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Revelation 3
18 I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, that you may become rich; and white garments, that you may clothe yourself, and that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and eye salve to anoint your eyes, that you may see.
19 As many as I love, I reprove and chasten. Be zealous therefore, and repent.
20 Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, then I will come in to him, and will dine with him, and he with me.
21 He who overcomes, I will give to him to sit down with me on my throne, as I also overcame, and sat down with my Father on his throne.
22 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the assemblies."
eye salve to anoint your eyes, that you may see
What is eye salve?
What does it mean to anoint?
Why might our eyes need anointing? What are the implications of this statement?
What are we supposed to see once our eyes are anointed?
The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is sound, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is evil, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is the darkness! (Matthew 6:22-23)
As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" Jesus answered, "Neither did this man sin, nor his parents; but, that the works of God might be revealed in him. I must work the works of him who sent me, while it is day. The night is coming, when no one can work. While I am in the world, I am the light of the world."
When he had said this, he spat on the ground, made mud with the saliva, anointed the blind man's eyes with the mud, and said to him, "Go, wash in the pool of Siloam" (which means "Sent"). So he went away, washed, and came back seeing.
The neighbors therefore, and those who saw that he was blind before, said, "Isn't this he who sat and begged?" Others were saying, "It is he." Still others were saying, "He looks like him." He said, "I am he." They therefore were asking him, "How were your eyes opened?" He answered, "A man called Jesus made mud, anointed my eyes, and said to me, 'Go to the pool of Siloam, and wash.' So I went away and washed, and I received sight." (John 9:1-11)
These things I have written to you concerning those who would lead you astray. As for you, the anointing which you received from him remains in you, and you don't need for anyone to teach you. But as his anointing teaches you concerning all things, and is true, and is no lie, and even as it taught you, you will remain in him. (1 John 2:26-27)
This is the message which we have heard from him and announce to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. (1 John 1:5)
This is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light; for their works were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the light, and doesn't come to the light, lest his works would be exposed. But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his works may be revealed, that they have been done in God. (John 3:19-21)
What are we to see once our eyes have been anointed? Is it our miserable condition of poverty and wretchedness just described by Jesus? If so, why? And is that what God needs us to focus on?
How does focusing on our shame, our wretchedness and blindness motivate us? In what way?
How long should we dwell on our misery, or should we? What determines what we look for?
I'm not suggesting we ignore what Jesus says about our real condition. It's just that maybe we spend so much time wallowing in trying to impress ourselves and everyone around us how wretched we are that maybe we become inoculated to the potency of Jesus' words and fail to see what is life-giving and healing.
Notice carefully the sequence in this message.
Our works are lukewarm putting us in great danger of being vomited out of the mouth of Jesus. Meanwhile we imagine ourselves to be rich and quite able to acquire wealth. Yet Jesus seeks to alert us that our real condition is just the opposite, that we are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked.
But this is not the complete story up to where we apply the eye salve. There is more.
Jesus has informed us that we are to buy these things from Him in order to remedy our desperate situation. So where in the order do we find the eye salve?
First we buy gold refined by fire from Jesus. We explored this at great length and saw how it represents faith and love tried by fire, purified and refined. This likely means it is not a weak faith but a strong trust in God that has been solidified through repeated challenges and attempts by the enemy to drag us back into distrust of God's heart. It is also purified by willing exposure to the fiery, passionate love flowing like a river from the very heart of God that we allow to burn out every lie, fear and all the resistance we have to living in love.
Then we buy and/or receive white clothes for the purpose of covering ourselves. We talked at length about the purpose of covering, not to hide nakedness but rather to eliminate shame that is the result of believing lies about our worth and identity. Clothes are used as a means of identifying value or rank in our world as well as to send a message to others about how we view ourselves or what kind of image we want to project. The symbolism of the clothes being white is highly significant as white is the completeness of light while black is the absence of all light. Thus white raiment would indicate full light, or to include the definition of human as reflectors, a full spectrum reflection of the heart of God just as Jesus reflected it.
To be filled with the passionate love of God and having that love reflecting from us continually is to be restored to our original design where we may experience the most fulfillment, satisfaction and joy. Having the gold in our possession and having the clothes/character of Jesus in hand, we still realize we can't see. Isn't this interesting? We receive the faith and love of Jesus and the vivid revelation of the glory of God's true character as worked out in the perfect human being of Christ, but our eyes still cannot see what we have. We still need eye salve and an anointing that will allow us to see.
