Revelation 3:15Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

But now, because you withdrew from the world and yet did not wish to keep the warmth of soul, becoming lukewarm through indifference, you will be vomited out of the Lord's mouth. He will scarcely receive you again. Therefore, beloved brothers, with God's help attend carefully to divine Scripture, in which it is said: "Keep your heart with all vigilance" (Prov 4:23). For one should rejoice over a monk who, after entering a monastery, desires to practice mercy, obedience, and patience in meekness and humility.

Or else, would that you were thoroughly cold, completely deprived of participation in the grace of the Spirit, unbaptized and not lukewarm. For the one who has the intelligible fire of the Spirit is perfected to maturity. His senses are trained by practice to discern good and evil (Heb 5:14). He is spiritual. Of course, the one who has not yet received the grace of the Spirit, but nourishes the hope of someday being saved, cannot be counted among the hopeless. But the lukewarm man is subject to death. He can lose the grace of Baptism and the flame of the Spirit.

Now let them buy for themselves the gold of which He said: receive wisdom like gold, and knowledge like choice silver. If they can draw something from the fountains of divine Scripture, as though illumined by the light of wisdom, then this will follow. Some will be set aflame with zeal to perform works of piety from the abundance of their possessions. Others will be spiritually instructed by knowledge of the Scriptures.

This evil is almost incurable, because it is nourished by self-satisfaction and self-love. They prefer themselves to sinners, whom they regard with indignation and contempt. They often prefer themselves even to the truly holy, against whom they utter the blackest slander. Finally, to exalt the dignity of the insignificant remnant of their warmth, they call those who are hot ice-covered. It is true that these people resist the reception of the Spirit of God more than the gravest sinners. Therefore the Lord says of such people that it would be more pleasing to God if they were either cold or hot. If they were cold, they would be converted easily, as the pagans were converted. They would be convinced of their coldness and would heed grace-filled exhortations with humility. Or else they would be hot, that is, such as the Lord wishes to see them.

Then they could have been left in peace, awaiting their conversion. It would certainly have been still better if they had possessed fervent devotion to Christ. What is especially displeasing to the Lord is the self-praise with which the Laodiceans speak of their spiritual condition. Instead of boasting of their imaginary spiritual riches, they ought humbly to turn to the Lord. They should ask Him to help them in their spiritual poverty and sicknesses. And this is so easy, for the Lord Himself knocks at the door of the human heart. With those who receive Him warmly, He eats supper as a friend. On His part, He also entertains such a man in His own house. Since overcoming the decline of the Christian spirit noticed by the Lord in Laodicea is very difficult, He promises a great reward to the one who accomplishes it. This reward is a place beside Himself on the throne.

The Lord Jesus Christ directs His rebukes and threats not directly to the Church of Laodicea, but to its presiding pastor. Like the presiding pastors of the other Churches of Asia Minor mentioned in the Apocalypse, He calls him an angel, a messenger of the will of God Almighty: "To the angel of the Church of Laodicea write" (Rev 3:14). There is nothing surprising in the fact that the flock is rebuked and threatened in the person of the pastor. The pastor may personally be blameless in moral respect. Yet he answers before the judgment of God for the sins of those entrusted to him, if he does not care for their salvation and does not strive to turn them from the path of lawlessness and bring them to the path of truth. "When I say to the wicked," the Lord says to the prophet, "Thou shalt surely die, and thou dost not admonish him or speak to warn the wicked from his way, that he may live, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but his blood I will require at thy hand" (Ezek 3:18).

In what, then, does the Lord Jesus, the righteous Judge, rebuke the flock in the person of their pastor? In this: they are neither cold nor hot, but only lukewarm. What does this mean? With regard to the Christian faith, one who is cold, like stone or frozen water, is most suitably understood here as a man not at all converted to Christ. He has not been illumined by the light of the Gospel, nor warmed by the grace of the Holy Spirit. In every respect he is alien to the Church of Christ. In a word, he is a pagan.

It could not be said of the members of the Church of Laodicea that they differed in nothing from pagans. "Thou art neither cold," says the Lord to the Laodicean Christian. That is, thou canst not be called a pagan. Thou belongest to the society of believing, baptized Christians. Thou valuest the name of Christian and hast not renounced Christ. But, the Lord continues, thou art also "not hot." That is, thou dost not belong to the number of true Christians.

One who is hot is a Christian whose faith in Christ is permeated by ardent conviction of its truth. He has a deep sense of the need for justification by the grace of Christ. He loves the Lord fervently and is wholly devoted to Him. With unweakened zeal he strives to spread everywhere the glory of His name, and sets pleasing Him as the chief aim of his life (Rom 12:11). Such a believer is, for example, the holy Apostle Paul, who said of himself: "I count all things as loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord. For Him I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as refuse, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, but that which is through faith in Christ" (Phil 3:8-9). Love for Christ, in whom he found the fulfillment of his striving for truth and holiness, was so strong in him that no outward deprivation or suffering, and no inward infirmity or temptation, could weaken that love and zeal for the glory of Christ's name (Rom 8:35). The martyrs, the venerable fathers, and all the saints who triumph in heavenly glory were distinguished by such strong love for Christ. Love for Christ in them was truly "the flame" of God (Song 8:6). All who desire truly to serve Christ must be such.

