NOTES for Rev 3:14-22

The promises to those who complete the Christian way go far beyond traditional ideas about posthumous reward: the point is not paradise, but the Throne of glory, which Jesus is ready to share with those who remain faithful to Him. But walking the way and keeping faithfulness is not so easy, and Jesus' address to the church of Laodicea bears witness to this. Moreover, it turns out that the most terrible trial is not persecution and not deprivation, but the indifference described by the Savior's words, "you are neither cold nor hot."

It would seem that a person who does nothing bad should by that fact already be good to some degree, at least compared with someone who does evil. But it turns out that everything is not so simple. Indeed, what does it mean to be, conventionally speaking, "good like everyone else"? In essence, it actually means being "nothing in particular like everyone else." Of course, from the point of view of the law and even of commonly accepted social morality, being "like everyone else" is good.

It is entirely acceptable, and society and the state normally do not demand more from a person. Well, perhaps except in special, extreme situations when something extraordinary is required for the salvation of that same society and state. But for the Kingdom, "like everyone else" is not enough. And not even because "everyone else" is capable of good things, sometimes rarely even very good things, and, much more often, bad and even very bad things.

Rather, it is because in spiritual terms "like everyone else" in practice means precisely "not at all." In spiritual terms, "somehow" means a conscious choice, even if the one choosing chooses evil. Choice is always a moment of awareness and therefore a moment of truth, although the measure of awareness and of the fullness of truth can vary. But "like everyone else," "not at all," wherever things happen to carry one: this is the absence of choice. An unwillingness to choose. And therefore an unwillingness to become aware.

Even if a person consciously chooses evil, not in the sense of some ideal aspiration toward "pure evil," but in the sense that he understands what he is choosing, he still makes his choice and therefore lives at least somewhat consciously. But if the same person does nothing bad simply because he is "like everyone else," and "everyone else" at the moment is not doing anything especially bad, he chooses nothing, and therefore understands nothing, existing, so to speak, on autopilot. Such automatism and the spiritual path, especially the spiritual path of a Christian, are incompatible. That is why it is better to be cold, if being hot does not work, as long as one does not remain nothing in particular. For being nothing in particular is a direct path to nowhere.