Once Philadelphia fails, she becomes Laodicea, which is to know everything but be fervent about nothing, having much and not actually sacrificing her life for anything, and to be lukewarm; may we receive God’s mercy to pay the price to buy the living faith to partake of the divine element of Christ and have fresh, new experiences of Christ daily.
Oh Lord Jesus, shine on us and expose our real situation. Save us from thinking we know so much and we have so much. Have mercy on us, Lord, and grant us to be before You concerning our spiritual condition. We humble ourselves before You and we come to You, being willing to pay the price to gain more of Christ! Infuse us with Yourself as faith in a fresh way so that we may gain more of Christ daily! Amen!
How we thank and praise the Lord for His speaking to us today. How grateful we are to Him for showing us what He desires from us: He wants to gain the way of Philadelphia, the church of brotherly love!
He wants to gain some who are built up together, having brotherly love among themselves, who do their best with the little power they have! Amen!
We are not spiritual giants; we are little brothers and sisters, we have little power, but we do our best to keep the Lord’s word and not deny His name.
We come to the Lord as the One who has the key of David, and He opens the door that no one can shut. He opens the door outwardly for the gospel of the kingdom to be preached throughout the inhabited earth.
These days in particular, as the Winter Olympics are going on in Italy, there are many saints who gave themselves to go there and preach the gospel, even bring the hight truths to the seeking ones in Italy.
The Lord has opened this door today for His recovery to spread, for the local churches to be strengthened, and for the golden lampstands to be built up and even multiplied. Thank the Lord for this open door!
The Lord has the key of David to open the door to our heart for Him to transform us, conform us to His image, and build us up into God and with one another so that we may be pillars in the dwelling place of God, the church today and the New Jerusalem in eternity.
God is working Himself into us and building us into Himself to the point that we become pillars in the Triune God, and nothing can take us out.
He writes His name upon us, He writes the name of the New Jerusalem on us, and He writes Christ’s new name on us.
Through our enjoyment and experience of Christ, we are becoming the same as God in life and nature but not in the Godhead, we are becoming parts of the New Jerusalem, and we’re becoming Christ in a new way – in the way of our secret enjoyment and experience of Christ. Wow, Hallelujah!
When Philadelphia Fails, she Becomes Laodicea: Lukewarmness and Spiritual Pride with No Brotherly Love
God’s way today is the way of Philadelphia; however, once Philadelphia fails, she becomes Laodicea. The last of the seven churches to which the Lord wrote in Revelation 2-3 is Laodicea. Those who are in Philadelphia are in danger of becoming Laodicea.
The meaning of the word Laodicea is “lao” meaning “many people” and “dikea” or “dicea” meaning “opinion.”
Instead of being the church of brotherly love, Laodicea is the opinion of the people, the many people having an opinion.
When brotherly love is lost, the relationship of love in the Body of Christ is lost, and it is replaced by the opinion of the many people.
When brotherly love is lost, when we no longer keep the Lord’s word and denominate ourselves with any other name except the Lord’s, we lose the Lord’s opinion, and we have the vote of the majority, ballots, and the show of hands.
This sounds all too familiar, for this is what is happening in degraded Christianity today. Oh Lord!
Laodicea is distorted Philadelphia; when Philadelphia fails, she becomes Laodicea. May we receive the Lord’s warning concerning this.
May we see that, when brotherly love among us is gone, what will remain is the opinion of the majority as the accepted opinion. When we have the majority as being what is in favour, that is degradation. Oh Lord!
In the Lord’s eyes, the characteristics of Laodicea are lukewarmness and spiritual pride (see Rev. 3:15-18).
The Lord warned the church in Laodicea that she was lukewarm and neither hot nor cold, so He would spew her out of His mouth.
He wished that she were either hot or cold, but because she is lukewarm, He will spew her out. Oh Lord!
The church in Laodicea says that she is wealthy and has become rich and have need of nothing, but she does not know that she is wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked. Wow!
In the Lord’s eyes, even though the church in Laodicea thinks she’s rich and has no need of anything, He sees her as being wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked.
She is wretched, for she does not know her condition. She is miserable, even though she thinks she needs nothing.
She is poor, even though she thinks she has riches. She is blind, for she does not see her real situation. And she is naked, for she is not covered with the righteousneses of the saints, the lived out Christ. Yet she is proud.
