We’ve been promised persecution and hatred from the world. Because we serve Jesus Christ, those who love sin can only naturally feel a certain amount of hostility toward us. Yet too often, Christians are hated not because they humbly proclaim the gospel, but because they use Christ as an excuse to be hateful and offensive. People don’t hate that Christian because of Christ, but they often hate that Christ because of the Christian.
What Christ does
This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. (John 3:19)
The Chrisitan life isn’t meant to be one of rest and comfort. We live in a world that is overflowing with hostility for Christ. And when we remember our lives before Christ, is it any wonder?
Christ represents the exact opposite of what the world offers.
- The world offers false freedom through indulging in our desires, while Christ offers freedom from those destructive desires
- The world offers acceptance of who we are, yet Christ wants us to set aside our old selves and become more like Him
- The world is in a constant pursuit to not only indulge in sin, but keep finding new and depraved things for others to call acceptable. Christ, meanwhile, is firmly rooted in His holiness and tells us to keep moving towards Him.
It’s little wonder, then, why Christ offered this warning:
If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you. (John 15:18-19)
Do people feel uncomfortable around us simply because of the lives we live for Christ? Are we mocked because of the things we do, and especially for the things we choose not to do out of reverence for our Savior? Is our idea of a fulfilling life spent serving Christ seen as a complete waste by those in our lives?
If so, then there’s a good chance we’re on the right track. It doesn’t take much to provoke the world – all we need to do is let the light of Christ shine through us, naturally exposing the darkness of those who live as enemies of God.
What we do
Of course, what should be and what is can often be very different things. And unfortunately, we can think that simply because we talk about Jesus, any negativity we receive from others is just proof that we’re serving Him. So we continue using hurtful words, attacking others, and even adding Christ to things like politics so that we can keep feeding our own agendas.
Conduct yourselves with wisdom toward outsiders, making the most of the opportunity. Let your speech always be with grace, as though seasoned with salt, so that you will know how you should respond to each person. (Colossians 4:5-6)
Let’s not mix words: If we use the Bible to justify words and actions that aren’t done out of love for those who need Christ, then we aren’t serving Christ. Rather, we use Christ to serve our pride. And with that, we miss the entire point of the gospel.
In our sinfulness, we enjoy hurting others. We like the feeling of superiority in telling others they’re wrong. We are often completely incapable of understanding how someone could believe something different than us.
Yet rather than submitting to God in humility as we talk to people, we find a handful of verses that let us attack those in desperate need of a savior. We make God partisan, saying that He only approves of this political party or that denomination. We preach shame and condemnation, telling people they’re wrong for how they think and live, only briefly mentioning that they need Jesus in their lives. The gospel we preach is “I’m right, you’re wrong, and God agrees.” And we love it.
We used to shake our heads and believe groups like Westboro Baptist Church were the minority, not accurately representing any form of Christianity. But the rise of social media has simply revealed that they weren’t unique, they were merely the only ones willing to say what many believed. After all, how many Christians today fill their social media feeds with things that mock, shame, and dehumanize those who are “other” to what we believe or how we live?
We completely miss the point of the gospel because we focus on the need for changed behavior, not a Savior who paid for sin. We engage the sin of the world with “Here’s what I want to believe, now how can I use the Bible to support me?” We hurt others to feel superior.
It’s heartbreaking to consider, but using Christ to justify our pride and desire to set ourselves against others can be nothing shy of sin.
What should we do?
We often think of issues like this in extreme. We don’t want to be hate-spewing Christians. To reject that, we’re tempted to embrace people, tell them God loves them no matter what, and preach acceptance.
No.
To soften the reality of sin is no less hateful to a person than to preach nothing but hate. The emotional effects may be different as we’d all prefer the warm fuzzies of “God loves you just as you are” compared to “If you’re gay, God hates you.” Certainly, living a life of peace and acceptance is much more emotionally satisfying, letting us catch flies with honey and all that.
Yet Christ didn’t come to soothe our emotional needs. His death on the cross didn’t pay for us to feel good about ourselves. He came to a world that celebrates its absolute depravity in order to save God’s enemies from the wrath they completely deserve.
Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth; I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. “For I came to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and a man’s enemies will be the members of his household. (Matthew 10:34-36)
How do we find a balance between teaching truth without standing in the way of Jesus Christ? The answer is love. Yet, perhaps, not as we think.
To truly love someone is to want the overall best for them. Parents discipline their children because, although it’s initially unpleasant, it yields a greater result in the end. Friends bring us difficult truths not because their goal is to hurt us, but because their goal is to protect us from something far worse than hurt feelings. Love does what’s necessary to care for the other person.
Some, to be sure, are preaching Christ even from envy and strife, but some also from good will; the latter do it out of love… (Philippians 1:15-16a)
As Paul goes on to say, Christ is proclaimed even by those who preach Him from sinful motives. After all, God doesn’t need to wait for us to say just the right thing so He can move a person’s heart. Yet Paul greatly commends those who preach Christ out of love.
When we take everything together, we can see a rich picture of what it looks like to proclaim the gospel, accurately but with gentleness.
We don’t need to be ashamed of what Christ has to say about sin. He calls all people to repentance, yet what can they repent of if they don’t realize how, and why, God hates sin? How will they realize God’s wrath is on them if they’re told God loves them just as they are?
At the same time, we don’t want to become accidental Pharisees. We don’t want to tell people “You’re less acceptable to God because of this hot-button issue.” A liar is just as condemned before God as anyone who approves of those sins we make such a big deal of. When we continue to focus on people’s behaviors, what we’re really telling them is “You’ll be more acceptable to God if you aren’t gay. God will be less angry at you if you oppose abortion.”
for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23)
Out of love, we want to give them the truth. The world needs to know that they do stand guilty before God. God loves those He created, but His love cannot eliminate the fact that He is good and must punish evil. We are evil.
For all of us have become like one who is unclean, And all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment; And all of us wither like a leaf, And our iniquities, like the wind, take us away. (Isaiah 64:6)
They also need to know that fixing their beliefs and behaviors won’t do anything to resolve their guilt. Nothing we offer to God is enough to pay for a lifetime of crime. Things like “pray the gay away” completely miss the point because it insists on a works-based righteousness.
What people need, more than anything, is for us to get out of the way. As servants of Jesus Christ, we exist to tell people the good news of His death and resurrection. Our greatest desire is to tell people that Christ took the wrath of God to pay for sin, a payment we couldn’t possibly handle on our own. People must recognize how filthy they are compared to God’s holiness, but that no amount of effort on their part can clean them up enough to be acceptable to Him.
It’s only through Jesus Christ that we can truly be brought to life and begin pleasing God.
Christ is the only light that can truly reveal the darkness in a person’s heart. He chose to let us work with Him in bringing that light to the world. If we allow our pride to rule us, we can stand in the way of that light in exchange for our own feeling of superiority. Instead, let us revisit what Paul said to the Colossians. We must talk to people about Christ, but without the wisdom to do so in love, we risk preaching a false gospel.
After all, the truth of Christ is offensive enough without our help.
Conduct yourselves with wisdom toward outsiders, making the most of the opportunity. Let your speech always be with grace, as though seasoned with salt, so that you will know how you should respond to each person. (Colossians 4:5-6)
