Reading… and Thinking

“If the world hates you, you know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A slave is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they kept my word, they will keep yours also.”

— John 15:18-20 (NASB)

Here’s a useful gauge to help measure our spiritual health: how much are we loved by those in the world? If we are of the world, Jesus says, then the world will love us. If it hates us, that means we have followed Jesus’ call.

Just about everyone cares very much what other people think of them. The old children’s sing-song, “Sticks and stones will break my bones, but names will never hurt me”…is a lie. Rejection from our peers hurts us very deeply. Broken bones heal faster.

So what Jesus is telling us here is sobering, if we take the time to appreciate what he’s saying. If you follow Jesus, the world is going to hate you. Why? Earlier, Jesus had described why this happens: “The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify of it that its works are evil.” (John 7:7) Jesus sometimes confronted those evil works directly, but most often he was simply an example of patience, devotion, doing good for others, and never giving in or compromising with sin. Every second of his life was a testimony that the works of the world are evil. If we are living righteous lives, even if we’re not confrontational, there will be some people who simply hate us.

How will we handle the sneering we get from our friends, when we insist upon doing right? It’s going to come, and it won’t be easy to handle, emotionally. Two things can help a lot. One is to have good solid friendships with people who also want to do right. If some people we know are “hating” us (in whatever form it takes), we at least have the support of other friends who will be glad we stood up for what’s right. The other big help is to really become friends with Jesus. Which sounds impossible in one sense, but it truly is possible to get to know his mind, and to grasp that he knows your mind.

And there’s something else that’s very comforting in Jesus’ words we’re considering. If they persecuted him, he says, they’ll certainly do the same to us. But there’s another side. If they kept his word, they will also keep ours. Did they keep his word? Some of them did! And so we can absolutely count on having a positive influence in the lives of some of those around us. Not everyone believed Jesus, but enough did that they changed the world in the first century. Not everyone we know will believe either. But all it takes is a few, or even one. You can change their world, and you’ll find that your own has become immeasurably richer as well.