Now we come to the church in Laodicea, the church in degradation (Rev. 3:14-22). In Greek Laodicea means the opinion, the judgment, of the people or of the laymen. The church in Laodicea as a sign prefigures the degraded recovered church. Less than a century after the Lord recovered the proper church in the early part of the nineteenth century, some of the recovered churches (“assemblies”) became degraded. This degraded recovered church differs from the reformed church signified by the church in Sardis, and also differs from the proper recovered church signified by the church in Philadelphia. It will exist until the Lord comes back.
Some Christian teachers consider the church in Laodicea as the cold reformed church. Strictly speaking, this is not so. According to the context and according to history, the church in Laodicea must be a sign of the degraded recovered church. Approximately one hundred fifty years ago the recovered church began in England. According to what we have read, it was wonderful. It was a real recovery of the church life. However, it did not last very long. If you read the history of the Brethren and if you visit them today, you will see that many of the Brethren assemblies have become the church in Laodicea. As we shall see, although they are proud of their Bible knowledge, they are poor in the enjoyment of the riches of Christ and blind in spiritual things.
In 3:14 the Lord says, “These things says the Amen, the faithful and true Witness, the beginning of the creation of God.” To each of the seven churches the Lord refers to what He is and what He does respectively according to their situation and condition. Here, to the church in Laodicea, He refers to Himself as the Amen. In Greek amen means firm, steadfast, or trustworthy. The Lord is the firm, steadfast, and trustworthy One.
Because the Lord is the firm, steadfast, and trustworthy One, He is the faithful and true Witness. This indicates that the degraded church in Laodicea is not firm, steadfast, trustworthy, or faithful and true as the Lord’s witness.
In verse 14 the Lord also refers to Himself as “the beginning of the creation of God.” This refers to the Lord as the origin or source of God’s creation, implying that the Lord is the unchanging and ever-existing source of God’s work. This indicates that the degraded recovered church is changing by leaving the Lord as the source.
In verses 15 through 17 we see the condition of the church in Laodicea. In verses 15 and 16 the Lord says, “I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot; I wish that you were cold or hot. So because you are lukewarm and neither hot nor cold, I am about to vomit you out of My mouth.” Once the recovered church becomes degraded, it is lukewarm — neither cold nor hot. This is the actual condition of so many Brethren assemblies today. This should be a warning to us. Once we become lukewarm, we are not fitting for the Lord’s move and shall be vomited out of His mouth.
In verse 17 the Lord says, “You say, I am rich and have become rich and have need of nothing.” The degraded recovered church (“assembly”) boasts of her riches (mainly in the knowledge of doctrines). She does not realize that she is poor in life, blind in sight, and naked in conduct. Therefore, as we shall see, she needs gold for her poverty, eyesalve for her blindness, and white garments for her nakedness, as mentioned in the following verse.
The most outstanding feature of those in the degraded assemblies is their pride. They think they know everything. Undoubtedly, they have much knowledge in doctrine. They do know the Bible better than those in the denominations. Although, in a sense, they know the Bible, what they have is mere knowledge. Because they have this knowledge, they consider themselves rich. But the Lord says that they actually are poor. They are not poor in knowledge, but they are poor in the riches of Christ. They have the knowledge concerning Christ, but they are poor in the enjoyment of the riches of Christ. Shortly after coming to this country, I was invited to speak in three Brethren assemblies. After speaking there and hearing what they said in response, I was completely convinced of the truth of the Lord’s word to the church in Laodicea. If you were to stay with them for a short while, you would sense that they are proud of their knowledge. In their conversation they condemn the ignorance of others, thinking that they know everything. However, after staying with them, you would realize the poverty among them. They simply do not realize the riches of Christ or even talk about them.
In the eyes of the Lord, the degraded assemblies are wretched because they are proud of being rich in the vain knowledge of doctrines, but are sorely poor in the experience of the riches of Christ.
The degraded recovered church is also miserable because she is naked, blind, and full of shame and darkness.
The proud degraded church is poor in the experience of Christ and in the spiritual reality of God’s economy. She mostly cares for vain knowledge, but scarcely cares for the living experiences of Christ. This is real poverty, the poverty that makes her wretched and miserable.
In the eyes of the Lord, the church in Laodicea is not only poor in the riches of Christ, but also blind in genuine spiritual things. She does not have true spiritual insight. Although she has some amount of knowledge about spiritual things, she has no insight.
