"I will give them a heart to know Me, for I am the LORD; and they will be My people, and I will be their God, for they will return to Me with their whole heart" (Jer. 24:7, NASB).
"And I will give you a new heart, ad a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules" (Ezek. 36:26-27, ESV).
There is a vast difference between the reality of faith and the profession of faith. Jesus said there would be many who will say on the Day of Judgment, "Lord, Lord...." But He never knew them! They trusted in their works, not in Christ! Lukewarm water has no medicinal or marketable value and is good for nothing: Jesus compared this to the believers at the apostate church of Laodicea, whom He rebuked and charged with being lukewarm.
"And I will give you a new heart, ad a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules" (Ezek. 36:26-27, ESV).
There is a vast difference between the reality of faith and the profession of faith. Jesus said there would be many who will say on the Day of Judgment, "Lord, Lord...." But He never knew them! They trusted in their works, not in Christ! Lukewarm water has no medicinal or marketable value and is good for nothing: Jesus compared this to the believers at the apostate church of Laodicea, whom He rebuked and charged with being lukewarm.
There is no such thing as a lukewarm Christian, but there are lukewarm believers, who profess but don't have a living, growing relationship with the living God. Jesus knows where believers stand, for they have made a stand for Him and Jesus is able to keep them in the Father's hands securely. But there are many in the church who are like Judas, who merely go through the motions and talk the talk like believers, but haven't had a change of heart to follow on to know Him.
Some Christians need revival and have gone astray like lost sheep, but they still have a permanent relationship with the Lord. Jesus will never spew them out of His mouth, but they may need to get reacquainted with the Lord and to walk closer to Him. We don't become Christians merely by asking Jesus to come into our hearts, but by penitent faith. When you accuse someone of being lukewarm, you are denying that he is saved.
Being out of fellowship is not to be equated with being lukewarm, for then many would flirt with that danger repeatedly. Some need to grow up and learn the basics and how to walk in the Spirit, so that they will not fulfill the lusts of the flesh. If anyone loves the world, John says in 1 John 2:15, the love of the Father is not in him. Even when a believer is out of fellowship, he never loses that love for Jesus deep down and knows something is not right.
The whole point of Christianity is that it's a relationship (or a walk) with Christ (not just a cliche) and this means progressing from a knowledge of a creed to a knowledge of a person! You can be converted to the program and even be a do-gooder in the eyes of the church and still not be converted in the heart, though you profess the right dogma. Those who are lukewarm are merely pretenders to the faith and a Christian is one who has a "sincere faith" and knows the Lord!
One needs to possess faith, not just profess it. The "lukewarm" professor referred to in Revelation is not the same one that may be "halfhearted," and needs to get over spiritual complacency, laxity, or self-satisfaction and learn to grow in Christ; this is using two metaphors against each other and pitting one text against another. You cannot be a halfhearted or carnal Christian as a category of the believer--there's no such person, though they can be halfhearted or carnal at times. He's not asking us to get more enthusiastic but to be filled with the Spirit as Christ lives in us. There are no "lukewarm" genuine believers, such as referred to in Revelation, that are in danger of being spewed out of Christ's mouth or cast into hell--these are people who make a profession of faith but have no inward reality or relationship.
Nothing done in the Lord is in vain, and these "believers" are doing their works in the power of the flesh, not the Spirit. Christ is merely comparing lukewarm water to that which is useless like the works done in the flesh. He is not merely admonishing them to get more excited or put more zeal into their works, but to let Christ work through them as He lives in their hearts. The Christian life is not an imitation--for the unbeliever can do that--but primarily inhabitation, whereby Christ lives in us and about the relinquished, surrendered, exchanged, and yielded life in Christ. The backslidden Christian is never happy and this doesn't refer to him.
We tend to think that emotionalism or sentimentality is the key and those who are emotional have the edge, while stoics are somewhat retarded spiritually. The litmus test of spirituality is not how we wear our feelings on our sleeves, nor our ecstasies, but our obedience. Jesus said that if we love God we will obey Him. Samuel told Saul in 1 Sam. 15:22, NKJV: "...Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed than the fat of rams." Bonhoeffer said, "Only he who believes is obedient; only he who is obedient believes."
