Like Father; Like Son

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Wednesday, August 29, 2018

You didn’t choose me.  I chose you.  I appointed you to go and produce lasting fruit, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask for, using my name.  This is my command:  Love each other.   “If the world hates you, remember that it hated me first.  The world would love you as one of its own if you belonged to it, but you are no longer part of the world.  I chose you to come out of the world, so it hates you.  Do you remember what I told you?  ‘A slave is not greater than the master.’  Since they persecuted me, naturally they will persecute you.  And if they had listened to me, they would listen to you.  They will do all this to you because of me, for they have rejected the one who sent me.  They would not be guilty if I had not come and spoken to them. But now they have no excuse for their sin.  Anyone who hates me also hates my Father.  If I hadn’t done such miraculous signs among them that no one else could do, they would not be guilty.  But as it is, they have seen everything I did, yet they still hate me and my Father.  This fulfills what is written in their Scriptures:  ‘They hated me without cause.’  John 15:16-25^(NLT)

There are those who will attempt to soften what living as God’s children means.  But Jesus made it clear that’s not possible.  If we live as genuine children of God, we will bear the hatred Jesus experienced. 

What does that look like?  Jesus used three pictures to describe it:

Persecution

Persecution happens out of a guilt-driven indignation.  When someone feels morally-convicted because another lives a compelling witness to truth, while the other person is clinging to self-deception, the guilt usually winds up in hatred of the other.  That points up Jesus second picture:

Hatred without cause

Jesus obviously lived a sinless life; it drove his detractors crazy.  They couldn’t find something he did wrong to convict him, so their hatred drove them to false accusations and to have the Son of God crucified.

Separation

Jesus told the disciples that separating themselves from the selfishness and wicked ways of the world was what He expected of those who followed Him.  This separation – living Godly in a Godless world – is the heart of Jesus’ point.  When you, as a child of God, live like your Father, it causes guilt in those who choose otherwise.  That guilt makes the wedge of hatred greater.

Two things about that:

1.      When a person despises you because your Christ-centered life produces guilt in him or her, it is not on you…it is conviction, and it is driven by God’s Holy Spirit Who draws sinners back to God.  It is the way God works.

2.      You have a responsibility to continue living a holy life, so you give a consistent witness of what God expects.  Jesus didn’t soften the demands of being a child of Heaven; neither should we.  We must remain faithful.

For You Today

If bearing the unfounded hatred of my neighbor in a gracious, unselfish manner is the cost for being faithful to God and cooperating with God’s Spirit to possibly win that neighbor to faith in Jesus, so be it!

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day.

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[1] Title Image: Photo Courtesy of Pixabay.com