So I ask again with all this in mind, what is it that we need to see most at this point? Is it our miserable condition or something else? This is a pattern that will keep show up throughout this book of many revelations, a pattern we often fail to notice because of our habit of gravitating toward the negative, of dwelling on the darkness inside of us and all around us instead of learning to sing the New Song. So what does Jesus want us to see when we receive the anointing mud mixed by Him personally for us that makes us apostles (sent ones) and examples of what He wants to do for others?
We haven't even gotten to the end of this message to Laodicea, but for context to glimpse what we might most need to see, let's include not only the gold and white clothes given for us to put on, but also the reality that Jesus Himself is standing right outside our door persistently knocking. Why is He staying outside? Is He too weak to force the door open and come in like riot police to clean out all the filth and evil hiding inside?
If Jesus is standing outside knocking, waiting for permission to come in to our heart, what do we imagine is His attitude towards us? What might keep us afraid of opening the door? What might we need changed in our perceptions about God to motivate us to trust Him enough to unlock the heavy bolts and bars we have installed to protect us from getting hurt and exploited yet again? After all, we are all too familiar with shame and exploitation and are terrified that if we allow even more light to invade our secret places that we won't be able to take any more. What about this?
This is actually how atheists perceive Christian's presentation of Jesus. Is it no wonder that they turn in disgust from appeals to accept Jesus? Yet we can't blame them, for this really does summarize how most of the Christian world promotes religion and salvation. No wonder Jesus says we need eye salve.
When looking for this meme I came across some another ones that might be a bit closer to what we might see when our eyes are more healed.
As I have immersed myself in this book over the last couple of years, one thing that brought more conviction than maybe anything else was when I felt strongly compelled to investigate exactly what is involved in singing the New Song that shows up in Revelation. What I learned is the nature of the language of heaven and what composes the music and imagination of those enjoying its atmosphere. What I discovered is that in order to fit in with the rest of the inhabitants of heaven, it is key that we come to realize that our thoughts, words and attention need be trained to focus on the goodness and greatness of God and weaned away from all the darkness, the filth and the corruption brought about by sin. That does not mean we are blissfully ignorant of evil. Rather it means that if we are to reflect the glory of God as the image projected from our mirrors, we must learn to focus most of all on what makes up that glory in order that our lives might reflect it spontaneously to others. Whatever we focus on most will be what is reflected and in turn will determine the likeness of character developed.
For if the service of condemnation has glory, the service of righteousness exceeds much more in glory. For most certainly that which has been made glorious has not been made glorious in this respect, by reason of the glory that surpasses. For if that which passes away was with glory, much more that which remains is in glory.
Having therefore such a hope, we use great boldness of speech, and not as Moses, who put a veil on his face, that the children of Israel wouldn't look steadfastly on the end of that which was passing away. But their minds were hardened, for until this very day at the reading of the old covenant the same veil remains, because in Christ it passes away. But to this day, when Moses is read, a veil lies on their heart. But whenever one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.
Now the Lord is the Spirit and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord, the Spirit. (2 Corinthians 3:9-18)
It is no coincidence that Jesus is offering these things to us personally, the very last group of people living right where Revelation launches us into the very throne room of God where we will witness the unveiling of what the war is all about. Very soon we will be introduced to a group of people that will keep showing up throughout the rest of this book, identified as 144,000 who so closely imitate their leader the Lamb, that even their clothing looks just like His. That is what true worship is all about – identification with and imitation of a hero. My point here is this: Jesus is offering the very last group of professed followers in history, all who claim to be God's chosen people on earth, an opportunity to participate in being His groupies who may come to so reflect His disposition and motives that they cannot be missed.
I believe we are living in the time of this last message. This means we are being offered this exchange with Jesus that is almost beyond imagination. Yet if we are willing to relinquish to Him everything we depend on, everything we imagine that might bring us value, pleasure, purpose or identity in exchange for the three things Jesus offers us here, we may become so transformed in our thinking, perspective and character that we may be fitted to be a part of this amazing group who constitute the Bride of the Lamb. This can only happen if we have allow ourselves to be brought by His Spirit into full harmony and sympathy with how He thinks, perceives and relates to everyone.
