Posted on 12/08/2010 2:33:07 PM PST by wmfights
One of the most inspiring examples of courage in the history of the church was the martyrdom of Polycarp who was arrested by Roman authorities and brought to the arena for execution in front of a cheering crowd. The proconsul pressed him and said, “Swear and I will release you. Revile Christ.” Polycarp replied, “Eighty and six years have I served Him, and He never did me wrong; and how can I now blaspheme my King who has saved me?”
As of now, we need not fear such physical persecution in the United States. But often the true Christian will attract the disdain, hatred, and contempt of the world in other ways. You may be ostracized from your peer group, denied a promotion, or ridiculed for being a relic from previous generations. You will personally be disliked if you live with meticulous integrity and separation from worldly values. Although we may be exempt from torture and death, the basic contempt of mankind for Christ comes to the surface in every culture where the church shines brightly in the world. “And indeed all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted” (2 Timothy 3:12).
Christ says, “A slave is not greater than his master.” If we think we have the right to live without persecution, we are lacking humility; we are actually placing ourselves above Christ. Should we escape the antagonism that He incurred because we are greater than He? I think not. The brighter our lamp burns, the more the world is repelled. Rather than feel sorry for ourselves, we must rejoice that we have the privilege of being identified with His name.
Back in 1971, a revival came to many churches in Western Canada. It made news in the secular press because of the number of people going to stores and other businesses to make restitution for past wrongdoing. Whether it was paying unpaid income tax, or admitting dishonesty in business dealings, or going to the Canadian border to confess they had lied about goods brought over from the United States — hundreds of people were willing to do anything to be fully right with God and man. When these Christians displayed such a desire for righteousness, the world both admired and hated them. On the one hand, the people of the world were thankful that the Christians had the courage to make past wrongs right; but on the other hand, they deeply resented such integrity. For in the process of seeing righteousness at work in the lives of others, they saw their own hidden sins. The holiness of Christians reveals the sin of the world.
Why would theworld hate Christ? In Christ’s farewell discourse He explained, “A slave is not greater than his master. If they persecuted Me they will also persecute you; if they kept my word, they will keep yours also. But all these things they will do to you for My name’s sake, because they do not know the One who sent Me” (John 15:21). The world hates Christ because it is ignorant of God. If they had known God the Father, they would have recognized Jesus Christ as His Son. As Carson says, “If people knew the Father before Jesus came in history, then they would recognize Jesus upon His arrival. Failure to know Jesus, therefore, testifies to ignorance of God before Jesus’ arrival.” Now that Christ has come, we can say with equal authority that if a person does not know Christ, he does not know God the Father.
Don’t be misled by the sentimentality the world has about Christ. Yes, they love the baby in the manger; or they speak about their admiration for Christ’s teaching and his love and sacrifice. But the better they get to know Him; the more they understand about why He came to die, the more they are repelled by Him. They back away from a Christ who taught that we are such sinners that only a sacrifice of the God-man could reconcile us to God.
When hard-pressed, the world often cannot really explain why it despises Christ. “They hated Me without a cause,” Christ says (v 25). Why would anyone hate Christ, Who went about doing good? Think of the number of people He healed, the sermons He preached, and the good work His disciples were trained to do. Yet, they hated Him, not because He was evil, but because He was good and showed them up for who they really were.
Yes, they hated Christ without a cause, but even this fell within the circle of God’s providence. For Christ said, “But they had done this in order that the Word may be fulfilled that is written in their Law, ‘They hated Me without a cause’” (v 25). Christ makes an apparent reference to Psalm 69:4. The hatred of the world is to be expected, and fits into God’s larger plan.
These disciples would soon be traveling in the Roman world that believed political unity could be maintained only by loyalty to Caesar. Once a year, every citizen was required to burn a pinch of incense to Caesar and to confess “Caesar is lord.” As long as he worshiped the Emperor, he could worship any other god he wanted. But the Christians throughout the Empire couldn’t do that, and they paid for it with their lives. Today, we still have the same challenge, though it may not appear as dramatic. Even today we must yet choose between Caesar and Christ.
