The gold is the love & faith refined in the fires of circumstances God allows. The eyesalve is the seeing of yourself from God's viewpoint, and white raiment is the merits of Jesus that you personally wear inside.

The gold, eye salve, clothes(wedding garment) & oil are a package deal. Get jesus and He brings them all with Him. Too sleepy to search for references.

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Edward F Sutton

In most discourses we hear on “The Message To The Laodiceans;” we usually get a really good dose of Rev.3:15-17:

“15 I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot.
16 So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.
17 Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:”

I have really wondered why this is so in light of the rest of this message, and it’s potential meaning for believers today.

Rev.3:18 is the quiet part of the message that we don’t hear too often in the church;

“18 I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see.”

What on earth can we “buy” from God? And, what does God mean when He says “gold?”

Proverbs 23:23 Buy the truth, and sell it not; also wisdom, and instruction, and understanding.

Isaiah 55:1 Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.

Here is another text, that would seem to be connected to Rev.3:18 as it talks about gold too:

1 Peter 1:7 That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ:

Here is a passage that I thought was well suited to Rev.3:18 - COL.116.003

"Salvation is a free gift, and yet it is to be bought and sold. In the market of which divine mercy has the management, the precious pearl is represented as being bought without money and without price. In this market all may obtain the goods of heaven. The treasury of the jewels of truth is open to all. "Behold, I have set before thee an open door," the Lord declares, "and no man can shut it." No sword guards the way through this door. Voices from within and at the door say, Come. The Saviour's voice earnestly and lovingly invites us: "I counsel thee to buy of Me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich." Rev. 3:8, 18.

COL.117.001

"The gospel of Christ is a blessing that all may possess. The poorest are as well able as the richest to purchase salvation; for no amount of worldly wealth can secure it. It is obtained by willing obedience, by giving ourselves to Christ as His own purchased possession. Education, even of the highest class, cannot of itself bring a man nearer to God.

The Pharisees were favored with every temporal and every spiritual advantage, and they said with boastful pride, We are "rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing"; yet they were "wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked." Rev. 3:17. Christ offered them the pearl of great price; but they disdained to accept it, and He said to them, "The publicans and the harlots go into the kingdom of God before you." Matt. 21:31.

COL.117.002

"We cannot earn salvation, but we are to seek for it with as much interest and perseverance as though we would abandon everything in the world for it."

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"...you should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints." Jude 3

DavidTBattler

Hello. I've been away until today. I really like the idea of including Rev 3:18 as part of understanding how we might resist temptation.

I also have asked the question - Where do we get the money to buy the gold, raiment and eye salve? I wonder if Jesus' counsel to the rich young ruler sheds any light? If we sell everything to benefit the poor and follow Jesus, do we accumulate the spiritual money necessary to purchase the merchandise of Rev 3:18? And wouldn't we also be fortified to resist temptation thus equipped?

When you unconditionally give yourself to Jesus and decide to serve Him no matter what, you have just bought the gold, white raiment, eyesalve. Buying something is a giving situation between two or more folks. Each one gives the other what they want in exchange for what they have.

To Jesus you are the pearl of great price.

To you Jesus is the pearl of great price.

As you read this, sing the song "broken and spilled out" Jesus sold Himself utterly to buy you. He did that by giving Himself to you completely. You buy what He is selling by giving yourself to Him just as completely. The part of you that is not normally able to do this is enabled by His gift of Himself to you. He knows it can never be an equitable even trade. John 1:12 Tells how He stacked the deck to help you actually be enabled to sell yourself to Him.

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Edward F Sutton

I have more to say; but would like to ask a question first:

How do we tell if we have "fully given ourselves" to Jesus?

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"...you should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints." Jude 3

DavidTBattler

Don't we give ourselves totally to Jesus as soon as we cooperate with the influence of the Holy Spirit who empowers us to crucify our old man habits of sin (our imperfections of character)? Seems to me a person is completely surrendered and submitted to Jesus when he would rather die than to knowingly hold on to any pet darling sin. From what I've studied that's when we experience the miracle of rebirth.

