Your Brother Daniel
Why they Hate us
The nicest people ive ever
met are covered in
tattoos and piercings.
While the most judmental
people ive met go to
church every Sunday
A Facebook Friend posted
this, and I couldn’t resist responding: “Well, it seems that you too are quite
judgmental.” This response created a storm. One person responded in his
defense:
· He is not judgmental; he is just making an
observation!
This is the way that the
media usually responds when accused of conducting a war-against-Christians. At
first, my friend refused to admit that he too was judgmental. However, I knew
him to be a bold straight-shooter, and so I responded that I was disappointed
in him, because he wouldn’t answer my question. Then he admitted:
· Daniel...I really don't give a shit whether you
are disappointed in me or not. I hope that is clear. Was it my intention to
demean church-goers? No...not in this post. This post was pretty clear...an
observation… The most judgmental people I have met have been regular church
goers. Now...I can certainly demean church goers, in a number of ways. But in
this post, I was simply demeaning judgmental people who go to church.
My “friend” is a sharp
and intelligent man, and so I was surprised at his incoherent response –
denying but yet affirming that he had been judgmental. He later declared
himself “a sworn enemy of the organized/patriarchal/religious system.”
A “sworn enemy”
generally has both closed mind and heart. The attacks against me became
increasingly vicious, not only from my friend but also from others. This made
me reassess what I had written and why the dialogue became what it did. “Why
are we hated,” I asked myself. My “friend” thinks that we are judgmental. I
have no doubt that he sincerely feels this way. But what makes him think us
more judgmental (and condemning) than others? True Christians are forgiving and
compassionate, aren’t we?
Jesus explained that
since we belong to Him, we will be hated as He is hated:
· “Brother will betray brother to death, and a
father his child; children will rebel against their parents and have them put
to death. You will be hated by everyone because of me.” (Mat. 10:21-22)
· “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it
hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As
it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world.
That is why the world hates you.” (John 15:18-19)
As with Jesus, they will
even put us to death, convinced that they are doing the right thing:
· “All this I have told you so that you will not
fall away. 2 They will put you out of the synagogue; in fact, the time is
coming when anyone who kills you will think they are offering a service to
God.” (John 16:1-2)
Progressives – the
communists – exterminated Christians with the justification that we are
regressive elements that need to be destroyed in order to create a better
world. Did they really believe that? Perhaps! But what is at the core of such a
distorted belief?
Jesus explained that He
was hated because He revealed the truth
about others (John 7:7).
The more I pointed out
my friend’s inconsistencies, the more incensed he became. Why? Jesus explained:
· This is the verdict: Light has come into the
world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were
evil. Everyone who does evil hates the
light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be
exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be
seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God. (John
3:19-21)
Jesus is the light, and
He is hated for this. We too are the light (2 Cor. 5:19-21), and so we are
hated. I know that this sounds arrogant, but we must arm ourselves with this
awareness so that we do not suffer self-castigation when confronted with
hatred. It goes with the turf, as Paul had warned:
· In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life
in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, while evildoers and impostors will go from
bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. (2 Tim 3:12-13)
If we refuse to embrace
this uncomfortable truth, the deception of this world will embrace us. It will
then become even more difficult to live the Christian life. We will retreat and
blame ourselves and the church that we had been overly judgmental.
Also, if we shy away
from the Bible’s teachings about the depth of sin and spiritual darkness, we
will fail to understand what we are confronting and blame ourselves instead.
Meanwhile, Paul warned:
· For we are to God the pleasing aroma of Christ
among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. To the one we are
an aroma that brings death; to the other, an aroma that brings life. (2 Cor.
2:14-15)
We are a stench to those
who have rejected the light, but our experience gives us a different message. It insists that our colleagues are really good people, even truth-seekers. We,
therefore, are prone to see things from their
point of view and accept their
disdain for the church.
Meanwhile, Jewish
writers inform us that the Pharisees had been the most respected class of
people in Israel, and it seems that they were, but this was only show. It was a
show that Jesus exposed:
· “Be careful not to practice your righteousness
in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from
your Father in heaven. So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with
trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be
honored by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full…
And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray
standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others.”
(Mat. 6:1-2, 5)
What looks good to us is
hypocrisy to our Lord. Instead, the best of us are just like you – self-seeking
at our core. We therefore need to be born-again and don’t forget that so do
they!
My Facebook Friend –
he’s kind-of a guru - hates me. I too have become his sworn enemy. However,
knowing the root of his hatred, I don’t take it personally and therefore just
want the best for him.
