15 I know your deeds,(A) that you are neither cold nor hot.(B) I wish you were either one or the other! 16 So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth. 17 You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’(C) But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked.(D)

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15 I know thy works, that thou art neither cold, nor hot. I would thou wert cold, or hot.

16 But because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold, not hot, I will begin to vomit thee out of my mouth.

17 Because thou sayest: I am rich, and made wealthy, and have need of nothing: and knowest not, that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked.

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15 “I know your works; I know that you are neither cold nor hot.[a] I wish you were either cold or hot. 16 [b]So, because you are lukewarm, neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth. 17 [c](A)For you say, ‘I am rich and affluent and have no need of anything,’ and yet do not realize that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked.

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Footnotes

  1. 3:15–16 Halfhearted commitment to the faith is nauseating to Christ; cf. Rom 12:11.
  2. 3:16 Spit: literally, “vomit.” The image is that of a beverage that should be either hot or cold. Perhaps there is an allusion to the hot springs of Hierapolis across the Lycus river from Laodicea, which would have been lukewarm by the time they reached Laodicea.
  3. 3:17 Economic prosperity occasioned spiritual bankruptcy.

15 “I know all the things you do, that you are neither hot nor cold. I wish that you were one or the other! 16 But since you are like lukewarm water, neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth! 17 You say, ‘I am rich. I have everything I want. I don’t need a thing!’ And you don’t realize that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked.

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