John 15:18-21 “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. Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also. But all these things will they do unto you for my name’s sake, because they know not him that sent me.”
If the memo mentioned in the previous post was published with the word “Christian” instead of “LGBT” there would be no end to the public outrage. The response would be filled with vitriol and hatred. Such a response would be no surprise to our Saviour.
Indeed, our Saviour faced His own vitriol and hatred, and telegraphed the same to His servants in John 15. The world did not love Him, nor should we expect it to love us. The world persecuted Him, and we should not expect to be immune from persecution ourselves. After all, if we are truly Christians then Christ has chosen us out of this world.
In reality, the attitude towards Christianity in the first two hundred years of our nationhood is an extreme anomaly orchestrated by the Lord himself. Such an attitude has been extraordinarily rare in the two thousand year history of Christianity. Persecution and hatred have instead been the norm.
This truth should not horrify us. In fact, such treatment of Christians would give us more in common with our Christian brothers and sisters throughout history. It also does not alleviate our responsibility to be salt and light in our world. In fact, our salt and light is more savory and more illuminating when contrasted to a world that has neither. It also does not alleviate our responsibility to pray for revival and act together with one accord as Christian citizens.
We should far prefer a future in America as anomalous as the past, and God could make it so at any moment. Yet, he will only do so if we are urgently faithful. PLEASE PRAY FOR AMERICAN CHRISTIANS TO BE MOTIVATED AND NOT DETERRED BY THE WORLD’S REACTION TO US. It puts us in very good company … that of Christ.