Hot or Cold

There is a shop in Orana Mall in Dubbo called “Bed Bath N Table” and they have delightful items on display including this Teapot and Cup and Saucer.

My wife, Audrey, loves this sort of quality china and was also very happy to use hers to entertain guests if they called in; she always had some scones made and some lovely cake so would greet the visitors with “The kettle is just about boiling, so come in and have a cuppa”. Freshly made Tea served black or with milk and sugar was always very popular at our house.

On the other hand, if Audrey had made the tea a half hour before and served it up luke- warm, I don’t think many of our visitors would have been as enthusiastic about coming in for a “cuppa” the next time they visited: Iced Tea, yes. Hot tea, yes, but half way between the two, no thank you. (I’m pleased to say that she never made that mistake).   

Apparently though, on some occasion during his time on earth Jesus must have come across such a situation, it probably wasn’t tea but whatever it was he really didn’t enjoy it luke-warm, because when he was sending a message to the Christian church at Laodicea, he told John to tell them that they were “neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot” He said “So then because thou art luke-warm and neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee out of my mouth”.  Very drastic words so we must be very careful to not live the way they were living and we had better find out what it was that they were doing that disappointed him so much, after all they represented Him by calling themselves a “Christian church”. Now, whatever religion you may be, or even if you are an atheist, you will have to agree that if you know something that would be of great help to your neighbour, and don’t tell him, or her, about it then your friendship isn’t worth much. When you consider that true Christians believe that Jesus action on their behalf is the greatest news that there is in the world, and these Laodiceans were half hearted about sharing that information, then you can see why Jesus was disappointed with them.

Well it comes down to this: God loves us so much that he sent Jesus to pay the price of our sin so we could inherit Eternal life in Heaven with him. You see “God was in Christ, reconciling the world (us) unto himself” (2 Corinthians 5:19). These Laodicean people had gladly accepted that forgiveness and reconciliation for themselves, but made the mistake of not sharing the knowledge of its availability with others, and that action, or inaction, on their part, contravenes what Jesus said was the second most important commandment which is “to love your neighbour as you love yourself” (Matthew 22:39). And that is a commandment, not a suggestion.

This then should be a “wake up call” to all Christians so that we will get on with the privilege of sharing this Gospel with others. After all we have a unique and wonderful “experience” to promote and share: Christianity is a gospel of love. We love God for the forgiveness he has given us for free, we are helped by The Holy Spirit to love everyone (even our enemies) and we are to do good to those who treat us badly (Jesus is our example, he even asked God to forgive those who were crucifying him). If the whole world was truly Christian then we would all live in harmony, as it will be in Heaven.

The Lord’s Prayer to God says: “Thy will be done on earth, as it is in Heaven” so we can look forward to that day and should do our bit to make it happen where we are.

God will bless us as we do that.  Best wishes, Tom.

 

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