Until this week, a large tree grew in the middle of our church parking lot. Its shade provided a great place to park your car, keeping it from getting too hot in the sun. 

I’ve been attending that church for seventeen years, and that tree was there the whole time. To me, it was beautiful and healthy. But I know nothing about trees. When I went to church this past Sunday, the tree was lying on its side, its trunk split wide open. 

I thought a strong wind must have passed through the area, but the fact was that the tree had simply fallen over. Those who are knowledgeable about trees could tell from the trunk that the tree was rotten on the inside. In fact, it had been that way for years. I was shocked. 

The lesson, of course, is that you can’t always tell a book by its cover. Things do not always appear as they seem. The Lord says the same thing in Rev 3:17. He is talking to the church at Laodicea. They think they are rich, wealthy, and “have need of nothing.” I suppose this church had some wealthy members. Since the early church met in homes, the Laodicean church could have perhaps met in the lovely homes of members who were respected in the community. Maybe they were even part of the local government. It was a comfortable church. 

From the outside, things appeared to be going well. But the Lord says that the church’s members are “wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked.” He is referring to their spiritual state. They were very much like that tree in the parking lot. To an outside observer who didn’t know better, the church looked great. An observer would conclude that the church was having a significant impact on the city of Laodicea. 

But when it came to inward, spiritual realities, they were rotten at the core. They were believers, but lacked intimacy with the Lord. They were out of fellowship with Him. He wanted them to rid themselves of the rottenness by turning away from their sin of loving the world. They should seek a healthy spiritual state and communion with Him.  If they didn’t, the Lord would vomit them out of His mouth. This cannot refer to the loss of salvation, which is impossible. It means that their current state of spiritual maturity was nauseating. If it continued, the Lord would discipline them, and they would be of no spiritual use. The tree lying in our church parking lot would be a good illustration of their intimacy with the Lord. 

I can think of at least two ways this applies to believers today. A church can look good on the outside. It can have a great building, a large congregation, and active youth and music programs. But if sound doctrine is not being taught, and if the people are not responding to such teaching, things only look good on the outside. Things are rotten inwardly. 

A similar situation can exist on an individual level. A believer may attend church and even be actively involved in it. But if he has no interest in the Word of God, he too is like the tree in our parking lot. An individual believer may also be a strict legalist and outwardly appear to be spiritually mature, but be out of fellowship with the Lord because he is not being transformed inwardly by the Spirit (2 Cor 3:18; Rom 12:1-2).  

How are we doing? How is the church we attend? Are we like the tree in the parking lot—like the church at Laodicea? It was a little sad to discover the truth about that pretty-looking tree. Let’s ask Him to keep all of us from being like that tree when He looks inside our “trunk” at the Judgment Seat of Christ.