The REAL...Revelation 3:15-16 I know your deeds, that you are neither COLD nor HOT. I wish you were either ONE or the OTHER! So, because you are lukewarm—neither HOT nor COLD—I am about to spit (vomit) you out of my mouth. Revelation 3:15-16 The popular view of the above passage focuses on the perceived temperature of the believer, as if the ever changing state of our natural life has any credence, or holds any weight when it comes to our deep and abiding Life IN Christ. I would like to suggest this passage has absolutely nothing to do with the spiritual temperature of the believer but something much more profound. Anything lukewarm is a mixture of two, hot and cold, whereas cold is singular as is hot. The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be SINGLE, thy whole body shall be FULL OF LIGHT. But if thine eye be EVIL, thy whole body shall be FULL OF DARKNESS. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness! Matthew 6:22-23 This passage IN Matthew is only about one thing, which is HOW we see. Are we seeing Christ with what Jesus Himself calls the SINGLE eye of Faith? Jesus only did what He saw His Father doing IN everything; the good, the bad, and everything IN between. And the reason why He never took one thought for His own Life was because the Life of the Father who lived IN Him was the only Life He acknowledged. So going back to this popular passage found IN the book of Revelation, I am NOW seeing how this passage carries the same SINGLE eye meaning! Hot is One. Cold is One. But lukewarm is a mixture of the two and the fact is God despises mixture of any kind, so much so that its impossible for the mixed believer who still believes he or she can go on serving God AND...to continue living IN Him! So this passage (like so many others) has never been about the ever changing double minded man who is always at enmity with God, but only HOW I see myself and see my God. And if I see Christ as my only Life then I know without a doubt I am as loved when I am HOT as when I am COLD, and the One who is my only stability is also my only Life! Since the only REAL definition of the lukewarm believer is about mixture, separation, and division, for believers who keep living under the illusion of being separated from God, its just as acceptable to believe he can continue giving Him lip service, even though his own heart is far from Him. And its this double minded life which is the kind of life that sickens the heart of God. And it does so to the point He has no other choice than to vomit them out of His mouth. Like the verses found IN James I thought at one time were about Christian law, there is so much more to this small passage IN Revelation than meets the eye. As I said earlier, I dont believe our spiritual temperature is the focus here as much as knowing the dangers of the double minded and house divided status quo way that most believers see God today. Hot is One as is cold, where lukewarm is the mixture of two, hot and cold. This passage is more about seeing and knowing Christ (IN season and out of season) as our only Life as the One who never changes, than it is our own limited definition of a hot or cold relationship with God based on anything we can do. And so its not as much about our being on fire FOR God (whatever that means) as it is about knowing Christ as my only Life! When you know WHO Christ is and who you are IN Him, then the earthly definition of a right relationship with God no longer fits into how we see God or ourselves. Jesus is revealing here what a REAL relationship with Him looks like and nothing else. IN addition, He is letting us know that His irrevocable call to the SINGLE eye Life of Christ is the only REAL Life that exists. So IN light of this, hot and cold can only be about one thing; which is seeing only God IN all things. And it doesnt matter what our current perception of our relationship is, whether hot (on fire) or cold (backslid) because Christ is always our Life by His doing alone! He is our only Life IN season (hot) and out of season (cold), which means its not about anything but Him, and certainly not something as unstable and vacillating as a self powered (although sincere) commitment to Him!
Posted on: Mon, 21 Apr 2014 21:25:36 +0000
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