The Church at Laodicea.
The church of Laodicea was more than likely started by Epaphras. There is no scriptural evidence that Paul ever visited the city; quite the opposite if you read Colossians 2:1. Paul refers to believers at Laodicea in the letter to Colossae so he is fully aware of them and what they are like. The letter to the Laodicean church which is mentioned in Colossians 4:16 is not included in the bible for reasons unknown.
At the beginning of the Christian era, Laodicea was inhabited by a wide variety of peoples. Besides its indigenous population of Hellenized Syrians it also had Greeks, Romans, and an important Jewish colony which may have been the reason the church was set up there. Like many thriving cities today, all sorts of people were attracted by the wealth and trade and came to make their fortune.
Around the end of the first century B.C. it was one of the principal cities of Asia Minor, both to industry and commerce, being famous for its woollen fabrics and its sandals. It had received from Rome the title of ‘free city’, and it became the centre of a conventus juridicus, which comprised twenty-four cities besides itself. Its wealthy citizens embellished it with beautiful monuments.
Hot calcium rich water was piped into the city from a distance of more than four miles away, the water would arrive to the city lukewarm and need to be reheated. Many have noted the irony of Rev. 3:15.
Having read the introduction, we can see that Laodicea mirrors many modern cities today; multi-cultural, multi-faith and financially strong. The free city status shows how well it was thought of by Rome and allowed for a self-governance which I believe would have benefited a financially stable city. The people there enjoyed a good life made possible to its location, trade and the good business sense of the population.
The Church
We first hear about Laodicea in Colossians 2 where Paul mentions the city in the letter to the Colossian church. Colossians 2:1-12
1. For I would that ye knew what great conflict I have for you (Colossians), and for them at Laodicea, and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh;
2. That their hearts might be comforted, being knit together in love, and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledgement of the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ;
3. In whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
4. And this I say, lest any man should beguile you with enticing words.
5. For though I be absent in the flesh, yet am I with you in the spirit, joying and beholding your order, and the stedfastness of your faith in Christ.
6. As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him:
7. Rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving.
8. Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.
9. For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.
10. And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power:
11. In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ:
12. Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead.
From the account above it is clear that the Colossians and Laodiceans were at the forefront of his thoughts; the term ‘great conflict’ in verse one means ‘prime contest’, or, as the Amplified bible expands it, ‘how severe an inward struggle I am engaged in for you’.
Paul was praying for a united church in Christ Jesus, the Amplified expands verse 2 to give a clearer account of what Paul was thinking about for the two churches.
2. [For my concern is] that their hearts may be braced (comforted, cheered, and encouraged) as they are knit together in love, that they may come to have all the abounding wealth and blessings of assured conviction of understanding, and that they may become progressively more intimately acquainted with and may know more definitely and accurately and thoroughly that mystic secret of God, [which is] Christ (the Anointed One).
As you go though the letter Paul seems to put an emphasis in two verses on gaining spiritual riches, which would leave you to believe the problems or temptations the churches were facing at that time were materialistic in nature. We know from history that both churches were in prosperous trade-rich cities and Paul knew that this was a big problem for a new Christian.
Paul explains the true riches are in Christ and a life following Him,
Verse 2: unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding.
Verse 3: In whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
Paul goes on to encourage them. From verse 6 we know that the church did receive Christ, and from verse five that therefore they were starting out heading in the right direction, ‘beholding your order, and the steadfastness of your faith in Christ’. The letter wasn’t a correction letter, instructing them to get right with God, but was more of a building-up letter, telling them both they were doing well but to watch out. He wasn’t there to guide them, so was relying on their faith and foundations in Christ to keep them following the right path. Paul was confident in the teaching they were getting at that point and the foundation in Christ that Epaphras had planted.
Paul knew that both churches wouldn’t be suffering from persecution; with a number of religions around at that time and the mix of different peoples there often comes a level of acceptance and tolerance which would be missing in a predominantly Jewish or Gentile community. They had money, comfort and Christ, so the main problem the church faced was becoming complaisant about God.
In the letter Paul warned the church not against people who would persecute, kill or imprison them but of people who would;
4. beguile you with enticing words
8. spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.
In verse eight of his letter Paul explained that everything they needed was in Christ, that other people had only words and their motives were earthly not spiritual. If they didn’t ground themselves in the Word of God then their faith could be undermined by people trying to find their own way to ‘enlightenment’, to make sense of, or replace God with a natural answer.
1 Corinthians 1:20-24 says that God’s way is foolish to the unbeliever, that unless you are called by God you won’t understand and it will seem foolish to believe in Christ and follow his ways
20. Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?
