“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. – (Revelation 3:14-21)
13 This is the third time I am coming to you….Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test! – (2 Corinthians 13:1, 5)
I never enjoy reading those two texts. They are uncomfortable to say the least. They challenge my assumptions about faith, ministry and church health. As easy as it is to leave them safely under the historical glass, they challenge us in “the present” to test our “spiritual temperature” – to test ourselves to see if we are truly people of faith. Each time I read them I have to remind myself that any offense I may feel is only my pride trying to filter out the work of the Holy Spirit who wants to clean out my thinking and sharpen my faith.
I recently read again Francis Chan’s wonderful book Crazy Love. Chapter four is entitled “The Profile of the Lukewarm.” It is worth the price of the book. Here are a few snippets from that chapter.
Lukewarm people attend church fairly regularly. It is what is expected of them, what they believe “good Christians” do, so they go.
Lukewarm people give money to charity and to the church…as long as it doesn’t impinge on their standard of living. If they have a little left extra and it is easy and safe to give, they do so. After all, God loves a cheerful giver, right?
Lukewarm people tend to choose what is popular over what is right when they are in conflict. They desire to fit in both a church and outside of church; they care more about what people think of their actions (like church attendance and giving) than what God thinks of their hearts and lives.
Lukewarm people don’t really want to be saved from their sin; they want only to be saved from the penalty of their sin. They don’t genuinely hate sin and aren’t truly sorry for it; they’re merely sorry because God is going to punish them. Lukewarm people don’t really believe that this new life Jesus offers is better than the old sinful one.
Lukewarm people are moved by stories about people who do radical things for Christ, yet they do not act. They assume such action is for “extreme” Christians, not average ones. Lukewarm people call “radical” what Jesus expected of all His followers.
Lukewarm people rarely share their faith with their neighbors, coworkers, or friends. They do not want to be rejected, nor do they want to make people uncomfortable by talking about private issues like religion.
Lukewarm people gauge their morality of “goodness” by comparing themselves to the secular world. They feel satisfied that while they aren’t as hard-core for Jesus as so-and-so, they are nowhere as horrible as the guy down the street.
Lukewarm people say they love Jesus, and He is, indeed, a part of their lives. But only a part. They give Him a section of their time, their money, and their thoughts, but He isn’t allowed to control their lives.
Lukewarm people love others but do not seek to love others as much as they love themselves. Their love of others is typically focused on those who love them in return, like family, friends, and other people they know and connect with. There is little love left over for those who cannot love them back, much less for those who intentionally slight them, whose kids are better athletes than theirs, or with whom conversations are awkward or uncomfortable. Their love is highly conditional and very selective, and generally comes with strings attached.
Lukewarm people will serve God and others, but there are limits to how far they will go or how much time, money, and energy they are willing to give.
Lukewarm people think about life on earth much more often than eternity in heaven. Daily life is mostly focused on today’s to-do list, this week’s schedule, and next month’s vacation. Rarely, if ever, do they intently consider the life to come. Regarding this, C. S. Lewis writes, “If you read history you will find that Christians who did most for the present world were precisely those who thought most of the next. It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this.”
Lukewarm people are thankful for their luxuries and comforts, and rarely consider trying to give as much as possible to the poor. They are quick to point out, “Jesus never said money is the root of all evil, only that the love of money is.” Untold numbers of lukewarm people feel “called” to minister to the rich; very few feel “called” to minister to the poor.
Lukewarm people do whatever is necessary to keep themselves from feeling too guilty. They want to do the bare minimum, to be “good enough” without it requiring too much of them.
Lukewarm people are continually concerned with playing it safe; they are slaves to the god of control. This focus on safe living keeps them from sacrificing and risking for God.
Lukewarm people do not live by faith; their lives are structured so they never have to. They don’t genuinely seek out what life God would have them live – they have life figured and mapped out. The truth is, their lives wouldn’t look much different if they suddenly stopped believing in God.
Lukewarm people probably drink and swear less than average, but beside that, they really aren’t very different from your typical unbeliever. They equate their partially sanitized lives with holiness, but they couldn’t be more wrong.
Easy reading? Hardly. But it reconnects us with a major point Jesus makes at the end of a discipleship discourse in Luke 14:25ff. Jesus said, “Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is fit neither for the soil nor for the manure pile; it is thrown out” (Luke 14:34-35).
His words and the words from Revelation 3 and 2 Corinthians 13 remind us – if we can hear them – that their service in our lives is not that of a whipping post. They come into our minds to awaken us to our calling to be “salty salt.”
O Lord, help us to see these words as trusted friends. We need their awakening and encouragement to be in the world as you want us to be and need us to be. May their salting of our lives preserve our connection with your calling and keep us salty every day. Amen.
Randy Daugherty
Stephenville, Texas
Vince Lombardi, ever the changeable but always the compassionate warrior, did something of an about face that was also typical of him. He walked over to his football player and put his arms around his shoulder. “Son,” he said, “I told you the truth. You are a lousy football player. You’re not blocking, you’re not tackling and you’re not putting out. However, in all fairness to you, I should have finished the story. Inside of you, son, there is a great football player and I’m going to stick by your side until the great football player inside of you has a chance to come out and assert himself!” With the encouragement of these words, the young guard began to feel better. He would go on to practice another day. Knowing that he had a coach who was going to stick by his side, the young guard did begin to assert himself as a great football player. As a matter of fact, Jerry Kramer would become one of the all time great guards to ever play professional football! Vince Lombardi could have very possibly destroyed Jerry Kramer. But, instead, he changed course and pointed out the potential that was there and began to reinforce that! We can look back at the record books and see the results!
