“I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth. 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. Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest, and repent.” (Revelation 3:14–17, 19, NIV 1984).
My Musings – What a sorry state for a believer to be in. Thinking that they “do not need a thing,” but for God to see them as “wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked.” To use another word, nauseating. So much so that He is “about to spit [them] out of [His] mouth.” In the Greek, vomit. Pairs well with nauseating.
Only one thing stands in the way. “Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline.” Sometimes this is what it takes to get the wayward Christian to see themselves the way God sees them. Then the proper response would to “be earnest, and repent.” If they do, “if [they] confess [their] sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive [their] sins and purify [them] from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9, NIV 1984). That’s the easy way.
The hard way, if they don’t respond to the Holy Spirit’s “rebuke and discipline?” The process of Church discipline, the final step, which is to “hand [them] over to Satan, so that the sinful nature may be destroyed and his spirit saved on the day of the Lord.” (1 Corinthians 5:5, NIV 1984). This too is an act of love in order to “{win the] brother [or sister] over,” (Matthew 18:15, NIV 1984).
Don’t take it to the limit. If they do not “repent” still, and I know I am lifting this out of the immediate context, “that is why…a number of [them] have fallen asleep.” (1 Corinthians 11:30, NIV 1984). But I believe it can happen (some may disagree). If they are one of “those whom [He] love[s].” They “will suffer loss; [they] will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames.” (1 Corinthians 3:15, NIV 1984).
For anybody else, and we may not be able to tell the difference, “they did not really belong to [Him]. For if they had belonged to [Him], they would have remained with [Him]; but their going showed that none of them belonged to [Him].” (1 John 2:19, NIV 1984). Their judgment awaits.
My Advice – Take your temperature regularly. Hot is always best and does not need to be dealt with. Continue to fan it into flame. Cold is easier to “realize [when] you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked.” Lukewarm is the hardest. It feels comfortable and difficult to realize as it gradually turns to cold.