We Christians have all received Christ as our objective righteousness to cover us like a robe. This is for our justification before God. After being justified in Christ, we need to live by Christ and to live out Christ, that He may be our subjective righteousness as another splendid robe to cover our daily walk. Due to the lack of the subjective experience of Christ, the degraded recovered church is naked in the eyes of the Lord. The vain knowledge of doctrines vanishes under the flaming eyes of the Lord, leaving those who hold them nakedly exposed. Only the experienced Christ can be our covering under His judging eyes.
In verse 16 the Lord says, “Because you are lukewarm and neither hot nor cold, I am about to vomit you out of My mouth.” When the recovered church becomes degraded, she is in danger, unless she repents to be hot in seeking the rich experiences of the Lord, of being vomited out of the Lord’s mouth. To be vomited out of the Lord’s mouth is to lose the enjoyment of all that the Lord is to His church.
In verse 20 the Lord says, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock.” “The door” is not the door of individuals, but the door of the church. The church in Laodicea has knowledge, but she does not have the presence of the Lord. The Lord as the Head of the church is standing outside the degraded church, knocking at her door. The degraded recovered church must realize this!
In verse 18 we see the Lord’s counsel to the church in Laodicea: “I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined by fire that you may be rich, and white garments that you may be clothed and that the shame of your nakedness may not be manifested, and eyesalve to anoint your eyes that you may see.” To “buy” requires the paying of a price. The degraded recovered church needs to pay a price for the gold, white garments, and eyesalve, which she desperately needs. After having contact with the Brethren assemblies, I realized that probably no one among them understands what it means to pay a price. Perhaps they have never heard that they must pay some price in order to experience the riches of Christ. They know the knowledge and doctrine, but they do not know how to pay the price. They know how to learn, but they do not know how to buy. They know certain “truths,” but they do not know the cost of experiencing the riches of Christ.
Firstly, the Lord counsels the church in Laodicea to buy “gold refined by fire.” In the Bible, our working faith (Gal. 5:6) is likened to gold (1 Pet. 1:7), and the divine nature of God, which is the divinity of Christ, is also typified by gold (Exo. 25:11). We partake of the divine nature of God by faith (2 Pet. 1:1, 4-5). The degraded recovered church has the knowledge of the doctrines concerning Christ, but not much living faith to partake of the divine element of Christ. She needs to pay the price to gain the golden faith through the fiery trials that she may participate in the real “gold,” which is Christ Himself as the life element to His Body. Thus, she may become a pure golden lampstand (Rev. 1:20) for the building of the golden New Jerusalem (Rev. 21:18).
If we have experience, we shall realize that all three things which the Lord counsels the church in Laodicea to buy — gold, white garments, and eyesalve — are just the Lord Himself. As we have seen, in typology, or in biblical figure, gold signifies two things: God’s divine nature and the living faith by which we appreciate and appropriate the divine nature. These two things are combined. If we do not have the living faith to appreciate and apply the divine nature, it cannot be ours. The divine nature can only become our enjoyment through our living faith. Christ is the embodiment of the divine nature, and He is also our living faith. If we have faith, then we can participate in the divine nature. This means that we must have Christ. We must pay the cost and tell the Lord, saying, “Lord, I have much knowledge of the Bible truths, but I admit that I don’t have much of You. Lord, I would rather have You than mere knowledge or vain teachings. Lord, You are the real gold, the embodiment of the divine nature. In order to appreciate and apply this divine nature, I need living faith. Yet, Lord, I don’t have this living faith, but I look unto You. Lord, be my living faith. I want to live by You as my faith, the faith of the Son of God” (Gal. 2:20). If you speak to the Lord in this way, He will immediately say, “All right, if you would gain Me, you must pay the price. There is a certain thing that I want you to drop because it is a hindrance and a frustration from My becoming your enjoyment.” Dropping these things is the paying of the price. Many of us have experienced the Lord in this way. Often the Lord has said, “I am here. Do you want Me, or do you want that thing? If you want to keep that thing, then I shall stay away. Your hands are full of many things. You must drop them, empty your hands, and then grasp Me. Then you will have Me as your enjoyment.” Only when we pay the price can we gain Christ.
Consider the words of the apostle Paul in Philippians 3:8: “But surely I count also all things to be loss on account of the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, on account of whom I have suffered the loss of all things and count them refuse that I may gain Christ.” For Paul, there remained nothing except Christ. He spent everything for Christ, paying the full price. Whatever Paul had, he spent it to gain Christ. Today, we must follow this spirit to pay any price, even the cost of our lives, in order to gain Christ.
