The Poverty of Wealth

A recent study showed that people can tell whether you are rich or poor simply by looking at your face. According to psychologist Thora Bjornsdottir, a PhD candidate at the University of Toronto, even expressionless faces give off hidden signals about social class. According to today’s passage, it is also possible to deceive yourself into thinking that you are better off than you really are. True riches are not a matter of money.

The city of Laodicea was located in the Lycus Valley, ten miles west of the city of Colossae and forty miles south of the city of Philadelphia. It was a wealthy city, famous for eye medicine and wool, and when devastated by the great earthquake of A.D. 17, they didn’t even need government help to rebuild.

The church was also economically prosperous, which had produced an attitude of self-sufficiency and complacency. The believers of Laodicea were doing well financially but languishing spiritually. Like the city’s water system, which was tepid and tainted with lime deposits, Laodicea’s Christianity left a bad taste. Jesus described their spiritual condition as “neither hot or cold” (v. 16).

In a world opposed to God, the gospel cannot help but create sharp lines of separation. “Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth,” Jesus warned His disciples. “I did not come to bring peace, but a sword” (Matt. 10:34). The church in Laodicea seems to have attempted neutrality. Reluctant to appear either for or against Jesus and unwilling to rock the boat, they curried favor with the culture in a way that alienated them from the Christ they claimed to serve. These were real Christians who were living false lives. Used to fending for themselves, they failed to grasp their own spiritual poverty (vv. 17–18).

Pray with Us

Continue to uphold in prayer the work of our Theology professors, John Clark, Marcus Johnson, Richard Weber, Sanjay Merchant, and David Finkbeiner, as they train students to “keep hold of the deep truths of the faith with a clear conscience” (1 Tim. 3:9).

BY Dr. John Koessler

John Koessler is Professor Emeritus of Applied Theology and Church Ministries at Moody Bible Institute. John authors the “Practical Theology” column for Today in the Word of which he is also a contributing writer and theological editor. An award-winning author, John’s newest title is When God is Silent: Let the Bible Teach You to Pray (Kirkdale). Prior to joining the Moody faculty, he served as a pastor of Valley Chapel in Green Valley, Illinois, for nine years. He and his wife, Jane, now enjoy living in a lakeside town in Michigan.