Day 26
If the world hates you
To start
Get away to somewhere quiet. Step outside. Hide in a closet. And be silent.
Pray
Yahweh, align my heart with Your heart as I read Your word today. Make me hungry for what You’re hungry for. Give me contentment where You have contentment.
Read
Read John 15:18-21.
Meditate on the way the world hated Jesus. Take a few minutes to remember the cross. Picture yourself there alongside Jesus on that last day. You might read John 19 to help focus your thoughts.
John 15:18-21 (CSB)
18 “If the world hates you, understand that it hated me before it hated you. 19 If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own. However, because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of it, the world hates you.20 Remember the word I spoke 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. 21 But they will do all these things to you on account of my name, because they don’t know the one who sent me.”
From JL
Sometimes the world hates you because you’re a jerk. Sometimes the world hates you because you’re lazy. The world hates people who talk too much without any self awareness, people who’re greedy, and people who make a mess and drag everyone around them into it.
The world often hates the poor, the sick, people who “can’t pull their weight,” and people who look different or act different than the cultural norm.
The world hates lots of people. If the world hates you, it is not necessarily a badge of honor. Maybe you did something right. Maybe you did something wrong. Maybe you were born for rejection.
I say all of this, because, especially in America today, I find many people complaining about “persecution” when in reality they’re just getting what everybody gets—mistreated. In some cases, they’re getting exactly what they deserve.
I once had a friend from India ask on Facebook if any of his American friends had ever experienced persecution for their faith. A few shared moments when they’d been rejected socially or had to make a hard call at work that led to demotion or being fired. He replied, “That is not persecution. Having your house burned down because you’re a Christian is persecution. Not being able to get any job because you’re a Christian is persecution. Being beaten because you’re a Christian is persecution. Martyrdom is persecution”
Fair.
And also, it is hard to be hated by the world—even if it’s just a little bullying and exclusion. It’s hard to live where you don’t belong.
Jesus says, “If the world hates you, understand that it hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own. However, because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of it, the world hates you.”
What is He doing here? Why is He telling the apostles they’ll be hated?
He’s warning them. He’s preparing them, so they’re not blindsided. He says, This is how it is to follow me. There’s a cross involved.
What I find fascinating is that there’s no PR plan to win the world over and there’s no plan to protect the apostles from persecution. Jesus doesn’t say, “Here’s how to make the world love you.” And He doesn’t say, “Here’s how to make sure you don’t die.” It’s as if the world hating you is just how it is—even, how it’s supposed to be.
These are the two things I need to remember today:
I can’t make the world love me.
Self-preservation is not the plan.
In other words, Don’t worry about what people think of you & maybe you’ll die (don’t sweat it). I may make a poster of this to hang in my bedroom.
Winning admiration and not dying—aren’t these the fundamentals of human life? And yet, here’s Jesus saying they don’t really matter that much.
The apostles (Jesus’ friends) will all die martyrs’ deaths. And somehow that’s not the worst thing.
I can’t skip over that and go back to my relatively normal life…
Process
Where are you asking the world to love you? In what ways/categories do you want belonging and affirmation from the world?
Do you prioritize self-preservation? What would it look like to scale back your “self-protect” function in service to your obey-Jesus function?
Is God inviting you into something scary? What do you need to give up to accept the invitation?
In the comments
Feel free to share any insights from today’s reading. I’m especially interested in these two questions:
How do we discern whether we’re being hated/persecuted/rejected because of our faith or because we’re unlikable (unkind, selfish, arrogant, rude, etc.)? What are some practical steps we can take?
How can we help one another weather the hatred of this world?
Reading testimonies in the Joshua Project and Voice of the Martyrs keeps me grounded as to what persecution looks like. So does regular Examen and having a friend who knows me inside out. We talk weekly for 2 hours and are able to speak truth into each other’s lives. As you noted, nowadays one doesn’t have to look for hate, it’ll find you. Even people pleasers are having a tough time not being hated by someone. Yesterday had the only answer, love one another. Today we have daily opportunities to love our enemies.
Great post! I used to think I was persecuted just after I got saved---my college class ganged up on me and tried to have me kicked out because I decided to homeschool my 2 daughters after I graduated. I just saw a post about a woman from Nigeria that had both babies cut in half in front of her eyes, one after they pulled it from her breast. Then her husband killed. That's persecution. I'm so tired of the N American church saying...obviously God won't let his church suffer. He will rapture us out. Well I'm not a dispensationalist and I tell them to read the Bible where it says that we will share in his sufferings. I'm done with being liked. God brought me to the street after my daughter became a fentanyl addict. I spent a lot of time there hanging out with her and her addict friends, dealers and prostitutes. I spoke the gospel there, fed them and prayed for them. For that, most of my other 7 kids turned against me. Half of them godly Christians. But I feel more comfortable now on the street than I do in a church full of Christians who never leave their subdivisions. Now I'm raising her baby. She has returned to the street. From all of this, do something daring for Jesus. Speak the gospel to people you meet. Buy the homeless man on the corner a coffee and ask him if you can pray for him. Cut your elderly neighbour's grass. Invite in a new refugee family for a meal. God blesses these outward actions and gives us great joy for our faithfulness!