We can never separate living faith from the divine nature. Although this is difficult to explain doctrinally, we know experientially that when we have the living faith, we enjoy the divine nature. And when we are in the divine nature, we surely have this living faith. Hence, these two things are combined and are both signified by gold. The church in Laodicea needs this gold — the divine nature applied, appropriated, by the living faith which is Christ Himself. If we would gain this, we must pay the price.
Secondly, the Lord counseled the church in Laodicea to buy “white garments” that they “may be clothed and that the shame” of their “nakedness may not be manifested.” In figure, garments signify conduct. “White garments” here refer to conduct approvable to the Lord, which is the Lord Himself lived out of the church, and which is required by the degraded recovered church to cover her nakedness. We pointed out in message fourteen that these white garments are not Christ as our objective righteousness for justification. Rather, the white garments are Christ as our subjective righteousness, Christ lived out of our being. The Christ who is lived out of us will be our second garment for us to be approved by the Lord. This is not for salvation but for being chosen. We all need this second garment. When we have living faith and participate in the divine nature, this divine nature will eventually come out of us to be our living. This living is Christ lived out of our being, and this is the second garment which gives us the standing and the qualification to be approved by Christ. This garment will cover our nakedness. Yes, we all have been justified and have been covered by the first garment, the best robe put on the prodigal son in Luke 15. But after being justified, we must love the Lord, be on fire, and be absolutely for the Lord. If we are this kind of Christian, then we shall have the living faith to participate in the rich, divine nature, which will become the Christ lived out of our being as the second garment to cover our nakedness.
If, after being justified, you do not love the Lord and live by, for, and with Him, you are naked. It is difficult to explain this doctrinally, but experientially we all may realize that a brother who does not love the Lord or live by the Lord is shameful and is naked. He does not have the lovely Christ as his covering. He believes in Christ and he belongs to Christ, but since he neither loves Him nor lives by Him, he is naked in both the eyes of the Lord and in the eyes of other believers. He does not have Christ as his beautiful covering. We must pay the price for this second garment, the Christ lived out of our being. This is the subjective Christ, the very Christ experienced by us in a subjective way. Do not try to understand this by the exercise of your mentality. Check this word with your experience. Although this is foreign to your mentality, it is more than familiar to your spirit and to your experience. According to your experience, you can testify that, on the one hand, you may have the assurance that you are justified, but, on the other hand, have the sense that you are naked. Undoubtedly, as a child of God, you have been justified, redeemed, saved, and regenerated, and you are a member of Christ. But, on the other hand, you sense that you are naked, not having Christ lived out of you to be your beautiful covering. Inwardly, you condemn yourself for this. If you check this word with your experience, you will see that it is true. Thus, we all must pay the price, saying to the Lord, “Lord, whatever the cost, I’ll pay the price to have You live out of my being. Lord, I want to have You as my living. I don’t want to behave myself, correct myself, or improve myself. Lord, I like to have You lived out of me. Day by day, I want You to live out of my being to be my outward living. Lord, be not only my inward life but also my outward living.” If you pray this way to the Lord, He will become your outward covering, the second garment for you to be approved and chosen by Him. There is no need to wait for the coming day. Even today you may have the assurance that you have been approved and chosen. Therefore, when that day comes, He will surely say, “Well done! Come with Me to enjoy your portion and to fight with Me against the army of the Antichrist.”
Thirdly, the Lord counsels the church in Laodicea to buy from Him eyesalve to anoint their eyes that they may see. The “eyesalve” needed to “anoint” their eyes must refer to the anointing Spirit (1 John 2:27), who is also the Lord Himself as the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45). Because she has been distracted by the dead knowledge of letters, the degraded recovered church also needs this kind of eyesalve for her blindness. For all three items the Lord counsels her to buy, she must pay the price. We have pointed out that the eyesalve is the anointing Spirit. Spiritual insight is always related to the Spirit. We need more Spirit, not more knowledge. We do not need many doctrines — we need more Spirit to anoint our eyes and the depths of our inner being that we may have insight to see things from within. With this eyesalve, this anointing, we may have both foresight and deep insight to see things thoroughly. Then we shall say, “Lord Jesus, because I now see what a treasure You are, I am ready to pay any price.” Suppose the cost of an item in a department store is one thousand dollars. If this item is a valuable diamond worth five thousand dollars, you would not think that the price is too high. Rather, you would think that it is cheap. Why are so many Christians unwilling to pay the price for Christ? It is because they do not see what a treasure Christ is. They do not see the preciousness, the worth, and the value of Christ. But once our eyes have been anointed by the divine, spiritual eyesalve, we shall say, “It is worthwhile for me to pay any price for Christ. The price is too low. My self, my future, and my life are all worth nothing. I actually pay nothing to gain Christ who is everything.” If we would see this, we need eyesalve.
