If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own. (John 15:18)
Where do we see Jesus' words being fulfilled today if not in the culture created by social media? One doesn't need to look too deeply into Twitter or Facebook in order to find conversations filled with hatred for God's people. Social media has given us a better view of what was there all along. It gave the world a platform upon which to display the hatred they have for God's people. But when we see people hating Christians, or when they attack us personally, this should not come as a surprise to us. Jesus himself assured us that this was bound to happen. That the world will hate the church is a norm. There's no reason to feel remorse for this. However, what we should feel remorse for is when God's people are acting like the world in these ways. And when the Church has failed to love, it has failed to be God's chosen people. When we fail to love, we have failed Christ.
In the past month we have witnessed the world reach its boiling point. We are hated. But this fact should not govern the way that we treat others. I firmly believe that we must be exceptionally careful about this. That the world hates us is no justification for us to be hateful people. We are not given the option of responding to the world in kind. So, despite that the world hates us, this does not give us a license to be the kind of people that ought to be hated.
In Romans 12 we find Paul's words:
Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” To the contrary, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.” Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
I think that the church is failing to love its enemies in many more ways than I can really explain at this point. I feel it in my heart. I'm convicted of it. We seek vengeance in our words and actions. We don't seek to live in peace. We assume God's right to wrath. But most of all, we let the world's hatred for us prevent us from loving them. So let me repeat this: When the Church has failed to love, it has failed to be God's chosen people. When we fail to love, we have failed Jesus. And for having done this, we have lost our ability to be Jesus' witnesses in this world.
We need to love people. It should permeate everything that we do and say. So when a Christian seeks to fight with the world, to justify his or herself with their own hateful words, this Christian has failed drastically and lost the witness of Jesus' love. And the simple truth is this. Once a person's words have become devoid of integrity there is almost nothing that can be done to reverse the mistrustful disdain of those who know this. Additional words do nothing more than labor the angst of the victims of broken promises. Truth becomes a weapon. And nothing less than silent action can rebuild a person's trust. And this is where we are, I believe. We must find ways to serve our enemies… I believe that we've got a lot of work to do and we need to be quiet in doing it.
The world hates. God's people love. One of these two is doing their job splendidly. The other is not.
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