by Phil Enlow
Laodicea was a city in Asia Minor during the first century. It was a relatively prosperous city allowing its inhabitants to enjoy a better everyday life than those in many other places. It was also a city in which a church had been established, one of seven churches in the province of Asia Minor to which letters from Jesus were recorded in Revelation, chapters 2 and 3.
Each letter contained a message from the Lord that was specific to the needs of that individual church. Each letter also ended with the same admonition: “Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” The word, “says,” is in the present, active tense. It conveys the truth that there is a need to have an ear that is tuned to hear what the Lord is, present tense, saying, not merely what He has said in the past. This is a critical truth.
Remember what Deuteronomy 8:3 says, “… man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.” That was meant to be an important lesson from Israel’s journey through the wilderness where they were provided with fresh manna each day. And just as our bodies need fresh food each day, so do we need to hear what God is saying, present tense.
We rightly honor the written Word that God has miraculously preserved for us. But if that is all we have then we miss the loving purpose of His heart. Enoch understood His heart and “walked with God.” Gen. 5:24. So did Noah. Gen. 6:9. As has often been said: we are called to a relationship, not a religion. God will always honor the written Word, but life here is a journey, and we need God to walk with us as we grow and live out His particular purpose in our lives.
There is a great difference between studying written words with our human minds and hearing God’s voice as He breathes fresh life into those words and plants them in our hearts according to our present need and His loving purpose. The former produces religion at best; the latter transforms lives, bringing them into God’s eternal kingdom, and feeding them according to their ongoing needs along life’s earthly journey.
There is every reason to believe that the church in Laodicea had been founded through the living Word as God revealed Himself to people’s hearts and formed a kingdom community in that city. But time had passed, and things weren’t the same as they had once been.
It wasn’t that they had rejected truth and embraced error. It wasn’t that they were guilty of gross sins. It was that they had once been “hot” but now had become “lukewarm.” Once they been “on fire” but now that fire was in danger of going out.
And their condition was such that they didn’t even realize there was a problem! They thought things were fine! They still believed and did all the right things, at least outwardly, but the truth was that Jesus wasn’t even actively there anymore! He was outside the door knocking to get into a church that used His name and claimed to follow Him!
Many evangelicals today read about the Laodicean church and assume that the Lord was talking about folks like those theological “liberals,” who preach a “social gospel” and embrace modern culture, etc. But is that so? Is that who Jesus was really describing?
It is certainly true that there are many today who have abandoned the faith once delivered to the saints despite claiming to be followers of Christ. But I am persuaded that multitudes of professing evangelicals in our day, if they are not all the way to “Laodicea” are very much on the road that leads there – and they don’t even know it.
In I Samuel 16, we find the prophet Samuel being sent to anoint a king to replace Saul, whom God had rejected. He was led to the household of Jesse and his attention was quickly drawn to a tall handsome son named Eliab. However, the Lord quickly told Samuel that Eliab wasn’t the one He had chosen. He then stated an important truth it would be well for us to understand: “The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” 1 Sam. 16:7.
We are all born into a physical world and we very much tend to be tuned to our earthly physical senses, what we see, hear, touch, etc. This is important to understand because our tendency in spiritual matters is to equate the work of God with things we can detect with our senses, that is, outward things.
In 2 Timothy 3, we find Paul warning Timothy of things to come. He warned of many things we would quickly identify as wickedness. But one thing is of particular interest. In verse 5 he said, “… having a form of godliness but denying its power.”
Now that’s interesting. And it is listed right along with the many forms of wickedness mentioned. What’s that about? While it is true that Paul used the word “godliness” it is evident that it wasn’t real. It was only a “form.” That is, to someone looking on, it appeared as though people were serving God, but there was no actual power, no real life. That sounds a lot like the church in Laodicea, doesn’t it.
Whenever God moves among men, there is an expression of divine power to deliver people from the “dominion of darkness” and to bring them into “the kingdom of the Son He loves” (Col. 1:13). He enables those He has called to convey truth that counters Satan’s lies. He establishes them in kingdom communities we call “churches.”
Inevitably this involves many outward expressions of God’s presence and work. There are men He uses. There are doctrines, teachings, to believe. Believers are taught to meet together, to pray, to worship, to live godly lives, etc., etc. The human tendency, without our realizing it, is to associate God’s presence and work with the outward expressions of all the things we detect with our earthly senses as He works.
God, in His love and mercy, meets us where we are at in order to transform us and make us ready for His eternal kingdom. That is clearly a process. He calls and uses imperfect men to minister to imperfect people. His intent is that we learn to walk with Him and grow spiritually.
