Like many married couples, my wife and I have different temperature preferences. I prefer cooler — even cold — temperatures. My wife is hauling out her winter gear at 70 degrees. She is usually cold. I am usually hot.
She often grasps my hands and exclaims, “You are WARM!” I sometimes ask absentmindedly, “Do you find it hot in here?” She replies from her huddle of blankets, “What do you think?” We both grew up in northern climates, so I once asked, “What did you do in winter?”
“I froze!” was her teeth-chattering reply.
So why do I live in hot, subtropical Florida?
I live here because every church God has called me to serve has been in Florida — first on the southeast coast, then the southwest coast. Before moving to Navarre to serve COMPASS Church, my wife and I had decided that after 30 years in this state, we wanted to move out of Florida.
We almost made it.
It seems our Lord Jesus Christ also has a temperature preference.
In the book of Revelation, the apostle John writes of Christ appearing to him in radiant glory. Christ instructs John, “Write therefore the things that you have seen, those that are and those that are to take place after this.” He then dictates seven letters to seven churches, offering His assessment of their spiritual condition.
Christ commends five churches for their steadfastness, though He rebukes the Ephesian church for losing its first love, the Pergamum church for tolerating false teaching, and the Thyatira church for allowing a self-proclaimed prophetess to promote immoral pagan practices. Two churches, however, receive no commendation at all.
The church in Sardis had a reputation for being spiritually alive, but Christ corrects that perception: “I know your works … you are dead.”
It is in His letter to the church in Laodicea that Christ expresses His temperature preference.
“I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot! So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth.”
Historically, water reached Laodicea through a six-mile aqueduct from mountain springs. By the time it arrived, the water was tepid and unpleasant. Christ used this familiar reality to reveal how distasteful the church had become to Him.
The church believed it was rich and self-sufficient. Christ said otherwise: “You are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind and naked.” He called the church to repentance and to recognize its dependence on Him.
The American church should take Christ’s assessment seriously, particularly His words to Laodicea.
Too often, it is theologically shallow and quick to embrace error. It measures spiritual health by attendance and numbers rather than faithfulness and commitment to Christ. It promotes a “lukewarm” faith in which Christ is expected to accommodate Himself to our lives.
Christ has already stated His preference.
Be cold or hot — but not lukewarm.