Leaving the Laodicean Stage

When we bring children into this world, no sensible parent assumes that his child will spend his entire life in kindergarten or attend the primary grades of school until old age. Every period of growth has particular levels of education and development. When we hear that someone has turned eleven, we have an approximate understanding of that person’s level of development and relate to him according to the age of the child. But when I see a young man who has turned twenty, I would be surprised to learn that he still attends first-grade classes and understands the curriculum for that age very well. At this stage of life, I expect to see an independent person who has completed secondary school and is already able to support himself.

Likewise, if I see an adult who continues to study in the tenth grade and master everything intended for that age, but does not become independent and goes on studying the same things year after year, I have many questions about that person. Why has he become stuck at this stage? How much longer will he continue studying this familiar curriculum?

With children and adolescents, we become concerned when their growth stops, and we understand that certain problems must be identified and resolved. Yet when it comes to the fellowship of the church, for some reason our minds switch off, and we do not respond at all to delays in spiritual growth, even when they concern us personally.

I would very much like every reader to stop now, look into his heart, and determine the stage of growth at which he presently stands or the stage at which he has become stuck.

Children do not write their own school curriculum and should not invent for themselves the tasks they are to understand and solve. This is done by adults and gifted people who understand which curriculum is best suited to each child at each stage of growth. God has likewise provided particular tasks and particular light for every stage of faith. He placed them in one common textbook called the Bible. At the proper time, He reveals to each of us precisely what will help us grow spiritually.

The message of the Faithful Witness to the Laodicean church passes through every level and stage of faith and reveals the serious problem of arrested spiritual growth, calling it a lukewarm condition. What is taking place?

Verse 14 begins our acquaintance with the Faithful Witness. This develops into discipleship and grows into the stage of success, which becomes spiritual wealth for God’s church. We become rich in knowledge, experience, every kind of project, and revelations. Our study of truth is so deep that our opponents have no weighty arguments with which to persuade us otherwise. Yet strange as it may seem, the Lord calls this condition lukewarm and offers us passage to a higher stage of faith.

Revelation 3:18 is, for all of us, the dark night of the soul in which we must understand that we are poor, wretched, naked, blind, and miserable and greatly need that which will enrich and clothe us and give us wisdom. When I enter this territory, I experience many things that cleanse my heart of spiritual pride and selfishness. I no longer want to simmer in the common pot and study the same things repeatedly when they no longer nourish me or add anything to my growth. I understand that the problems delaying my spiritual growth are not the church’s fault; they are my personal problems, which Jesus calls me to resolve at a personal level as He addresses me personally.

When I accept God’s plan and His program for my spiritual growth, the dark night of the soul in verse 18 passes smoothly into the journey within myself. There the Lord declares His love for me and calls me to be zealous in self-examination and to repent of the carelessness I have displayed until now. At this stage of growth, He lovingly reproves and chastens me. The fire of His reproof is very hot and burns out of me all the rubbish that is displeasing to Christ. I understand that I am in the hands of the Great Master and rejoice in the cleansing taking place within me.

But the Lord does not want me to become stuck at this stage. He invites me to leave verse 19 and move to the place where He modestly stands at my door and knocks, desiring that I come outward from my inner self-examination, enter into a close personal relationship with Him, and learn directly from Him to receive the important revelations with which He will endow me in personal fellowship with Himself.

As I commune with Christ every evening, I understand that I am also surrounded by the visible world of people who may become my potential friends. I gladly share with them all my revelations and my new experience of spiritual growth. Yet for some reason very few people understand me, and very few share my joy in these new discoveries.

Seeing my desire and longing for fellowship with Him, Christ invites me to enter the stage of the overcomer. There He begins to teach me His unconditional love and reveal the depth and meaning of this blessing. My friendship with new friends grows into unselfish love. In this love, I begin to discover a new beauty in Holy Scripture and to explore passages I had previously raced past without even suspecting what riches lay beneath my feet.

The Lord does not want me to become stuck in verse 20 and enjoy fellowship with Him alone. Although without Him I can do nothing, when I have a close connection with Him, He calls me to love those around me who have stopped in their spiritual growth. I discover a new phase of my life and spiritual growth. I understand that I love and that this comes from the Lord. I discover a new world of possibilities and blessings and grow confidently in God’s love, which pours through me upon everyone around me.

I love. I love from a pure heart. I begin boldly to declare this to those whom God calls me to love and whom I have chosen for unconditional love. At this point, I become completely incomprehensible to everyone. Yet it is at this very stage of growth that the Lord declares me an overcomer. But what kind of overcomer am I when people laugh at me, strike me, refuse to take me seriously or listen to me, and accuse me of having nothing to give people except love? I understand that I cannot live any other way, yet I do not know how to respond properly.

When I understand the characteristics of every stage of faith, it is not difficult for me to continue growing and accept all the accusations and mockery directed at me, which Christ also experienced in His life.

Spiritual growth does not imply withdrawing from membership in the spiritual fellowship or leaving my church. It means that while remaining in the church, I enter into a closer relationship with Christ, and He Himself teaches me and endows me with everything necessary for spiritual victories.

It is good for me if I understand that, as I grow, very few of those who have become stuck at an earlier stage of faith will understand me. This understanding helps me continue growing and follow Christ whithersoever He goeth.

1. Please read Revelation 3:14–22; Hebrews 5:12–14; 1 Corinthians 3:1–3; Ephesians 4:13–15; Philippians 1:6; 3:12–14; John 15:4–5; 16:33; 1 Peter 4:8; 2 Timothy 3:12.

2. What other Bible verses came to your mind?

3. What did you understand?

4. Did you see the stages of spiritual growth in the message to Laodicea?

5. What signs of spiritual maturity do you see in your life?

6. Is it possible that your knowledge is growing faster than your character?

7. What in your life may point to a Laodicean condition?

8. Do you thank God for the trials that help you grow?

9. Are you blaming the church or those around you for problems for which you yourself are responsible?

10. Are you striving toward new spiritual discoveries, or are you content with past experience?

11. Are you afraid to appear strange for the sake of fulfilling God’s will?

12. Are you able in your own strength to love those who criticize, reject, or ridicule you?

13. Are you ready to follow Christ even when no one understands you? See Revelation 14:4.

14. If the Lord evaluated your spiritual growth today, what would He say about your present condition?