Being Hated

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF MARK

BEING HATED

Mark 13:12-13

12 "Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child. Children will rebel against their parents and have them put to death. 13 All men will hate you because of me, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved.

NIV

It would seem these kinds of relationships are rather harsh and for the most part it does not appear, at least on the surface to exist in our country, our cultural, but in some sense they may. Surely if one member of the family is a born again believer and continually attempts to bring the others to salvation a certain sense of bigotry on the part of the non-believers could occur. There is no doubt a strain in the family when one member has accepted Christ and the rest have not. But as far as betraying to death, we are not yet at that point. Jesus could have been taking about what his disciples would experience and we know from history that Rome did some awful things to Christians. Jesus could also have been talking about what will still come in those last days before his return when the anti-Christ begins to exert his power upon the world. This could happen at any time; in fact we are seeing some small amounts of pressures put upon Christians by our society. We are called bigoted, closed minded and unwilling to accept the abominations of this cultural as normal and acceptable. There are people who push to have any resemblance of God, or Christianity being displayed in the public square. Court cases have been filed against believers for have such displays. Yet we have not come to the place yet where a family member will have one of his own put to death for their faith. Now that might be in other parts of the world, but not yet in our country. It is true in this country that men do hate us because we believe in God, but would only be true if we were telling them about God, about Jesus. The truth of Scripture shines a bright light on their lives and Jesus has already told us some men prefer the darkness so to try to hide their sinful life which they desire to maintain. The light of Christ reveals their way and therefore a hatred for us is a natural expression of self-defense. They may even try to discredit the scriptures, discredit the validity of what Jesus taught and attempt to invalidate our lifestyle as being foolish and weak-minded, needing religion as a crutch. If we are not hated, perhaps it is because we have not stood our ground for Christ. If we are not hated maybe it is because we look and live so much like them they perceive to be no different than them. If they do not hate us it could be because we are not telling them about Jesus, but simply trying to love them into the kingdom, or changing our approach so as not to offend them in any way, in hopes they might like us, and what to be with us. But if we stand firm, and preach the gospel as we have been commanded to do, then maybe we will be hated.