21. For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.
22. For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom:
23. But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness
24. But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God.
People have always tried to explain away God and replace Him with a ‘humanistic theory’ as to why we are here. If you don’t have that grounding in the Word then you can’t rebut these theories and man’s thinking. You will never change their minds but you will keep yours believing what is right and true.
The Amplified version (which expands on verse eight very well) shows how Paul was warning both churches against such people.
8. See to it that no one carries you off as spoil or makes you yourselves captive by his so-called philosophy and intellectualism and vain deceit (idle fancies and plain nonsense), following human tradition (men's ideas of the material rather than the spiritual world), just crude notions following the rudimentary and elemental teachings of the universe and disregarding [the teachings of] Christ (the Messiah).
9. For in Him the whole fullness of Deity (the Godhead) continues to dwell in bodily form [giving complete expression of the divine nature].
In the following verses Paul reminds them about circumcision and explains that they are of the new circumcision, not a physical process but a spiritual one. We know from Galatians that the early Church struggled to let go of Jewish traditions, and Paul had to admonish them as they were trying to bring the Law and tradition into the church instead of letting go and accepting the freedom grace brought.
As I said earlier, the letter is a positive encouragement rather than a letter of correction so we can assume that at this point in time the church was doing well and growing. Paul was happy but knew that their future was reliant on them sticking to the Word and the faith which they were established with.
We then come to Colossians 4:13-16 where Laodicea is mentioned for the second time, again in a positive way. It tells us how Paul wanted all the churches in that area to get the letter, and how a letter was also written specifically to Laodicea but for some reason didn’t make it into the Bible.
12. Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ, saluteth you, always labouring fervently for you in prayers, that ye may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God.
13. For I bear him record, that he hath a great zeal for you, and them that are in Laodicea, and them in Hierapolis.
14. Luke, the beloved physician, and Demas, greet you.
15. Salute the brethren which are in Laodicea, and Nymphas, and the church which is in his house.
16. And when this epistle is read among you, cause that it be read also in the church of the Laodiceans; and that ye likewise read the epistle from Laodicea.
Epaphras was more than likely the principal teacher in the area, and as such had a great calling and love for the churches. In verse 13 it says that he has a great zeal for them. In the Greek, zeal translates as ‘misery’ (meaning - a condition of extreme pain and distress), which seems a strange word to use but conveys the depth of emotion Epaphras felt for them in his absence at that time.
His plea is for them to keep in the will of God, to stand firm in their faith and mature; a recipe for growth in any church, and shows us how good Epaphras was in his teaching. They may not have had Paul but they had the next best thing - someone who preached like Paul and believed in the same thing without adding any interpretation of his own.
Life in the church
Having read both accounts where the church is mentioned and having a bit more understanding of the age in which this was taking place we can see that the Church in Laodicea was quite new, growing and had a firm foundation in the Word. Epaphras was a good teacher, close to Paul and loyal to Colossae and Laodicea, in Philemon 1:23 Paul describes him as a fellow prisoner.
23. Greetings to you from Epaphras, my fellow prisoner here in [the cause of] Christ Jesus (the Messiah),
The city was prosperous so there is good reason to think that the Christians were too, and with no mention of persecution there would have been no reason why their faith wasn’t maturing through teaching. If we follow on from this view we have to assume that the church would be growing; God would be blessing them in numbers as well as in their day- to-day life.
All in all it would seem like a pretty good church to be in, and would if things continued as they were, be quite an influential church in that city, BUT it didn’t, quite the opposite.
The future
We come to the third time Laodicea is spoken of in the Bible. It is referred to in Revelation as one of the seven churches. Revelation 3:14-22.
14. And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God;
15. I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot.
16. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth. 17. Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:
18. I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see.
19. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.
20. Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.
21. To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne.
22. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.
The tone of the letter has completely changed. The one from Paul was encouraging and full of hope and teaching whereas this one from God is full of condemnation. Unfortunately, Paul’s fears were realised and the church at Laodicea lost its way. It became powerless, lacking in spirit and knowledge and existed for itself not Christ.
Laodicea was the name of the city but it meant something else as well, it is made from two words; ‘people’ and ‘principal decision’. The meaning is ‘self or people ruled’, which when you study the seven churches and especially the Laodicean church you see how wonderful the Word is and how the meaning of the church prophetically aligns itself with the actual church as well as the church today.
The church at Laodicea is a type of the latter church, the apostate church, as well as being a real church which lost everything. You can see from the Colossian epistle that it looks like a modern day western church, wealthy and lacking in persecution. What happened to the Laodicea church is happening to the church today, and like the church back then, we have to make our minds up what we are going to do, faced with the truth from God.