Now we realize that the gold, the garment, and the eyesalve are all Christ. Christ is everything. Our need today is Christ. Yes, in His recovery the Lord has given us a great deal of light. Our intention, however, is not to give knowledge to people. Our intention in these messages is to help the Lord’s people to be enlightened that they might see the value, worth, and preciousness of Christ and, by having this insight, they might be willing to pay any price to gain Him. It is worthwhile for me to pay the cost of my family, my future, my destiny, and my whole life for Christ. If I would pay all this, the price is still too cheap. Paul said that all the things he counted loss for Christ were just dung, dog food (Phil. 3:8). In the church life in the Lord’s recovery we are not for doctrine or merely for the so-called truths. We are here for the rich Christ. In all these messages we are not dispensing vain doctrines. The goal of these messages is to minister some ointment that people’s eyes may be anointed to see the preciousness of Christ and be attracted to Him. The degraded church does not need doctrine; she needs eyesalve. She needs revelation, vision, and great grace.
In verse 19 the Lord said, “As many as I love I rebuke and discipline.” If she is willing to take it, the Lord’s rebuke in love will be an eyeopener to the degraded church. But her pride may frustrate her from receiving it. When we become lukewarm and feel rebuked by the Lord, we need to look to Him for His mercy that we may be willing to be humble to receive His rebuke in love. This may bring the proper remedy to the degraded church.
Discipline is a further step taken by the Lord to deal with His degraded church after He has rebuked her. If she is willing to receive the Lord’s rebuke, He may not need to exercise His discipline over her. The Lord’s discipline is exercised over her in love.
In verse 19 the Lord charged the church in Laodicea, saying, “Be zealous therefore, and repent.” Dead knowledge has made the degraded church lukewarm. She needs to become crazily burning by dropping the deadening and cooling knowledge, and she even needs to break the bondage of her doctrinal forms. She needs to be boiling rather than to be dead right according to dead doctrine. She needs to love the Lord and pay any price to gain Him, even at the cost of sacrificing the “doctrines.” A lukewarm church needs to be hot, to be burning at any cost. She needs to repent of her lukewarmness, not to be proud of her knowledge any longer. She has been appreciating her dead knowledge too much. She needs to depreciate all her knowledge and repent of being satisfied with the vanity of knowledge and not with the reality of Christ.
In verses 20 and 21 we see the Lord’s promise to the overcomer: “Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him and he with Me. He who overcomes, to him I will give to sit with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne.” To overcome in these seven epistles does not mean to overcome our weaknesses and besetting sins; it means to overcome the fallen condition of the deviant churches. To overcome in the epistle to Laodicea means to overcome the lukewarmness and pride of the degraded recovered church, to buy the needed items, and to open the door for the Lord to come in.
In verse 20 the Lord said that if anyone hears His voice and opens the door, He will come in to him. As we have pointed out, the Lord is standing outside the degraded church, knocking at her door. The door is the door of the church, not of individuals, but the door is opened by individual believers. The Lord is dealing with the whole church, but the acceptance of the Lord’s dealing must be a personal matter. The Lord’s dealing is objective, but the believers’ acceptance must be subjective. If we hear the Lord’s voice to the church and personally open the door, the Lord will come in to us, and His presence will be our portion.
In verse 20 the Lord also said that, after He comes in to him who opens the door, He will dine with him and he with Him. According to the Greek, the word dine signifies the principal meal of the day at evening. To dine is not merely to eat one item of food, but to partake of the riches of a meal. This may imply the fulfillment of the type of the children of Israel eating the rich produce of the good land of Canaan (Josh. 5:10-12). The dining promised here is not only for the future but also for today. If you are an overcomer, when the Lord comes in the kingdom, you will have the special privilege of eating with Him. Before that day, however, you may enjoy His dining with you.
Many Christians borrow verse 20 for preaching the gospel in an inadequate way. They tell the sinners that Christ is knocking at the door of their heart and that if they open the door, He will come in. This is all they say. Have you ever heard a message telling you that, if you open the door, Christ will come in to you and dine with you?
