MONDAY, MARCH 20
Revelation 3:14-19
Matthew 25:29-30

"… cast ye the unprofitable servant
into outer darkness..."

A CHURCH OF AND FOR THE WORLD

The Lord Jesus Christ delivered a message to each of the seven churches in Asia Minor. Laodicea was the last of these seven churches. The Lord Jesus identified Himself as the Amen, thus identifying Him as the ultimate affirmation. He also describes Himself as the faithful witness, one who affirms or attests, and that He is the only One who does it faithfully. He is identified also as the true witness. He is also the beginning (by which everything began to be), the origin, the active cause, or the uncaused cause of everything.

The Lord has the absolute and total knowledge of their works. He found them neither cold nor hot; referring, perhaps, to the well-known fact of the tepid water in Laodicea that tends to produce sickness of the stomach, and an inclination to vomit. Water that is hot, or water that is cold, has its beneficial qualities. But the Laodicean church was neither cold nor hot, i.e. God cannot find any redeeming feature in this church; it is spiritually bankrupt. It denotes deep disgust and loathing at the indifference which prevailed in the church at Laodicea. Most churches today are in the same condition. In these churches are thousands of professing Christians with their empty moralism, their arid rationalism, their selfish humanism and their pleasurable materialism.

The church became useful for the world, but not for the Lord. They had no spiritual worth or value. The church was concerned more with the social and physical needs of the world. The ministries were no more geared towards heavenly things, but focused on earthly things. What has become prevalent today is humanitarian missions rather than gospel missions. The improvement of health and livelihood conditions is often regarded as the chief end of man and the top priority among modern churches.

THOUGHT: Is my church of the world or of the Lord?
PRAYER: "Because they rebelled against the words of God, and contemned the counsel of the most High: Therefore he brought down their heart with labour; they fell down, and there was none to help" (Ps 107:11-12).