The door here referred to is evidently the ears collectively of those addressed. This appears from what follows, as, “If any one hear my voice and open the door, I will enter in to him, and will sup wth him, and he with me.” “Let Christ dwell in your hearts by faith,” says Paul. Now for Christ to enter in to dwell there, and consequently to banquet there, his voice, which is the truth, must first knock at, or sound, upon the ears of a man. If a man do not hearken to the truth, he keeps the door which leads to his heart, or understanding and affections, shut; and a faith-appreciated Christ cannot enter. The Greek sentence, which I have expressed in the translation, is idou, esteka epi ten thuran, kai krouo, “I have stood at the door, and / knock. ” How long he had been standing there is left to inference; but in now sending this epistle to them through the apostle John, he knocked audibly. Some of them would probably not accept the epistle as genuine, especially as it was so little flattering to their vanity; but would give it the go by, and attribute it to some pretender to inspiration, as many do in our day, paying the Apocalypse little or no respect. Others, however, among them might discern in it the voice of the Spirit, as we do, and give heed to it. In so doing they would set diligently to work as poor, blind, and naked men, to recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, and not rest content “until,” by close study of the scriptures, “Christ be formed in them;” and when so formed, they would hold that heart-satisfying communion with him expressed in the words, “I will sup with him, and he with me.”
The topography of Laodicea, given on page 401, is a standing monument of the impenitence of this seventh Star-Angel. Had it gained the victory over the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life, and maintained the gospel and its institutions in their apostolicity and purity, Laodicea would not now be a mere habitation for wolves, foxes, and jackals. The existing desolation was initiated because “they changed the truth of God into a lie;” turned the grace of God into lasciviousness, and denied the only Lord God, even the Lord Jesus Anointed. For this cause, “God sent upon them strong delusion,” that they should believe the lie they had invented; and which has been traditionally transmitted to our generation, and constitutes the “Christianity” in which the world delights—a Christianity which is the glory of the Satan; but as nauseating to the true believer, and as provocative of emesis, as the Laodicean Angel, which was at length spued out of the mouth of the Anointed Jesus.
It is probable, however, that there was a remnant even in Laodicea; that all the members of the ecclesia did not share in the lukewarmness of the generation coeval with the Apocalypse. Some probably sorrowed over the faithlessness of the Eldership, and the declension of the generality. If they succeeded in maintaining their position as faithful witnesses of the name and faith of Jesus Anointed, till the ejectment of the Angel from the Spirit’s mouth, they would themselves become a distinct and separate party, characterized as “keeping the commandments of the Deity, and having the testimony of Jesus Anointed;” while the others who were spued out as an utter abomination, are known on the page of history as “the Catholic Church,” the Mother of Romish and Protestant Sectarianism—Rev. 12 : 7 ; 17 : 5.