Looking at the scripture we can see what I believe is one of the saddest and most miss read verses in the Bible, Revelation 3:20.
20. Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.
No doubt this verse has been spoken from pulpits for years but has never been put back into the context it was meant to be heard. I will come back to this in a while.
We are speaking about a church who didn’t think they needed Christ anymore; they had everything physically and materialistically, they thought Christ was there to provide for them only in one sphere, the earthly sphere. Christ wanted to give them eternal treasures but all they were bothered about was the here and now, their current life and filling it with comfort and wealth. Once they had what they wanted they had no more need of Christ. In verse 17 God wakes them up to the truth about their situation.
17. Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:
In verse 18 God advisors them in their own language, to use their greed to get spiritual riches and clothes, things which will last for eternity and save them, unlike their earthly riches which were destroying them. He goes on to say in verse 19 that He will ‘sort out’ those He loves. Something which we need to understand is that this statement wasn’t directed at ALL the church but only to those He loved.
19. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.
God calls them to be zealous and repent because He doesn’t want to have to rebuke and chasten them. He would rather they come back to Him under their own realisation that they had transgressed than have to step in and correct them, which would not be pain free.
Rebuke - to express sharp, stern disapproval of.
Chasten - to inflict suffering upon for purposes of moral improvement.
God is calling out of love to the church at Laodicea. He hasn’t given up on it because He sees inside it true believers who have been beguiled by their surroundings and a lack of leadership, both from a congregational standpoint and also a personal one. Many people probably thought they were fine, that they were doing a good work. The fact that they are doing something isn’t in question, verse 15 shows us this.
15. I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot.
Unfortunately, the work they were doing was pointless as it didn’t contain any power; we see that it was neither one thing nor the other and was described as lukewarm. Lukewarm water is not something people can stomach and invariably is spat out. If something is lukewarm, it means it’s either something hot which has been left to cool or something cool which has been left out and has warmed up; either way it isn’t what it was intended to be and so will be rejected by the person drinking it.
The same can be said of our walk with God; he gives us a spirit of truth and power which is designed to change peoples’ lives. If it is left to cool then it becomes ineffectual and God doesn’t get anything back from it, so as in verse 16, He says ‘I will spue thee out of my mouth’. He finds the Laodicean church pointless and lacking in anything beneficial.
Let us come back to verse 20 and, as I said earlier, one of the saddest verses in the Bible. A verse which is specifically directed at the church at Laodicea, and as such the church today as the apostate church in the end times.
20. Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.
This is the answer to what had happened to the church at Laodicea; it had left Christ out of the meetings and their lives, they were running the church under their own steam and direction and had lost their way.
Christ was saying ‘I am here’. More importantly, He was telling them where He was, outside the church, outside the closed door knocking for someone to let Him in. What a sad state of affairs that they had locked Christ out of His own church and were then ignoring Him knocking.
They had it in their power to open the door but their minds, hearts and ears were closed to the truth. ‘Life’ had dulled their spirit; possessions and wealth had made them lazy and their own self-importance had made them deaf. Just like today, they had created their own church where they were the head, they called the shots and where they were totally ineffectual in God’s eyes.
The Call to repent
The call went out from God to them and us from verse 19 and 20.
19. ...repent
20. Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.
If they didn't listen then you like the Laodiceans will lose everything and enter an eternity without God and without all earthly treasures, spending an eternity in torment and regret. God is not saying you have to be poor or that possessions are bad; as we saw from Colossians they were doing well with all that they had, the problem was that they didn’t keep Christ first in their lives.
Paul himself had been both rich and poor and from Philippians 4:11-13 we see that he had learnt the secret that through Christ contentment can be achieved.
11. Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content.
12. both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need.
13. I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.
Here we see why the Laodicean church failed, they removed Christ and so had no power against the world. We cannot hope to win against the world or Satan if we don’t have Christ in us or with us. All spiritual conflict in the Bible is won by the Word. When Jesus Himself was being tempted he quoted scripture against the Devil.
More and more today Churches are going their own way; introducing their own ideas and doctrines, pushing Christ further and further out of the door, replacing contentment with a search for wealth, beguiling believers with false teachings and wrong interpretation, and allowing the world to enter the church.
The letters in Colossians and Revelation serves as a reminder to the church to hold fast to the truth, to Christ who should be first in our lives, and shows us what will happen if we don’t.
Repent now and let Christ back in before God has to step in and shake you up, or even worse if He doesn’t and allows you to continue.
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