Lukewarm for the Lord?

I believe it is pretty commonly thought that after a while of being a Believer it is common, even normal, to sort of cool it. That, after a certain amount of time, it is acceptable to not be quite so passionate; to not hold quite so strictly to the letter of the Word of God; to not believe quite so forcefully or in such black and white terms; to allow old habits to creep back because this habit isn’t really hurting anyone…it’s no big deal; to allow new habits to fall out of habit, into infrequency.

The question I’ve been thinking about is this: have I ever heard someone claim to be “lukewarm for the Lord”? I hear people spoken of often by others as “on fire for the Lord”, but, honestly, never praised for their tepid attitude toward their Creator. Is it really okay to “settle down” and “settle in” to our relationship or is it better to strive to keep the flames of our passion alive?

In my study of Revelation I was presented with an answer to these questions. In chapters 2 & 3, John relays a message from Jesus to 7 different churches in Asia. Two of these churches are addressed on their lack of passion for the Lord.

To the first church, He says,
“I know your deeds and your toil and perseverance, and that you cannot tolerate evil men, and you put to the test those who call themselves apostles, and they are not, and you found them to be false; and you have perseverance and have endured for My name’s sake, and have not grown weary. But I have this against you, that you have left your first love.”

Wow. For most of this passage, this church sounds pretty great. They persevere, they work for the Lord, they do not tolerate evil men and are not taken in by those who are not true Believers…then there’s that troublesome last part…there’s the “but”. The first love Jesus is referring to is their love of God. Jesus says that the first and most important commandment it to “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all you soul, with all your mind and with all your strength.” Isn’t it interesting that all the actions spoken to the credit of the above church are belittled by a want of this ONE thing – passionate love of God.

After pointing this out, He calls on the church members to repent, remember from where they have fallen, and do the deeds they did at first.
My favorite description of “the deeds they did at first” is found in Acts 2:42-47. I will let you look this passage up, but I will share with you some of the descriptions that I find inspiring: “They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching”, “Everyone kept feeling a sense of awe”, “All…were together and had all things in common”, “…taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart”.

To the second church, He is even more forceful and says,
“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.”
Ouch! Apparently, lukewarm attitudes make Jesus want to vomit.
The conclusion of his instruction to them is, “Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline; therefore be zealous and repent.”

BE ZEALOUS AND REPENT! Just in case there is anyone reading this that thinks “repent” is a Christian-ese word, here is the definition: to feel such sorrow for sin or fault as to be disposed to change one's life for the better. Repentance is not merely regret or a sorrowful feeling of having missed the mark. Repentance is that feeling which calls us to change the behavior for which we are sorry.

So back to the original question: Does God want our passionate devotion all the years of our relationship or is a dwindling, somewhat smoldering fire acceptable? It appears to me that our passion is what He desires, asks for, and requires of us. Is it really to much for all He’s done for us? But how do we maintain passion for, longing of, and devotion to a God we cannot see? Is it even possible to intimately know, the way we know those we love most here on earth, the invisible, unsearchable majesty of the Living God? The answer, in a word is Yes! How? I have found that he has told me more than I can ever comprehend of Him in His Word. There is more truth of His character, attributes, personality, likes, dislikes, favorite things, expected behavior, etc, contained in His Word than I could unpack in a lifetime and I can’t think of a better way to spend it.