By Pastor Dennis Rokser

Whenever a scriptural attempt is made by someone to support the wrong response to the Gospel of "asking Jesus into your heart," normally Revelation 3:20 is used. 

Ironically, the words "ask," "Jesus," and "your heart" are not even found in this verse! How could this verse then ever be teaching that? So what is Revelation 3:20 teaching? 

The general context of this verse is Jesus Christ’s letters to the seven churches of Asia Minor (Rev. 2-3). These were actual local churches that existed at the time of John’s writing, and are representative of the kinds of churches that have existed throughout the church age, including today. 

Revelation 3:14-22 is addressed by Jesus Christ to the church of Laodicea in particular. Like the waters that flowed into the city of Laodicea, the spiritual state of this church was "lukewarm" and made Christ want to puke (3:15-16). While the church viewed itself in a good condition materially, our Lord viewed this same church in a wretched condition spiritually (3:17). They were in desperate need of what Jesus Christ alone could provide for them (3:18). Verse 19 is especially significant to our discussion where the true Head of the church declares…  

This raises the important question: who is it that God chastens or disciplines? Is it the unsaved or the redeemed? Hebrews 12:6-8 answers this by teaching… 

While God condemns the unsaved, he chastens believers so that "we might be partakers of His holiness" (Heb. 12:10) in our Christian walk. This indicates that these verses in Revelation 3:19 are addressed to believers in Christ. Regarding the use of the word "love" in Rev. 3:19, Greek grammarian Daniel Wallace has insightfully written, 

"Here 'phileo' is used for 'love' ¾ a term that is never used of God/Jesus loving unbelievers in the NT. (Indeed, it would be impossible for God to have this kind of love for an unbeliever, for it routinely speaks of enjoyment and fellowship.) Agapao, rather, is the verb used of God's love for unbelievers [cf. John 3:16]. This 'phileo' must be applied to the Laodiceans here, for the verse concludes, 'Be zealous, therefore, and repent.' The inferential 'oun' ("therefore") connects the two parts of the verse, indicating that the Laodiceans are to repent because Christ loves (phileos) them!"³ 

Thus, Jesus Christ must be addressing genuine believers in verse 19. Furthermore, it would be inappropriate to command a spiritually dead unbeliever to "be zealous" (or "hot" - 3:15). The Bible knows nothing of "cold" or "hot" unbelievers. And like the corrective commands given to the other four churches in this section (Rev. 2:5, 16, 22, 3:3), the believers of the church at Laodicea were to "repent." This would involve them choosing to have a decisive change of mind (metanoeson ¾ aorist active imperative of repentance) regarding their spiritual condition. This results in genuine confession of sin to God (1 John 1:9; 1 Cor. 11:31-32; Prov. 28:13) and a change in spiritual direction. 

Right on the heels of this corrective rebuke, Jesus Christ then gives these believers a wonderful offer. 

"Behold, (pay attention, listen), I stand at the door." Jesus Christ has been and continues to stand (perfect, active, indicative) at the door. The question is "what door?" Now to assume this is the door of your "heart" is totally foreign to the passage. It would seem more appropriate to understand this as the door of the Laodicean church. While this church was saying, "I am rich, and increased with goods and have need of nothing," they actually had Jesus Christ on the outside of the church. No wonder He is then described as repeatedly "knocking" (present tense). 

Moving from the Laodicean church generally, Jesus Christ then appeals to the individual believers on the inside of this church. "If (3rd class condition ¾ one might or might not) any man (singular) hear my voice, and open (singular) the door, I will come in to him." Notice the 2 conditions that Christ requires to be fulfilled by those on the inside: 

Connected with these two conditions are three wonderful promises by Jesus Christ Himself: 

Some people have misunderstood the phrase "I will come in to him" to mean that Jesus will come into their heart, i.e. penetration into their heart. 

Michael Cocoris clarifies this when he writes,  

This is not a hair-splitting of the English text, but an accurate reflection of the Greek. In Greek, "come in" (eiserchomai) is one word. It is followed by the preposition "to" (pros). That construction occurs eight times in the New Testament (Mark 6:25, 15:43; Luke 1:28; Acts 10:3, 11:3, 17:2, 28:8; Rev. 3:20). In each instance it means to enter into a building and stand before a person."⁴ 

Now please note that there is no need to ASK JESUS IN! He promises to come in and is knocking, wanting to come and fellowship with any believer if they are willing to hear His word and open the door.  

Chester McCalley further writes, 

"…verse 20 is speaking of fellowship not salvation. There were different words for the morning, noon, and evening meals. The word translated dine was the one used for the evening meal that consisted of leisurely, relaxed conversation and fellowship around the food. This verse is not appropriate in the evangelization for the unbeliever. The proper term for the required response to the gospel message is believe."⁵ 

Wallace humorously adds, "If it causes us some measure of panic to have to use other than Revelation 3:20 when we share the gospel, keep in mind that the earliest Christians did not have this verse. Revelation is the last book of the Bible to be written. How was it possible for Peter and Paul and James to ever see anyone get saved without this verse? They never had it! But if I read the book of Acts correctly, they had a measure of success in sharing the gospel even in spite of this handicap."⁶ 

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