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Laodicea was started by a man named Antiochus II about 250 years before Christ's birth. It was pretty close to the city of Philadelphia, another church mentioned in the letters at the beginning of Revelation (Rev.3:7-13). It was a wealthy town, and it rebuilt itself without any outside assistance when it was destroyed by an earthquake about 60 years after Christ's birth.

In Colossians 2, Paul talks about this church being in "conflict," and so it is possible the Apostle Paul knew some people from this church even though we don't have evidence telling us if Paul visited it personally or not.

In Revelation, where we find out the most about the church (Rev3:14-22), Jesus warns the church about being "neither cold nor hot," that is, they were not "for" or "against" Jesus but hovered somewhere in between, obviously being known as a "Christian church," but apparently not being very vigorous in their faith.

This brings us to the last thing we know about the place, which is that it was wealthy. This may explain how it rebuilt itself after the earthquake without needing help: it had rich citizens. The town was renowned for selling an eye powder for helping sore eyes which was apparently very sought after. This makes it interesting that Jesus says to them "you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked.I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see."

This tells us that the money and self-sufficiency enjoyed by the Laodiceans was blinding them to their need for Christ. They had enough wealth to provide for themselves, so they fell into a state of spiritual compromise and weakness, and Jesus counsels them in Revelation 3:17-19 to "Buy" from Jesus true wealth: gold tried or refined in fire and white clothes to cover their "spiritual nakedness" and ointment for their eyes so they could "See" their own spiritual poverty. Jesus uses a word to refer to them which connotes extreme poverty- being reduced to beggar status.

A final interesting note is that, as Christ tells them to buy from Him "White clothes to wear," the Laodiceans were famous for producing a very popular black garment. It may be Jesus is continuing His point with a bit of irony, just as with the eye ointment, because He is telling a town famous for selling a black garment that they need white garments (something they can't provide for themselves) from God.

For an excellent breakdown of the complete history of this church and the significance of the letters to it found in Revelation, consult "The Revelation of Jesus Christ," a text by John Walvoord, pp.89-97.

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Q: What was the history of the church at Laodicea?
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