You would think few people would be interested in a job where you could easily get into trouble for the sake of other people! Can you think of an example? What about the doctor and the guard; they may have to risk their own lives or health to try to protect us! Their work is greatly appreciated by the majority of people.
Today I would like to try to interest you in doing something that is “good, pleasing and perfect” but I must warn you that you will be hated and despised by most people for doing it!
First let me tell you about the greatest example of a person being willing to get into trouble for other people. The Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God in Heaven, did not need to trouble Himself about our problems. So why did He come to live in this world by being born of the virgin Mary?
Jesus willingly came to take the punishment of death for sin that you and I deserved; so that He could be able to rescue us from going to eternal death in Hell! You would think everyone would love and appreciate Jesus Christ for His great love for us all. Not so!
Jesus had this to say to His few faithful followers, “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated Me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own...I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you.”(verses 18-19.)
Perhaps you are asking, “Who hates Jesus?” Jesus once explained it this way, “No servant can serve two masters...he will hate the one and love the other..” If you have to choose between two masters, you ignore or disobey the one you hate, but you obey the one you love. “If you love Me, you will obey what I command,” Jesus said.
Often people will say to me that they love Jesus. But when I point out Jesus’ teaching - for example, that no-one can come to the Father except through Him, their reaction is often one of anger or even violence!
This is because they have chosen to obey some other “master” than Jesus - some other person, who offers to make them right with God. They “have no excuse for their sin” - their awful sin of rejecting the Saviour God has sent; hating Jesus “without reason”, (verse 22, 25.) and hating those who, like myself, would teach them to trust and obey Jesus! “Remember the words I spoke to you”, Jesus said. “‘No servant is greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will persecute you also...They will treat you this way because of My name, for they do not know the One who sent Me.” (verse 21.)
I may be persecuted because I trust in Jesus as my Priest, but it’s worth it! Jesus gives me peace with God, and assures me of Heaven! I hope you will trust in Jesus too!
You can read of Jesus warning His followers about the world's hatred in John chapter 15, verses 18-25.
John Nixon, Cork, Ireland. P31HD98. Contact: jnixonj@gmail.com
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