One clear danger is that it is far too easy to associate God’s work with the men He uses, in ways He never intended. Paul speaks of this early in his first letter to the Corinthian church. Some were followers of Paul, others of Apollos or Cephas, while others who imagined themselves to be more spiritual claimed to be followers of Christ. But there was a spirit of division involved. Spirits of division are the work of Satan’s kingdom.
In 1 Cor. 3:5-7, Paul wrote, “What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe—as the Lord has assigned to each his task. I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow. So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow.” Only God!
Paul was well aware of his place and of his limitations. In 1 Cor. 3:21 he wrote, “… no more boasting about human leaders!” In 1 Cor. 4:6, he exhorted his readers to not be “puffed up in being a follower of one of us over against the other.” In I Cor. 11:1, he wrote, “Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ.”
Surely no one in church history has had the degree of divine revelation that Paul had yet he wrote in 1 Cor. 13:9, “… we know in part and we prophesy in part.” Notice the word, “we.” Even with all the Lord had shown him he knew that he didn’t “know it all.” Remember the words of Solomon in Prov. 4:18 – “The path of the righteous is like the morning sun, shining ever brighter till the full light of day.” No matter how much the Lord teaches us, there is still more to learn.
Widespread apostacy in the so-called Christian church is one thing. But even among those who truly know Him there has clearly been a spirit of division at work. How easy is it, even where God has definitely been at work, to cling to our leader, our founder, our doctrine, our organization, our way of doing things, and on and on. WE are the ones and everyone else is second rate at best.
But, but, but, how can you say that? We KNOW God was at work among us in a special way. And we have worked hard to preserve our “legacy.” The next generation MUST embrace it all without question, etc., etc. Yet, most of the time, the “legacy” to which men have clung has been the outward expressions of God at work, the memory of things God DID and SAID in the past. And Jesus stands outside the door knocking to get in.
As the expression goes, “A movement becomes a museum.” We think that by clinging to the outward forms we knew when God was at work, that He will continue to show up and work because we are “doing it right.”
How often has God raised up imperfect men and mightily used them to advance His kingdom. Think of men like Wesley and Whitfield in the 1700s. Their understanding of many aspects of doctrine differed greatly, yet God powerfully used them both. I’m glad that they each respected the other despite those differences but, of course, their followers tended to turn those differences into rigid tradition, not to be departed from!
There is only thing that truly divides men in God’s sight: those who have been born of His Spirit and those who have not. Wouldn’t it be amazing if God were to help the true followers of Jesus to see things as He does? To not be divided by human tradition that clings to the past? To be among those who truly have ears to hear what the Spirit IS saying?
As we have indicated, there have been times and many places in which God has truly worked to establish kingdom outposts. We often refer to such times as divine “visitations.” Other words used include “awakening” and “revival.” Thank God for every true visitation! But I remember hearing Bro. David Wilkerson once remark that we didn’t need another visitation, but rather a divine habitation. I’m glad when God visits, but wouldn’t it be much better if He came to stay and live?
All true divine visitations involve anointed leaders, but they also involve hungry praying saints who refuse to give up until the Lord moves in real power. When I use the word power, I am not necessarily referring to the outwardly miraculous – although it certainly could involve that – but rather the living life-changing work of God in hearts.
I wonder how many times, as time has passed, the hunger and praying waned, that generation passed, and a genuine work of God was well on the road to Laodicea. Or, many in that first generation misunderstood and became devoted followers of the leader/founder and preservers of whatever he said and however he did things. In other words, they preserved the form and thought, “We’ve got it, we’ve got it! We need to get everyone to join us and advance our tradition.”
And then, after new generations have arisen, some have said, “This is not working, we need to change things.” But by “changing things” they mean human innovation and not reconnecting with Jesus! And over time their “church” more and more caters to human culture and taste, thinking they can get people to come for the entertainment value and then get them “saved.” And the “proof” that they are on the right track is the size of the crowd involved!
In both approaches, the focus is on what is “outward,” that which can be seen and experienced by human senses and feelings.
And then, someone will come along and say, “The problem is that we are not doing things the way they did in the Bible. The early church met in homes, not special buildings. We need to promote ‘house churches’ as the ‘right way’ to do things.” Of course they met in homes! That was their only option back then. And even then churches were full of problems and challenges.
The problem is not with form but with life. Is Jesus the living active Head of the church – or just a figure head? Are we a kingdom community of hungry, seeking, praying Jesus followers, or mere practitioners of our particular tradition? Do we truly have ears to hear and hearts to respond to a living Christ who dwells among us, and not merely visits occasionally at best? What do we want? And how badly do we want it?