What to do when the world hates you

Do not be surprised, brothers, that the world hates you.

1 John 3:13

John’s admonition which was true two thousand years ago when instructing the first generation of disciples is still true in this present generation. We should not be surprised that Christ and His people are hated by the world. Just as Cain hated and killed his brother Abel because God saw Abel as righteous, so a wicked world, afflicted and consumed with the worship disorder of selfish desire that rages against God will also hate and seek the destruction of Christians. Evil always hates what is good.

So I am not surprised that honoring Christ as holy is hated by the world. Christians are portrayed in the world as self-righteous, willfully ignorant, backwards, intolerant, hateful, racist, sexist, and narrow-minded. Jesus and His church are mocked, maligned, maliciously ridiculed, vandalized, litigated, and hated by many with power and influence in our culture. Even as religious freedom is celebrated in virtually every other pagan and world religion, at least in the West, Christianity is now suffering under tightening revisionist history and a general disdain from institutions as far-flung as the press and media, from the legal system, from academia, and from the entertainment industry in particular. The world hates us. We should not be surprised.

What should our response by to this hate? We do not go on the attack and we do not hate back! We love sinners with Christ’s love and keep faithfully proclaiming the gospel, no matter what it may cost us. Jesus sets our example. His words call us to action against a world that hates us: “But I say to you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father Who is in heaven. For He makes His sun rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.”

Like our gracious God we are unchanging in our love and care for those who need Jesus… even when they hate us. We know that the grace of God ultimately wins and we are not surprised that we are hated until that day.