21. Having sharply reproved these Christians, nauseating in their lukewarmness, the Chief Shepherd tenderly adds, ”As many as I love I reprove.” What matchless grace is this! In spite of everything He loved them still. Since He had not abandoned them, there was still hope of their recovery. ”Be zealous therefore and repent” was His last exhortation. In place of their lukewarmness there must be a revived zeal accompanied by a thorough going repentance in view of what they had professed to be, and what in fact they were.

If the Laodiceans were not willing to heed the command of their Lord they would face the solemn alternative of a judgment more imminent than anything He had already issued. ”Because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I am about to spue thee out of my mouth” (Darby), as one would vomit out food disagreeable to the palate. If words have any significance, Christ was warning this church of some kind of imminent rejection. Paul was urging the Corinthians to be hot in their zeal for God when he said, ”Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? Even so run that ye may attain.” Then he added, ”I therefore so run. . . lest by any means. . . I myself should be rejected” (1 Cor. 9:24 27).
This solemn warning to Laodicea is also a warning to every lukewarm church or Christian, that though their final salvation cannot be imperilled, they are in grievous danger of being rejected as to the prize. Paul took no chances. ”Brethren, I count not myself yet to have apprehended: but one thing I do. . . I press on toward the goal unto the prize of the upward calling of God in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 3:13, margin).

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Lars Widerberg

22. How would Christ reject this church? ”I am about to spue thee out of My mouth.” It was from the mouth of the Lord that this church would be rejected, if unrepentant and unrevived. He had once said, ”Everyone therefore who shall confess Me before men, him will I also confess before My Father which is in heaven. But whosoever shall deny Me before men, him will I also deny before My Father which is in heaven” (Matt. 10:32).
If the promise concerning confession applies to true believers, so does the warning concerning denial. The lukewarm Laodiceans, wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked, with Christ standing outside the door, were virtually denying Him. He was about to reject them from His mouth by denying them before His Father, with all the loss that that would involve. ”If we died with Him, we shall also live with Him: if we endure, we shall also reign with Him: if we shall deny Him, He also will deny us” (2 Tim. 2:11).
As we have contemplated this final message of the risen Christ, dare we say that the spirit of Laodicea is not abroad today? Is there no trace of it in our own hearts? Are we prepared to pay the price of a zeal revived, ablaze for God? Are we ashamed to be fervent in our devotion to the Lord? Have we faced the solemn alternative? What a need to cry,
Revive us, Lord ! Is zeal abating
While harvest fields are vast and white?
Revive us, Lord, the world is waiting,
Equip Thy church to spread the light.
B. P. HEAD.

The words of Christ shut us up to the reviving of our love, our truth, our life, our zeal - or to certain judgment. ”He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith to the churches.”

END

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Lars Widerberg