“I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen, and salve to anoint your eyes, so that you may see.” Revelation 3:18
Like a loving Father the Lord does not wait to confront His children. He tells them their true condition, which He, the God of the Universe, does not want to continue. This behavior must stop. So the Lord tells the church what they need to do to turn it around.
I counsel you The Lord gives His remedy. The word counsel is used when people plan something together with high resolve to achieve their pre-set goal. The church needs to get back to its source of power – dependence on God alone.
To buy from me The Lord tells the church where to go to build
back what it has lost. The word buy means “to make purchases in
the marketplace so as to transfer ownership from seller to buyer. The Lord knows His church has been buying what it wants from the world; they must come to the Lord instead.
Gold refined by fire The Laodiceans loved wealth, they bought and traded in gold to enhance their prosperity. The Lord says that only the gold purchased from Him counts for anything. His gold is refined or tried in the fire – it is pure gold, genuine, eternal.
So that you may be rich The Lord’s gold is what make a person wealthy. The first time this word is used in Luke 1:53 where the rich are sent away empty-handed. This is what will happen to the Laodiceans if they continue on the path they are on. Peter tells us the same truth “These (trials) have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory
and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed” (1 Peter 1:7) The genuineness of their faith in God must be tested and proven.
And white garments so that you may clothe yourself The Laodiceans could purchase fine garments of the best quality. They could dress to impress everyone in the city. The Lord tells them that wordly garments are not what they should be focused on. White garments provided by God are the garments they should covet.
And the shame of your nakedness may not be seen Laodiceans had no garments, they were naked before the Lord. This will be the state of many believers at the Bema Seat as they watch everything the world told them was true value burn as it is tested by fire. The Lord counsels them not to appear naked before Him.
And salve to anoint your eyes The Lord tells them they need eye salve – they are spiritually blind. This is a scary verse for it is the unbeliever who is typically spiritually blind. “For the god of this world has blinded the eyes of those who believe not.” The Laodiceans sold eye salve to all the world claiming it would help people see clearly yet the church in the city was spiritually blind to the light of God’s truth.
So that you may see Like Elisha with His servant when the Assyrians attacked, the Lord wants the eyes of the Laodiceans opened. Unless we look at our lives as God sees them, we will be deceived by the world’s glitz and glamor and we will lose out for eternity.