John 15:18 (the words of Jesus).. If the world hate you, know that it hated me before it hated you.
1 John 3:13 Marvel not my brethren, if the world hat you. We know that we have passed from death unto life because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death.
There is no doubt the religious people of the day killed Jesus. It was the hierarchy of the church backed by the people that murdered our Lord. Why ???
You may often wonder why people attack you or are insensitive to you, maybe even mean and nasty to you even though you have nothing against them and love them. Here are the answers.
Matthew 10:22 An ye shall be hated of all men for my name sake: but he that endureth to the end shall be saved.
James 4:4 Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosever therefore will be a fiend of the world is the enemy of God.
1 John 2:15 Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
1 John 2:16 For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.
vs 17: and the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever.
John 16:3 And these things will they do unto you, because they have not known the Father.
John 17:14 I have given them thy word, and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.
Through these passages we can find the reason why so much conflict, argument and hatred is brought against Christians, in the home, in society and in the world.
The unsaved absolutely rant and rave against Christians because the unsaved hate Jesus, the cross of Jesus and the gospel of His Resurrection. They do not even realize what they are doing. They just have a deep abiding hate and cannot verbalize in any way but to curse people of God. They attack with a viciousness that is surprising, unyielding, uncompromising and without repentance.
Scripture is clear about the fruits of the spirit. Love, joy, peach, kindness, gentleness and self control are the marks of God's people. When a person's life diplays anything but these things, God is not in them.
Bod is love and those who do not love are not of God. Get hold of any way you wish, but the person who is always in a turmoil with others and always on the attack belittling others is not of God but has a devil.
It does not take a great theologian to come to this conclusion from scripture. The Holy Ghost who give scripture life and power tells us that the person who hates, has malice, revelry, withchraft (manipulating to get their own way) hatred, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies are led by the law and not the spirit of God. (Galaations 5:21-23) The love of God is not in a person whose life shows these fruits. They are in a lost condition, yet will accuse you of every kind of wrong doing you can imagine. They are unsettled and living in the same hell in this life they willl inherit in the next. They are following Satan into an eternal separation from God.
We will deal in the next paper how we should treat people like this. See that segment entitled "What do we do with the lost and backslidden".
Jesus and all the scriptures makes two thing abundantly clear.
1. If anyone follows Jesus, the world will hate them because it hates Him.
2. Christians are not to judge (that is condemn others for their behaviors) we are, for the kingdom's sake, to inspect the fruits of ourselves and others. For us, to make sure we are on the right track, for others so that we may know how we are to minister to them. Hatred, bitterness, wrath, accusations (which is judging) and spite are signs of very powerful demonic activity in a persons life. These are signs of friendship with the world, which is emnity against God (hatred and rebellion against God). Such are heavily influenced by Satan, for God has none of these characteristics. The Christian life mimics the character of God as lived out in Jesus, not at once as the heathen would judge, but over time. Christianity begins at the cross with varying degrees of lostness and sin realized, confesses, repents, then leaves carrying the cross becoming more like Jesus with every passing moment. They never leave the cross because they carry it with them. Jesus said, "take up your cross daily and follow me".
If their spiritual growth stops or regresses it is a sure sign Satan has stopped their progress, which means they are yielding to the ways of the world under the convincing dialog of Satan or their trip to the cross was not a sincere one.
Paul, in the wisdom of the Holy Spirit, listed in Galations 5:19-21 the fruits of Satan. In the order they are listed is divinely inspired. They are all results of demonic activity, hatred of God. Any of these are examples of hatred toward God. The ones considered more serious to the heathen are listed first. There are those listed which are for those who think they are good. Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies. The religious crowd, the ones who think they abide by the law, the ones who have confidence in the law and are dependant on it for their salvation are the same spirit as the Sadducee's and Pharisees who killed Jesus, who was love, grace and peace.
Paul says in Galations 5:23, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.
The next writing will be on how true Christians are to minister to people in this condition, both the saved and unsaved.
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