In Revelation, Jesus confronted a church that had become accustomed to its crooked spirituality and had even grown to love its inconsistencies. Laodecia was a well-to-do city. Yet that very wealth led to its delusion of self-sufficiency. This had bled into the culture of the church and produced a crooked, “we don’t need Jesus” type of spirituality. Therefore, Jesus rebuked these believers, calling them “lukewarm, wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked” (vv16-17). He rebuked them because He loved them and still wanted an ever-deepening communion with them. So He gave them opportunity to repent (v19). If self-sufficiency has skewed your fellowship with Jesus, you can straighten it through repentance and a renewal of intimate fellowship with Him. Repentance is God’s way of making the crooked street.
