by Heather Kaufmann
In Revelation 3:7, the Spirit says to the church in Philadelphia, “Look, I have set before you an open door, which no one is able to shut.”
In Revelation 3:20, the Spirit says to the church in Laodicea, “Listen! I am standing at the door, knocking; if you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to you and eat with you, and you with me.”
In revisiting this passage, I was struck that the image of a door is used in the Spirit’s address to both churches, but with very different meanings: in the first instance, Jesus is Himself the open door (as we also read in John 10:9-10); but in the second, the church and the believers therein are the door, on which Jesus is knocking.
Why does the Spirit of God give two parallel-yet-distinct door metaphors for these two churches?
We find a few clues in the words surrounding verse 7 and verse 20. The Spirit says of the church in Philadelphia, “I know you have but little power, yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name” (vs. 8). God’s invitation here seems to be – “Take heart! Though you are weak, the door is still open to you and no one can shut it.” But then to the church in Laodicea, the Spirit says, “I wish that you were either cold or hot. So, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I am about to spit you out of my mouth” (vs. 15-16). God’s invitation here seems to be – “Pay attention! I am knocking on the door and asking you to respond—to no longer be lukewarm for the Gospel.” The Spirit encourages the first church to remember that Jesus is the open door (i.e. that no one can now separate them from God), and then exhorts the second church to listen to His knocking (because right now, He’d rather spit them out of His mouth).
As I’ve meditated on these words, I’ve been asking myself two questions: What helps me to remember that the door to God is always open to me? And, What keeps me from hearing God knocking on the door of my heart?
Most often, I’m reminded that the door is open to me through a tangible encounter with God’s love—when He meets me in prayer or in the writing of a poem, when a friend offers generous hospitality, when I look up at the canopy of leaves above my head in a forest... Almost always, it’s a time when I’ve paused to listen, to seek Him, to give thanks. Meanwhile, what often keeps me from hearing God knocking on the door to my heart is a desire to stay in control—sometimes this looks like resistance to surrendering some part of my will to God’s will; sometimes like a desire to hold onto pride or bitterness or discontent; sometimes it’s just falling prey to busyness and a neglect of the Sabbath. Almost always, it’s a time when I’ve fallen out of the practice of attuning to God and attending to the gifts that He's offering me.
So friends, whether you are holding fast to the knowledge that God’s door is always open to you, or struggling to open the door to your own heart before God, may you find moments this week to pause, to look up, and to stay attuned to His work as we wait for His coming.
Heather Kaufmann lives in Bedford and loves poetry and walking in the woods. You can find some of her poems via Twitter/X at @HeatherElizK.