If we have an overall view of the seven epistles in Revelation 2 and 3, we shall see that the Lord exalts the eating of Himself, the taking in of Himself as our life supply, that we may grow, be transformed, and be the same as He is. This is absolutely a matter of eating Jesus as the tree of life, the manna, and as the biggest meal of the day. As the Lord exalts the eating of Himself, He simultaneously repudiates four kinds of teaching: the teaching of Balaam (Rev. 2:14), the teaching of the Nicolaitans (Rev. 2:15), the teaching of Jezebel (Rev. 2:20), and the teaching of the depths of Satan (Rev. 2:24). If you do not have the ability to discern counterfeit currency from genuine currency, it is better not to accept any currency at all; rather, accept only genuine gold. Likewise, it is better not to accept teachings, but only to take the living Christ.
In the Old Testament, we see three stages of the eating of Christ: the tree of life in the garden, the manna in the wilderness, and the rich produce of the good land. We have been in these stages. We were created in the garden. Then, due to the fall, we found ourselves in Egypt. After we were saved, we made our exodus out of the world and were on our way to meet the Lord. As we were journeying to meet the Lord, we were in the wilderness where there was manna. Recall that the promise of the hidden manna is given to the overcomers in the worldly church, indicating that Pergamos had returned to Egypt. Manna was not available in Egypt; it was only in the wilderness, and the hidden manna was only found within the Holy of Holies. The church in Pergamos became a worldly church, a church in Egypt where there was no manna. If we would eat manna, whether open or hidden manna, we must come out of Egypt. We must escape from that place where Satan dwells and where his throne is and go out into the wilderness where we may firstly eat the open manna and then come forward into the Holy of Holies and dive into the ark to eat the hidden manna. It seems that eventually the seven epistles bring us into the good land, which is Christ. Here, in the good land, we feast on Christ. During the yearly feasts, the children of Israel feasted with God and God feasted with them. This may be a type of the promise to the overcomer in Laodicea. The Lord’s promise to dine with whomever opened to Him may imply the thought of enjoying the rich produce of the good land of Canaan during the annual feasts. Hence, the epistle to the church in Ephesus refers to the eating of the tree of life, the epistle to the church in Pergamos points to the eating of the hidden manna outside of the world, and the epistle to the church in Laodicea alludes to the enjoyment of the rich produce of the good land of Canaan at the time of the yearly feasts. Whenever the Israelites had a feast, they ate with God, offering what they were eating to God and letting God eat with them. In like manner, the Lord says that He will dine with us and that we shall dine with Him. If we have this overview, then we shall know what we must emphasize today. We are not for teachings — we are for the full enjoyment of Christ as the tree of life, as the manna, and as the rich produce of the good land.
In verse 21 the Lord said, “He who overcomes, to him I will give to sit with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne.” To sit with the Lord on His throne will be a prize to the overcomer that he may participate in the Lord’s authority in the coming millennial kingdom. This means that the overcomers will be co-kings with Christ ruling over the whole earth. Once again I say that, strictly speaking, all the promises in these seven epistles concern the coming kingdom. Any negative word regarding loss or suffering refers to a loss during the coming kingdom, and any positive word regarding gain or enjoyment refers to the enjoyment of Christ as our special portion during the age of the kingdom. We must have the insight to understand these promises in a proper way. Nevertheless, in principle, these promises may also be applied today and we may pre-taste them now. There is no need to wait until we enter into the kingdom age to enjoy all these special portions. Today in the church life we are privileged to enjoy the kingdom. Praise the Lord for the church life!
The lukewarm church is filled with cooling knowledge, but lacks the burning Spirit. She desperately needs the speaking of the living Spirit; she no longer needs dead knowledge. If she forgets all her dead knowledge and listens to the speaking of the living Spirit, she will be delivered from her degraded condition.
As we have seen, the seven churches not only signify prophetically the progress of the church in seven ages, but also symbolize the seven kinds of churches in church history: the initial church, the suffering church, the worldly church, the apostate church, the reformed church, the recovered church, and the degraded recovered church. The initial church had its continuation in the suffering church; the suffering church turned into the worldly church; and the worldly church became the apostate church. Hence, the first four churches eventually issued in one kind of church, that is, the apostate church, the Roman Catholic Church. Then, as a reaction to the apostate church, the reformed church came into existence as another kind of church, a church not fully recovered. Following this, the recovered church was raised up as a full recovery of the proper church life. This may be considered the third kind of church. By the degradation of the recovered church, the degraded recovered church came into being. This may be counted as the fourth kind of church. All these four kinds of churches will remain until the Lord comes back. Undoubtedly, only the recovered church can fulfill God’s eternal purpose, and only she is what the Lord is after. We must take the Lord’s choice.
