In Revelation what did God mean when He said He wished that they were hot or cold but they are lukewarm and He will spit them out?

Answer 1

It means that there is no in between in being a Christian. You are either a full-on Christian ("Hot") or you are not ("Cold"). You are either Gods' friend ("Hot") or you are His enemy ("Cold"). Note: If you are not His friend, then you are His enemy. This is what God says about it, not me. "Lukewarm" means that God really dislikes people that refuse to make a choice, e.g.when a person says something like, "Oh, I'm not God's enemy or anything, I'm just still thinking about it." In that case He will spit them out of His mouth like stale, nasty water. An interesting side-note about this passage is the placement of the city of Laodicea. It was between two sources of water that still exist today, although not near as plentiful as they were 2,000 years ago. In one direction lay a natural hot spring of calcium-rich water, while in the other lay a natural source of cold water. The people of Laodicea tried to channel both streams into their city. The distance was so great, though, that by the time the waters reached the city, the hot water had cooled off, and the cold water had warmed up, leaving both literally lukewarm and undesirable. (The calcium-rich stream was, in fact, bitter to the taste and poisonous.) God was using this natural occurrance as an illustration of the spiritual condition of the "Christians" in that city at the time; both had strayed so far from their source that they were worse than useless, they were repulsive.