“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.”
A very relatable quote from an interesting book.
John writes this in the last book of the Bible: Revelation. He’s speaking to the church of Laodicea. A church that seems to not really be doing much. Not much good, not much bad, just not much. He encourages them to do something. To have conviction.
Although this has deep spiritual implication for how people follow Christ, I think it’s also very relatable in normal friendships with others.
People who go with the flow and never make decisions or have convictions are not often the people that others want to hang out with. It’s difficult to have conversation with them. Not because they disagree with you but because they don’t stand anywhere on anything. Any question you ask turns into some relative half answer.
It seems to me that more and more of the world is adopting this mindset. A mindset of everything is permissible. Don’t stand too firmly on what you believe, just let everyone do whatever makes them happy.
It’s like holding a conviction on something is an evil and judgmental thing to do. It might be okay, but only as long as you keep it to yourself and never express this opinion vocally.
There are some things that are more permissible to have opinions on, but in general, it seems like a “lukewarm” opinion on things is what is most respected in our culture.
It makes me wonder what the world would look like if instead, everyone had strong convictions and lived their life according to their convictions. What would happen?
Would the homeless population be gone? Would equal rights be perfect? Would murders go down?
Or, in contrast, would the world be one big war zone of people with different convictions? Would hate speech be pouring in from everywhere? Would one nation rule of the rest?
I don’t know the answer. What I do know is that the people I always enjoy conversing with more are the people who believe something. Even if I disagree.
How are we to grow if everyone is lukewarm? How are we to make decisions if everyone is lukewarm?
Be hot or cold and stand strong. From there, we can have a conversation.