As many as I love, I reprove and chasten
What does this really mean? It is a description of the process of being discipled. The word discipline comes from the idea of disciple which is all about being mentored to become like someone which includes corrections, warnings and affirmation. Consider this parallel passage in Hebrews that may help to expand on it.
You have not yet resisted to blood, striving against sin; and you have forgotten the exhortation which reasons with you as with children, "My son, don't take lightly the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when you are reproved by him; For whom the Lord loves, he chastens, and scourges every son whom he receives." It is for discipline that you endure. God deals with you as with children, for what son is there whom his father doesn't discipline? But if you are without discipline, of which all have been made partakers, then are you illegitimate, and not children. Furthermore, we had the fathers of our flesh to chasten us, and we paid them respect. Shall we not much rather be in subjection to the Father of spirits, and live? For they indeed, for a few days, punished us as seemed good to them; but he for our profit, that we may be partakers of his holiness. All chastening seems for the present to be not joyous but grievous; yet afterward it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been exercised thereby. (Hebrews 12:4-11)
What are the key words in this passage we need to pay close attention to?
Resisted...sin
Take lightly
Loves
He receives
Endure
Deals with you as children
Respect
Live
For our profit
Partakers of His holiness
Fruit of righteousness
Identifying the key points here can help to lift the fog that often blinds us to the positive disposition God has towards us. God is light – no darkness at all. What we need is to take special note of the light of God's love in every passage to dispel the darkness that ever tries to keep us in fear.
Following this thread through Hebrews leads us back to another close parallel passage in the whole chapter of Isaiah 57. Remember that Revelation is a concordance to the entire Bible, so to unpack what we read here we need to allow the other places it references to backfill and greatly expand what is being only inferred here in these short hints and allusions.
On a high and lofty mountain have you set your bed; there also you went up to offer sacrifice. Behind the doors and the posts have you set up your memorial: for you have uncovered yourself to another than me, and are gone up; you have enlarged your bed, and made you a covenant with them: you loved their bed where you saw it.
You went to the king with oil, and did increase your perfumes, and did send your ambassadors far off, and did debase yourself even to Sheol. You were wearied with the length of your way; yet you didn't say, It is in vain: you found a reviving of your strength; therefore you weren't faint.
Of whom have you been afraid and in fear, that you lie, and have not remembered me, nor laid it to your heart? Haven't I held my peace even of long time, and you don't fear me?
I will declare your righteousness; and as for your works, they shall not profit you. [Compare this to how God's discipline in our lives is designed for our profit (Heb 12:10).]
When you cry, let those who you have gathered deliver you; but the wind shall take them, a breath shall carry them all away: but he who takes refuge in me shall possess the land, and shall inherit my holy mountain. He will say, Cast up, cast up, prepare the way, take up the stumbling-block out of the way of my people. For thus says the high and lofty One who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also who is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite.
For I will not contend forever, neither will I be always angry; for the spirit would faint before me, and the souls who I have made. For the iniquity of his covetousness was I angry, and struck him; I hid my face and was angry; and he went on backsliding in the way of his heart. I have seen his ways, and will heal him: I will lead him also, and restore comforts to him and to his mourners. I create the fruit of the lips: Peace, peace, to him who is far off and to him who is near, says Yahweh; and I will heal him. But the wicked are like the troubled sea; for it can't rest, and its waters cast up mire and dirt. There is no peace, says my God, to the wicked. (Isaiah 57:7-21)
After reading these passages from Hebrews and Isaiah, we begin to notice the kind of people Jesus may be addressing here in Laodicea from a whole new perspective. As we allow Isaiah 57 to enhance our perspective as to the condition of those Jesus is addressing, it is no wonder that He says we are miserable, blind, poor and naked while imagining ourselves to be just the opposite.
I stand at the door and knock
I will give to him to sit down with me, as I also sat down with my Father
Is there significance to the contrast here between standing and sitting?
Do we see parallels between Jesus knocking and waiting outside our door here and in the passages we read in Hebrews and Isaiah?
What are some of the implications inferred in this invitation to sit with Jesus on His throne?
