Why Does the World Hate You?
“But this cometh to pass, that the word might be fulfilled that is written in their law, They hated me without a cause.” John 15:25
This particular passage has made a big impact on my over the last week or so. I can’t seem to get it out of my head. The Holy Spirit won’t let me forget it and as a result it’s changing my heart.
There is a very important statement here made by Jesus. He said “They hated me without a cause.” Jesus never did one single thing to give anyone a just cause to hate Him. Any hate for Him came from the unrighteousness in others.
There is another very important thing for us through this statement and it’s a question. The question for us is “Why does the world hate you?” Are we giving people a just cause to hate us? I have given people a just cause many times.
I think there is a powerful deception that goes along with this. Many times when a “Christian” receives frustration, conflict or opposition from someone else we qualify it by saying “We are being persecuted for Jesus.” Then we just go on. How many times do we ask ourselves “Did I give this person a just cause to react to me the way they did?”
But how would giving someone a just cause to hate us look? Here are a couple of questions: Do people know you are a Christian? Do you pray for people? Do you reach out to people? Do you tell people about Jesus? Do you let people see your bible at work or other places? Do you condemn evil? Do speak hard truth to people? Your answers might be “yes” to some of them or all of them. The point is that if we are doing these things in public and receiving persecution it could only be because we are Christian’s right? Now answer these questions: Do you speak hard truth to people who don’t ask for it? Do you speak hard truth without regard to love and mercy? Are you prideful? Are you self-righteous? Do you gossip? Do you hold grudges? Do you judge people? Do you laugh at others expense? Do you say things just to be controversial? Do you push peoples “buttons”? Do you bother people just to get a reaction out of them? I have been guilty of many of those things.
If your answer to any of the 2nd set of questions is “yes” than you are giving people just cause to hate you and can’t automatically assume you are being persecuted for Jesus. It doesn’t matter how often you pray with people or tell people about Jesus, if your answer is “yes” to some of those questions you are giving people a reason to treat you poorly.
Jesus spoke hard truth to people but everything He said was in love AND He was telling them exactly what Father told Him to say. He also didn’t seek anyone out to “blast” them. Speaking truth to people without love and when the Holy Spirit wasn’t directing me to was something that I often did. If they didn’t receive it or got mad I just blamed it on the hard truth and thought I was justified. The truth is that if we speak to people without love and direction from the Holy Spirit we are wrong every time and their reaction isn’t their issue, it’s ours.
So the next time you are confronted with someone having any kind of issue against you I encourage you to ask the Holy Spirit to show you if there is a just cause for it.
Jesse Birkey
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