Revelation: Church of Laodicea, You Are Far Too Easily Pleased, Part 2 | June 10, 2023

“It would seem that our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.”   ― C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory

The Laodiceans enjoyed the good life in their city, but they were settling for far less than what God had for them in His kingdom.

 Revelation 3:18 ESV

 ¹⁸ I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen, and salve to anoint your eyes, so that you may see.

Yesterday, we looked at the first thing Jesus told them to buy from Him: gold refined by fire. Today let’s look at the second and third thing: white garments and eye salve.

 The color white represented purity, God’s presence, and victory.¹ It also represents righteousness.² Remember, Laodicea was known for black wool.

 Read the following passages. What’s the difference between God’s clothes and theirs?

 Revelation 7:9-11 ESV

⁹ After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, ¹⁰ and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” ¹¹ And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, ¹² saying, “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen.” ¹³ Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, “Who are these, clothed in white robes, and from where have they come?” ¹⁴ I said to him, “Sir, you know.” And he said to me, “These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

Isaiah 61:10 ESV

I will greatly rejoice in the Lord;
    my soul shall exult in my God,
for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation;
    he has covered me with the robe of righteousness,
as a bridegroom decks himself like a priest with a beautiful headdress,
    and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.

Revelation 19:7-8 ESV

Let us rejoice and exult
    and give him the glory,
for the marriage of the Lamb has come,
    and his Bride has made herself ready;
⁸ it was granted her to clothe herself
    with fine linen, bright and pure”—

for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints.

*****

What about the eye salve? Their salve could heal their physical eyes. What is the purpose of God’s salve?

2 Corinthians 4:3-4 ESV

³ And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. ⁴ In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. 

Ephesians 1:18-19 ESV

¹⁸ having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, ¹⁹ and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might.

Acts 26:14-18 ESV

¹⁴ And when we had all fallen to the ground, I heard a voice saying to me in the Hebrew language,‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.’ ¹⁵ And I said, ‘Who are you, Lord?’ And the Lord said, ‘I am Jesus whom you are persecuting. ¹⁶ But rise and stand upon your feet, for I have appeared to you for this purpose, to appoint you as a servant and witness to the things in which you have seen me and to those in which I will appear to you, ¹⁷ delivering you from your people and from the Gentiles—to whom I am sending you ¹⁸ to open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.’

Lord help us to seek Your best for us. Help us surrender our ways and wealth and health to Yours. May we not be distracted by what the world has to offer and miss out on Your incredible blessings!

¹Scot McKnight & Cody Matchett, Revelation for the Rest of Us, (Grand Rapids, MI, Zondervan, 2023) p. 70.

²Osborne, G. R. (2002). Revelation (p. 210). Baker Academic.