Most Bibles print the words of Jesus in red to give them emphasis and reverence. The Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John are narratives of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection; so they are filled with red ink. We sometimes overlook that well after His return to heaven; Jesus spoke to John in a vision while he was exiled on the island of Patmos. John recorded that vision in the book of Revelation. Jesus dictated seven letters for John to write down and send to seven churches. In the letter to the church at Laodicea, He accuses them of being lukewarm. (Revelation 3:16) Jesus makes it clear that is not what He wants of His followers.
Have you ever noticed how quickly ice melts in a drink as it becomes room temperature – neither hot nor cold? By the same token, a hot cup of coffee or tea quickly loses heat and also becomes room temperature – neither hot nor cold. When my brothers in Christ and I meet for breakfast on Saturday mornings, we have a terrific server who continually brings fresh, hot coffee to our table. It isn’t just to refill empty cups, but adding a “warm up” of freshly brewed coffee to keep the coffee in our cups from becoming room temperature. I think that gives us a clue as to how we can keep from becoming lukewarm Christians like those in Laodicea.
When we accept Christ as our Savior and feel the Holy Spirit take up residence in our heart, we are hot with enthusiasm. We want to share God’s love, mercy and grace with everyone around us; with the entire world if we could. Instead of warming up our environment, we find the world around us blowing on us to cool us to their “room temperature” – neither hot nor cold. There is only one way to keep that from happening. We must continually return to the Source and refill our cup with fresh enthusiasm until it overflows with a hot desire to obey and serve our heavenly Father. That is why we need to take time each day to read God’s word and spend time with Him in prayer. At least once a week, we also need to fellowship with other Christians; sharing our prayer requests and praise reports and worshiping together. Without continually refreshing our cup with a warm up in that manner, we cannot avoid becoming the same temperature as the world around us – lukewarm or even cooler.
We are the light of the world. (Matthew 5:14) We are in the world, but not of the world. (John 17:16) If we allow ourselves to become the same temperature as those around us, how will anyone see the difference God has made in our life? Why would they want to become like us when we are lukewarm like them? Aside from the bad effect becoming lukewarm would have on our witness and our Christian walk, Jesus told the members of that lukewarm church in Laodicea that He would spit them out of His mouth like lukewarm water. That should be a wakeup call for us to keep the heat turned up in our relationship with God.