Tenchi
Member
Revelation 3:14-22
14 "To the angel of the church in Laodicea write: The Amen,
the faithful and true Witness, the Beginning of the creation of God, says this:
15 'I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot; I wish that you were cold or hot.
16 'So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of My mouth.
17 'Because you say, "I am rich, and have become wealthy,
and have need of nothing," and you do not know that you
are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked,
18 I advise you to buy from Me gold refined by fire so that you
may become rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself,
and that the shame of your nakedness will not be revealed;
and eye salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see.
19 'Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline; therefore be zealous and repent.
20 'Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice
and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with Me.
21 'He who overcomes, I will grant to him to sit down with Me on
My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne.
22 'He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.'"
14 "To the angel of the church in Laodicea write: The Amen,
the faithful and true Witness, the Beginning of the creation of God, says this:
15 'I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot; I wish that you were cold or hot.
16 'So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of My mouth.
17 'Because you say, "I am rich, and have become wealthy,
and have need of nothing," and you do not know that you
are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked,
18 I advise you to buy from Me gold refined by fire so that you
may become rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself,
and that the shame of your nakedness will not be revealed;
and eye salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see.
19 'Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline; therefore be zealous and repent.
20 'Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice
and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with Me.
21 'He who overcomes, I will grant to him to sit down with Me on
My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne.
22 'He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.'"
I was reading some thoughts of a fellow believer on this passage and was struck by how...oddly the believer had approached the passage, not letting it speak for itself, but forcing a series of ideas into it - usually by jumping completely out of the text of the passage to make a "clarifying" connection to another entirely unrelated passage - which rapidly led to some of the oddest conclusions I've ever encountered concerning the passage and the Christian person generally. Mostly, the illegitimate "clarifying" connections were made on the basis of a word or phrase shared by both the text of the passage above and a verse or passage from another book entirely. Immediate context was ignored, for the most part, when making these sorts of connections and so Scripture became quite contorted and the resulting conclusions about God's Truth very bizarre.
In consequence of this experience, I thought I'd parse through the passage above myself and chew a bit on what it says in this post.
Revelation 3:14-22
14 "To the angel of the church in Laodicea write: The Amen,
the faithful and true Witness, the Beginning of the creation of God, says this:
15 'I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot; I wish that you were cold or hot.
16 'So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of My mouth.
So, who is the "angel of the church of Laodicea"? Well, the commentaries I consulted generally agree that it is the Elder/Pastor/Bishop over the church at Laodicea. The commentaries acknowledged that there was some debate, however, as to who, exactly, the term "angel" refers. When I consider the introductory words to the Laodicean church above, I'm struck by verse 15 which begins: "I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot..." Is the church in Laodicea in view here, or the angel of the church, or both? It's the angel of the church of Laodicea to whom the words of the Christ are written. The phrase "of the church in Laodicea" simply describes the angel, identifying him by way of his association with the Laodicean community of believers. It seems, then, that it is the angel to whom the words of Revelation 3:14-22 are primarily written, and so, when Christ says to that "angel" "you are neither cold nor hot" and "I will spit you out of my mouth," he can't, for obvious reasons, be speaking to an angel from heaven.
In verse 14, the word "angel" in Greek is angelos from the root aggellos (an aggregate of ago - bring, lead - and agele - herd), the word carrying the sense of "a messenger" or "one who brings tidings." Angelos doesn't refer necessarily, then, to a literal angel. And inasmuch as the criticism of Christ in the passage is levied upon the "angel" first and upon the church over which he presides only secondarily, it seems a human messenger is in view, not a heavenly one.
Why is this important to understand? Because the "angel" over the church of Laodicea is made responsible by Christ for the state of the church, the Elder's (i.e. angel's) own complacency reflected in the community of believers he was shepherding. In large part, then, the "lukewarmness" of the Laodicean church had to do with the character of the "angel" presiding over it. How often, though, the "angel" is ignored almost entirely and the Laodicean church made the prime focus of the critical words of Christ.
Continued below.