Jesus Christ, Son of God, from Nazareth, Israel, was a radical. He was hated by the religious establishment of His day, who rejected His claim of being the Son of God. When He said He was the I AM, they sought to kill Him. When He pointed out their hypocrisy and love of praise from the masses, they sought to kill Him. When He disrupted their greedy practices within the Temple, they sought to kill Him. When He knew the thoughts and intents of their hearts and foiled their traps as they tried to find ways to expose Him as a fraud in order to put Him to death, they hated Him all the more. Jesus told His disciples that if the world hated Him, they would hate His followers. And so they do, even today, but their hatred is our bond with our Lord!

Think about it ~ Jesus puts us in the same league with Him when we are hated because we name His name and follow His Word! The world hated Him first, and it will hate us and seek to dispose of us by whatever means necessary, because the Lord within us exposes their evil ways and practices. Proverbs 29:27 says ” . . . one whose way is upright is detestable to the wicked.” And yet, the Lord didn’t leave us without hope, for He told us not to fear in John 16:33 “I have told you these things so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take courage; I have overcome the world!” May we be bold in our love for Jesus and our proclamation of salvation in no other! “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father except through Me.” John 14:6

Consider these Scripture verses:

John 15:18 “If the world hates you, know that it hated Me before it hated you.”

Matthew 10:22 “You will be hated by everyone because of My Name, but the one who perseveres to the end will be saved.”

Matthew 24: 9 “Then they will deliver you over to be persecuted and killed, and you will be hated by all nations because of My Name.”

John 3:20 “For everyone that does evil hates the light, neither comes to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.”

John 15: 23-25 “He that hates Me hates My Father also . . .”