I've heard Revelation 3:20 used many times in an evangelistic talk: Jesus stands at the door of your life and knocks — will you let him in? Here's the verse:
Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.
It's rhetorically powerful, but as we've been working through Revelation 2-3 at church it's clear that it's not what the verse meant in its original context.
I've been greatly enjoying Robert Mounce's commentary on Revelation. Here's what he says:
“In the context of the Laodicean letter, however, it is self-deluded members of the church who are being addressed. To the church Christ says, ‘Here I am! I stand at the door and knock.” In their blind self-sufficiency they had, as it were, excommunicated the risen Lord from their congregation. In an act of unbelievable condescension he request permission to enter and re-establish fellowship.”
Or, here's John Chapman in his book Know and Tell the Gospel:
“To start with, the passage is directed to the church members at Laodicea and not to individual unbelievers. I don't doubt that there were unconverted members in their congregation but it is not addressed to them specifically. It is addressed to all members. The church had lapsed into ‘lukewarmness’ (Revelation 3:16). Believing themselves rich, they did not perceive either their true condition or their peril (Revelation 3:17, 18). Jesus describes them as ‘those whom I love’ — they are obviously his already and so he ‘rebukes and discipline’ them. They are called to repent because he is standing at the door (of the church?). He wishes to return to true fellowship with himself and to throw off the lukewarmness. What a wonderful passage to preach upon to rouse a church from complacency! Sadly, we never hear it in that capacity, is is always being directed to unbelievers.”
Chappo goes on:
“Not only is it used in that way, but most sermons I hear are not really sermons on the text but a description of Holman Hunt's painting ‘The Light of the World’. I have been told again and again about that door which has no handle on the outside, and that Jesus will not force his way in unless I let him. Indeed, I am told, he cannot (notwithstanding Paul's treatment on the Damascus Road (Acts 9) or Lydia's conversion (Acts 14)). I am presented with the perfect picture of the impotent Christ — so ineffectual that even a small child can hold the living God at bay! I am told that Christ longs to come into my life but cannot unless I open the door.
“No-one could arrive at that idea from Revelation 3. An unbeliever cannot open the door, because he is ‘dead’ and needs new life (Ephesians 2:1) – the verse is directed to believers and unbelievers. The Jesus who stands at the door knocking is described as ‘… the Alpha and the Omega … who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty’ (Revelation 1:8). He is standing in the midst of the churches (symbolised in Revelation by seven golden candlesticks) with great dignity, power and majesty. His eyes are like blazing fire, and his voice like the booming of the surf on the shore. From his mouth proceeds a two-edged sword and his appearance is such that the writer falls before him as though dead (Revelation 1:13-17). He is anything but impotent. He is the one who stands outside the church at Laodicea commanding repentance (Revelation 3:10) so there might be restored fellowship with him.
“There are so many clear statements of the gospel in the Bible that we do not need to resort to doubtful exegesis, but there is no doubt that the person who ‘stands at the door’ is described in Revelation 1:17-18. This description must be born in mind when expounding Revelation 3:20.”
Or, here's Paul Gardner:
“It is as though they have become so self-satisfied that they have excluded Christ altogether from his church! … When all is said and done, they are behaving like people who have closed the door on Jesus.”
“In spite of so many evangelistic sermons about the need for people to open the door of their hearts to let Jesus in so that they can become Christians, this is not the primary meaning here. Jesus is speaking primarily to the church, though also to individuals within the church, and so he is speaking to those who at the very least consider themselves to be Christians. … They must repent and involve him in their lives and mission and witness.”
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