What Does It Mean to Be a “Lukewarm” Christian?
The term ‘lukewarm’ can be traced to Jesus Christ’s frank words to the believers at the historical assembly in Laodicea, which was located in what is today southwestern Turkey:
16“So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth. 17 You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. 18I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see.”
19“Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest and repent. 20Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me. ”
Revelation 3:16-20
The Messiah rebuked these believers for being “lukewarm” and threatened to spit the whole fellowship out of his mouth if they didn’t repent, meaning he would “pull the plug” on them and they’d be a church in name only.
Christ desired that they were cold or hot rather than lukewarm. This was an allusion to nearby cold and hot springs. The cold springs were useful for refreshing and the hot springs for bathing, but lukewarm water was useless. Thus this assembly was useless in the eyes of the Lord.
What was their core problem? The context shows that they made something other than Christ lord of their lives; and verse 17 reveals that this ‘thing’ was material wealth. I want to stress that it’s okay to have physical wealth, but it’s not okay for physical wealth to have the person wherein it basically becomes their ‘god’ (Luke 12:15). As Jesus put it, “You cannot serve God and money” (Matthew 6:24).
Sadly, riches replaced Christ’s Lordship in the lives of these Laodicean believers, which can be observed in their boasting of their great wealth and the claim that they had need of nothing. But the Lord gives them a rude awakening by informing them that they were, in reality, “wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked” and needed to repent (verses 17 & 19).
Further support for the fact that material wealth was their ‘lord’ and not Christ can be observed in the fact that Jesus was outside the fellowship knocking on the door wanting to come in and commune with them. In short, the very Lord they claimed to serve wasn’t even in their fellowship — he wasn’t even in their midst! He was outside politely asking them to let him in while threatening to spit them out of his mouth if they foolishly refused. You could say that being lukewarm means falling into a rut wherein you don’t have a relationship with the LORD.
So being a lukewarm Christian is a believer who has made something other than Christ lord in his/her life and is not limited to money & material wealth. It could be any number of things, but it renders the person useless to the Lord and service in His Kingdom. It’s a form of idolatry — putting something above the LORD — which in effect renders the believer a nominal Christian.
Related Topics:
The Believer and Jesus Christ’s LORDSHIP
How to keep BALANCED in every area of Life
Spirituality — How to be Spirit-Controlled Rather than Flesh-Ruled
Drug Obsession (Idolatry) is of the Flesh
What Happened to the Hebrews in the Old Testament are WARNINGS for Believers
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