<p>3:16 <em>As you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spew you out of my mouth</em>-</p><p>There is no third way. We may as well realize this. The Lord Jesus <em>hates</em> the fact that some think there is a third road; He would that we recognized, as He does, that there is really no 'lukewarm' position- only hot or cold. He seems to ask us to realize this: &quot;Either make the tree good, and his fruit good; or else make the tree corrupt, and his fruit corrupt&quot; (Mt. 12:33).<br />We know that from God's perspective, we <em>are</em> either cold or hot. We either serve Him or mammon. We are either on the road to the Kingdom or to death. So surely the Lord is speaking from <em>our </em>viewpoint; He wished that those believers would have the attitude that they were either cold or hot, rather than thinking there was a middle course. In essence, their weakness is ours; for time and again, we hide behind the philosophy of 'balance' in order to justify a &quot;neither cold nor hot&quot; attitude. Our lack of serious devotion, both individually and as a community, rests in this sophistry of 'balance'; lukewarmness has become respectable, both in the brotherhood and in the world; total commitment is branded as fanaticism and simplistic dogmatism.</p><p>As tourists came to taste the waters of the Laodicean springs, so the Lord tasted the believers there. The spewing of them from His mouth connects with how the sharp sword of judgment proceeds out of His mouth (1:16; 2:16; 19:21).</p>