Grace and Truth

As I've been working my way through the Gospel of John in my personal study, John 7:7 has stuck in my mind. Jesus said to his unbelieving brothers, "The world cannot hate you, but it hates Me because I testify about it that its works are evil."

Doesn't sound like anything profound or something you would bother memorizing does it? It's the last part of the verse that caught my attention- Jesus being hated by the world because He tells the truth about their sinfulness. While the Gospel is good news it begins with the offensive news that all people are sinners. But if you're like me it is very hard to tell people that, let alone convince them of it. I don't like being hated. I don't want to upset people or turn them off. Yet I know if they can't see their sin as God sees it, they will not understand their need for God and will have no motivation to receive Jesus. We need to take the risk.

Looking at it from a slightly different angle, Christians as a whole do not have a good reputation in the world. We are hated by many like Jesus was, but I think it is often for a different reason. We tend to turn more people off with our actions than with our words. The world sees us as hypocrites, unloving, greedy, angry and miserable. While people were attracted to Jesus by His love, kindness, grace, and servanthood they don't see much of that in us.

The question I ask myself is, What should we be hated for? Which is more biblical:to be hated for telling God's truth or for living a hypocritical life? God's way is for us to be attractive in character and actions and offensive in message. He can break into lives to make His truth make sense if we don't get in the way with unchristian behaviour.

Grace and peace,

Dave