Revelation 3:14-22 14Write to Laodicea, to the Angel of the church. God’s Yes, the Faithful and Accurate Witness, the First of God’s creation, says:
15-17“I know you inside and out, and find little to my liking. You’re not cold, you’re not hot—far better to be either cold or hot! You’re stale. You’re stagnant. You make me want to vomit. You brag, ‘I’m rich, I’ve got it made, I need nothing from anyone,’ oblivious that in fact you’re a pitiful, blind beggar, threadbare and homeless.
18“Here’s what I want you to do: Buy your gold from me, gold that’s been through the refiner’s fire. Then you’ll be rich. Buy your clothes from me, clothes designed in Heaven. You’ve gone around half-naked long enough. And buy medicine for your eyes from me so you can see, really see.
19“The people I love, I call to account—prod and correct and guide so that they’ll live at their best. Up on your feet, then! About face! Run after God!
20-21“Look at me. I stand at the door. I knock. If you hear me call and open the door, I’ll come right in and sit down to supper with you. Conquerors will sit alongside me at the head table, just as I, having conquered, took the place of honor at the side of my Father. That’s my gift to the conquerors!
22“Are your ears awake? Listen. Listen to the Wind Words, the Spirit blowing through the churches.
So here is the first of the MisQuoted Passages of Scripture that I would like to deal with. As I mentioned in an earlier post, this verse is taken so often, so out of context. It makes me shiver to recall how many times I have heard it used in an evangelistic setting. Not that God cannot use our mistakes and misquotes, because He so often does. That, however, does not give us the freedom to misuse Scripture. We have to be careful how we use the Word that God has given us.
So to begin, let give you an idea of how this passage has been misused. In my years as a pastor, I have heard many people use this as the ending of an evangelistic appeal. At first, it did not bother me because I was ignorant of what the passage was really saying. It is not an evangelistic passage. Remember what I said about Scripture last time: it is one book from start to finish, written by God and it is written to His people. Even a cursory view of Revelation 3 shows us that this is part of a letter written to a church, the church at Laodecia. It was written to a specific church for a specific reason. This church was not doing well. It had stagnated. Jesus was coming down hard on it. This church thought it was doing well, but as Jesus points out, that instead of being rich, she was actually poor.
Jesus in his compassion and love for his church, his people promises them that if they will repent, he will meet with them. Not only will he come in through the door, not only will he stand in the entryway, not only will he come and sit in the living room, but he will sit down and eat with us. Does that seem a little lame? If you know anything of the culture in which this was written, you will know that eating with someone was a trust thing. Eating with someone was a sharing of life. Eating with someone was a coming together of friends and family. Instead of standing outside the door and gagging, Jesus wants to come inside and eat.
Notice one other thing about this verse, it is addressed to individuals. If anyone hears my voice… I will eat with him (or her). Most of the time, the commands of the Bible are in the plural, addressed to God’s people as a whole. This offer is very clearly addressed to individuals. Repentance and restoration is an individual business - you cannot repent for me and I cannot repent for you. We have to deal with our failings and our relationship with God on our own. The church may fail corporately, but we have to turn to Jesus one by one in repentance and trust.
And my final point on this is: The Bible is written to God’s people to show them the great love he has for us. The book of Revelation was written to the churches (Revelation 1:4) to give them comfort in a time of deep distress and persecution. Revelation 3:14-22 was written to a specific church, for a specific reason, to bring people back into the proper relationship with the Alpha and Omega. Why would God insert a verse in the middle of it all, as a call to unbelievers to open their hearts to him? Well, he didn’t, this is a call to you and I. A call that comes when the church falls away, we fall away. It is Jesus, our Lord and Master, coming as a servant again, calling us to repent, to open our lives to him and be cleansed. To be in warm and intimate relationship with the One who died that we might live.