"God would rather you HATE Him than be 'lukewarm' you know! It's right there in Revelation's letter to the church at Laodicea! Lukewarm Christians make God sick to His stomach!"
This is a common idea among evangelical Christians, particularly in youth group settings (at least, that's where this author was first introduced to the idea). But is it really what the Bible says?
This is definitely a case where knowing a little bit about the geographic, political and historic background of a passage makes quite a difference in how the passage reads...
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Does God really get "sick to the stomach." Does He have a stomach? I'm thinking no.
Just sayin...
Huh. Well, that makes a lot more sense.
Well, if man is created in His image, why wouldn't he have a stomach. . .
Or put another way, are you saying God can't eat foie gras?
Sometimes we have to use human imagery to convey ideas about God. It's apparent from his statement that he's disgusted with the behavior of the Church at Laodicea. What better way to convey disgust than through the human notion of vomiting (which is what the Greek is really saying, as opposed to English translations typically using "spit out").
And BTW, the letter is from Jesus, who does have a stomach. Just sayin... :)
Let me clarify - the letters to the churches are written by John, but Jesus tells him what to write. (Rev 1:11-19, 3:14, etc)
JESUS was already transitioned into His Divine body, so He is speaking metaphorically here - bu His term "spew" or vomit, He means that He will forceably remove Laodicea from His Church body if they don't shape up - but I think Amy already knows this actually. Kudos James - a great teaching demonstration of using exegesis over eisegesis to interpret Scripture. By the way, you may be interested in my two articles on abortion. Wayne, Baptist Examiner
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