Hope You Are Hated [Devotional]

email from Randall | 3 July 2008 | Randall Easter

[DaveMSmith]

Jesus, the Lord God showed sin in your examples. In fact, in John 8, He shows us the spiritual meaning of the sixth commandment. Spiritually, it means do not falsify the Word, which the Scribes and Pharisees were doing (that's why He wrote in the earth, like at the Temple).

How can you 'convert' a person without teaching them about the Lord? A person has to reach their own conclusion and approach the Lord themselves by their own reasoning. The only thing we can do is create disciples of ALL. Love one another. No exceptions.

Yesterday, my SIL (born again evangelical) was telling me a close friend of hers from back east has serious and severe cancer and took some amount of effort to get in touch with my SIL. They were very close. When the rest of the family found out, everyone just assumed she would want to go back east to visit her sick friend.

She actually said to me "I would go, but between me and you, she doesn't know the Lord". I was just floored. This so-called self-styled 'Christian' woman won't visit a sick friend? Yet, she'll jump through hoops for my FIL when he gets sick... and it's really hard to find good within him.

Point is, the sick woman was probably reaching out to my SIL because of her religion. The Lord was giving her a chance to share her faith, but her faith is separated from charity. She can quote Scripture but doesn't actually live it and apply it to her life.

Regarding teaching the Scribes and Pharisees, the NT is full of examples of the Lord teaching just that group, like with this:

Luke 15:1 Then all the tax collectors and the sinners drew near to Him to hear Him. 2 And the Pharisees and scribes complained, saying, "This Man receives sinners and eats with them." 3 So He spoke this parable to them, saying: 4 "What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he loses one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness, and go after the one which is lost until he finds it? 5 And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. 6 And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, 'Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost!' 7 I say to you that likewise there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine just persons who need no repentance.

[DaveMSmith]

“Life constitutes the Church, not doctrine; except in the measure that it becomes applicable to life.”

What a Church teaches and how it is received are usually vastly different things. When a person applies the truths of the Word to their life, they make those truths their own... they become the Church in its least form.

[greyfoxx39]

Anyone who defends unbiblical doctrines is sure to feel the hatred that is aimed at the false teaching. Unless ad hominem attacks take place, one shouldn’t take attacks on doctrine personally.

Amen to that!

[MHGinTN]

I am so sorry to hear/read that. Perhaps what you assert is why I stay off of the Catholic threads ... except the one weekly where The Pope's catechists is offered.

[MHGinTN]

You can probably tell I’m not a Catholic ... I misspelled an important word - ‘Catecheses’

[defconw]

Amen brother. I am a Catholic.

[SkyPilot]

Followers of Christ are hated because their lives line up with their beliefs and the world hates Jesus.

Amen.

[greyfoxx39]

I’d rather be hated for His sake than have the approval of man.

Excellent point, and germane to many conversations on FR.