A Facebook Friend posted
this, and I couldn’t resist responding: “Well, it seems that you too are quite
judgmental.” This response created a storm. One person responded in his
defense:
· He is not judgmental; he is just making an
observation!
This is the way that the
media usually responds when accused of conducting a war-against-Christians. At
first, my friend refused to admit that he too was judgmental. However, I knew
him to be a bold straight-shooter, and so I responded that I was disappointed
in him, because he wouldn’t answer my question. Then he admitted:
· Daniel...I really don't give a shit whether you
are disappointed in me or not. I hope that is clear. Was it my intention to
demean church-goers? No...not in this post. This post was pretty clear...an
observation… The most judgmental people I have met have been regular church
goers. Now...I can certainly demean church goers, in a number of ways. But in
this post, I was simply demeaning judgmental people who go to church.
My “friend” is a sharp
and intelligent man, and so I was surprised at his incoherent response –
denying but yet affirming that he had been judgmental. He later declared
himself “a sworn enemy of the organized/patriarchal/religious system.”
A “sworn enemy”
generally has both closed mind and heart. The attacks against me became
increasingly vicious, not only from my friend but also from others. This made
me reassess what I had written and why the dialogue became what it did. “Why
are we hated,” I asked myself. My “friend” thinks that we are judgmental. I
have no doubt that he sincerely feels this way. But what makes him think us
more judgmental (and condemning) than others? True Christians are forgiving and
compassionate, aren’t we?
Jesus explained that
since we belong to Him, we will be hated as He is hated:
· “Brother will betray brother to death, and a
father his child; children will rebel against their parents and have them put
to death. You will be hated by everyone because of me.” (Mat. 10:21-22)
· “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it
hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As
it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world.
That is why the world hates you.” (John 15:18-19)
As with Jesus, they will
even put us to death, convinced that they are doing the right thing:
· “All this I have told you so that you will not
fall away. 2 They will put you out of the synagogue; in fact, the time is
coming when anyone who kills you will think they are offering a service to
God.” (John 16:1-2)
Progressives – the
communists – exterminated Christians with the justification that we are
regressive elements that need to be destroyed in order to create a better
world. Did they really believe that? Perhaps! But what is at the core of such a
distorted belief?
Jesus explained that He
was hated because He revealed the truth
about others (John 7:7).
The more I pointed out
my friend’s inconsistencies, the more incensed he became. Why? Jesus explained:
· This is the verdict: Light has come into the
world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were
evil. Everyone who does evil hates the
light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be
exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be
seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God. (John
3:19-21)
Jesus is the light, and
He is hated for this. We too are the light (2 Cor. 5:19-21), and so we are
hated. I know that this sounds arrogant, but we must arm ourselves with this
awareness so that we do not suffer self-castigation when confronted with
hatred. It goes with the turf, as Paul had warned:
· In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life
in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, while evildoers and impostors will go from
bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. (2 Tim 3:12-13)
If we refuse to embrace
this uncomfortable truth, the deception of this world will embrace us. It will
then become even more difficult to live the Christian life. We will retreat and
blame ourselves and the church that we had been overly judgmental.
Also, if we shy away
from the Bible’s teachings about the depth of sin and spiritual darkness, we
will fail to understand what we are confronting and blame ourselves instead.
Meanwhile, Paul warned:
· For we are to God the pleasing aroma of Christ
among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. To the one we are
an aroma that brings death; to the other, an aroma that brings life. (2 Cor.
2:14-15)
We are a stench to those
who have rejected the light, but our experience gives us a different message. It insists that our colleagues are really good people, even truth-seekers. We,
therefore, are prone to see things from their
point of view and accept their
disdain for the church.
Meanwhile, Jewish
writers inform us that the Pharisees had been the most respected class of
people in Israel, and it seems that they were, but this was only show. It was a
show that Jesus exposed:
· “Be careful not to practice your righteousness
in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from
your Father in heaven. So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with
trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be
honored by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full…
And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray
standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others.”
(Mat. 6:1-2, 5)
What looks good to us is
hypocrisy to our Lord. Instead, the best of us are just like you – self-seeking
at our core. We therefore need to be born-again and don’t forget that so do
they!
My Facebook Friend –
he’s kind-of a guru - hates me. I too have become his sworn enemy. However,
knowing the root of his hatred, I don’t take it personally and therefore just
want the best for him.
