I know your works: see comments at 2.2.

You are neither cold nor hot: this is a judgment on their spiritual condition. Three times the phrasecold nor hot appears in these two verses. In certain languages it will be necessary to dispense with the figurative language and say something like “You are neither unresponsive nor enthusiastic toward me.”

Would that: a wish can be expressed by “How I wish (that)” (Good News Translation, Revised English Bible), “I wish that” (New Revised Standard Version), or “I want you to be….”

You are lukewarm: in matters of spirit and Christian life, they are indifferent, ineffective, impotent. The symptoms of their spiritual indifference are given in verses 17-18. In some languages these metaphors of heat, cold, and lukewarmness may not make sense, and an appropriate figure must be used, or else the figurative language must be abandoned altogether; for example, “You are totally ineffective” or “You are only half-hearted in your faith.”

I will spew you out of my mouth: this is a figure of disgust and rejection. The glorified Christ will no longer tolerate such lukewarm, ineffective believers. They are like salt that has lost its saltiness, which will be thrown out as useless (Matt 5.13). Again, in some languages it will be necessary to abandon the metaphors or figurative language and say, for example, “I will reject you.”

In the verbal phrase I will spew, will represents a Greek verb that adds a note of urgency and divine authority (see 1.19).

An alternative translation model for these verses is:

• I know all the things that you have done. In your lives you are neither unresponsive nor enthusiastic toward me. I wish you were either of these. But, because you are only half-hearted in your belief in me, I will reject you.

Quoted with permission from Bratcher, Robert G. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on The Revelation to John. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1993. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .