Verses 14-22: Laodicea EV 3:14-22{in This Last of Seven Epistles, Even As in the Previous One, the Lord Does Not Address the Angel of the Assembly at Laodicea by Drawing on the Imagery of Rev. 1. Instead, He Addresses It As Being the One Who Is "the Amen, the Faithful and True Witness, the Beginning of the Creation of God." He Is Everything the Angel of the Laodiceans Should Be, but Is Not. As "the Amen," He Is the One, in Whom, All God's Counsel Is to Be and Will Be Made Good. As "the Faithful and True Witness," He Is the Antithesis of What the Angel of the Laodiceans Is in This World. As "the Beginning of the Creation of God," He Is in Resurrection the Head of That New, Eternal Creation, Where All Is of God and Where, Unlike in the First Creation Under Adam, Nothing Will Ever Fail. (See Again Rev. 2:7; 2 Cor. 5:14-21.)

If the assembly at Ephesus sets before us the assembly's departure from its first love, then this is where that departure must inevitably lead; and it is where it has led. The assembly at Laodicea has become lukewarm and, therefore, what is noxious to the Lord. Accordingly, He is about to spew it out of His mouth. Oblivious to its real condition before Him though, it is lifted up with pride and self-complacency. Therefore, He tells it what its condition really is before Him and counsels it to come to Him for what its condition requires. Nevertheless, He assures it that it is whom He loves that He rebukes and chastens.
Because of the state of the assembly at Laodicea, there is nothing for it on a collective basis, but only on an individual one. Therefore, because He is standing outside, He knocks at each individual heart's door to be let in. If any man opens the door, He will come in and will sup with that man and that man with Him. Sweet fellowship! This is the very thing the Lord craves and the heart that is restored needs.
To the overcomer, He promises he will grant him to sit with Him on His throne, even as He sits with His Father on His throne. In His millennial kingdom then, the overcomer will be publicly associated with the Lord in His rule over the nations.
Historically, Laodicea corresponds to the assembly from about the middle of the nineteenth century and continues on down to the assembly's rapture. It has often been observed that Sardis grew out of what remained of the reformation movement, which had originally broken away from Thyatira, and that Philadelphia has emerged out of Sardis and that Laodicea has grown out of Philadelphia.
Notwithstanding the great and gracious working of the Spirit of God in Philadelphia, pride eventually came in to spoil the happy conditions enjoyed there. (See the historical section under Philadelphia above.) Accordingly, the coming in of this element necessitated the Lord's chastening hand; hence, Laodicea, which is, as much as anything else, a moral state. Of course, Satan has been all too ready to seize upon these failures and to exploit them to the Lord's further dishonor and to the shame and detriment of His people.