“I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.” Rev. 3:15-16 KJV
“I know that God loves me,” someone very dear to me said to me one day in one of our ongoing conversations about the Lord. “But I don’t know if I love God,” he said.
I was blown away by his confession.
Not because I was surprised by what he had to say. After all, his life for years had made it abundantly clear he didn’t truly love Jesus Christ though he professed to believe in him. No, I wasn’t surprised by his confession.
What astonished me was that this was perhaps the first time I had ever heard a person who calls himself a Christian admit to something I run across so exceedingly often in this day and age that it is almost a rarity to see anything but this. Someone who claims to be a Christian, believes he is headed for heaven instead of hell and the lake of fire, has a Bible, goes to church, prays to God, looks to be and sounds like a Christian on the outside for all intents and purposes, but when all is said and done does not in his heart have a love for God more than anything or anyone in the universe nor lives a lifestyle of seeking, following, and living for Christ above all else.
In a nutshell, countless people I meet, more than imaginable in fact, call themselves Christians yet love their own selves and the world around them more than the Lord and have the life and lifestyle to prove it. Why was I blown away by this loved one’s confession? Because if tons of the people I meet were honest with themselves and with those around them and most importantly with the Lord, they would confess exactly what he had. And, if the truth be known, this is exactly how I had lived my own life for years. Calling myself a believer in Christ and being everything but a Christ follower.
My loved one was not finished speaking.
“Jesus tells us He is going to spit us out if we’re lukewarm,” he said.
He was being convicted by the Spirit of God, and through God’s Word, even as he spoke, it seemed. God was working on his heart.
The same way I hope he is working on yours right now. The same way he is working on mine. Heaven is not for the lukewarm. Nor for those who play Christian and can pass off as a Christian to others. There’s no fooling Christ. A forever relationship with God is for those who will give up their whole way of life, of living for themselves and this world, to live the way He has called us to live. For Him. To love and worship and glorify Him forevermore. Where do you stand?