Revelation 3:15
15 I know[eido] thy[sou] works,[ergon] that[hoti] thou art[ei] neither[oute] cold[psuchros] nor[oute] hot:[zestos] I would[ophelon] thou wert[eien] cold[psuchros] or[e] hot.[zestos] KJV-Interlinear
15 'I know your deeds, that you
are neither cold nor hot; I would that you were cold or hot. NASB
Deeds or works, ‘ergon,’
is a reference to what Christians do in their daily life. It is a reflection of their actual thoughts
and motives.
The Christian who is hot, is one who has a genuine
desire for the pursuit of doctrine and deeply desires their spiritual growth.
The Christian who is cold, has no interest in God,
or doctrine or their spiritual life. Thus they do not pretend or try to make
impressions on others. They are not hypocrites in what they believe and in how
they conduct their life from day to day.
The Christian who has a hot attitude toward God and
doctrine, is open minded, objective, teachable, ever searching for truth,
testing, questioning with objectivity so they can glean every once (gram) of
knowledge and understanding and wisdom. They deeply want to succeed in their spiritual
life.They are driven by the eternal
prospects of their life and they want the absolute most that is available and possible
for themselves, their family, their friends, and so forth, forever.
Those who are cold, may not listen to truth, but
they will at least be able to understand when they are in error, and try to
figure out the how’s and why’s of life, when life falls apart for them.
And now for the neither
hot nor cold crowd. This is by far the biggest segment of
Christianity, and the worst of the lot.
In some cases, Christ gets angry with
Christians.In some cases, Christ sheds
tears over Christians.But in the case
of those who are neither hot nor cold, Christ gets sick. We will see this in
the next verse.
The lukewarm crowd is the self righteous, hypocritical
crowd, and when combined with indifference (toward learning) they are the most
self-deceiving crowd.
They are the people who think that they know all of
the answers, they presume that they are right in all things. They see only their own methods of Christian
duty, and see them as adequate.They
will not listen to instruction.They will
not consider their own errors. They refuse self examination as God prescribes
it, but will play the game of public humility.
They are pretenders and self appointed experts in the Christian life.
They will openly criticize, gossip and malign
against others, and refuse to study objectively. They refuse to examine their own beliefs and
refuse to pursue or further their own education in doctrine (because they
already know it).
They believe that they are in compliance with Gods will, but refuse to verify it.
They are closed minded, and thus are unteachable.That makes
God sick, because they are not going to listen, but are going to pursue the
application of false principles and generally muddy the waters for all of
Christianity, giving Christianity a bad name.
Being rigid in their thoughts and beliefs, they
will never learn.
It would be far better for the lukewarm crowd to be
either hot or at least cold in their attitude, because then they would have a
chance to learn and advance in their spiritual life, or at the very least be
corrected and accept it, and then move forward in their spiritual life.
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