As a born again believer I now know in my heart, through the abiding presence of the Holy Spirit, when I am indulging sin. The Lord is faithful to cause me to be aware of sin in my life. If it was left up to me to discern sin in my life it would never happen. I would justify and rationale it to my eternal ruin.

Praise God we are not left to our own devices when it comes to knowing where we stand, at any given moment, in our relationship to the truth as it is in Jesus. The promises of God make it clear to me that so long as I am walking in the Spirit and mind of the new man I am without sin - both justified (legally) and sanctified (in reality) through the shed blood and righteousness of Jesus.

Is that how you see it?

The most prosperous church will backslide under the most powerful preaching unless the people awake to the necessity of individual effort. The followers of Christ cannot advance and grow up to the full stature of men and women in Christ Jesus unless they are, individually, workers. If they do nothing themselves, and expect to retain life and vitality, they will be disappointed and then fall into temptation and great spiritual weakness. . . . {15MR 129.1}

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Edward F Sutton

Edward, thank you for that nice quote. But do you think growing up into the full stature of men and women in Jesus Christ?

Does it involve becoming less and less morally defective over the course of a lifetime?

Or does it mean becoming more and more mature in the fruit of the Spirit over the course of a lifetime?

I personally believe there is a great danger in the idea that we experience the miracle of rebirth before we have cooperated with the Holy Spirit in completely crucifying our old man defects of character. To suggest that we must first be born again before we can begin the life long process of gradually leaving off our defects of character is tantamont to opening the flood gates of sin.

What do the rest of you believe?

Quote by Mike:

"Does it involve becoming less and less morally defective over the course of a lifetime?"

We can answer this with another question:

Does sin get better? Does it "improve" over time, like evolution would teach?

In what sense do we relate the process or event of "crucifixion" of our moral defects?

Romans 6:6 Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.

Galatians 2:20 I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

Who does the "crucifying?" And what is intended with the idea of the whole world being "crucified?"

Galatians 6:14 But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world. {by whom: or, whereby}

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"...you should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints." Jude 3

DavidTBattler

"Does sin get better? Does it "improve" over time, like evolution would teach?"

Good question. What I mean by, Becoming less and less morally defective, is do we leave off or crucify our moral defects of character one at a time over the course of our lifetime?

In other words, do we first give up the greater sins (i.e., murder, rape, drugs, etc) and then over the course of a lifetime we gradually give up the lesser sins (i.e., anger, lust, caffiene, etc) until finally we leave off pride (the so-called last frontier) just before we die of old age?

Get the picture? I have actually met people who believe that sanctification is the life long process of gradually tapering off in sin according to the model I described above. They believe that victory over sin follows an evolutionary path whereby a person might start off as a fist fighter, and then after several years scale down to just feeling angry inside, until finally years down the road they are no longer irritated by things.

"In what sense do we relate the process or event of "crucifixion" of our moral defects?"

As I understand it, we crucify a moral defect of character the moment we admit that it is a defect and we refuse to secretly retain it as a pet sin. But there are other conditions too.

Namely, if we are secretly cherishing any pet sins, then whatever other victories we may be experiencing over sin are of the same caliber as when non-christians give up similar vices. That is, the origin of all such accomplishments are of human invention.

The only person who is truly experiencing Spirit powered obedience is the one who is completely surrendered to Jesus according to their personal convictions regarding what is truth. Anyone who is willfully violating their belief system by hypocritically embracing those things he condemns is self-deceived and unsaved.

It is important to make a distinction between the person who sins intentionally and the person who sins unintentionally. See Heb 10:26 and 1 John 2:1,2. The person who indulges sin without intending to repent is not in the same condition as the person who accidentally, spontaneously, in a moment of unguarded weakness slips back into the camp of sin and who is immediately repentant.

Read the following representive list of moral defects of character and ask yourself, How long would it take the Holy Spirit to convince a person that all of them must be crucified.

Galatians Chapter 5
5:19 Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are [these]; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness,
5:20 Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies,
5:21 Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told [you] in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.