“See! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.” [Rev 3:14-22]
The last church Jesus addresses in the “now” part of His Revelation to John is the Church at Laodicea. It has often been called the Lukewarm Church because she is neither hot nor cold. If I had been given the opportunity to name her, I would have called her “The Pathetic Church” because she does not even know that Jesus is missing from her midst. He’s gone but she keeps doing her thing.
This church was concerned with her prosperity. “For you say, ‘I’m rich; I have become wealthy and need nothing,’ and you don’t realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked.”
This church had drifted far from the Acts 2 Church. The believers of that church was concerned with far different things than their own personal prosperity. “Now all the believers were together and held all things in common. They sold their possessions and property and distributed the proceeds to all, as any had need.”
The Acts 2 Church did exactly what Jesus told the Rich Young Ruler in Luke 18:22: “Sell all you have and distribute it to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”
To me, the prosperity gospel is one of the worst teachings in modern day. I can find no words of Jesus that tell us to store up treasures on earth. And, when our personal quest for prosperity overpowers the truth of the Gospel in our personal lives or our corporate lives, we will end up like the wretched church at Laodicea—unaware that Jesus is no longer with us but standing on the outside waiting to be invited back in.
There is nothing inherently wrong with wealth, until it becomes a greater pursuit than simply following Christ Jesus wherever He leads. Then it can turn deadly.