This pride comes from her history. She has experienced something of Christ, she has some riches of Christ in the past, and she has a lot of knowledge, so she thinks that today the situation is the same.
She bases her present situation on her experiences in the past, but she has no fresh and new experiences of Christ. Oh Lord!
The Lord was merciful to those in Laodicea once, but they do not continually enjoy the Lord’s mercy but trust in themselves, are content in themselves, and are lukewarm.
This is such a danger to us. If we look at the history of the Brethren, this is exactly what happened among them.
After the Lord raised the many Brethren such as John Nelson Darby, George Muller, C. H. Mackintosh, and so many others, after they wrote many books to expound their riches hidden in the word of God, their followers became lukewarm.
They had all the riches, they thought they had everything, and they were content; they did not have the fresh and new experiences of Christ, but they had all the knowledge.
So they divided themselves based on many things, each group thinking they are right and based on the Scripture.
The history of the Brethren is both encouraging to us and a great warning to us in the church life today.
Only those in Philadelphia can fail to be Laodicea; general Christianity cannot be Laodicea, but we in the church life can be degraded to be Laodicea.
If we today think we are rich, we have everything, and we lack nothing, yet we do not experience Christ daily, we do not have fresh experiences of the living Christ, we do not gain Christ, and we are not hungry and thirsty for more of Christ and more of building, we are degraded.
If we think we are wealthy, for we have enjoyed so much of Christ, yet we do not experience Him in a fresh way daily, if we don’t forget what is behind and stretch forward to enjoy Christ in a fresh way to gain Him today, we are Laodicea (Phil. 3:7-13).
May we read this portion in Revelation 3:15-18 with much prayer before the Lord, humbling ourselves before Him, and allowing Him to shine on us to expose any element of degradation in us.
May we let Him shine on our lukewarmness and spiritual pride.
May we realise that, though He was merciful to us once, we should not rely on our history but we should gain more of Christ.
May we not remember that we were once wealthy and have become rich and have need of nothing; rather, may the Lord shine on us and may we pay the price to be healed of our blindness, covered because of our nakedness, and enriched with Christ because of our being poor.
Only the Lord can make us fervent about Himself and His interest, and only in His mercy can we forget what is behind and stretch forward to gain more of Christ, being freed from any spiritual pride and lukewarmness!
Lord Jesus, we open to You. Shine on us. Shine on our situation and our condition. Expose any lukewarmness and spiritual pride in us. Oh Lord, we open to Your fresh shining through Your word. We allow You to expose our real situation and condition. We thank You for being merciful to us in the past, but we do not rely on our past experiences. Thank You for granting us so many riches through the ministry; we come to You in a fresh way to enjoy You in the word, not considering we are rich. Oh Lord, save us from spiritual pride. Save us from being lukewarm. May we be hot, fervent for the Lord and His interest, and may we be cold toward the world and the things in the world. We love You, Lord, and we want to gain more of You. We want to freshly forget what is behind and stretch forward to the Christ before. We want to gain You today. We want to experience You today. Save us from being content with what we have, what we experienced, and what You have shown us in the past. Oh Lord Jesus, we want to take the way of Philadelphia and not fail to be Laodicea!
Continue in the Way of Philadelphia by Humbling Ourselves before God and Paying the Price to gain the Living Faith to Partake of the Divine Element of Christ
The God-ordained pathway for the church is the way of Philadelphia; He wants to gain the way of Philadelphia in the local churches in the Lord’s recovery today.
But it is easy for us to fail and be Laodicea, especially since we have so many riches, we have the ministry of the age, we have so many past experiences of Christ, and it is easy and even natural for us to think we are rich, we are wealthy, and we have no need of anything.
Whenever we have such a thought or feeling, we need to humble ourselves before the Lord. He is the Amen, the faithful and true Witness, the beginning of the creation of God (Rev. 3:14).
He wants to dispense Himself into us in a fresh way, if we just open to Him.
Laodicea means that we know everything, but in reality, we’re fervent about nothing.
We know a lot from God’s word, we know the ministry, but we’re not fervent for anything related to the Lord. Oh Lord!
We may have everything in name, but we may not sacrifice our life for anything, for we’re lukewarm.
We may remember our former glory, for the Lord has granted us some wonderful experiences of himself, but we may forget our present situation and condition before God.
