What Is a Lukewarm Christian?
A lukewarm Christian, in the only verse of the NIV Bible that uses the word (Revelation 3:16, in Jesus' letter to the church at Laodicea), is a believer who has come to feel they need nothing from him. The letter names the problem in verse 17: "do not need a thing." No feeling can measure that, and the same letter goes on to picture Jesus knocking at their door.
What is a lukewarm Christian?
A lukewarm Christian is someone whose faith has settled into needing nothing from Jesus. The term comes from Revelation 3:14-22, where the church at Laodicea says, "I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing" (NIV). The letter measures need, and it goes on past the warning to an invitation.
Does feeling flat make you a lukewarm Christian?
Feeling flat and being lukewarm are 2 different things.
You may feel very little when you pray or sing, and so decide the word, and the verse about being spat out, are about you. Mark Wilson, writing in Tyndale Bulletin in 2025, puts it plainly: "For Jesus and John, cold and hot are positive metaphors." Today the word suggests someone unenthusiastic, and Wilson answers that directly: "mediocrity is not Jesus's emphasis."
In the same sentence, Wilson calls lukewarm, in Jesus' mouth, "a strong, negative metaphor," one that threatens judgment on the Laodiceans "unless they repent." The warning is serious, and its target is something other than your emotions.
The letter names that target itself: "You say, 'I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.'" (Revelation 3:17, NIV). Feelings and need can come apart: someone can be numb for months and still lean on God every day, and someone else can be cheerful and lean on nothing.
Flat feelings have ordinary causes, like tiredness, grief or a hard season, and this letter is about none of them.
If the fear underneath is of being spat out, how to not be a lukewarm Christian deals with that first.
Where does the term "lukewarm Christian" come from?
The Bible uses the word "lukewarm" once and never pairs it with "Christian": a BibleGateway search of the NIV returns a single verse, Revelation 3:16.
That verse sits inside a letter to a whole church. It opens, "To the angel of the church in Laodicea write:" (Revelation 3:14, NIV), and it moves in 5 steps.
- The charge (verses 15 and 16). "I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other!" Then the line most people remember: "I am about to spit you out of my mouth" (NIV).
- The problem (verse 17). They say they need nothing, and they're blind to their real condition.
- The counsel (verse 18). Get from Jesus what they thought they already had.
- The love (verse 19). The rebuke comes from someone who loves them.
- The door and the promise (verses 20 and 21). Jesus knocks, and promises the one who is victorious "the right to sit with me on my throne" (NIV).
Most people meet verses 15 and 16 on their own. Read whole, the warning sits inside a letter that goes on to a knock and a throne.
What does lukewarm mean in Revelation 3?
In the letter itself, lukewarm sits right beside a self-sufficiency the church couldn't see. Verse 17 states the problem in Jesus' own words: they say they need nothing, "But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked" (Revelation 3:17, NIV).
The explanation you've most likely heard is about Laodicea's water supply, and it no longer holds. Wilson reviewed the archaeological fieldwork on the city's water system and concluded its water was "not undrinkable, and its temperature not lukewarm." Readings that tie the metaphor to the water supply, he writes, "are no longer valid" (Tyndale Bulletin 76, 2025, open access).
Wilson's own suggestion, which links the image to Roman bathhouses, is what he calls "a fresh hypothesis." It's 1 year old with no visible scholarly response yet, so treat it as 1 scholar's proposal.
What are some examples of lukewarm Christianity?
The original example is a whole church, prosperous and sure it was fine (Revelation 3:17).
Here are 2 samples, with made-up names; neither is a real person.
Sample: Marcus. Marcus is busy and at church most weeks. When he prays, he thanks God for things he arranged himself. He'd call his faith fine, and he couldn't name anything he's asking God for.
Sample: Lena. Lena has felt almost nothing in worship for a year. Every morning she still asks God for help with her son, because what's happening to him is beyond anything she can fix.
Marcus feels fine and fits the description in verse 17. Lena feels flat and doesn't fit it.
The letter's line runs between needing God and not needing him, which is a different line from strong and weak feelings. Neither sample is a verdict on anyone's standing with God.
How do you know if you're a lukewarm Christian?
You can tell by looking at what you ask God for, using 5 questions drawn from the letter. Verse 17 says the Laodiceans didn't realize their own condition, so it's fair to ask whether you could be lukewarm without knowing it. The letter's answer is sight that comes from Jesus, "salve to put on your eyes, so you can see" (Revelation 3:18, NIV), so ask these in front of him.
- What are you asking God for this week that you couldn't arrange yourself? From verse 17: "do not need a thing."
