Ver. 15. The moral nausea roused by tepid religion. It is best to be warm, and energetic; but even a frank repudia- tion of religion is at least more promising from an ethical standpoint (Arist. Nzk. Eth. vii. 2-10) than a half-and-half attach- ment, complacently oblivious of any short- coming. The outsider may be convinced and won over; there is hope of him, for he is under no illusion as to his real re- lation to the faith. But what can be done with people who are nominal Chris- tians, unable to recognise that they need repentance and that Jesus is really out- side their lives (ver. 20)? Cf. Dante’s Inferno, iii. 30 f. For such homely meta- phors and their ettectiveness, compare the critigism of Longinus in περὶ ὕψους
{3--1δ.
PLeatés: 3 ὄφελον ψυχρὸς ἧς ἢ ἵεστός: 16. οὕτως ὅτι " Χλιαρὸς et, ϱ dar hey.
ray
~ , / .. καὶ οὔτε [εστὸς οὔτε ψυχρός, µέλλω σε " ἐμέσαι ἐκ τοῦ στόµατός Rom. xii,
μου.
Il.
‘ 7 17. ὅτι λέγεις, "ὅτι 'πλούσιός εἰμι καὶ " πεπλούτηκα καὶ οὐ- 4 C/. Moult.
1. 200,
, Ν : δὲν | χρείαν ἔχω, καὶ οὐκ οἶδας ὅτι σὺ εἶ “6 ταλαίπωρος καὶ ἐλεεινὸς Helbing,
καὶ πτωχὸς καὶ τυφλὸς καὶ γυμνός" 18. συμβουλεύω σοι ἀγοράσαι
Matt. xii. 33? Ἐρὶίοι. ili. 15, 13. 1 Cor. iv. 8, 2 Cor. viii. 9.
ram. λεγ. N.T. u Hos. xii. 8 (9), Zech. xi. 5.
73-74)
Win. § 12,
5. For
idea,
5 John i. 32, cf. Plato’s Symp., 204a. v Art. as in Lk. xviii. 13.
1ονδενος (Ν ΡΟ, 1, Areth, etc.) is a correction of the difficult and original ovdev {‘‘like nil opus est,” Simcox: cf. Epict. iii. 7) AC, 12, Andbav, edd.
(xxxi.): ‘Sometimes a plain expression like this tells more forcibly than elegant language; being drawn from common life, it is at once recognised, whilst its very familiarity renders it all the more convincing”. The spirit of the verse re- sembles that which pervaded Christ’s denunciation of the religious authorities in his cay for their ὑπόκρισις, and his more hopeful expectations with regard to the harlots and taxgatherers (Ecce Homo, ch. xili.); the former condition of religious life was to Jesus a sickening feature in the situation. Just as spiritual death, in the case of the Sardis Chris- tians, meant a lost vitality, so in the case of Laodicea lukewarmness implies that a condition of religious warmth once ex- isted. ‘‘ He who was never fervent can never be lukewarm.” In his analysis of this state (Growth in Holiness, ch. xxv.), Faber points out not only that its corre- lative is a serene unconsciousness and unconcern (cf. ver. 17 6), but that one symptom is a complacent attention to what has been achieved (cf. 17 a) rather than sensitiveness to what is left undone, with ‘‘a quiet intentional appreciation of other things over God” (cf. ver. 20), which is all the more mischievous that it is not open wickedness.
Ver. 16. The divine disgust at luke- warm religion. Christ, says the prophet, is sick of the lukewarm: as the purpose (μέλλω) of rejection does not exclude the possibility of a change upon the part of the church which shall render the execution of the purpose needless, advice to repent immediately follows upon the threat. The latter is unconditicnal only in form. Exclusion from God’s life forms one side of the penalty, humiliating ex- posure before men the other (18).
Ver. 17. Priding herself not merely on the fact but (as is implied) on the means by which it had been secured (viz., per- sonal skill, merit) and finally on the in- dependent self-reliant position thus at- tained: a profuse certificate of merit,
self-assigned. To conceit and self-decep- tion the prophet wrathfully ascribes the religious indifference at Laodicea. ‘‘No one,” says Philo (Pragm. p. 649, Mang.), “is enriched by secular things, even though he possessed all the mines in the world; the witless are all paupers.” The reference is to spiritual possessions and advantages. It is irrelevant to connect the saying with the material wealth and resources of Laodicea, as exemplified in the fact that it was re- built by its citizens after the earthquake in 60-61 A.r. without help from the im- perial authorities (Tacit. Ann. xiv. 27). For one thing, the incident is too far back ; for another, the Apocalypse is con- cerned not with the cities but with the Christian churches. Such an allusion may have been in the writer’s mind, especially if the church included in its membership prosperous and influential citizens, since complacency and self-satis- faction are fostered by material comfort. “Tf wealthily then happily,” in Laodicea as in Padua. Still, these weeds spring from other soils as well. An inefficient ministry (cf. Col. iv. 17) and absence of persecution or of special difficulties at Laodicea probably helped to account for the church’s languid state. As John sug- gests, the church which is truly rich in spiritual and moral qualities does not plume itself upon them (ii. 9). οὐκ οἶδας, cf. the echo of this in Oxyrhynchite Logia, i. 3: τυφλοί ciow τῇ καρδίᾳ αὐτῶν καὶ οὐ βλέπ[ουσιν, πτωχοὶ καὶ οὐκ οἴδασιν τ]ὴν πτωχιαν (2), where blindness and poverty and unconsciousness of both occur. σύ, emphatic ; ἐλεεινός, ‘needing pity’ rather than (as Dan. ix. 23, x. 11,’ LXX) “finding pity”; tad. (cf. with νετ. 19, Sap. iii. 11: σοφίαν γὰρ καὶ παιδείαν 6 ἐξουθενῶν ταλαίπωρος), only here and Rom. vii. 24 in N.T., two passages representing the extremes of misery—unconscious and conscious. ὁ κ.τ.λ. = ‘the embodiment ΟΕ”).