In verse 17 the Lord continues, “Because you say, I am rich and have become rich and have need of nothing, and do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked.” The degraded recovered church (“assembly”) boasts of her riches (mainly in the knowledge of doctrines). She does not realize that she is poor in life, blind in sight, and naked in conduct.
In the eyes of the Lord, the degraded assemblies are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked. They are wretched because they are proud of being rich in the vain knowledge of doctrines but are surely poor in the experience of the riches of Christ. They are miserable because they are naked, blind, and full of shame and darkness. They are also poor in the experience of Christ and in the spiritual reality of God’s New Testament economy. They care mainly for vain knowledge but scarcely care for the living experiences of Christ. This is real poverty, the poverty that makes the degraded recovered church wretched and miserable.
In the eyes of the Lord, the church in Laodicea is not only poor in the riches of Christ but also blind in genuine spiritual things. Although she has some amount of knowledge about spiritual things, she does not have true spiritual insight.
The Lord points out in verse 17 that the degraded recovered church is also naked. We Christians have all received Christ as our objective righteousness to cover us like a robe. This is for our justification before God. After being justified by Christ, we need to live by Christ and live out Christ so that He may be our subjective righteousness as another splendid robe to cover our daily walk. Because of the lack of the subjective experience of Christ, the degraded recovered church is naked in the eyes of the Lord.
In verse 18 the Lord goes on to say, “I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined by fire that you may be rich, and white garments that you may be clothed and that the shame of your nakedness may not be manifested, and eyesalve to anoint your eyes that you may see.” To buy requires the paying of a price. The degraded recovered church needs to pay a price for the gold, the white garments, and the eyesalve, which she desperately needs.
First, the Lord counsels the church in Laodicea to buy “gold refined by fire.” In the Bible, our working faith (Gal. 5:6) is likened to gold (1 Pet. 1:7), and the divine nature, the nature of God, which is the divinity of Christ, is also typified by gold (Exo. 25:11). We partake of the nature of God by faith (2 Pet. 1:1, 4-5). The degraded recovered church has the knowledge of the doctrines concerning Christ but not much living faith to partake of the divine element of Christ. Hence, she needs to pay the price to gain the golden faith through the fiery trials that she may participate in the real gold, which is Christ Himself as the life element to His Body. In this way she may become a pure golden lampstand (Rev. 1:20) for the building of the golden New Jerusalem (21:18).
Second, in 3:18 the Lord counsels the church in Laodicea to buy white garments that they may be clothed and that the shame of their nakedness may not be manifested. In figure, garments signify conduct. “White garments” here refer to conduct approvable to the Lord, which is the Lord Himself lived out of the church and which is required by the degraded recovered church to cover her nakedness.
Third, the Lord counsels the church in Laodicea to buy from Him eyesalve to anoint their eyes that they may see. The “eyesalve” needed to “anoint” their eyes must refer to the anointing Spirit (1 John 2:27), who is also the Lord Himself as the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b). Because the degraded recovered church has been distracted by the dead knowledge of letters, she needs this kind of eyesalve for her blindness.
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