I’d Rather Be Hated by the World Than Be an Enemy of God

There is a me-centric movement that has always been an enemy of the Church: even from the beginning. It’s plagued man-kind since the Garden of Eden: disobey God’s voice, you decide for yourself what is good and what is not. But our God is a God of order. With a Word, He established all things, and set the cosmos in to motion. He establishes what is right and what is not, and He has given us the Bible; 66 books written by over 40 authors over a period of 1,500 years in three languages on three continents, all inspired by the Holy Spirit to instruct us toward following God’s ways instead of our own, specifically leading us to Jesus Christ.

Yet, the world is in rebellion to God. Jesus said it is ruled by Satan, the Prince of the Air. He wants to destroy the Church, but since the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it, he wants to corrupt it and blend it in with the world. And Christians who stand on God’s Word and His principles are Satan’s enemies. We will, for following Christ and being obedient to Him, have targets placed on our backs. The Enemy of our souls doesn’t want us to win more souls to Christ, and so he will try to devour us, shut us up or make us useless. We do best, though when we are in God’s will, and so we have to make a decision: do I want to be loved by the world, or be a friend of God?

The Bible makes it clear:

James 4:4 ESV

You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

Romans 12:2 ESV

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

1 John 2:15 ESV

Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

1 John 3:13 ESV

Do not be surprised, brothers, that the world hates you.

1 John 5:19 ESV

We know that we are from God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.

Romans 8:7 ESV

For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law; indeed, it cannot.

1 John 2:3-4 ESV

And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments. Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him,

Ephesians 2:8-9 ESV

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

Psalm 11:5 ESV

The Lord tests the righteous, but his soul hates the wicked and the one who loves violence.

Psalm 5:5 ESV

The boastful shall not stand before your eyes; you hate all evildoers.

The world is ruled by the enemy, and those who are of it make themselves enemies of God. We exist in the world, but we belong to Christ. Let us, then, seek to cast aside our earthly thoughts and worldly way of thinking, and wholeheartedly seek after Jesus, His will, and His ways. We should be hated by the world, not because we’re evil, but because they hated Jesus first, and if we are for Christ, then we’re automatically at odds. But praise be to God, Jesus is still raising the dead, and whosoever will come to Him are still freed from the bondage that we, too, once walked in.

John 15:18-27

“If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours. But all these things they will do to you on account of my name, because they do not know him who sent me. If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have been guilty of sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin. Whoever hates me hates my Father also. If I had not done among them the works that no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin, but now they have seen and hated both me and my Father. But the word that is written in their Law must be fulfilled: ‘They hated me without a cause.’

“But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me. And you also will bear witness, because you have been with me from the beginning.

John 17:6-19

“I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. Now they know that everything that you have given me is from you. For I have given them the words that you gave me, and they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me. I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours. All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them. And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one. While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. But now I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves. I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth.