What Does It Mean in Rev 3:16 Where the Lord Talks About Spewing Out of His Mouth?
1) Direct Answer
It means the Lord rejects the lukewarm church condition and removes it from being His mouthpiece. He will not speak through, endorse, or own that mixed, complacent state. He casts it out of His fellowship as a body, while still calling individuals to repent and overcome.
2) Scriptural Explanation
- “Because thou art lukewarm… I will spue thee out of my mouth” (Revelation 3:16). Lukewarm is neither hot (on fire of the Spirit) nor cold (openly unbelieving), but a safe, self-satisfied mixture.
- He describes them as saying, “I am rich… and have need of nothing,” yet He says they are “wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked” (Revelation 3:17).
- He counsels, “buy of me gold tried in the fire… white raiment… and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve” (Revelation 3:18)—true faith, His righteousness, and spiritual sight.
- He stands outside, knocking: “If any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in” (Revelation 3:20). The system is rejected, but individuals are invited.
- Overcomers are promised to sit with Him in His throne (Revelation 3:21).
The “mouth” in Scripture is the place of His Word and confession (Revelation 1:16; 2:16; Jeremiah 1:9; Romans 10:9-10). Being in His “mouth” pictures being the instrument He uses to speak and testify.
3) Simple Clarifying Logic
- The church is to be His Body on earth; the “mouth” is the part that speaks His Word.
- When a church becomes lukewarm—mixing truth with worldliness, boasting in wealth and programs while lacking the fire of the Spirit—He cannot let that represent Him. Like lukewarm water, it is nauseating, so He spews it out—He separates from it.
- Yet He loves and rebukes: “As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent” (Revelation 3:19). Those who hear His voice and open to Him personally will dine with Him now and reign with Him as overcomers.
4) Reinforcing Statement
Now notice, He rejects the lukewarm system, but He is calling out a people who will be hot with His life, clothed in His righteousness, and fit to speak His Word. Be zealous, repent, and let Him back inside.
Ask a Follow-up Question
What did the Laodicean Church Age (our age) Angel (- messenger) Say about this?
Ranked passages from the local William Branham sermon and Church Age Book database. Relevance is relative, not a statement of doctrinal certainty.
An Exposition Of The Seven Church Ages
CAB 6:E-66
Right here I will be getting ahead of myself and maybe I ought to reserve this for the message on the last age, but it seems just right to put it in now because it deals so clearly with organization and what is going to happen through it. And I want to warn you. Revelation 13:1-18, "And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy. And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard,...
The Spoken Word is the original seed
62-0318 §271
Hallelujah! Can you see, the Word takes flesh. There you are. God's going to have a church. It's going to be borned of the Word of God because it is the living Word of God. Do you see it? "How do you know it?" "Why, it's going..." "You know what you're going to be called from this on? You're going to be called..." "I don't care what I'm called, that has nothing about it. Be it unto me according to the Word of the Lord." Oh, could everybody say that today? Oh, if people could really from your heart, all of us, could...
An Exposition Of The Seven Church Ages
CAB 2:E-27
If you want to get a beautiful picture of the lamp, read about it in Zechariah 4:1-6, "And the angel that talked with me came again, and waked me, as a man that is wakened out of his sleep. And said unto me, What seest thou? And I said, I have looked, and behold a candlestick all of gold, with a bowl upon the top of it, and his seven lamps thereon, and seven pipes to the seven lamps, which are upon the top thereof. And two olive trees by it, one upon the right side of the bowl, and the other upon the left side ther...
Revelation, Chapter 4b Twenty-Four Elders
61-0101 §32
Now, when these disciples had said, "Oh, Jesus said, 'This man wouldn't die,'" Jesus never said that. Jesus said, "What is it to you if he lives till I come?" But to see the disciples making a saying of it, then Jesus reached down and took John and brought him up and let him rehearse the whole thing, seen the rehearsal of the coming of the Lord. John seen the Church. He seen the end of the church age. He saw the end of the Jews. He saw the second coming. He saw all the order. And look what God had to do: boil him i...
Seals 3: The First Seal
63-0318 §129
Christ has a sharp sword, and watch. It comes from His mouth. The living Word. That's the Word of God revealed to His servants; like He said to Moses: "Go stand there and hold that stick out yonder and call for flies," and there was flies. Sure. Whatever He said, He done it, and it come to pass, His living Word. God and His Word is the selfsame Person. God is the Word. Who is this mysterious rider of the First Church Age then? Who is he? Let's think of it. Who is this mysterious rider that starts forth in the First...