“So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.” (Rev. 3:16)
“I can take Him or leave Him, apathetic might be an appropriate word I suppose. I don’t think He really cares that much if we serve Him, as they say, or not, as long as we love Him, as long as we apply that golden rule in our life. It’s not like He wants us to be puppets on a string you know, we’ve got lives to live. I’m pretty sure God exists, it’s just that I don’t think He wants us to just focus on Him all the time. I’ve been good, and if I need Him, I know He’s there for me.”
I understand lukewarm people, they’re the ones I meet the most, almost all of them in some way fulfill 2nd Timothy 3:5.
“Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.”
Even if it’s only in that lukewarm manner.
I understand those “hot” people, people saved by the grace of God through faith who are, as it is said, on fire for the Lord. Their flame my burn a little lower at times, but it will not stay that way for long, their light for a short season may not always shine as brightly, but I believe most of those times it is only in their own mind, for as we diligently seek the face of God for His glory, we see within ourselves the truth of Romans 7:18.
“For I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.”
Yet we do not stop on the path, we will not be hindered, we cannot be coerced to return or be swayed back towards that which we once were, even unto the end of our life here.
“Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him: (Job 13:15a)
What I do not understand is “because thou art cold.”
At least in our modern vernacular, hot means an attitude of ambition, of a pressing desire that must be attended to, an almost compulsion to never quit, never stop, to pursue diligently and without any reservations. It is that fire that, while it may not burn quite as bright sometimes, it cannot be extinguished, for that fire is, as best as I can describe it, an agreement between our spirit, our mind that serves Christ, and the Holy Spirit Himself.
It is the truth of Jeremiah 20:9.
“Then I said, I will not make mention of him, nor speak any more in his name. But his word was in mine heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I was weary with forbearing, and I could not stay.”
Lukewarm, in a nutshell as it is said, means I can take Him or leave Him, it really doesn’t matter either way.
But cold, that word cold seems to mean against, at least in a spiritual sense, totally against without any reservations whatsoever. Yet it is the lukewarm that will be rejected, not the cold.
So obviously my friends, I am completely missing the analogy of that word cold in that verse. Maybe hot means warming to His soul, and cold means refreshing. I really do not know.
But if you can understand this truth about me, that is what keeps me hot. Not knowing means I have to, I need to, keep searching. The questions I do not have answers for, the questions that even the wisest godly men can only offer conjectures to, those questions that only God Himself can answer, those are the ones that keep that fire burning within my bones.
I realize that some of you think that it should be love, not unanswerable questions, but if I did not love Him, I would not seek after Him.
I cannot tell you what that word “cold” means, but anyone who happens to meet you that is born again, will be able to tell if you are hot, or lukewarm.
