Two More Reasons The World Hates Us!

Because It Hates Christ

If the religious leaders hated Jesus so much, can believers today expect things to be easier for them? Jesus answers that in John 15:30 "Remember the word that I said to you, 'A slave is not greater than his master.' If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; if they kept My word they will keep yours also." If as Christians we are in Christ, and Christ is in us (Galations 2:20; Colossians 2:10-12), the world will hate us even as it hated Christ.

This second aspect of why the world hates us should actually bring us happiness. If we receive suffering and persecution from the world, because we represent Jesus, we experience the fellowship of His sufferings. The disciples in Acts 5:41, after being flogged by the religious authorities for continuing to teach in Jesus' name, displayed this attitude of joy: "So they went on their way from the presence of the Council rejoicing that they had been considered worthy to suffer shame for His name."

Paul spoke of that fellowship of sufferings in Philippians 3:10 and he knew quite well what that meant (see 2 Corinthians 4:7-18). Scripture attests to the fact that Paul lived out what he taught and wrote.

Because It Does Not Know God

A third reason the world hates Christians is that it does not know God. In John 15 Jesus says, "But all these things they will do to you for My name's sake, because they do not know the One who sent Me" (v. 21 emphasis added). Such ignorance of God has contributed greatly to horrible spiritual and moral degradation, unawareness of truth, and hostility to what is right. In many ways modern society reflects the first century conditions in which Paul ministered. When he preached in Athens he saw how misplaced the people's religion was: "And Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said, 'Men of Athens, I observe that you are religious in every respect. For while I was passing through and examining the objects of your worship, I also found an altar with this inscription "TO AN UNKNOWN GOD."

Paul uncovered an apathy and ignorance toward the true God and superstition regarding false gods. Without Paul's commentary we could easily infer that many unbelievers are sincerely moral and religious people not really affected that much by sin. But such a perception can lead us to downplay opposition from the world. We need to take Romans 1:18-2:2 more seriously in its picture of the world's natural sinfulness and wilful rejection of God's revelation. The world system does not know God, no matter how tolerant or accepting it might seem when it works through false religion. It still hates believers, still opposes us and therefore, whatever persecution and pain we receive should not catch us off guard.

Many believers act as if they have beaten the problem of hatred from the world, thinking they are friends of the world. But they forget John's warning "If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him" (1 John 2:15), or James' strong statement, "Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God" (James 4:4). Satan tempts us subtly to be comfortable in the world to feel at home within the system and to make the world around us feel at ease. We seek not to offend anyone, but that is not what Jesus had in mind. Nor was that Paul's approach:

'For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not come to know God, God was well-pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. For indeed Jews ask for signs and Greeks search for wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block, and to Gentiles foolishness, but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men" (1 Corinthians 1:21-25).

(from The Power of Suffering by John MacArthur, Jr.)