“And to the angel of the church in Laodicea write: ‘The words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of God’s creation. I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot! So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of My mouth. For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and zI need nothing, not realising that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked. I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen, and salve to anoint your eyes, so that you may see. Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with Me. The one who conquers, I will grant him to sit with Me on My throne, as I also conquered and sat down with My Father on His throne. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.'”
Revelation 3:14-22
Have you even drunk tepid water, or pop, or coffee, and immediately spat it out? It’s disgusting, isn’t it? Such is the lukewarm Christian: they leave a bad taste in Christ’s mouth. What does such lukewarm Christianity look like? Well, just how seriously does one take Christ? That one is “cold” does not mean Christ would rather have someone be an unbeliever rather than a lukewarm Christian; rather, He wishes they took Him as seriously as one who is “cold” does. One who is “hot” we might borrow the evangelical phrase of “being on fire for Jesus.” They are zealous for the Lord, they take Him seriously, and therefore repent (v. 19). One who is lukewarm does not see the need for repentance; they are apathetic and lazy in their faith. The advantage that “cold” militant atheists have over the lukewarm Christian is that they at least take Jesus seriously; they are much easier to convert than it is to inspire the indolence of a tepid Christian.
The most common lukewarm Christian looks like the one who deliberately severs him or herself from the Body of Christ, the Church. “For just as the body is one and has many members,” writes Paul, “and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ… For the body does not consist of one member but of many. If the foot should say, ‘Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,’ that would not make it any less a part of the body… As it is, there are many parts, yet one body” (1 Corinthians 12:12, 14-15, 20).
If you are a Christian, you do not belong to yourself; you belong to a body—the Body of Christ, with many other members. You cannot look at the Body of Christ and say, “I don’t need You,” and cut yourself off from Him. For what would happen if you were to cut off your perfectly good foot from your body? It would wither and die, leaving your body wounded. Thus, what happens when you deliberately sever yourself from Christ’s Body, the Church? Your faith will wither and die, and you leave the Body of Christ wounded. Those who sever themselves from Christ’s Body are often the “spiritual-but-not-religious” types who think religion is bad and spirituality is good, spirituality meaning anything they make up in their own heads combined with the occult and pagan practices, whether they realise it or not. They are lukewarm Christians who don’t take Jesus seriously because they ignore the fact that Jesus was serious about His religion. He taught in synagogues (He kept the Sabbath religiously), kept festivals, told the ten lepers to present themselves to the priests according to the Law, and so on. Indeed, He kept the whole Law. What kind of religious person doesn’t keep the Law?
Those who remain within the Church are not immune from a tepid faith, however. For some of these, it looks like those who treat their church attendance with a country club or punch card mentality. “I just come to church, maybe hang around a little while (punch my card), and leave,” they think. They also tend not to sing in church (they’re usually men). They think it is too feminine to sing in church. What a travesty! Not singing hymns is the most unmanly thing a man can do! This is a tepid faith that leaves a bad taste even in my mouth! The entire Psalms are literally just songs, and whom do you think wrote them? Men did! Therefore, sing hymns in church. Be a man!
Neither do we stop being the Church at the end of the Divine Service; indeed, we never stop being the Church. It continues into the narthex, the fellowship hall, the Bible study hour, and into your community. The primary matter of the Divine Service is that you receive the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation in the Word and Sacraments. The secondary matter of the Divine Service is that you rehearse there what you will practice throughout the week, beginning with the Benediction that closes the service. You rehearse being the Church in the Divine Service and then bring this with you into the world, for the Church is the city on the hill with a light that cannot be hidden (Matthew 5:14-16). It begins first with one another and then everyone else with whom you come into contact in your other vocations. This means having meaningful conversations with your fellow members of Christ’s Body, attending Bible study, and helping a brother or sister keep their possessions and income (see Luther’s explanations to the 7th, 9th, and 10th Commandments).
Lukewarm Christians are not without hope, however. Being lukewarm does not mean they don’t have saving faith, but they are certainly in danger of their faith cooling off so much that they become cold like the atheist who sits comfortably in their damnation (but not for long, since they will be cast into the lake of fire). For a thing does not remain lukewarm forever; eventually, it gets cold and evaporates into nothingness. whereas the “hot” Christian remains hot as he rests on the fire of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, Christ stands at the door and knocks (v. 20).
This is not a decision theology verse, that Jesus knocks at the door of an unbeliever’s heart and they must make the decision to open the door and let Jesus in. Jesus is not talking to unbelievers here; He is talking to a stagnant church—people who already believe in Him but are apathetic and lazy Christians. Christ has already opened the door to their hearts Himself, yet in their lukewarmness, they have kicked Him out and shut the door (this is what LGBT churches do, for example, when they worship their pride instead of Christ, as is evidenced when they mark themselves with the gay pride flag rather than the cross of Christ). Therefore, Jesus knocks at the door for them to open. If the descriptions of lukewarm Christianity above describes you, O reader mine, Jesus is knocking on the door of your heart. Let Him in, that He may make Himself at home within you to purge your sin with the fire of His Holy Spirit.
The Lutheran Column 