The Danger of Indifference
If I asked you to show me how you feel about Jesus with an emoji, which emoji would you choose? I imagine some of you would choose the praise hands or praying hands. Some of you might choose one of the many heart emoji options. Some of you might even choose the smiley face with the heart eyes. There are so many options for you to choose from that would seem appropriate, but I’m curious to know how many of you would choose the meh emoji as your answer to that question. That probably sounds crazy to most people. I mean, who would willingly choose the meh emoji to describe how they feel about Jesus?
But what if I were to ask Jesus to describe how He thinks you feel about Him with one emoji? Which one do you think He would choose? For some of us, the meh emoji might have just moved up on the list of appropriate responses.
In Revelation chapter 3, John is given a message for the church in Sardis, one for the church in Philadelphia, and one for the church in Laodicea. The messages for the church in Sardis and the church in Philadelphia both contain warnings as well as praises and encouragement. The message for the church in Laodicea, however, sounds more like a scolding than anything else. Jesus is pretty fed up with their indifference. He tells them in verse 15 that they are neither hot nor cold, and He wishes that they were one or the other.
You see, here is the thing about indifference, it gets you nowhere. You don’t move when you are indifferent. You stay in the exact same place. There is no growth. It is just meh.
There are churches still in existence today that are neither hot nor cold. They offer the same meaningless activities that they have offered for the last 50 years, and they go through the same sterile motions on Sunday morning that they have been going through for the last 50 years. They keep their members in a state of indifference, and nothing ever changes. Sure, these churches might have money, but they are missing Jesus. He is still standing outside waiting to be let in. Let’s be honest, what good is a church that has left Jesus to stand outside rather than welcoming Him in? How does a church like this advance the kingdom of God on earth? How is a church like this fulfilling the Great Commission?
There is a song called “War Sweater” by the band Wakey Wakey that I just love. The chorus says this:
You wear your religion like a war sweater.
You ask for the truth, but you know you can do so much better.
And you’ve sat on your fences, and you’ve screamed no retreat.
So, what will your legacy be?
Wearing the badge of Christianity as a status symbol is completely missing the point.
Claiming to want truth while really believing that you have nothing left to learn is prideful.
Being indifferent to Jesus and His teachings gets you nowhere.
People who are “hot” when it comes to spiritual matters are involved and committed to their faith. They don’t just pray the “magic prayer” and then sit around and wait to go to heaven. They go out and do something. They spend time with Jesus, and they listen and obey when He speaks. Being “cold” when it comes to spiritual matters is not necessarily the worst thing though. Someone that is considered “cold” when it comes to spiritual matters is at least in a position where they can still be deeply impacted and changed by faith.
The problem with people being “lukewarm” or indifferent when it comes to spiritual matters is this, they have just enough knowledge to not be resistant, but not enough real faith to be fully engaged. It is much harder to change a “lukewarm” person than it is to convert a fully “cold” non-believer, and a legacy left by indifference is not a legacy worth leaving.
In the popular musical Hamilton, Alexander Hamilton asks Aaron Burr the same question more than once during the show. He says, “If you stand for nothing Burr, what’ll you fall for”?
The biggest problem with indifference is that it leaves you completely vulnerable. You see, in Revelation 3:15, Jesus is not saying that He wishes that the church in Laodicea would grow cold in their faith. Quite the contrary. He sees the danger that being “lukewarm” puts them in and desires to protect them from that danger. Indifference leaves us completely vulnerable to self-deception, and self-deception is a truly dangerous foe.
Self-deception leads to destruction every single time. Self-deception leads us to believe that wearing the badge of Christianity as a status symbol is enough. Self-deception convinces us that we already know everything that we need to know about Jesus and faith. It moves us to keep our hearts and minds closed to the idea that we could be wrong about something. It convinces us that praying the “magic prayer” is enough. It makes us believe that knowing the scriptures is the most important thing. Self-deception makes us blind and deaf to Jesus.
Revelation chapter 3 tells us that the church in Laodicea was “neither hot nor cold”. It was neither emotionally excited, nor cold-hearted about Christianity…and Jesus was not happy about their indifference. Paul told Archippus years earlier to “see to it that you complete the ministry you have received in the Lord” (Colossians 4:17). Instead of heeding Paul’s warning, the church allowed indifference to seep in and gradually grow and spread like a cancer until it had eaten the life out of the church and left Jesus standing on the steps outside.
We must be careful not to fall into the same trap of indifference in our own lives. We must heed the warnings and protect ourselves against the poison of indifference. Praying a prayer of salvation is not enough. Memorizing scripture is not enough. Living a “good” life is not enough. Jesus tells us this in Matthew 7:21.
Defeating indifference takes work. It means spending time and walking with Jesus daily. It means being still and listening to His still small voice. It means moving out of our comfort zones when He tells us to move and holding our tongue when He tells us to be quiet. The enemy wants nothing more than to keep us right where we are. Jesus has called us to move. You get to choose. So, which is it going to be?