Lukewarm... when Mediocre is Good Enough

When I was younger, I never fully understood why God had such a problem with being lukewarm. Surely being at least a nominal Christian is better than someone who doesn't follow God at all? The image in Revelation 3 of God spitting us out of His mouth for being half-hearted always struck me as being rather harsh. As always, though, the problem was my imperfect understanding, not with what God said; and while my understanding will never be perfect, I can share with you my thoughts on being that most dangerous of all spiritual states: lukewarm.

Rev 3:15-21

15 I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot; I wish that you were cold or hot.
16 So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of My mouth.
17 Because you say, "I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing," and you do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked,
18 I advise you to buy from Me gold refined by fire so that you may become rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself, and that the shame of your nakedness will not be revealed; and eye salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see.
19 Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline; therefore be zealous and repent.
20 Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with Me.
21 He who overcomes, I will grant to him to sit down with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne. (NASU)

This is the terrible reality of the American Church in this 21st Century... we are lukewarm. Far from reflecting Christ's love to a broken world that desperately needs it, we reflect the brokenness of the culture itself. We are endlessly divided; you can take any mainline denomination, and follow it's 'family tree' down to smaller and smaller subgroups, and at some point the issues that divide us are microscopic. The problem is that our ability to take offense at a brother in Christ is so hyper-developed that these minor issues become great schisms among us. But the cold, hard truth that we have to return to, should we read the Bible, is that we are all one Church. Jesus didn't lay the foundation for multiple bodies of Christ, but just one, of which every believer is a part. Some of us will be quite surprised at who we meet in heaven, I think... and who we don't.

Individually, we have replaced our calling to service with a desire to be entertained. In our society at large, this has translated as the shift in focus from our responsibilities to our rights. Instead of first asking "what must I do?" we ask "what's in it for me?" Speaking broadly, Christians approach the Bible in one of two basic ways:

1) We read the Scriptures to seek the Lord's highest and best calling for our lives. We read the Bible to learn the nature of God, and how best we can serve Him here on His earth in the time He gives us. Our question is "What can I do for God?" and the focus is on Him.

2) We read the Scriptures to fulfill our own desires, looking for the minimum we can do and still consider ourselves Christians. We read the Bible to learn how serving God can best also serve our interests. Our question then is "What can God do for me?" and the focus is on us.

I have to ask myself every day which path I am going to take. And the great paradox of Christianity, something impossible with men but possible with God, is this:

The less I focus on myself and the more I focus on Him, the more fulfilled I am. This is truly the foolishness of God shaming our human wisdom. But we can see the truth in our daily lives, if we are honest about it: when we focus on ourselves, the pleasure is fleeting. The vacation ends and we dread going back to the daily grind. The movie is over and we have to walk out of the theatre and face real life again. The money we make, no matter how much, is never enough. We might not have experienced this for ourselves (I always thought more money would be the nicer problem to have :)), but it holds true. Look at the wealthy who throw it away pursuing happiness. Hollywood, sports stars, the stories are there to read. Vacations, movies and money aren't bad in and of themselves. The question should be asked, though: where is our focus?

We must honor our commitment: to claim the title of 'Christian' means something. To claim Christianity and then live as the world dictates is hypocrisy of the worst sort, as God makes clear in His Word quoted above. The world, while sinful, is honest in its sin: they don't know any better, so how can better be expected of them? But you and I, those would claim to be Christians - our calling is higher. The expectations on us are greater, and well they should be. We know the Truth and we claim it has set us free. We must not make the Truth of God a lie in our daily lives. We need to approach the Bible humbly, seeking God's highest and best calling on our lives, and then defend the Truth boldly.

The surest cure for being lukewarm is to live each day deliberately for Him.