Hated
because we are Christians
"Marvel not,
my brethren, if the world hate you." 1 JOHN 3:13
Let me put
this as a historical fact. This is one of the great principles
that we find in the Bible from the beginning. There are many
people who have difficulty with this verse. If this is true of
you, you have somehow failed to understand the first great
essential divisions of the Bible. The difference between Cain
and Abel was in Cain, not in Abel. Cain (the world) hates Abel
(the Christian). Look at Joseph and his brethren. Look at David
and Saul; read the story of how King Saul treated David and
tried to get rid of him - the jealousy, envy, and malice. Look
at the treatment that was meted out to the prophets, those men
of God who were trying to save the nation. It is there
everywhere.
Look at the supreme example of our Lord Himself. Here is the Son
of God incarnate; here is the eternal life in the flesh. Look at
the world sneering at Him, how they picked up stones to cast at
Him, how they shouted, "Crucify Him, away with Him!" The world
crucified the very Son of God who had come to save it! "Marvel
not, my friends, if the world hate you." The world does not hate
you because you are hateful people; the case of Cain and Abel
proves that. Cain did not hate his brother because there was
something hateful about him. There was nothing hateful in Abel,
but Cain hated him in spite of that.
Neither does the world hate us because we are good. Let us be
quite clear about that. The world does
not hate good people; the world only hates Christian people.
That is the subtle, vital distinction. If you are just
a good person, the world, far from hating you, will admire you;
it will cheer you. And what is true of the individual is true of
the whole Church. The world, we are told, hates Christians, not
because they are hateful, not because they are good, not
because they do good, but specifically because they are
Christians, because they are of God, because they have Christ
within them.
- D. Marytn Lloyd-Jones,
Children of God
