Someone asked me this question, and I ended up using it as our topic in our college group meeting last Wednesday night. I’ve been promising to put it up here, so here it is.
Why does the world hate Christians? and as a follow up: As Christians, should we do anything about it, and if so, what?
1. Jesus said they would hate us because they hated him first.
- John 15:17-19 In this passage, Jesus says, “as it is, you do not belong to the world.” That leads to the question, Who do you belong to?
- 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 ”You are not your own.” Okay, so we see that you do not belong to yourself.
- John 3:30-32 We know we do not belong to the earth, and neither does Jesus.
- John 8:34-36 We have been set free from belonging to the earth.
- Romans 1:5-6 We now belong to Christ: Romans 7:4-5, Romans 14:7-9
- What does it mean to belong? Galatians 5:24-25 We have crucified the sinful nature – it is dead. When Christ died on the cross, sin died with him. The difference is that Christ came back – sin did not. Our sinful nature has been killed. We are free. We now live by the spirit.
- 1 John 3:18-20 It says we belong to the truth. Jesus is The Truth (John 14:6). Our actions are how we know we are in truth. Not simply our words.
RECAP:
The world hates Christians because Jesus said they would. When Jesus says something, you can expect it to happen. Why did so many people follow him around? They knew that when he spoke, something was going to happen. They expected it. We can expect it, too. So it should come as no surprise to us that the world hates Christians. If we belonged to the world, it would love us as its own, but we do not belong to the world. Jesus has chosen us out of the world and that is why the world hates us.
· Who do we belong to?
· We no longer belong to ourselves. We no longer belong to the earth.
· We were freed from belonging to the earth. In this freedom is the abundant life that Jesus promises (John 10:10). We can enjoy this because we aren’t weighed down by our separation from God – which is sin. The essence of sin is wanting to be God. If we’re trying to be God, we are separated from him. We have been freed from this separation.
· We now belong to Jesus Christ.
· What does it mean to belong?
· We live by the Spirit and we show love with our actions.
Summation: It’s okay that the world hates Christians. It is unavoidable. Our job is to share the good news and to live out our faith. The good news is that God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him (John 3:17). Jesus didn’t come to hate them back. He came to save them. We are not to hate the world back because they hate us, we are to share the good news about Jesus with them and to show them love with our actions.
2. They don’t understand what we’re all about. People fear the unknown. They don’t get it, so they become scared of it. Fear leads to hatred. Proverbs 1
3. Some have had a negative experience with a church or Christians. Romans 14:12-13 Don’t ever let your own selfish attitude stand in the way of someone else knowing who Jesus is.
4. Christians aren’t acting like Christians. This is two problems. (1)We don’t look different than non-Christians, and (2) it’s hypocritical. Why would anyone want to know about Jesus if his followers act just as horribly as everyone else in the world? Colossians 3:1-17
The real issue isn’t whether or not people hate Christians. The goal isn’t to be well-liked, or simply not-hated. The goal is for more souls to know the love and freedom in a relationship with God that is found in salvation through Jesus Christ. So if you’re a Christian, some people will hate you, but don’t sweat it – they hated Jesus first. Just make sure that your actions point people toward Jesus instead of pushing them away from him.
thought the commentary was great!