If the world hate you, ye know that it hated Me before it hated you. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.
As I navigate the waters of social media lately, I see so much hate being spewed online. When one person doesn’t like what another person says or thinks or posts or tweets, they immediately begin to post mean and nasty things to and about that person. It is as if they forgot that we live in the “land of the free”, where we still have the right to freedom of speech, which is guaranteed to us by the Constitution of the United States. Everyone has the right to his or her own opinion. Just because you don’t agree with me, or I don’t agree with you, that gives neither of us the right to belittle the other because of our difference of opinion.
I recently experienced an onslaught of hatred from people on social media (and not the platform that I would have expected) about a personal opinion of mine. While most people would have deleted the opinion that they shared in order to avoid the onslaught of vicious and untrue things being said, I chose to leave the post where it was and it continues to sit there even this moment. I received hundreds of nasty responses. People called me names. They used racial slurs against me. They accused me of being things that I am not. They belittled my profile. They did all that stuff against me in an effort to shame me into changing my position or taking down my post.
As I read the hate being spewed towards me, I thought of these words of Jesus. He said, “If the world hate you, know that it hated Me before it hated you.” The first thing that we must unpack is where hatred originates. Hatred comes from the enemy of our souls, the “prince of the power of the air” (Ephesians 2:2) and all who follow him. It comes directly from the devil and the sons of the devil, those who work evil, and those who are adamantly and aggressively opposed to God and His kingdom. They are in stark contrast to the children of God, or those who love Him, obey Him, and do all they can to advance His kingdom. Hate comes from the devil.
“If you were of the world, the world would love its own…” I guess if I agreed with their unbiblical opinions, or if I spewed hate the way they did, my critics would have not attacked me so viciously. They would have read my post and given me a like or a laughing emoji or left a supportive comment. But I am not of this world. I belong to the kingdom of God, and I do my best to form my opinions based on the Word of God. I know there are times when I fall short, and the Spirit of God convicts me when that happens, and I try my best to change course. I ask myself, when posed with a situation, what the Word of God says that is relevant to that situation. I ask God to show me what He thinks about it. That’s where I start with forming my opinion. When I do that, my opinion is a hill I am willing to die on.
Jesus went on to say, “…but because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hates you…” I know that the LORD chose me out of the world. The LORD burdened my soul almost 40 years ago until I had no choice but to cry out to Him for salvation. I was walking in my own way, and the weight of my sin was propped up on my shoulder. I felt as thought I were carrying the weight of another person at least my size on my back every single day. I came to the end of myself and decided that I did not want to continue to carry that burden. I cried out to the LORD and asked Him to save me, and I told Him if He did, I would live for Him the rest of my life. The rest, as they say, is history….or HIStory. God saved me that night, alone in my bedroom, and though my walk with Him has not been perfect, His walk with me has been! He has been there in the good and the bad, the right and the wrong, the beautiful and the ugly. He has been there when I felt that He wasn’t….He never let me wallow too long in my hurts or my self-pity or my frustration. He has always given me the strength to shake off whatever burden the enemy tried to saddle me with and help me get back on track and continue the ministry to which He has called me. This is why the world hates me and every other outspoken believe in the LORD Jesus.
Guess what? If you are a believer, the world hates you too. It’s not just me!!! The world hates the God you serve and the fact that you serve Him. The world hates how much He loves you and the fact that you love Him. The world hates His standard of obedience and the fact that you try to live up to that standard. The world hates the scripture and the fact that you know and love scripture. The world hates the church and the fact that you love and are faithful to the church. The world hates your walk with the LORD and will do all it can to try to get you off course. I urge you, believer, to stay the course. Dig deep into God’s Word so that you will have the tenacity to stand for what is right when the world viciously attacks you. Pray daily so that you will have an intimacy with the LORD that gives you the security to know that He is with you even when it feels like He is not. Attend church regularly and develop relationships with the saints so that you will have someone to come alongside you when times are hard and when you feel discouraged and when you need someone to hold you accountable. Protect your walk with Him, and remind yourself that the world hates you…and they will just have to deal with it!
A Biblical Worldview 