Week 23, Day 4: They will hate you
Today’s Reading: John 17:1-18:40
Some thoughts from yesterday’s reading…
Jesus continues to prepare the apostles for His departure. The world had hated Jesus. They had mistreated Him and persecuted Him. What do you think they will do to those who serve Him? They would treat them the same way. The apostles were commanded to love one another right before being told that they would be hated by the world. During these times of hardship and pain, they would need each other. They would need to be able to count on each other and know that they had each other’s love. Loving one another would be so critical for them to endure and persevere through the harsh treatment they were going to receive.
In 16:1 Jesus says that He tells them these things so that they may be kept from stumbling. Knowing that hardships are coming helps us to prepare mentally to endure them. Understanding that they hate us because of who we serve should also help us to deal with the persecutions. As Christians we need to prepare ourselves mentally to accept that the world will not view us favorably and will not always treat us well because we are not of the world but are of God. Resolve yourself that come what may, you will continue to serve God and not be suprised at the fiery ordeals that we have to go through. Knowing and accepting that these things will come helps us not stumble when hit by hardships. Our mindset and attitude has a lot to do with how we deal with these things.
Finally, I want to make a comment about Jesus referring to how they hated Him without cause (15:25). Sometimes we hear people say, “why is this happening to me!” Jesus suffered for no wrong that He had done. He committed no sin to deserve the hatred and persecution. When we have bad things happen to us, let us consider that sometimes things can happen without a cause. Yes, hardship can teach us many lessons and cause us to examine ourselve, but let us not become despairing and dwell on why bad things happen to us. Searching for the why has caused many people distress and sorrow when they cannot see the reason. Accept that we will suffer at times for doing what is good and that bad things happening is just a part of life, not necessarily an indication that we are being told by God to change something in our lives.
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