Passages · Revelation 3:14-22
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"Lukewarm" in Revelation 3:16 translates the Greek word chliaros — and the surprise in the passage comes one verse earlier: "I wish you were cold or hot." Both temperatures are wished for. So "cold" here can't mean against God, and "hot" can't simply mean on fire for him — the verse doesn't work as a zeal thermometer. Lukewarm is the one condition Christ rejects: neither one thing nor the other, and, like tepid water, the kind of thing a mouth spits out.
3:14 "To the angel of the assembly in Laodicea write: 'The Amen, the Faithful and True Witness, the Beginning of God's creation, says these things: 3:15 "I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were cold or hot. 3:16 So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will vomit you out of my mouth. 3:17 Because you say, 'I am rich, and have gotten riches, and have need of nothing;' and don't know that you are the wretched one, miserable, poor, blind, and naked; 3:18 I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, that you may become rich; and white garments, that you may clothe yourself, and that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and eye salve to anoint your eyes, that you may see. 3:19 As many as I love, I reprove and chasten. Be zealous therefore, and repent. 3:20 Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, then I will come in to him, and will dine with him, and he with me. 3:21 He who overcomes, I will give to him to sit down with me on my throne, as I also overcame, and sat down with my Father on his throne. 3:22 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the assemblies.'"
3:14 And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God; 3:15 I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. 3:16 So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth. 3:17 Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked: 3:18 I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see. 3:19 As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent. 3:20 Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me. 3:21 To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne. 3:22 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.
This is the last of seven letters to churches that open Revelation, and it gets the harshest verdict and the warmest invitation of the seven. It lands in a rich city — rich enough that when an earthquake flattened it, Laodicea rebuilt without outside help. That pride echoes in the letter: "I am rich... and have need of nothing." Many readers also hear the local water behind the temperature image — hot springs at Hierapolis across the valley, cold streams at Colossae, piped-in water at home. The letter never says so; the picture works without it.
"I wish you were cold or hot" (3:15) — this is the line that breaks the usual reading. If cold meant hostile to God, Christ would not wish it for anyone. Both ends are named as better than the middle. What gets rejected is not the direction of their loyalty but its indistinctness — faith you cannot tell apart from anything around it.
"I will vomit you out" (3:16) — the Greek verb emesai is deliberately revolting, the strongest rejection language in any of the seven letters. Tepid is the temperature a body refuses.
"Poor, blind, and naked" (3:17-18) — Christ's counsel answers the city's self-image point for point: gold for the poverty they can't see, white garments for the nakedness, eye salve for the blindness. A city famous for its money, its wool, and its eye medicine is told to buy all three from someone else.
"I stand at the door and knock" (3:20) — often quoted as an appeal to outsiders, but this door belongs to the church: Christ is outside his own assembly, asking if anyone in there hears him. The meal he offers — deipneō, the main evening meal — is the intimate one, and it points forward to the wedding supper at the end of the book (19:9). In the letter just before this one, Christ opened a door no one could shut (3:8); here he stands outside a door someone else closed.
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