Some Christians need revival and have gone astray like lost sheep, but they still have a permanent relationship with the Lord. Jesus will never spew them out of His mouth, but they may need to get reacquainted with the Lord and to walk closer to Him. We don't become Christians merely by asking Jesus to come into our hearts, but by penitent faith. When you accuse someone of being lukewarm, you are denying that he is saved.
Being out of fellowship is not to be equated with being lukewarm, for then many would flirt with that danger repeatedly. Some need to grow up and learn the basics and how to walk in the Spirit, so that they will not fulfill the lusts of the flesh. If anyone loves the world, John says in 1 John 2:15, the love of the Father is not in him. Even when a believer is out of fellowship, he never loses that love for Jesus deep down and knows something is not right.
The whole point of Christianity is that it's a relationship (or a walk) with Christ (not just a cliche) and this means progressing from a knowledge of a creed to a knowledge of a person! You can be converted to the program and even be a do-gooder in the eyes of the church and still not be converted in the heart, though you profess the right dogma. Those who are lukewarm are merely pretenders to the faith and a Christian is one who has a "sincere faith" and knows the Lord!
One needs to possess faith, not just profess it. The "lukewarm" professor referred to in Revelation is not the same one that may be "halfhearted," and needs to get over spiritual complacency, laxity, or self-satisfaction and learn to grow in Christ; this is using two metaphors against each other and pitting one text against another. You cannot be a halfhearted or carnal Christian as a category of the believer--there's no such person, though they can be halfhearted or carnal at times. He's not asking us to get more enthusiastic but to be filled with the Spirit as Christ lives in us. There are no "lukewarm" genuine believers, such as referred to in Revelation, that are in danger of being spewed out of Christ's mouth or cast into hell--these are people who make a profession of faith but have no inward reality or relationship.
Nothing done in the Lord is in vain, and these "believers" are doing their works in the power of the flesh, not the Spirit. Christ is merely comparing lukewarm water to that which is useless like the works done in the flesh. He is not merely admonishing them to get more excited or put more zeal into their works, but to let Christ work through them as He lives in their hearts. The Christian life is not an imitation--for the unbeliever can do that--but primarily inhabitation, whereby Christ lives in us and about the relinquished, surrendered, exchanged, and yielded life in Christ. The backslidden Christian is never happy and this doesn't refer to him.
We tend to think that emotionalism or sentimentality is the key and those who are emotional have the edge, while stoics are somewhat retarded spiritually. The litmus test of spirituality is not how we wear our feelings on our sleeves, nor our ecstasies, but our obedience. Jesus said that if we love God we will obey Him. Samuel told Saul in 1 Sam. 15:22, NKJV: "...Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed than the fat of rams." Bonhoeffer said, "Only he who believes is obedient; only he who is obedient believes."
We are to love God, but the test of love is obedience. You cannot judge believers by their emotional state; only God sees the heart and whether it's in the right place. We are not saved by emotionalism, intellectualism, nor legalism--nothing we feel, think, nor do--but by an act of faith, which anyone can carry out. Faith in Christ is what gratifies God: "Now without faith, it is impossible to please God..." (Heb. 11:6, HCSB).
In sum, Christ would rather have relationships with those who don't know Him and are honest about it, and with those who do know Him, but not with those who pretend to know Him; for He doesn't know where they stand and whom they will serve. As it says of those who refuse to stand up for the truth in Jeremiah 9:3, don't be neutral but confess Christ unashamedly. Take a stand, stand up for Jesus, show your Christian colors--dare to be a Daniel, who stood alone! Soli Deo Gloria!
In sum, Christ would rather have relationships with those who don't know Him and are honest about it, and with those who do know Him, but not with those who pretend to know Him; for He doesn't know where they stand and whom they will serve. As it says of those who refuse to stand up for the truth in Jeremiah 9:3, don't be neutral but confess Christ unashamedly. Take a stand, stand up for Jesus, show your Christian colors--dare to be a Daniel, who stood alone! Soli Deo Gloria!
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