Monday Musings
The “Monday Musings” Bible study group meets each Monday at the Higher Grounds Coffee
Shop for prayer, fellowship, and Bible study. The participants fluctuate from week to week, but
Daniel, William, Phyllis, Sharon, and you comprise the nucleus of the group. Each week one of
the group takes the lead in the Bible study, presenting the fruits of their study and leading the
ensuing discussion. This week, Daniel is leading the discussion on a passage from the Letters to
the Seven Churches in the Book of Revelation. The passage is the message of the Son of Man to
the church of Laodicea in which he tells the church that because they are “neither cold nor hot,
but lukewarm,” he will spit them out of his mouth. Daniel, warming to the passage, makes his
pitch, “What this passage says to me is that lukewarm believers make God sick! If we’re not
going to be on fire for God, then let’s at least not be lukewarm! God would rather we be cold-as-
ice pagans than warmed-over, lukewarm Christians.”
Sharon interrupts: “Daniel, with all due respect, I’m not at all sure that that was the original
meaning of the passage. I did some digging this week on this passage, and I discovered that
when John wrote this passage, Laodicea was one of three cities in the Lycus River Valley,
Colossae and Hieropolis being the other two. The information I read indicated that there was a
rivalry among the three cities for preeminence, each trying to exploit their natural resources to
their advantage. Hieropolis was known for its hot springs that were believed to have great
healing powers. People would come for miles around to bathe in their hot springs. Colossae was
known for its cold, fresh spring water, making it also a destination for travelers and tourists. But
poor Laodicea had neither hot baths nor cold springs, and so they were missing out. Not to be
outdone, Laodicea came up with the idea of building an aqueduct to channel the hot water from
Hieropolis down to Laodicea so that they too could have hot, healing baths. But by the time the
hot spring water made it down to Laodicea, a few miles away, it had cooled to the point that it
was merely lukewarm, fit neither for bathing nor drinking. When we study the original context of
the passage, we see that John is not associating cold with paganism and hot with Christianity, as
you suggest. Rather, in the original context, both ‘cold’ and ‘hot’ were good things. I don’t
believe that John meant that God would rather we be good pagans than lukewarm Christians.”
Daniel: “Well, Sharon, that was interesting. But that was then, and this is now. Does it really
matter what the original writer meant? This is what I get from this passage, and if it makes sense
to me, isn’t that all that really matters? Who’s to say that my understanding of the passage is
wrong just because it might not have been in the mind of the original writer?”
The conversation moves around the table with each one in turn expressing their point of
view on the perspectives of Daniel and Sharon. Finally, they come to you, “So, what do
you think?
