Why Do They Hate Us

Love for One Another Godly Love Among Believers Live in the light of God (Isaiah 2:5)    Abiding Love John 15:18-25 New International Version The World Hates the Disciples 18 “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. 19 If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. 20 Remember what I told you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’[a] If they persecuted me, they would persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also. 21 They will treat you this way because of my name, for they do not know the one who sent me. 22 If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin. 23 Whoever hates me hates my Father as well.24 If I had not done among them the works no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin. As it is, they have seen, and yet they have hated both me and my Father. 25 But this is to fulfill what is written in their Law: ‘They hated me without reason.’[b] For Reflection Why are authentic Christians despised? First, I think that Christian practicum has not always been consistent with the Gospel's self-sacrificial message. Christian religious institutions, like all human institutions, are corruptible. Anyone can point to the hypocrisy of believers. To that extent, Christians are vulnerable. Often the church has become drunk with their power. Frequent Biblical warnings about the misuse of divinely inspired power show that some religious practices can transform believers into the sin they pretend to reject. Secondly, discipleship requires obedience to the will of a God who, for many, is not knowable. There is much empirical evidence that the wicked seem to escape punishment. The nefarious appear to prosper at the expense of others. Third, Christians decry injustice and work for the equitable sharing of national resources. In doing so, Christians are naysayers to the self-absorbed, unprincipled desires of the flesh that characterize those who do not know God, reject God, or invoke the name of God for idolatrized ends. These people are the "They" who hate Christians.   Pray Pray so that you will maintain steadfast obedience to the will of God.  Pray so that you will place undying trust in the Lord.  Pray for the kind of hope that will carry you beyond the seductions of carnal life.  Forward to a friend