There is a reason that the church, aka the body of Christ, is so ineffective, divided, apathetic, and generally detached from the reality of daily life. We are living in the last church age described in the Bible. This very sad and destructive phenomenon of not connecting the reality of Christ with the reality of life is called Laodiceanism. It comes from the name of the church at Laodicea as written about by John in Revelation 3:14-22.
14 "To the angel of the Messianic Community in Laodicea, write: 'Here is the message from the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the Ruler of God's creation:
15 "I know what you are doing: you are neither cold nor hot. How I wish you were either one or the other!
16 So, because you are lukewarm, neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of my mouth!
17 For you keep saying, 'I am rich, I have gotten rich, I don't need a thing!' You don't know that you are the one who is wretched, pitiable, poor, blind and naked!
18 My advice to you is to buy from me gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich; and white clothing, so that you may be dressed and not have to be ashamed of your nakedness; and eyesalve to rub on your eyes, so that you may see.
19 As for me, I rebuke and discipline everyone I love; so exert yourselves, and turn from your sins!
20 Here, I'm standing at the door, knocking. If someone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he will eat with me.
21 I will let him who wins the victory sit with me on my throne, just as I myself also won the victory and sat down with my Father on his throne.
22 Those who have ears, let them hear what the Spirit is saying to the Messianic communities.”
The church at Laodicea looks okay at a glance – from the outside. But Laodiceanism is spiritual delusion and has some distinct attributes. The word Laodicea comes from two Greek words which mean "the [self-evident] rights of the people" or "conformity to the will [rule, custom] of the people." It is an interesting subject to read about but I don’t want to get off-track on that right now. Briefly, the fact is that it is socialism; the nice acceptable word for Laodiceanism is democracy; the not so acceptable word describing Laodiceanism is communism. Every personal thought and aspiration is judged for whether it "fits" with what everyone else thinks, also known as herd mentality. When the rubber meets the road, Laodiceanism is no more than worship of society. I can’t help but recall the words of Amos 6:1, “Woe to those who are at ease in Zion.” How could people be so deluded?
Answer: They do not have the mind of Christ as commanded in scripture.
Philippians 2:5 (KJV)
[SUP]5 [/SUP]Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:
(NAS)
5 Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus
But just because we are living in the church age that says, in general, the church – the body of Christ – is complacent and apathetic, certainly not possessing a zealous heart for our Savior – that does not mean we as individuals have to conform to that image. If we were to remain stuck in that position, verse 19 would not say, “so exert yourselves, and turn from your sins!”
John 14:15 15 "If you love me, you will keep my commands;”
14 "To the angel of the Messianic Community in Laodicea, write: 'Here is the message from the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the Ruler of God's creation:
15 "I know what you are doing: you are neither cold nor hot. How I wish you were either one or the other!
16 So, because you are lukewarm, neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of my mouth!
17 For you keep saying, 'I am rich, I have gotten rich, I don't need a thing!' You don't know that you are the one who is wretched, pitiable, poor, blind and naked!
18 My advice to you is to buy from me gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich; and white clothing, so that you may be dressed and not have to be ashamed of your nakedness; and eyesalve to rub on your eyes, so that you may see.
19 As for me, I rebuke and discipline everyone I love; so exert yourselves, and turn from your sins!
20 Here, I'm standing at the door, knocking. If someone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he will eat with me.
21 I will let him who wins the victory sit with me on my throne, just as I myself also won the victory and sat down with my Father on his throne.
22 Those who have ears, let them hear what the Spirit is saying to the Messianic communities.”
The church at Laodicea looks okay at a glance – from the outside. But Laodiceanism is spiritual delusion and has some distinct attributes. The word Laodicea comes from two Greek words which mean "the [self-evident] rights of the people" or "conformity to the will [rule, custom] of the people." It is an interesting subject to read about but I don’t want to get off-track on that right now. Briefly, the fact is that it is socialism; the nice acceptable word for Laodiceanism is democracy; the not so acceptable word describing Laodiceanism is communism. Every personal thought and aspiration is judged for whether it "fits" with what everyone else thinks, also known as herd mentality. When the rubber meets the road, Laodiceanism is no more than worship of society. I can’t help but recall the words of Amos 6:1, “Woe to those who are at ease in Zion.” How could people be so deluded?
Answer: They do not have the mind of Christ as commanded in scripture.
Philippians 2:5 (KJV)
[SUP]5 [/SUP]Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:
(NAS)
5 Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus
But just because we are living in the church age that says, in general, the church – the body of Christ – is complacent and apathetic, certainly not possessing a zealous heart for our Savior – that does not mean we as individuals have to conform to that image. If we were to remain stuck in that position, verse 19 would not say, “so exert yourselves, and turn from your sins!”
John 14:15 15 "If you love me, you will keep my commands;”