We may have been Philadelphia in the past, but today we may be Laodicea before the Lord.
We truly need the Lord’s mercy, for only when He shines on us we realise that we’re Laodicea.
May we humble ourselves before the Lord (Matt. 5:3; Isa. 57:15; Gal. 6:3). May the Lord grant us the mercy that we are truly open to Him and take His counsel. His counsel is that we buy from Him (Rev. 3:18).
We need to pay the price to purchase something from Him. We need to buy gold refined by fire so that we may be rich toward God.
May we not think that we are rich and have need of nothing; it may be true that we had many experiences of Christ in the past, and even yesterday or ten minutes ago we had a wonderful enjoyment and experience of Christ.
But we should never think that we’re rich or wealthy, having need of nothing. Rather, may we come to the Lord again and again in a fresh way.
We need to buy gold refined by fire. This gold refined by fire refers to two things: our operating, working faith (Gal. 5:6; 1 Pet. 1:7), and the divine nature of God, which is the divinity of Christ (Exo. 25:11).
God’s divine nature is signified by gold, and our faith which is refined by the fire of trials and persecutions, is also pure gold.
May we be those who come to the Lord and are willing to pay the price to buy the gold, that is, to partake of the divine nature of God by faith (2 Pet. 1:1, 4-5).
May we not only have the knowledge of doctrines concerning Christ but even more, pay the price to buy the golden faith through the fiery trials so that we may participate in the real gold!
As we go through things, may our being be open to the Lord, not content before Him but always hungry for more of Christ.
We want to pay the price to have the living faith, the operating faith, for us to gain the golden nature of God, Christ Himself as the life element to His Body.
As we gain Christ, as we pay the price to gain Christ day by day and our living faith is tested by the fiery trials, we can become part of the pure golden lampstand (Rev. 1:20) for the building of the golden New Jerusalem (21:18).
We need to not only know the truth or have knowledge of doctrines in our mind; we need to have the living faith so that we may enjoy the divine nature.
When we are in the divine nature, we have the living faith. May we be willing to pay the price to gain this gold – the divine nature applied, appropriated, by the living faith, which is Christ Himself.
Lord Jesus, we want to continue in the way of Philadelphia today. We want to avoid becoming Laodicea; we humble ourselves before You. Oh Lord, we just humble ourselves before You. We come to You afresh; we want to enjoy You and love You in a fresh way today. Save us from knowing everything but being fervent about nothing. Save us from having everything in name but not being willing to sacrifice our life for anything. Save us from remembering our former glory and wonderful experiences of Christ, but forgetting our present condition before God. Oh Lord, save us from merely having the knowledge of the doctrines concerning Christ but not having much living faith. We exercise our spirit of faith. We are willing, Lord, to pay the price to buy the gold refined by fire from You. May we pay the price to gain the golden faith through the fiery trials so that we may participate in the real gold, which is Christ Himself. Oh Lord, may we have the living faith today so that we may enjoy the divine nature! Make us willing to pay the price!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration for this article/sharing comes from the Word of God, the enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by the brothers on this topic, and portions from, Collected Works of Watchman Nee, vol. 50, “Messages for Building Up New Believers (3),” pp. 784-787, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crucial Aspects of Matthew 5 through 7 (2025 September ITERO), week 7, Entering through the Narrow Gate and Walking on the Constricted Way That Leads to Life, the Ever-blessed Condition of the Kingdom – day 5.
- Hymns on this topic:
– Laodicea warns us all: / From Philadelphia some will fall. / By saying, “I am rich,” it’s then / The Lord is outside wanting in. / Lukewarmness we must ever spurn / And in the spirit always burn, / The inward life experience gain, / And pay the price with Him to reign. / Lord, shine Your light on us today / That we may fully go Your way; / Anoint our eyes and let us see / So You can have recovery. (Hymns #1274 stanzas 15-17)
– Through the Cross, O Lord, I pray, / Put my soul-life all away; / Make me any price to pay, / Full anointing to receive. (Hymns #279 chorus)
– You have kept His Word of patience; / He will keep you from that hour / Which upon the whole world cometh / When the Lord comes in His power. / “I come quickly,” Philadelphia, / Speaks the Lord to none but you; / “Amen! Quickly come, Lord Jesus,” / Answer back His faithful few. (Hymns #1276 stanzas 7-8)
