Hated by the World
“If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because … I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you” (John 15:19).
The closer we get to the mission of Christ—to preaching the gospel that He has ordained—the more we will be hated and despised by the world.
We’re going to find enemies everywhere—people who oppose us on our job, in our neighborhood, even in some churches—because we’re fulfilling Christ’s mission.
Yet, Jesus says: “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven. Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in Heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you” (Matthew 5:10-12).
Our mission is much more than telling lost people, “Jesus loves you.” It’s more than trying to accommodate and please people. The ungodly man has spent years beating down his conscience and searing it. He has taught himself to still every voice of conviction that comes to him. And now he enjoys a false peace. He has become so deceived, he actually believes God admires him!
And now, just when he has shut down the voice of his conscience, you, a Christian, come along. And the truth you bring speaks more loudly than his dead conscience: “Unless you’re born again, you can’t enter the kingdom of Heaven.” This man doesn’t see you as someone who’s bringing good news. No, in his eyes you’re a tormentor, someone who’s out to take away his peace.
You’ve come preaching the blood of Christ, a new birth, separation from the world, a walk of submission and obedience. Yet you’re saying all of this to people who are convinced they’re in need of nothing. They can’t conceive how such changes could possibly bring peace and happiness.
“The world” that Jesus speaks of is an unwillingness to surrender to his Lordship. In short, worldliness is any attempt to co-mingle Christ with self-will.
Nobody can come under Christ’s Lordship until he faces the demands of the Cross. I have to bring that man face to face with the message of being crucified to his independence. I have to show him that he must come out of his deluded world of self-goodness. I have to tell him there’s no way to have peace in this life except through full surrender to King Jesus.
—David Wilkerson, used with permission from World Challenge, worldchallenge.org, contact@worldchallenge.org, (719) 487-7888.