Big Idea: Jesus rebukes his church for its pathetic self-sufficiency and exhorts them to repent and open their hearts to him for restored fellowship and a share in his victory and authority.

Understanding the Text

The message to the church in Laodicea is the seventh (and final) in a series of messages to the seven churches in Revelation 2–3. Influenced by the local culture, the church considers itself wealthy and self-sufficient, but Jesus’s assessment differs markedly. He repeatedly utilizes images from the local situation to speak words of tough love to a church he sees as “wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked” (3:17). Jesus’s message drips with irony as he exhorts these fiercely independent believers to rely on him rather than their own resources. His strong prophetic warnings are…