Passion: Are You Hot, Cold, or Lukewarm?

Revelation 3:15 - “I know all the things you do, that you are neither hot nor cold. I wish that you were one or the other! But since you are like lukewarm water, neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth!

When is the last time you took your temperature? Not your actual body temperature, but your spiritual temperature. Take a moment and check. Are you:

1.       On fire for God, such that your relationship with Him causes others to be passionate too? (Hot)

2.       Have you grown distant and cold longing to return to what you once had? (Cold)

3.       Do you even care what temperature you are? (Lukewarm)

As believers we cross the entire spectrum of hot to cold and we probably know someone in each group. But have you ever wondered why God would prefer we were hot or cold rather than lukewarm?

The first time I read this verse my thought was, “Shouldn’t God desire all of us to be hot, to be passionate and on fire for Him? Why was cold ok?”

And then I realized it.

You see, we all desire to be hot, and for most of us we start out that way as new believers. We are excited and passionate, and our boldness and newfound faith gives us the courage to believe we can do just about anything for God. But then as the years go by, for some of us the passion fades a bit; the temperature cools, as does our relationship with God. It grows more and more distant.

Now we understand hot and what we should be, but what is the difference between lukewarm and cold?

The difference of course is temperature. There is a story that you can take a live frog, put it in room temperature water (lukewarm), and slowly heat it up. The frog will stay in the water and be boiled alive. Now if you placed the same live frog in ice cold water or boiling hot water it would immediately jump out. The frog notices the extreme temperatures but not a gradual change to hot or cold.

It is the same way with us. As believers the colder and more distant our relationship with God is, the more we long and desire to have the relationship restored. We know we are missing something, and when we see those who are hot we long for what they have. The cold understand their condition, and while God wants us to be hot, if we are cold then we at least know something is wrong and needs to be fixed. For the lukewarm on the other hand, they blend in; they get a little warmer or colder based on who they are near, but in the end they have not realized that they have started to cool down and are growing distant. In the end they think their relationship with God is more like those who are on fire, but in reality it is closer to the cold. They just don’t know it, and that is why God does not want us to be lukewarm - because we have not even realized that we have lost our passion for Him and are simply going through the motions.

So today, as you take your spiritual temperature, make a commitment to draw near to God. If you are already hot, turn up the heat even more. Cold or Lukewarm, make today the day you return to the believer you once were - on fire, passionate, and excited about your relationship with Jesus Christ.