Let’s summarize Christ’s teaching about the world. First, His followers and the world are irreconcilable. There is no common ground between them. There must be antagonism and strife. The world stands in opposition to everything that Christ holds dear. As one writer put it: “However it may be covered over, there is a gulf, as in some ... American canyons; the towering banks may be very near only a yard or two seem to separate them; but they go down for thousands and thousands of feet, and never get any nearer each other, and between them at the bottom a black, sullen river flows.”
As already emphasized, let’s not be deceived into thinking that the world is getting more and more tolerant. It definitely is not. As worldly values gain in power, the world will attempt to crush the teachings of Christ and His followers.
Second, believers cannot be friends with both Christ and the world. As James put it, “You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God” (James 4:4). You can have the friendship of Christ or the friendship of the world but you cannot have both at the same time! The kingdom of the world which is passing away, and the kingdom of Christ are heading in two different directions, led by two sovereigns who are antagonistic to each other. You cannot serve both, nor can you benefit from both at the same time.
Third, if we have not felt the antagonism of unbelievers who touch our lives, isn’t it likely because we are lacking in our Christian commitment? A Christian who is popular with the world is a contradiction in terms. If we have not attracted the scorn of the world, it may well be because we have muddled our Christian witness. As F.B. Meyer says, in the dim twilight one is easily able to mistake friend and foe!
Joy comes in being persecuted for the cause of Christ. “Blessed are you when men cast insults at you, and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely, on account of Me. Rejoice, and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you “ (Matthew 5:11-12).
One of the reasons that the early church was so invincible was the exhilaration of joy they experienced in persecution. They were thrilled to think that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for the name of Christ. Little wonder that the church and the world were two distinct entities in those days. There was night, and then there was day; there was no twilight in which friend or foe could be mistaken.
Someone has written that to be hated is uncomfortable but it is “infinitely more damning to be blandly ignored and overlooked, contemptuously dismissed as a set of children playing their futile childish games — doing no good, of course, but not much harm, and so left to amuse themselves with their innocuous pastimes.” Likewise, we should not be obnoxious, yet we should live in such a way that we cannot be ignored!
In America, we are often blandly ignored. We arouse no opposition; or if there is opposition it is because of our politics and not because of Christ. We must always remember that representing Him is our first priority. We must confess that we have not caused the world to see itself for what it is. As lightning is attracted to those objects which best conduct electricity, so the hatred of the world is aroused by Christians who are attuned with God.
Of course in a democracy Christianity is tolerated. But believe me, the world has an ample supply of hatred stored up that will be unleashed at any time we seek to be true followers of Christ. Back of this hatred is the power of Satan, who hates Christ and does everything he can to trip up His followers. But as Paul says, we shall only reign with Christ if we suffer with Him!
Here in the intimacy of the Upper Room, Christ effectively puts an end to the widespread belief that success and wealth are the inevitable results of living a committed Christian life. The gospel of prosperity deceives people who cannot distinguish between pursuing God and pursuing their own personal happiness. Christ promised that in the world we will have tribulation.
Maybe you are one who has been bypassed for a promotion; someone who has endured gossip and false accusations; someone who has been ostracized by his or her family, all because of Christ. You, my friend, are privileged.
In 1635 B.C. an Arab nicknamed “Faras the Horseman” was traveling thought the desert with a large herd of horses. Suddenly far in the distance, a body of water came into view. The herd, crazed by thirst, broke into a stampede, racing toward the stream. Faras tested the obedience of the animals by blowing loudly on his horn and five returned to obey the call. These five mares, the story goes, became the stock of the world-famous Arabian horses.
Today Christ has sounded the alarm for battle. He looks for a few to return and stand for Him at great personal cost at this hour of great need. He wants us to be willing to stand with Christ; we must be identified, not with a political agenda, how ever important that may be, but with a loving witness for Christ. We need greater boldness; greater love for Christ, a greater joy to suffer with Christ.
Bravery for Christ is the only indisputable proof of our love for Him. It comes to a matter of simplicity: Do we love Him more than the opinions of men? Or, to ask it differently. Do we love Him more than our own advancement and personal ambition?
A servant is not above His master.
Here in the intimacy of the Upper Room, Christ effectively puts an end to the widespread belief that success and wealth are the inevitable results of living a committed Christian life. The gospel of prosperity deceives people who cannot distinguish between pursuing God and pursuing their own personal happiness. Christ promised that in the world we will have tribulation.
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