Skip to main content

Hope From Hate

Do not be surprised, brothers, that the world hates you.
1 John 3:13

I have been thinking about this verse since I woke up this morning. I am amazed at how John can say something that is so straight forward and yet has such huge implications beneath the surface.
He is telling his flock to get used to it, to warm up to the idea of being hated by the world. It shouldn't blindside us. It shouldn't turn our lives upside down. It is a fact of the Christian life.

Not only is it a fact, but it is meant to give us hope! It is meant to strengthen and encourage us! It is meant to put our focus on Jesus Christ and keep it there. Even in the midst of hate, God is proving His enduring love for His people!

Take a look:

If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.
John 15:18, 19

Jesus makes it simple to understand. He called us out of the world. So, in reality, we are hated indirectly as a response to who and what the world truly despises and abhors: Jesus Christ and His Gospel. But our Lord tells us to take heart because He has overcome the world.

Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
Matthew 5:11, 12

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Convicting And Compelling Gospel

Which adjective in the title more closely aligns with your predisposed way of thinking about and speaking the gospel to yourself and others?   Are you more likely to present a gospel that is heavy on the convicting realities of sin, righteousness and judgment?   Or do you find yourself more readily appealing to the benefits of following Jesus?   If you think about it, neither adjective fully encapsulates the message of Jesus.   It’s right to compel people using the promises of God and the joy filled benefits of a life submitted to Jesus.   But it’s also right to warn of the consequences of rejecting Him.   Since we’re all naturally inclined to emphasize one, we need to allow the other to constrain us, to balance us from taking our natural disposition to the extreme, which may confuse the gospel and the Jesus we wish to present.   Let me attempt to illustrate one example of an unconstrained leaning toward each in turn.   A compelling gospel that is...
Post a Comment
Read more

Why Plant A Multiethnic Church? Biblical Foundations

In the first post, I tried to answer the question, “why plant a church?” by speaking of the necessity of the Church as the possessor and proclaimer of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.   It’s worth reading my initial thoughts on that question before diving into what follows.   My aim in this writing is to answer the title question: Why plant a multiethnic church? Church planting itself seems daunting to begin with.   Strategically, launching a new church with as few obstacles for growth as possible seems wise.   We want to fast track to self-sustainability after all, don’t we?   We want the new church to succeed for the sake of the gospel.   Besides that, a multiethnic church requires a very narrow range of potential locations.   Typically, the place where multiple ethnicities reside in close proximity is the city, and more specifically, in economically diverse (and challenged) areas of the city.   This creates an even greater burden and po...
Post a Comment
Read more

God’s Heart For All People

I’ve been camped out in Acts 10-11 for almost a week now, which is pretty rare for me to spend more than a couple of days on a particular text before moving on.   But it’s been so rich that I’ve wanted to linger.   It’s God’s heart for all people that has provided the savory reflections on Acts 10-11.   These chapters reveal, in narrative form, God’s heart for all people, and there is something particularly compelling to me seeing Peter’s perspective change and align with God’s.   To provide a short recap, Ch. 10 begins with this Roman centurion named Cornelius, a God-fearing man, receiving a vision that commands him to send for the Apostle Peter to hear what this man is proclaiming (about Jesus).   The story then moves to Peter receiving a vision of a sheet carrying all kinds of “unclean” (to the Jew) animals descending from heaven.   God commands Peter to “rise, kill, and eat” to which Peter, as a devout Jew, refuses to do.   This t...
Post a Comment
Read more