Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours. But all these things they will do to you on account of my name, because they do not know him who sent me.
John 15:20-21
These words from Jesus explain a lot of what we see around us. Jesus Himself told us that since even He was rejected, how much more should we expect to be rejected by those who hate Him. We should expect the gospel to be opposed. We preach it anyway. We should expect to be hated by those who reject Jesus. We love the world anyway. When we are experiencing rejection in the world, it is happening because of the name of Jesus, on account of the name of Jesus, for the sake of Jesus, to bring glory to Jesus. Rejection is a sign that the world does not know Jesus, nor know the Father Who sent Him. The world always hates Jesus in us when we are hated. And that is ultimately an encouragement. It means we are faithfully modeling our Savior.
This is why political solutions for spiritual issues are always a wrong direction for Christians to go when feeling rejected. We should instead preach Jesus and want His gospel to change hearts. Any attempts to enforce a Christian morality by human force are evil and gospel-rejections. The gospel is hated by world powers and always will be until Jesus returns to judge this earth. We can’t end worldly rejection by worldly means. We can only advance the kingdom one way right now: making disciples of Jesus, baptizing them in the name of a Triune God, and teaching them to obey all that Jesus teaches. That is what our world needs, even as many in power hate what Jesus brings and oppose who Jesus is.
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