God writes a letter to the people of the church in Laodicea. The members are described as wealthy men and women of society. However, they are also described as Lukewarm; neither hot nor cold. This means that they are sitting on the fence divided between good and evil. Instead of making of firm choice to live for God; or the choice to completely reject God. They choice to go between the two opposing camps. One time proclaiming that they are Christians and how much they love God; the next minute, doing and participating in activities that are directly opposing to the will of Christ. Through their conduct, they knowingly reject the light, the knowledge of God that has been granted to them in favour of worldly treasure and status amongst others in the world. They have the form of godliness but reject the power therein. Such behaviour is detrimental to the christian faith, as these individuals with their wishy washy faith tend to not only confuse themselves but other meaningful encounters with new believers and potential believers, who find it hard to understand, why they say/promote one thing but do the complete opposite. For this reason God says: I will spur you out of my mouth. Meaning, God rejects them completely. He will not condone nor put up with their antics. There is no middle ground with God. You are either for Him or against Him. By not living up to the light that God has given yo, you automatically, disqualify/disconnect yourself from God. Therefore putting yourself on the opposing team. Verse 17 goes on to describe the true nature of these individuals. At face value they seem to have the appearance of well dressed, charming, elegant people. However, underneath all that superfical fascard, God describes their inner character as wretched, miserable, poor, blind and naked. Wretched = worthless. This means God has rejected you, you are no longer his child. You are like an orphan. miserable = unhappy. Without God in your life you can never be truly happy. You can have all the gold in the world, drink all you want, buy all you want, party all you want, but you will always be found wanting, lonely and unhappy because what your spirit yearns for is God. You were created to be with God, when you eliminate God from your life you internally kill yourself and any chances of real joy. Substituting God for other world things only brings about temporary happiness. poor = spiritually poor. You have nothing. You may have tons of cash in the bank but you don't have Jesus. You don't even have a trusting and loving relationship with him and that makes you poor. Blind = spiritually blind. You have difficulty perceiving right from wrong. Your conscience over time becomes oppressed and your heart hardened to sin. You find joy, entertainment and fun, in evil, filthy, sinful things. Righteousness or doing what is right feels wrong for you. It goes against your nature. Doing what is godly and holy is boring, unpleasant. Living a godly life is deemed as an obstruction, a prison with too many restrictions. Naked = shameful/despicable. With God no longer leading and guiding you. You starting doing whatever is right in your own eyes. This leads to you doing shameful and filthy things. This not only make you an embarrassment to yourself but to your family, friends and others around you. Therefore in verse 18 God offers the Loadiceans to buy gold from him; meaning, to find their treasure in him. By making God their treasure, not only will you find real joy and happy but also a deep sense of peace. God also offers a white raiment, signifying his righteousness. A new white garment, meaning a new life with Christ, the forgiveness of your sins and the erasing of your past life. He also offers eye salve, that you can see. That signifies seeing life with new eyes, from a new perspective. Seeing sin and sinful behaviour for what it truly is and calling sin, sin and not saying its good, when its actually bad. The eye salve also represents a restored knowledge and ability to perceive the difference between right from wrong and to do what is right.
Finally, Jesus is standing at the door of your heart and knocking. God wants to renew his relationship with you. He wants to come in and sup with you. Meaning, he wants to commune with you on an intimate and personal levels. He wants to reconnect with you. He wants to adopt you has his own. He stands at your door with his arms wide open, but before he can do anything, you and you only can open the door of your heart to let him in. Will you choose to let God in today?
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