Therefore Jesus told them (His brothers,) “My time is not yet here; for you any time will do. The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify that its works are evil.” ~John 7:5-6
The world hates Jesus because He exposes their sins. John told us (3:19-21,) and this is the condemnation—that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.
Before we came to Christ, we hated Him, too. Ephesians 2:1-10 says:
And you He made alive who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.
But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together in Christ, (by grace you have been saved) and raised us up together and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
We all once walked in that way. We were all guilty and we were all without hope, but God…I love that!
Isaiah told us, years before Jesus came to save us all: He was despised and rejected by mankind ~Isaiah 53
Jesus predicted His own death: He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again. ~Mark 8:31
Luke 9:22 And he said, “The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.”
Jesus knew what He was about. He had already planned to redeem us.
1 Peter 1:18-19 You were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.
Because I was redeemed by His precious blood, I need to think about how I live now. Jesus knows the battle we face every day, as we choose to either serve God and worship Him or serve our own desires.
“No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.” Matthew 6:24
The word mammon is often translated “money,” but it would more accurately describe the world system—in which money is important. You can’t serve both God and yourself, and you can’t serve God and still be able to do whatever you want.
John says the world is one of our three main enemies—the world, the flesh, and the devil (1 John 2:16.) He warns us not the love the world—if we do, the love of God isn’t in us.
This became very real to me when I was young. I had just started going to church and attending a Bible study. My husband and I were at a bar. I hadn’t quite gotten to gist of how to be God’s child yet. I was rambling on about my life to the woman behind the bar, telling her how happy I was in Jesus, and then she invited me to the back for a little “snort” of something. I’m ashamed to say I went—and when we came back I kept up the dialogue.
At that point she turned to me and said, “Don’t preach to me when you’re high!” She had probably hoped I would shut up about God if I was loaded, but that didn’t work! I wasn’t even really high—I didn’t feel any affect at all.
I realized she was right. I couldn’t do both—I could either preach, or get high. I had read this very verse, and knew it wasn’t going to work the way I was trying to live. So I told her she was right, and that from that point on I wouldn’t be getting high any more, and that I would tell people about the Lord instead.
Ephesians 5:8 For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light.
Ephesians 4:17-24 This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind, having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart; who, being past feeling, have given themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.
But you have not so learned Christ, if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus: that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts,
You have not so learned Christ! Be renewed! Don’t fall prey to the enemy’s schemes.
and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.
This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin (1 John 1:5-7.)
Because of Jesus—His precious blood—we have freedom to be able to choose life. It’s not because we were special; in fact, God chooses the foolish things of the world to confound the wise, so that He can get all the glory. That’s okay with me, because I benefit from it all! Because He chose me, I can choose Him, and life, and blessing. Praise God!
But the world hates our Lord, because He points out their need. He wants to see them healed, but they avoid Him. If only they could come to Him and know what I know now! I must share what Jesus is doing in my life so they might see and turn and be saved. Pray for the workers of the harvest!
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