The Lord's Counsel to the Laodiceans
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Not only does the Lord expose this last phase of Christendom in all its utter degradation, but in His marvellous grace He gives His counsel. If we would know what the Lord has to say to the Higher Critic, the Modernist, and every other form of religious infidelity, we must turn to the address to Laodicea.
First, the Lord counsels the Laodicean to buy from Himself. He can say "Buy of Me." The first great need of the Laodicean is to have a personal transaction with Christ. This surely is the thought of buying. We know that when we are invited to come to Christ and buy, it is "without money and without price." The secret of the Laodicean condition stands revealed. They are indifferent to Christ and filled with themselves because they have never made personal acquaintance with Christ.
Second, they need the "gold tried in the fire." The gold represents all the wealth of blessing that is secured to the believer through the death of Christ. The riches in which the Laodiceans boast — the vast benefactions of men and the stores of knowledge acquired by human efforts — make an imposing show before men, but are worthless in the sight of God. They will not stand the test of judgment, and hence will not meet the requirements of a holy God who is a consuming fire. As with every sinner, the Laodiceans need the gold tried in the fire that alone can be obtained by faith in Christ. Abandoning their own riches they must come to Christ empty-handed, poor and helpless, to obtain the true riches.
Of old, Abraham obtained the promised seed entirely by the intervention of God. As far as Abraham was concerned he was "as good as dead" (Heb. 11: 11-12). In like manner it is as impossible for a sinner to justify himself from guilt in the sight of God by his own efforts as it would be for a dead man to do so. As far as doing anything to justify ourselves, we are "as good as dead." We are entirely shut up to the work of another — to Christ. But the sinner who believes in the risen Christ is justified in the sight of God from all things (Acts 13: 38-39). Such an one has, like Paul, parted with his "own righteousness" in order that he may have the righteousness "which is through faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith" (Phil. 3: 9). He stands before God in a righteous condition as the result of what God has done through Christ on the cross, and not what man has done. This righteous condition is secured by divine righteousness, not human righteousness. In Christ in the glory, this righteous condition is set forth — He is our righteousness. This righteousness is "the gold tried in the fire."
Third, the Laodicean is further exhorted to obtain the "white raiment" that he may be clothed and that the shame of his nakedness does not appear. If the gold speaks of the divine righteousness in which the believer appears before God, the white raiment speaks of the righteousness of the saints in which they appear before men. To be naked is to be Christless before God and exhibit nothing of the character of Christ before others. The self-occupation, self-exaltation and self-sufficiency of the Laodicean are exactly opposite to the lowliness, meekness and gentleness of Christ.
The wisdom of men and the intellectual attainments in which the Laodiceans may boast may indeed, like the fine clothes of the fashionable world, commend them to the great mass of unthinking men, but in the eyes of God's people such things will only add to the shame of their nakedness. If it is only by coming to Christ in faith that we obtain a righteous condition before God — the gold tried in the fire — so it is only by personal acquaintance with Christ that we acquire the character of Christ that excludes the flesh with all its shame.
Fourth, the Lord counsels the Laodicean to anoint his eyes with eye-salve that he may see. The eye-salve secures that spiritual discernment which can only be obtained by faith in Christ and reception of the Holy Spirit. "Sight" and the gift of the Holy Spirit are strikingly connected in the conversion of Saul of Tarsus. Ananias is sent to tell the man who had been blinded to everything of earth by the light from heaven, that "Jesus who appeared unto thee in the way as thou camest, hath sent me that thou mightest receive thy sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit" (Acts 9: 17).
Saul was a man whose fine natural mind had been trained to the highest pitch, and doubtless, like the Laodiceans, he believed he was thoroughly competent to judge all things. Yet so absolutely blind was this religious man, so ignorant of his own need, so ignorant of Christ and all that God is doing through Christ, that he was actually seeking to rid the earth of all that bore the Name of Christ.
But this highly intellectual bigot — blinded to everything of Christ — is by grace brought into the presence of Jesus and immediately he is blinded to everything of earth in order to have his eyes opened in connection with the gift of the Holy Spirit. Henceforth, he sees everything on earth and in heaven in the power of the Holy Spirit. This means his "senses" are "exercised to discern both good and evil." He sees what is according to God because he is led by the Holy Spirit to view everything in relation to Christ.
The Laodiceans, trusting in the fancied competency of the human mind, neglect Christ from whom alone they can receive the anointing of the Spirit. Confidence in self and indifference to Christ leave them in utter spiritual blindness. But, says the Apostle, writing to believers, "Ye brethren are not in darkness" (1 Thess. 5: 4). "Ye were once darkness, but now ye are light in the Lord" (Eph. 5: 8). The anointing which we have received of Christ abides in us and enables us to "know all things" (1 John 2: 20, 27).
Such then is the counsel of the Lord to the Laodiceans. He is not, however, content merely to give counsel and then let them go their way, for the Lord's counsel is followed by:
The Lord's Dealings with the Laodiceans
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