- When did you last let Scripture or another person tell you something about your faith you didn't want to hear? From verse 17: "you do not realize."
- When something goes wrong, where do you go first? From verse 18: "buy from me."
- When were you last aware of Jesus in an ordinary hour, away from church? From verse 20: "eat with that person."
- Can you name 3 people you've asked God for something for, by name, in the last week? This one is an application that goes beyond the text. Self-sufficiency tends to show up as prayer that asks for nothing, and asking for someone else is asking for what only God can give.
How to read your answers. There's no pass mark, and no answer here settles your standing with God. If most of yours came back "nothing", "nobody" or "myself", the letter's counsel is addressed to you, and that counsel is an invitation (Revelation 3:18-20). The method for answering it is on how to not be a lukewarm Christian.
Can lukewarm Christians go to heaven?
Christians who take the Bible seriously disagree about who the lukewarm in Revelation 3 were.
Francis Chan, in a video clip reported by ChurchLeaders, reads them as unbelievers: "I don't see that as a description of a believer."
Matt Slick of CARM, in an article republished by bygraceinfaith.org, says lukewarm Christians "are most probably false converts," while allowing that new believers can take time to leave old habits.
Sound of Heaven Church holds that "this verse does not teach that a believer can be thrown out of salvation. The warning is addressed to a congregation."
Whichever reading you hold, the text makes 4 things plain. The letter is written to a church (verse 14). "I am about to" describes something still ahead, and Wilson reads it as judgment "unless they repent."
The rebuke comes from love: "Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest and repent" (Revelation 3:19, NIV). And the invitation is open to anyone: "If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person" (Revelation 3:20, NIV).
Standing with God rests on what Jesus did at the cross: "But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8, NIV).
If this has left you unsure whether you've ever come to Christ, you can come to him today, in your own words.
What did Jesus tell the lukewarm church to do?
Jesus gave the lukewarm church 3 things to do, all in the same letter: receive from him what they thought they already had ("buy from me", verse 18), "be earnest and repent" (verse 19), and open the door (verse 20).
Each one is done toward a person, Jesus, which is why a feeling can't be the first step. You can open a door on a day you feel nothing.
The practice below is the first step. The fuller method is on how to not be a lukewarm Christian.
The practice
The action. Write the names of 3 people you see in ordinary life, and under each name 1 thing you're asking God for them that you couldn't arrange yourself. Pray those 3 lines today.
What it costs. About 2 minutes on day 1, then about 40 seconds a day. That's my own count, so treat it as an estimate.
Where to put it. The 3 names on your phone's lock screen, where your eyes go many times a day without deciding to look.
How you'll know it's working. Before you start, write 1 line on what you know about each person's week. Later, write it again on a fresh line. The measure is whether those 3 people come to mind unprompted more than they did on day 1: your attention, never answered prayers, what happens to them, or how you feel.
Asking God for what only he can give is the opposite posture to "do not need a thing." The practice buys nothing from God. Jesus is the one knocking (verse 20), and 3 lines a day are a small way of answering the door.
Missing a day doesn't undo it. Write the 3 lines again on the next day you remember.
If the bigger question is closeness itself, how to get closer to God builds on the same 40 seconds.
Common questions
Does God forgive lukewarm Christians?
Scripture's answer is yes for anyone who confesses. Jesus tells the lukewarm church to "be earnest and repent" (Revelation 3:19, NIV), a call made to people who can still answer it. The wider promise holds for them too: "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness" (1 John 1:9, NIV).
What are 17 signs that a Christian is lukewarm?
Any list of 17 signs was compiled by its author, and Scripture doesn't supply one. 3 page-1 results for these searches in October 2026 gave 5, 7 and 9. The letter to Laodicea names 1 root, in Revelation 3:17: believing you "do not need a thing" (NIV). Use any list as a prompt to look at that one root.
What does the Bible say about being lukewarm?
In the NIV, "lukewarm" appears once: Revelation 3:16, in Jesus' letter to the church at Laodicea. The problem it names, in verse 17, is that the church believed it needed nothing. It goes on to counsel (verse 18), a loving rebuke and a call to repent (verse 19), and an invitation to anyone who opens the door (verse 20).
What's the difference between hot, cold and lukewarm?
In Revelation 3:15 Jesus says, "I wish you were either one or the other!" (NIV), and that wish covers both. Mark Wilson's 2025 study in Tyndale Bulletin concludes that for Jesus and John, "cold and hot are positive metaphors." Of the 3, the letter warns only against lukewarm.
Get the 40-second start
The 40-second start puts this practice on one free page: the 3 names, a line each, and the question to come back to.