JESUS DESCRIPTION OF THE LAODICEAN CHURCH

Jesus Description of the Laodicea Church

"These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God."

There is nothing about these words which symbolize his mani­fested splendor. This statement is rather a declaration of his essential glory.

This description creates a contrast. To a church where there has been abject failure, Christ addresses himself as the One incapable of failure. The statement is threefold: positive, relative, and declarative of authority.

The Positive Statement of Essential Character

"The Amen" (Greek: amhn)

This word comes from the Hebrew word. This word is simply transliterated. Apply - Amen.

The root idea is that of nursing or building up, and the derived meaning in perpetual use today is that of some­thing stablished, built up, sure, positive (cf. Isa. 65:16).
"That he who blesseth himself in the earth shall bless himself in the God of truth; and he that sweareth in the earth shall swear by the God of truth; because the former troubles are forgotten, and because they are hid from mine eyes."

The word takes us back to God as the nursing Mother and expresses the truth of absolute stability and actual correctness of everything that God has thought, spoken, and done. This is an essential word, "The Amen." The definite article indicates that there is only one. Hence all truth lies within the compass of this one.

As a title it is equivalent to the claim made by Christ when He said, "I am the truth." He did not say, "I tell the truth," or "I teach the truth," or "I explain the truth." He said, "I am the truth."

"The Amen" states the same fact in more august language. He that is "The Amen" is essential truth, truth expressed in a person, truth from which there can be no appeal. The Amen is the conclusion, because it is the finality of nourishment, the perfection of edification, the last word, the end, to which nothing can be added.

So Christ approaching this church declares in the first phase of declaration that from him there can be no appeal. He is the Certainty, the Finality, the Ratification, and ultimate Authority, the Amen.

The Relative Statement of Faithful Communication

"The faithful and true witness."

"The witness, the faithful and true." Greek order

Because of what Christ is in Himself, He is therefore the faithful and true witness. He is that because He is the Amen. He is that because He is the truth. He is the Amen, even though He never speaks. He is the truth, if He utter no word.

But now that the truth has been spoken by Him, it is a faithful and true witness that He has borne. He is the faithful and true witness of God and also of the church. When He speaks there is no exaggeration and no minimizing.

The church at Laodicea had failed in witness. Its condi­tion had eclipsed the essential light that should have been shining in the darkness around. Now the Lord of the church comes in to strip the church of all the false appearance which deceives the eyes of many, but which cannot deceive Him. He now unmasks the failure of the church, but neither to exaggerate or minimize the condi­tion.

The Authoritative Proclamation of Absolute Causation

"The beginning of the creation of God."

This statement must be read in conjunction with Col. 1:15-18. Four times in the Colossian epistle, Paul makes reference to the church of the Laodiceans. Col. 2:1, 4:13, 15, 16. The two churches were close together and the conditions in both were in many ways the same.
"Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature:" "For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him:" "And he is before all things, and by him all things consist." "And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence."

As in Col. 1:15-18, so also in this statement, Christ is setting forth his rank. He rises infinitely beyond that of prophet, priest, and king. He speaks with the authori­ty of One Who is the first cause, the creator, the begin­ner of everything, and therefore the firstborn, having priority of position to everything in this creation.

This introduction of Himself to a church that has become independent and filled with conceit because of wealth and worldly position is necessary. This church boasts that it has need of nothing, not even Christ.

Only the truth can bring this church to its senses. In the blinding splendor of His wealth, the blasphemy of Laodicean independence is manifest.

Christ now speaks to this church, not as a king of a section of the world, not as one who enunciates laws for one realm of the universe, but as the beginning of creation, the Cause and the Creator, who is king of all creation. To the church at Laodicea, lifeless, indiffer­ent, cool, He speaks as the One who is the Source of all life, the infinite Energy, the Beginner.

There is no word of commendation from this One. This does not mean He has abandoned hope. But as that one who has the last word in all matters of faith and life, words of complaint and counsel follow.