “devils on every doorknob and in every toaster” mentality. So one can reasonably argue that the devil does not want us doing things like reading the Bible and praying and will attempt to stop us to the best of his ability, in that case by casting out the darkness with light to illuminate the Scriptures. But honestly if I was reading any other passage of the Bible at the time I would have most likely just turned on the lamp without any further thought.

New Years Resolutions

I don’t know how many times I’ve been asked about any New Years Resolutions over the past day or so by others. I know its well meaning but I have mixed feelings about the whole new years resolution concept. First I feel that they are not taken seriously enough as statistics show that 45% of them do not last through January and in the end only around 8% of them are achieved in the end. Second I think the whole concept of New Years Resolutions is flawed in the sense that it fails to motivate if not demotivated people toward the end of the year. For example if someone makes a New Years Resolution to read the entire Bible in a year and they reach September having only just reached Psalms they are more likely to just drop the whole thing figuring that they will try again next year, as compared to the more responsible option of revising their reading plan from a year to a year and a half or two years. Third New Years Resolutions or people’s inability to keep the often unreasonable ones that they made often cause a sense of guilt and decreased self esteem as compared to the motivational self improvement purposes which caused them to be made in the first place. On the positive end, there is great value in taking the time to reflect upon what is important to you as well as where you are in life and where you need/want to be going. But at the same time regardless of what happens I feel that there are two important things that I feel that one must always keep in mind. First, the most important thing in the end is that you are loved by God and others. Second, it is not where you and how far you are moving that matters most but whatever or not you are heading in the right direction.

For me while there is a list of thing that I would like to accomplish - pray more, read the Bible more, lose weight, etc - which I’m sure matches up with most Christians I am not going to formalize them as Resolutions but admit that they are important enough to me for them to come to mind during reflection. Although for me I’d have to say that my biggest issue to tackle is the need to figure out what direction is the right one as everything seems to be on hold for me at the moment before they can really get started. I know it sounds crazy but I feel that seminary has become an obstacle for me in terms of ministry as I was actually a lot more involved in ministry and mentoring when I started seminary than I am now. Also I can not shake the ideas that you do not really start living a mature adult life until you are out of school and married or at least married and in graduate school.

Vanity of Vanities

For the past week or so I have been camping out in the book of Ecclesiastes having read it several times and listened to an audio Bible recording of it under a different translation. Ecclesiastes really helps put things into the long term perspective and it really got me thinking and has probably resulted in more questions than answers. How much of what we put so much time, effort and money will turn out to be vanity in the long run? Ecclesiastes is often taught as saying that life without God is not worth living when it is limited to our finite human perspective alone, but even if this is one of its points, I think this might be a bit of oversimplification. Overall the main point that seemed to speak out to me during my present study of Ecclesiastes is that we should make the best out of what we have and enjoy it as it ultimately a gift from God. which is mentioned multiple times such as in Ecclesiastes 8:15 “And I commend joy, for man has no good thing under the sun but to eat and drink and be joyful, for this will go with him in his toil through the days of his life that God has given him under the sun.” Just how often do we end up missing the point by wearing ourselves out going after what we think will bring us enjoyment when all we ultimately need besides God is food and each other.