Welcome to another Thursday UNFILTERED blog post, the only blog that believes Adam blamed Eve, Eve blamed the serpent, and the serpent probably blamed low blood sugar.
Before we dive into today’s article: many of you have asked me about writing, editing, publishing, and promoting a book. If that’s you, I cover all of it in my premium online training, SCRIBE. It’s built for aspiring authors and for those who’ve already written one book or more. For the full breakdown—what it covers, testimonials, and how to order—visit the Scribe Online Training. It’s available through Sunday night, June 21. Once you get it, it’s yours for life and you go through it at your own pace.
Okay, let’s talk about lukewarmness.
Recently, a 20-something Christian told me, “I hate to admit this, but I’ve been a lukewarm Christian for a long time.”
The Lord grabbed hold of this person, and they were asking me questions about the Bible.
Here’s an uncomfortable truth that few people at your church is going to say out loud. You can consume more Christian content than any generation in history. I’m talking about podcasts, Instagram devotionals, YouTube shorts, TikTok sermon clips, Bible apps with streak counters, and still be exactly the kind of Christian Jesus said makes Him want to vomit.
That’s not my language. That’s Revelation 3:16.
The church at Laodicea wasn’t a church of atheists or apostates. They weren’t sacrificing children to idols. They were Jesus followers. Christians. But they were comfortable.
They had enough religion to feel good about themselves and enough worldly success to not really need God. And Jesus, who is not known for mincing words, told them He was about to spit them out of His mouth.
So the question worth sitting with today is: In an age when being “Christian” has never been easier or cheaper, how do you know if your faith is actually real?
The Laodicean Upgrade
The city of Laodicea was wealthy. It was a banking center, famous for its eye medicine and its glossy black wool. When an earthquake leveled the city, the people refused imperial disaster relief. They rebuilt the city themselves. They didn’t need anybody’s help.
Sound familiar?
We live in a world where you can curate a perfectly Christian-looking life without it costing you a single inconvenient thing. Post the verse graphic. Share the podcast clip. Attend the weekend service where the lighting is perfect and the coffee is hot. Click “Amen” on the prayer request. Hey, you can even sing along with the worship team and raise your hands. Rinse and repeat.
My signature book Insurgence: Reclaiming the Gospel of the Kingdom makes a point that cuts right to the bone: we have largely replaced the kingdom of God with a Christian subculture.
Instead of embodying a radical, countercultural way of life under King Jesus, we’ve settled for the aesthetic. The T-shirt. The lingo. The brand.
And brands are easy to wear. Especially on social media, a venue that becomes more laden with “fakery,” “image management,” and “fake news” by the day.
Yesterday I saw two memes online that “broke the news” that two well-known rock stars had become Jesus followers. It was false, just like those memes alleging Erika Kirk insulted 20 different celebrities.
What’s more alarming is that if you read the comments below these memes, lots of people actually believe them. Including “Christians.” They never investigate. But that’s another conversation.
Here’s the really dangerous part. The Laodiceans didn’t know they were lukewarm. And Jesus told them directly, “You say you are rich and need nothing, but you don’t know that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked.”
They constructed a story about themselves that felt (to them) completely true. And that story was completely wrong.
There’s a monumental difference between knowing about the King and actually living under His kingship. The gospel of the kingdom isn’t a set of ideas to agree with. It’s an invasion. A new order breaking into the old one, demanding complete allegiance and a totally reoriented life.
The Antidote
In Revelation 3:18, Jesus gives the Laodiceans three specific things to obtain from Him:
*Gold refined by fire — so they would be truly rich. That’s genuine faith tested and proven by trials and tribulations.
*White garments — so they could cover their shameful nakedness. That’s receiving the cleansing and forgiveness that was paid by the blood of Christ. Not just mouthing it, but believing it and living as if it were true.
*Eye salve — so they could see clearly. That’s receiving revelation and insight into Christ and into ourselves.
But the broader passage adds two more elements to the antidote:
Verse 19 — “be zealous and repent.” Jesus directly names zeal as the opposite of lukewarmness. Zeal is passion for the Lord, and the path to it is repentance, which means an about-face.
Verse 20 — opening the door to Jesus who is knocking. The implication is that lukewarmness is essentially leaving Jesus on the outside. The solution is letting Him back into fellowship with your heart. For those who do so, He makes the promise, “I will come in and dine with him.”
The way Jesus introduces Himself to the Laodiceans is striking and directly connected to their condition.
In Revelation 3:14, He describes Himself as:
“The Amen, the faithful and true Witness, the Beginning of the creation of God.”
The Laodiceans were self-deceived, saying “I’m good. I don’t need anything spiritually, thank you.”
Yet Jesus as the true and faithful witness sees them exactly as they are: wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked.
He also revealed Himself to them as “the Beginning of God’s creation.” Yes, He existed before the physical creation. All physical matter, including the things we enjoy came after Him. And the beautiful things in creation are a pale reflection of His stunning beauty.
Christ is the embodiment of all the beauty in the created order, for all things were created by Him, in Him, for Him, and through Him (Colossians 1:15-17).
If we recognize this, it will lead us to repentance and treasuring Christ as the Beautiful One worthy of our complete allegiance, love, and adoration.
So His very title is a rebuke to their self-deception and idolatry before He even delivers the correction.
Practical Steps
Countless Christians in their 20s and 30s – and those older – are living in a lukewarm state, which is a dangerous place to be. (So I trust you will share this piece with those you know.)
If that’s you, here are four steps Jesus lays it all out in Revelation 3:
- Receive a revelation of who Christ really is (v.14) – How? One way is to listen to spoken messages that uniquely unveil Him in His staggering glory.
- See yourself accurately (v.17-18) – How? Ask Him to open your eyes. “In His light we shall see light” (Psalm 36:9).
- Repent with zeal (v.19) – How? James gives us the playbook. “Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up” (James 4:7-10).
- Open the door to Jesus to initiate ongoing fellowship with Him (v.20) – How? Learn to hear His voice and commune with Him regularly.
The invitation is open. My central argument in Insurgence (and The Insurgence Podcast) is that the King and His kingdom are available, present right now, and worth everything.
But you don’t enter it through posting more social media memes and watching TikTok sermon clips and YouTube shorts.
God’s kingdom lives. But not in your social media feed. Here’s the full biblical text that this article is based on:
Write this letter to the angel of the church in Laodicea. This is the message from the one who is the Amen—the faithful and true Witness, the Beginning of God’s new creation:
“I know all the things you do, that you are neither hot nor cold. I wish that you were one or the other! But since you are like lukewarm water, neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth! You say, ‘I am rich. I have everything I want. I don’t need a thing!’ And you don’t realize that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked.
So I advise you to buy gold from me—gold that has been purified by fire. Then you will be rich. Also buy white garments from me so you will not be shamed by your nakedness, and ointment for your eyes so you will be able to see. I correct and discipline everyone I love. So be diligent and turn from your indifference.
Look! I stand at the door and knock. If you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in, and we will share a meal together as friends. Those who are victorious will sit with me on my throne, just as I was victorious and sat with my Father on his throne.” (Revelation 3:14-21)
Laboring in Prayer: Part 2
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