But the members of the Church of Laodicea were not such. They were not hot, though they were not cold either. They were only warm, lukewarm. That is, they were enlightened and warmed by faith in Christ only in the slightest measure. In their relation to Christ there was a certain double-mindedness, indecision, limping on both knees, and sluggishness. Thus they believed in Christ, the Redeemer of sinners, but they did not regard themselves as sinners worthy of condemnation. They felt no need for the grace of forgiveness and justification. The Lord Jesus rebukes them for this in the person of their pastor: "Thou sayest, I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing" (Rev 3:17). That is, I am a Christian in the true sense. My spiritual condition is entirely satisfactory. May God grant everyone to be as I am. One need not desire anything better.

Again, the Laodicean Christians loved Christ, or at least said that they loved Him. Yet they considered it possible to combine love for Him with a passionate love for the world and for all that is in the world. Life in a wealthy city, famous for trade and industry, presented them with many temptations and stumbling blocks, against which they lacked zeal to struggle. Finally, they hoped to receive eternal blessedness by the grace of Christ and desired it. Yet they did not think that, for this, one must renounce sinful desires and pleasures. They did not think that the path to blessedness is the narrow path of self-denial and warfare against the old man.

Such was the spiritual state of the Laodicean Christians. Such also is the state of many among us. For among us too there are not a few Christians who are neither cold nor hot, but only lukewarm. "I am an honest man," one says. "I am not a thief, not a murderer, not a drunkard, not a deceiver. I conduct my affairs honestly." This is praiseworthy. Yet the Pharisee who stood in the temple with the publican and condemned him said the same thing. Many pagans, obedient to the voice of conscience and truly honest men, could say the same about themselves.

But is this enough for one who believes in Christ? To be a true Christian, is it enough merely not to commit criminal offenses deserving death or imprisonment? If Christian morality consisted only in this, there would have been no need to come to Christ, the Redeemer of sinners. Civil laws and institutions could have created and maintained such morality in men. Even the simple animal feeling of self-preservation, and ordinary worldly calculation, could do it, since without observing the rules of honesty one cannot live safely and prosperously.

Moral self-satisfaction is wholly incompatible with faith in Christ, especially satisfaction with external honesty alone. This faith preaches poverty of spirit. It teaches the great righteous man to say, "I am the first of sinners." If civic honesty is not joined to purity of heart, this faith calls it a whitewashed tomb, magnificently adorned outside and full of stench within.

Who among us can attain this purity and holiness by his own efforts? And who among us, with all his progress in moral self-improvement, can say, "Enough," when he remembers Christ's commandment: "Be ye perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect" (Mt 5:48)? Unfortunately, many of us do not take the trouble to reflect on the height of the moral demands of the Gospel. Therefore they easily fall into conceit or spiritual self-satisfaction, instead of humbly weeping over their sins and over their powerlessness in the struggle with sinful thoughts and desires.

Such people, of course, cannot be called cold, that is, wholly alien to the Gospel and ignorant of it. Yet they cannot be called hot either. They are scarcely warmed by the spirit of the Gospel. They have not received its teaching on the need for grace for our sanctification and salvation. The ray of the Gospel has barely touched them, and therefore they are only lukewarm.

No less deserving of reproach for this lukewarmness are those who acknowledge themselves to be great sinners, weep over their sins, and feel the need for merciful and spiritually renewing grace. Yet they do not have enough self-denial to change their relation to the world, to cease following unchristian customs, and to refuse being carried away by the corrupting spirit of the age. They resemble people who assure you of their devotion and friendship. But if it becomes necessary to prove friendship and devotion not by words, but by a deed of self-denial, they show no readiness for this.

The teaching of the word of God has no place in them: "Ye cannot serve God and mammon" (Mt 6:24). "He who is not with Me is against Me" (Mt 12:30). "If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him" (1 Jn 2:15). "Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity against God? Whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God" (Jas 4:4). "He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. He who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me" (Mt 10:37).

Such is the teaching of the Gospel concerning what true following of Christ consists in. Those who call themselves Christians and do not follow this teaching decide to combine service to Christ with service to the world. They seem zealous for piety, yet at the same time they give themselves over to pleasing men. They fear to raise their voice against words of blasphemy and impiety spoken in their presence. All such people fully deserve the reproach addressed to the Laodicean Christian: "Thou art neither cold nor hot, but only lukewarm."

"O that thou wert cold or hot," the Lord continues. That is, be one thing or the other. Either thou must be a true Christian, wholly and undividedly devoted to the Gospel, and guided by the teaching of the Gospel in all relations of life, or it would be better for thee not to know Christianity at all. True, ignorance of the truth is a great evil. Yet this evil is much less, compared with falling away from the truth already received. Less will be required of one who does not know than of one already enlightened by the light of the Gospel, who has tasted the heavenly gift and become a partaker of the Holy Spirit (Heb 6:4), but has not become better thereby. "That servant who knew his master's will, and did not prepare himself or act according to His will, shall be beaten with many stripes. But he who did not know, and did what deserved punishment, shall be beaten with few" (Lk 12:47-48).

Thus, woe to him who is neither cold nor hot, but only lukewarm. Woe to him who is only apparently a Christian, and in whom there is no ardent devotion to Christ. Such a man, barely warmed by faith in Christ, is in danger of being rejected by Christ. He arouses in Christ aversion toward himself. The force of this can be judged by comparison with the sensation sometimes experienced by those who taste lukewarm, barely warmed water. It is known to provoke nausea. "Because thou art lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spew thee out of My mouth."

May each of us fear this dread sentence of divine justice. May each strive to acquire that ardor in faith, that wholeness of faith, without which one cannot be a true Christian.