The Taste of Lukewarm

Posted on by Chris G Thelen

When I was a teenager I drove tractor to work the land on our family farm, often on hot summer days. I usually brought a small jug of ice water with me to refresh my parched mouth after hours in the heat. One time I stashed the jug under the tractor seat, but I failed to notice it was near the hot muffler under the tractor.

Later, when I retrieved the jug to refresh my parched mouth, I was surprised when lukewarm water entered my mouth. At first I spit it out, but then reluctantly drank it because I was thirsty. It was not very satisfying.

I think about the taste of that lukewarm water in my mouth when I read Revelation 3:15: “I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot; I wish that you were cold or hot. So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of My mouth (NASB).” Like that water jug sitting next to the hot muffler, the church of Laodecia had taken on the temperature of the world around them. They were not even aware they were “wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked (verse 3:17).”

Lukewarm water does not have much value. It doesn’t brew tea well or help cleanse hands and it certainly doesn’t make a drink refreshing on a hot day. The Word of the Lord is refreshing to the parched soul — living water that seeps into dry lives to revive them. When we are alive in Christ we can restore the parched soul with a drink of this living water.

Yet if we are merely lukewarm, we will not be of much value to others. They will see that we have taken on the temperature of the culture around us. We will look no different than others in the world.

Retrospective: This post originally published January 21, 2020.

© 2020, CGThelen

9 thoughts on “The Taste of Lukewarm”

  2. Pingback: The Taste of Lukewarm – Tonya LaLonde

  3. Love your down-to-earth writings. It is truly a “refreshing” gift. As one who tends to think in very high & arcane patterns, and struggles at times to write more simply, it is always good to encounter those who are natural at communicating much more lucidly. Both have their place but the one needs the other.

    1. Thanks. Yes, both are needed. God gifts his people differently to serve his purposes. Praise God we are one in the body of Christ. Blessings.

  5. “Lukewarm water does not have much value.” This is so true. This really makes you understand how God feels about a lukewarm church. Thank you for sharing.

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