Lukewarm

If you were to be described as water, what would that definition look like?  Would you be hot, cold or just lukewarm?  The Christian artist, Lecrae, sings about this in one of his songs. He sings, “with hot water we cook, cold water we drink, but lukewarm does nothing, it just sits and it looks.”  The Apostle John records similar words spoken by Jesus in the book of Revelation to the church at Laodicea, “I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot!  So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth.”

We fall into one of these three categories as well, not just as a church, but as individuals. We are either hot for the things of God and people notice that right away or we fall into one of the other two categories. We either having that shock of stepping into a shower where the water is too hot to stand under and we jump and twist trying to reach the faucet handle to cool it down or we don’t. Hot Christians give off that feeling of a fire on a cold winter’s day that draws others to them to feel the warmth of Christ that radiates from them.

Cold Christians are just that; cold. Their attitude towards their faith pushes people away from wanting to know the love and grace of Christ. Others say, “if that’s what it means to be a Christian, I don’t want anything to do with that.” These are the people that outsiders to Christianity would call hypocrites. Cold Christians do nothing with their salvation to win others to Christ.

But the most dangerous of Christians are those that Jesus called “lukewarm”.  These are the Christians that if their friends ever found out they went to church they would be totally shocked.  How they live Monday through Saturday doesn’t match up with the fact that they spend their Sundays at church. They live like the rest of the world does during the week. How they walk and talk at work or at school doesn’t match how they walk and talk at church. Jesus would rather have us be either hot or cold than lukewarm. A lukewarm Christian does the most damage to the kingdom of God because he/she portrays Jesus as One who doesn’t care how we live our lives in view of the unsaved world.

So, how would you describe your Christian life: hot, cold or lukewarm?  If it’s not hot, you still have time to turn up the heat and draw others to the love of Christ.

Have a great day and God bless.