Here is the first charge against this church which is in such a sorry condition. ‘I know thy works.
There may be some who are just like that. The people knew about things that were lukewarm. Nobody in Laodicea liked the way the water came out of the main aqueduct. They knew about things that were tepid and insipid, and that is how the believers are described – tasteless, tepid, insipid. The Lord even says he is going to spit them out, ‘spue’ them out of his mouth. The Greek is the word for vomit. I am going to suddenly reject you as something distasteful to me. That is very strong terminology, and that is what Christ will do for us if we are not lukewarm. We are very polite, we believe; we say nice things, we concur. We say that was a good message, but we are not hot, we are not committed, we are not enthusiastic.
What was the matter with them? The lukewarm person is proud, very self-satisfied. I am alright, the way I am. I will be pleasing to God. This is good enough. The lukewarm person is also disobedient because he or she decides for himself the standards of the Christian life. I do not like what those preachers say. I do not like what Bible says. I do not like this about being committed. This is the standard I shall have and I make my own standard of Christian living and impose it on the Lord. Then also it is unbelief. I do not believe that God actually sees and notes what I am doing and is angry with me for not being wholehearted. If I really believed God could see me, I would be afraid, but there is indifference towards God.