Unlike in the letter to the church at Ephesus, in this letter Christ gives no praise to the church. To understand why one must understand the history of Laodicea. The Seleucid King Antiochus 2 found Laodicea, during the third century BC. The city was the richest in the region and connected Ephesus to the western region of the Asia Minor. The city was well known for its industry, banking and textile, which contributed to its wealth. Unlike in Ephesus there was a large community of Jews, which lived in the city and seemed to have been inflicted with some of the ill behavior that their Christian counterparts possessed.
Worth stated “Just as John speaks censorious word of the Christian population, rabbis spoke similarly stern rebukes of the wealth and luxuriousness of the Jewish community” (Worth 213). It would seem that problematic behavior had seeped its fingers into every crevice of society. When Jesus addressed the church at Laodicea he stated: ‘And to the angel of the church in Laodicea write: The words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the origin of God’s creation: ‘I know your works; you are neither cold nor hot.
I wish that you were either cold or hot. So, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I am about to spit you out of my mouth. For you say, “I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing. ” You do not realize that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked. Therefore I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire so that you may be rich; and white robes to clothe you and to keep the shame of your nakedness from being seen; and salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see. I reprove and discipline those whom I love.
Be earnest, therefore, and repent. Listen! I am standing at the door, knocking; if you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to you and eat with you, and you with me. To the one who conquers I will give a place with me on my throne, just as I myself conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne. Let anyone who has an ear listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches’ (O’Day, Petersen 2066) This time when Jesus describes himself he does so differently than saw in the letter to Ephesus, this time he is the Amen.
In this description we see another connection to the Old Testament, “These OT allusions are used to indicate that Christ is the true Israel and the divine ‘Amen, the faithful and true witness’ to his own resurrection as ‘the beginning of the new creation of God’, in inaugurated fulfillment of the Isaianic new creation prophecies” (Beale 297). Once this connection is made then John shifts to Christ’s complaint pertaining to the Laodicea church.
He claims they are lukewarm and “the church in Laodicea ay have seemed notably successful to the outside observer, and was itself blind to its own spiritual ineffectiveness” (Hemer190). This shows that the judgment was not passed on the Laodicea church for being unenthusiastic but instead due to their work. They a poor in their work of enduring and resistant witness, due to allowance of secular practices to seep into their religious belief system. Christ repeatedly labels the city as things that contradict what the city is, for instance he calls the city poor.
Christ offers the Laodiceans a way to go forward and gain grace. He begins by telling them ways to combat the issues he said they were faced with such as poverty, “he advises them to by gold that had been refined by fire so they might become truly wealthy” (Blount 83). Gold was seen to be a semblance of purified life. The white robes are to cover their shame, which is symbolized by their nakedness. Finally he advises them to salve their eyes since their blindness symbolizes their lukewarmness, “the salve is the witness that can cure it” (Blount 83).
Christ then goes on to say that he is standing at the door knocking and that if he is allowed to enter he will dine with the person. The importance that is illustrated here is that Jesus was not forcing himself on to anyone he says if you hear me let me in but doesn’t and would share a meal if they so wished it. The final reward that is promised for repentance is to be able to sit with Him on his throne. The church of Laodicea is a representation of the church today, “the modernistic church of today, where Christ is disowned and atonement by His blood is denied” (Brunk 244).
Each one of the seven churches show more than just simple letters to churches that were in circulation during the time period of the authorship of Revelation. They are intricate aspects of the book of Revelation and lay the grown work for what is to come later in the book. Though not out right prophetic the letters Jesus task John with composing are apocalyptic in nature. If the church at Laodicea represents the current state of the church, this must be the time to repent and regain our sight.
