“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 you out of my mouth.”
Revelation 3:15-16 (NIV)
Jesus said a lot about not being neutral or moderate. He said if we are not with Him, we’re against Him.
If we do not gather with Him, we are scattering. He wants us to be either hot or cold, but never lukewarm, or else He spits us out.
These are powerful scriptures. It keeps us on our toes, since no one wants to be spit out. It’s interesting because I’ve always heard people give advice saying “Everything in moderation.” That may be true in some things regarding food or alcohol, but when it comes to loving Jesus, He looks for the hot or cold passions, but never lukewarm or neutral. The coldest ones can still be touched and transformed by His Holy Spirit and the hottest ones are already on fire, but the lukewarm are neither for or against Him, and that seems to bother Jesus the most. After all, the first commandment is to love the Lord with all our heart, soul, mind and strength. The neutral people are those who say things like, “I’m not religious, I’m just spiritual”, or “I prefer to keep my faith private.” The parable of the King throwing a big banquet, but no one showed up, seems to be about the neutral ones, who wanted to keep their faith private and hidden. Jesus told us not to hide our light under a bushel, because salvation is too great a gift to keep secret. God’s love and mercy is such good news that He deserves our enthusiasm. When it comes to sharing His truth, God has a history of using flawed people to work for Him. Those He uses are either hot or cold, but seldom lukewarm. Paul, who was formerly Saul, was a Pharisee who was dead cold against the Christian faith. He was killing Christians until Jesus appeared to him and knocked him off his horse one day, forever changing his heart. He repented and became the apostle Paul. Peter, on the other hand, was fiery hot with passion and zeal, even though the heat of his passion was often misdirected. He pulled out his sword to defend and fight for Jesus. He thought the gospel message was only for Jewish people, and he thought he was still supposed to keep a kosher food diet. God is okay with hot or cold, because at least He sees all the potential He has to work with. So if someone has a passion like Peter, even if it takes a wrong direction, God will redirect and use that passion for His kingdom. Someone could feel ice cold about something, or in a situation they don’t like being in. They may be riding their horse in a wrong direction, like Saul was, but Jesus can work with it and reroute them. Whether we are hot or cold, God will change us for the good, as He changed Peter and Paul. When we are gathering with Jesus, He is pleased, and when we stand with Jesus, He will stand with us. For those we pray for every day, I pray that whether hot or cold, Jesus is not denied in the end, and that God will reach the hearts of those lukewarm friends and loved ones. I’ve always found the following scripture so powerful and convicting:
“Everyone who acknowledges me before others I will acknowledge before my heavenly Father. But whoever denies me before others, I will deny before my heavenly Father.”
(Matthew 10:33-33) This scripture keeps me moving forward in spite of my fears or my selfishness.
Lord, help us to become people of passion who love and serve you, always allowing you to change us, and never let us settle for a lukewarm faith. Amen