Luke Warm Laodicea

In Revelation there is no commendation for Laodicea.

Laodicea was close to Colossae and is mentioned several times in Paul’s letter to the Colossians. It was destroyed by an earthquake, AD. 62, and rebuilt by its wealthy citizens without the help of the state. It was founded by the Seleucid Antiochus II in the 3rd century BC, and called after his wife Laodice. For all its wealth, it could produce neither the healing power of hot water, like its neighbor Hierapolis, nor the refreshing power of cold water to be found at Colossae, but merely lukewarm water, useful only as an emetic. The church was charged with a similar uselessness: it was self-sufficient, rather than half-hearted. Like the city, it thought it had ‘need of nothing’. In fact it was spiritually poor, naked and blind, and needed ‘gold’, ‘white garments’ and ‘eye salve’ more effective than its bankers, clothiers and doctors could supply.[3]

^{^[3]} Wood, D. R. W., & Marshall, I. H. (1996). New Bible dictionary (3rd ed.) (672). Leicester, England; Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press.

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