To appreciate the address to the Laodiceans, and to understand the state therein described, it should be studied in connection with the epistle to the Colossians. In the latter we learn what is the true Christian state. In the former we get the contrast to this in every respect; it is the description of a non-Christien state under the profession of Christianity, though doubtless true Christians are found associated with it. The Lord is outside, yet calls to individual believers to hear His voice, and open the door to Him, and says, moreover, “As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten”. All that is of God for man is centred in Christ. “In him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily; and ye are complete (or filled up) in him”, Col 2: 9, 10. He is the Head of the body, and it is in holding the Head that we receive the needed supplies—all the body is ministered to from the Head. Nothing of man can contribute to one who is filled up in Christ. In any measure in which we accredit what is of man by appealing to what is of man, or by adopting what is of man in a religious way, so far we are not holding the Head. In proportion as we give place to what is of man in divine things we detract from the glory of Christ, who is everything for the saint, and we are so far contaminated by the spirit of Laodicea.