After the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC, the Greek Empire stretching 3,000 miles from Macedonia to the Punjab, was divided into 4 unstable powers under 4 warring, ambitious marshals. Asia Minor and Macedonia were under Lysimachus, Egypt and southern Syria under Ptolemy, and Greece under Cassander, and Asia and northern Syria under Seleucus. Hence, in Daniel 11, the description of Ptolemy as the king of the South and Seleucus as the king of the North.
Seleucus established a dynasty of thirteen kings named either Seleucus or Antiochus. The grandson of the original General King Seleucus was Antiochus II who became king in 261 BC, and it was he who enlarged and modernized the city of Laodicea.
The city of Laodicea covered a large area of a fertile valley between two mountain ranges and was built on seven low hills. About two miles from the South Bank of the river Lycus was an important crossroads, with one East West Road connecting Syria and Ephesus, and a north-south road connecting Pergamos and the Mediterranean ports. As a result of this converging traffic, the city became a prosperous commercial and financial center. And they even produced their own coins.
The offer of free citizenship attracted many Jews to settle in Laodicea. It can be calculated from the temple tax that there were about 7,500 adult male Jews there representing a total of about 20 to 30,000 Jews. The Seleucid dynasty of kings was wise enough to appreciate that Jewish management of businesses increased the wealth of a community.
Laodicea was famous for the design of very fashionable clothing manufactured from the shiny black wool of the sheep in the Lycus valley. One style of jacket was called a trimata, and it was such a popular worldwide export that the Council of Chalcedon in AD 451 refers to Laodicea as Trimataria.
Connected with its pagan temples was a medical school with an international reputation throughout the Greek and Roman worlds. For it was, for a preparation made into an eye salve from the clay of local Hot Springs, which it exported, to treat blindness. It also made a less famous ear ointment for deafness.
Laodicea was also a fortress city. And it guarded the trade routes and commanded the entrance to the fertile Lycus Valley and the 3,500’ plateau of Phrygia. Heavily fortified, powerful, rich and opulent, Laodicea under Roman rule was a confident, self-satisfied city. However, the city had one major weakness, its water supply.
Lucia had two aqueducts, one below and one above ground. The city was supplied with water from a spring six miles to the South through an underground aqueduct which could be cut by an enemy with ease. With no source of water within the defenses, the city would not survive a siege. It looked impregnable but was actually weak and vulnerable. One meter blocks of stone reveal the lime scale, almost blocking the duct drilled through the center to deliver nauseating lukewarm water, once so hot at its source, it had become lukewarm.
Now here was the imposing rich, cosmopolitan city of Laodicea, capital of Phrygia Center of high finance, center of fashion, and the Roman high life with theaters, races, baths, entertainment. The other necessity for total prosperity was peace which the Romans provided from 133 BC. With the Jews running the financial center and the rag trade, the Greeks farming the sheep and exporting “only made here” medicines, while Roman power produced peace and stability in the roads, which pointed in all directions, shielded by mountain ranges, sunshine all day and mile upon mile of fertile valley, and aqueducts pouring in water from the North and the South. What more could anyone want? They had it all. This was the original loads of money and materialistic consumer society.
In AD 60, the city was destroyed by an earthquake. The imperial government of Rome, under Nero offered Laodicea a generous emergency fund for a rebuilding program, but it was refused. They replied in much the same way as we read in Revelation 3:17, “I am rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing.” They did not see themselves as lacking anything, even in a disaster.
In the center of all this was a group of God’s people. The churches and the three cities of Colossae, Hierapolis and Laodicea were closely connected, and there was probably much interchange. The members were to be “perfect and complete” not in philosophy and ritual, but in all the will of God (Colossians 4:12-13).
Then one day in AD 96 a letter was delivered to be read to the churches in Laodicea. Of the letters to the seven churches, this is both the most loving and the saddest of them all. It was constructed in the same way as all the letters of Jesus Christ, with one exception. It opens with the identification of the sender. There is no praise of the members, only criticism of the weakness and errors followed by correction:
“And to the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write, ‘These things says the Amen, the Faithful and True Witness, the Beginning of the creation of God: 15 “I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot. 16 So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth. 17 Because you say, ‘I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing’—and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked—18 I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich; and white garments, that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and anoint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see. 19 As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore be zealous and repent. 20 Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me. 21 To him who overcomes I will grant to sit with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne. 22 “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches” ’ ” (Revelation 3:14–22 NKJV).
