Why Are We Not Hated

Lesson #250

With this lesson we begin the second major section of chapter 15. As we read through this next section, we see that the normal Christian experience will involve suffering. Jesus makes it very clear that by identifying ourselves with him, we will be hated by the world as he was. Believers living in countries where there is persecution know about this first hand. We in the west have become cultural Christians by taking on world values and as a result we are tolerated and not hated. Let us begin our study.

“If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you” (John 15:18 ESV). If we are not hurting those in the world, then why do they hate us? Our Christian lives are examples of God’s grace at work and since the world is humanity set apart from grace, they see us as different. They see a higher and unworldly standard we set up and that makes them uncomfortable and stimulates their hate for us. Their hatred for us will be proportional to our faith, holiness and love for one another, which is no comforting factor for us. Their persecution can be a measure of our level of holy and righteous living; by how strongly we live like Jesus lived.

This hatred we experience is not about us, it is about the one we remind the world of, the person of Jesus Christ. In the beginning, Lucifer was a most beautiful and powerful angle in heaven. In God’s conversation with Job, in Job 38:4 – 7, we learn that the angels were created before the earth was. Sometime between then and the account in Genesis 3:1 – 14 he fell into sin and became known as Satan, the devil or the serpent. In this Genesis account we find him as a serpent tempting Eve to eat the forbidden fruit. This hatred for God has its origin in Lucifer and continues through a sinful human race. Anyone whom God chooses to represent him becomes a target of Satan’s hate for God. This hatred rose to new heights when Jesus appeared on earth. The battle between Satan and Jesus had its ups and down during the earthly life of Jesus and then when Jesus rose from the dead, Satan realized the battle was not over. As Christians, we are to reflect the life of Jesus and when we do we become objects of his hatred.

“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 15:19 ESV). When we live like the world, as so many western believers do, and do not reflect Jesus in our lives, we don’t then irritate those of the world and thus are not hated, but when we live like we are part of God’s family with our citizenship in heaven, then we are seen as different with a standard of holiness and righteousness that really chafes those of the world and stimulates their hatred toward us. In reality that hatred is not toward us, but toward the one we represent. We are a reminder of him that they hate and by removing us they hope to remove the reminder, thus persecution is strongest against believers who are willing to stand for their faith, even in the face of death. We were chosen out of the world, but left in the world to represent him and do his work and as we do we can expect to suffer from their hatred of him.

Prayer

Father, because we do not live under a major false religion, Christianity is not seen as a threat to be defeated as it is in many other countries and so persecution has not been a problem for us and as a result we have not had to suffered for our faith. As western values became more materialistic, Christians increasingly embraced those values. Had we stood our ground and defended our faith, persecution would have risen against us. With our position of being politically correct and not willing to offend, we have allowed Christianity to lose its ability to maintain Christian values in our culture. Father, we stand guilty of not properly representing Jesus Christ and as a result we are not chafing unbelievers with a holy and righteous standard and therefore we are not hated by them. Surely, one day this sin of ours will require accountability that we will find to be rather painful.