"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" (Rev. 3:21). 

What is missed by many is that these words in context depict Jesus standing outside and knocking at the door of a church; not an individual's heart. I have no problem with them being used in evangelism, but let us not miss the main thrust of them here. The Laodicean church was so complacent, apathetic, half-hearted, self-sufficient and lukewarm in their commitment, that Jesus had slipped out and no one had noticed!

Laodicea was an affluent and flourishing commercial and banking centre; famous for the production of the finest jet-black woollen cloth. Nearby was a piping hot volcanic geyser rich in minerals. (I've just changed that from "piping hot volcanic geezer"!) This water flowed through the city, but by then it had become lukewarm and emetic; causing nausea and vomiting and therefore undrinkable. Sadly, and generally speaking, the church in the western nations has many of the characteristics of the Laodicean church; and the world has noticed and now sees it as irrelevant.

God wants us, as a local church, to be red-hot for Jesus and to offer the refreshingly cold mineral water of life and of the Spirit to each other and to those around us. Because he loves us, he will correct and discipline us until we repent and turn from our indifference relating to the cause of the Gospel, and our lack of cooperation in becoming a transformed people who transform the world. The local church is where we are made into disciples; where we are shaped by our leaders and by each other.

The individual genuine child of God, and the universal church to which we all belong, are two of the unshakable things referred to in Heb. 12:27. But individual local churches can be shaken and some fall. I know of a few that were once vibrant but no longer exist and we all know of church buildings now used for all manner of other things. There is no trace today of the city of Laodicea itself, not to mention its church; and there is no Christian community in modern day Ephesus. So it seems the Ephesians did not return to their first love and the Laodiceans did not turn from their indifference. Let's keep open to being admonished and corrected by one another and by our leaders, and let's be fully committed and loyal to our church family and red-hot for Jesus!