Christ is the One who revealed the message to the Apostle John while he was on the island of Patmos in the Aegean Sea (Revelation 1:1-2). He addressed the Laodiceans in terms they could understand. This church was not bad, but neither was it good. It was indifferent. It was complacent, happy with its present comfortable position. Jesus Christ wants His churches to be fired with fervor, burning with enthusiasm, ablaze with zeal, never tepid: “So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth” (Revelation 3:16), Christ was disappointed by their religion, but He did not write them off; He warned them. There’s no room for neutrality in God’s way of life.
Christ can use the hot. He can work on the cold. But the lukewarm, halting halfway, He spews out of His mouth. He warns all not to become self-satisfied, self-righteous people. Remember Christ had more success with the despised publicans and harlots than with the wealthy and the theologians of His day.
Self-deception is the major criticism of the Church in Laodicea: “Because you say, ‘I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing’—and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked— (Revelation 3:17).
The apostle Paul was not self-deceived. Those with the faith of Jesus Christ have new minds, a new nature. Yet Paul felt wretched about his old human nature. His mind wanted to follow God’s law, but his human nature dragged him back. However, he realized the answer was not in obsessive observing of the law, nor in temple rituals, sacrifices, or traditions, rather that it was Christ who would deliver him “from this of body of death” (Romans 7:24-25).
Unlike Paul, the Laodiceans placed their hope in the city around them. They trusted in their security, their wealth, their comfort. They saw no point in claiming to be a follower of God if their life was only for today, limited to this world now. They thought that a good bank balance must mean that they were good Christians. They were blind to their own danger for “where there is no vision, the people perish.” The Laodiceans lacked the understanding of the resurrection of the dead; that there is offer of eternal life after death for those who lived by the covenant God makes with those who embrace and live His Way of Life embodied in His laws of love.
Jesus Christ warned the Laodiceans about the danger of their indifference and smugness and offers correction, the opportunity to change: “I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich; and white garments, that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and anoint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see” (Revelation 3:18).
Malachi 3 does instruct that Jesus Christ will refine, purge, and purify His people, beginning with the priests : “He will sit as a refiner and a purifier of silver; He will purify the sons of Levi, And purge them as gold and silver, That they may offer to the LORD An offering in righteousness” (Malachi 3:3).
The Laodiceans had to see themselves for what they really were: self-righteous, self-satisfied, self-indulgent, and worst of all lukewarm. The price is repentance. Gold is valued because being inert, it is indestructible and unalterable, and therefore durable. At the same time, it is malleable and can be crafted into beautiful objects of art.
Christ also counseled them to anoint their eyes with eye salve, that they may see. “See” in the sense of not only looking physically, but also wanting to understand with the mind. Only God can cure spiritual blindness. Sadly, now the blindness is so complete that it is the trend today at weddings and funerals to quote human philosophy or poetry rather than the word of God.
Christ continued by letting the Laodiceans know that “As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore be zealous and repent. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me” (Revelation 3.19-20).
While correction is distressing, it is for our benefit. We do need to seek in prayer the change God desires from us. Open the door. Laodiceans kept Jesus Christ on the outside of their lives. But still, if anyone answered, He would come in.
To overcome is to be victorious, it is to conquer. This is the theme of the promises to the seven churches. To Ephesus overcomers will have access to the Tree of Life. To Smyrna, those faithful to death will be given the Crown of Life. To Pergamos overcomers were promised hidden manna, the bread of Eternal Life. To Thyatira overcomers will be given power over the nations. To Sardis overcomers will be clothed in white, imputing righteousness. To Philadelphia overcomers will become a pillar in God’s temple in his Eternal Government. And to Laodicea overcomers will govern directly with Jesus Christ.
What Jesus Christ has started, He will continue until He has something which is pleasing to God. The members of the church in Laodicea dealt in gold in the markets and street corners and thought they were rich. However, true wealth is an indestructible, unalterable, durable, and beautiful character that deals only in righteousness, and the love and obedience which leads to the Eternal Kingdom of God. We just need to open the Door.
Cliff Veal