IF THE WORLD HATES YOU: You're on the Right Track!

seventharmy.deviantart.com

HISGROUP DISCIPLESHIP. The world should hate you. That’s how you know you’re doing things right–whether discipleship or Kingdom building on earth. It’s Jesus’ own specified gauge to see if we’re really walking with him in the light and rightly representing him on earth.

If the world loves or applauds us, then we’re no better than the false prophets, Jesus added. Imagine how many false prophets and false church ministries there are today, applauded by the world. And believers crowd them each Sunday, enjoying their “good worship and sound teachings.” The world approves of them, too.

Beware that you get the world’s approval. My Jesus never did. Many churches today seek approval from politicians, showbiz, businesses, rich people, TV folks, the worldly church, and men’s organizations. They believe such recognition is also God’s recognition–vox populi vox Dei.

But Jesus’ Words will never change. Once you start getting approval from the world, you get lumped up together with false prophets. Friendship with the world is enmity with God. But to many church leaders, this Word has become obsolete. Today, you have to go with the flow or trend in the world  to be successful.

"Once you start getting approval from the world, you get lumped up together with false prophets."

Worldly Recognition

It’s not just the world’s recognition, but the ways and systems we borrow from the world, like when we decide who gets recognized in ministry. God warned us never to use the ways of this world, but churches just stubbornly go on doing it. Who do we reward or applaud? Churches who have lots of money, possessions, standing and influence in the world, big memberships [because they have big incomes], modern facilities and instruments, and many other standards we got from the world, not from my Jesus. These things also make us out to be among false prophets.

It’s not just false teachings or doctrines--it’s false value systems that put us among false apostles and prophets today. We can have the soundest Christian doctrines in church and yet remain false in God’s eyes. Many in church fail to see who God really is. They think he can go easy on his standards for us, pointing out how God understands how we’re weak, that we’re just humans anyway. So, they think he sometimes tolerates our little stubborn falsehoods.

That’s not who God is. The true God is always serious about his Word--no, he’s eternally serious about it. And he tells us to watch out that the world does not approve of who we are and what we do. The moment it hates us because we fanatically [and narrow-mindedly] stick with Christ and his standards, then we’re on the right track. I’ve seen many churches and ministers fear the world’s rejection. They like hearing how the world calls them broad-minded when they easily compromise to accommodate the world.