John 15:18-27 says,
18. If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you.
19. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.
20. Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also.
21. But all these things will they do unto you for my name’s sake, because they know not him that sent me.
22. If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin: but now they have no cloak for their sin.
23.He that hateth me hateth my Father also.
24.If I had not done among them the works which none other man did, they had not had sin: but now have they both seen and hated both me and my Father.
25. But this cometh to pass, that the word might be fulfilled that is written in their law, They hated me without a cause.
26. But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me:
27. And ye also shall bear witness, because ye have been with me from the beginning.
The verses quoted above are the words of Jesus to His disciples the night before His crucifiction. I don’t think we who are believers in Christ give them enough traction in our lives.
We’ve got it too easy in America. We’re fat and prosperous. We do our best to get along with everybody. We overlook faults and pretend they don’t exist. Christians rush to cozy up to the world, supposedly to be relevant and win some to Christ.
By the way, how’s that working out?
As my late friend Gerald Franz observed, when you stick a white glove in the mud, you get a muddy glove, not glovey mud.
Don’t get me wrong. We do need to rub shoulders with the masses to get out the Gospel.
Nonetheless, we’re lulled to sleep and don’t see the hate the world has for Christians. Or we’re prone to overlook it.
Why? Consider a phrase in verse 20 of the passage above. It says, “If they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also.”
Yes, sometimes the world quotes Scripture. Or at least they say the right things and do many good deeds.
Oh, sure, we hear about persecution now and then, such as a few years ago when the Kentucky county clerk was jailed for not granting marriage licenses to homosexuals. But for the most part, we’ve got it pretty good.
We know we’re at variance with the world on many things, but they don’t really hate us, do they? If they do, they’re being nice about it, aren’t they?
Maybe.
So far.
At least in America.
But you can’t turn on the radio or TV without being bombarded by the world’s views. It’s easy to see what’s in their hearts. And it’s not friendly toward Christians.
How many TV shows are pro-homosexual and ram it down our throats. This is supposed to be great entertainment, after all, and we’re supposed to lap it up.
How many discussions on science have you heard or read that take a totally pro-evolutionary stance? Nearly always Christians are portrayed as narrow minded and stupid. After all, science knows the truth, right?
I enjoy reading science fiction stories. Yes, I admit, they can be quite antiGod. And that makes them less enjoyable. I may read less of it in the future, because the antiChristian attitude becomes more blatant all the time.
I was going to give you an example and summarize one such story I read, but I’ve decided not to dignify it.
We’re immersed in what the world has to offer. That seems natural I suppose because we do live here. But let’s not kid ourselves into thinking the world doesn’t hate our Savior and Lord. And it extends that loathing toward us, too.
Right now we coexist relatively peacefully. It may not always be so. Therefore, as the Scriptures admonish in a number of places, we must encourage and edify one another as believers as we see the last days and their perils rolling toward us.