The world hateth you.
John
{15:17} These things I command you, that ye love one another.
{15:18} If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you.
{15:19} If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.
{15:20} Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also.
We don't want to be hated.
If the world hates us then we're doing something wrong aren't we?
When the world is against you then you sure aren't conforming to the world and maybe thta's the whole point. We can't conform to the world. We can't expect to be able to conform to the world and walk as Jesus walked.
We want to walk with Jesus and we want to walk with the world. Having it both ways is always good right? To our modern way of thinking it is. Or who knows, maybe it's always been the way man has tended to think. If they can lead a good life with just enough mischief to balance it out it's called complete.
We see religious groups that adhere to strict ways of dressing, eating, convorting with the world and we shake our heads calling it extremism. We rouse up and cry out, Jesus died to do away with all that strict stuff. We want to believe that Jesus died so we would no longer have to act certain ways and such not because it draws us closer to Him but because it makes our lives less strict and well, conforming to the world is a whole lot easier when we tear down walls of separation.
I'm not saying those groups have it all right, but I am saying the world sure does tend towards hating them while the world looks at us and sees what? Good people with a few little quirks but for the most part a nice sort of people that aren't too different, aren't too strange. There's still enough world in us so that we can get along with just about any one without them hating us.
Everything inside us cries out not to be hated by the world. No? You could careless if the world hates you? What about if your friends hate you? What about if your loved one hate you? Do you use your loved ones as an excuse to keep one foot in the door of the world? We don't want to be hated. Can you stop right now and imagine all your loved ones hating you? Not all your loved ones being disappointed with you, but all your loved ones truly HATING you. If you're lucky then you are surrounded by those who love Jesus as much as you do, but that's not how it is for everyone.
Chosen out of the world.
It'd be nice if all the world stopped at a certain time and messages came from above so that all could see and know, messages saying, 'I have chosen you, Dorene; I have chosen you, Debbie; I have chosen you Diane; I have chosen you, Shirley; I have chosen you, Matthew; I have chosen you, Beth.' Wouldn't it be nice to hear that and have everyone around us hear it too so that we could just stop feeling compelled to conform to the world. We would then be expected to be different, right? We've had a personal communication from God that we are His and we are no longer to be 'of' the world. Also, it's okay for the world to hate us because we would be different from them, we were chosen.
Unfortunately things don't work that way. Unfortunately for us, not for God. He wants us of our own free will to choose Him over worldly conformity. He wants our love for Him to be greater than the love of the world. He wants us to step outside the norm and be different if only because growing closer to Him will naturally do that, naturally change us.
John
{15:17} These things I command you, that ye love one another.
{15:18} If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you.
{15:19} If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.
{15:20} Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also.
The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted Jesus they will persecute us.
That sounds so cultish doesn't it?
Some wild-eyed preacher calling out to his congregation- If they persecute Jesus they will persecute you!
We can picture it as being okay back in Jesus' day and we comfort ourselves by saying, people just don't persecute like they used to. This is a modern, advanced society and well you can believe whatever you want to and you won't be persecuted. We'll tolerate your kind especially if you aren't so different from the way we are.
There is so much to think about, so much to contemplate and ultimately, choices to be made. We make choices daily. We make descisions and while the decision to turn on the tv or to read a book might not seem like big decisions in the end they just might be.
May the Lord Jesus Christ our Savior have mercy upon us. We are so weak and so full of sin. We know it's not meant to be easy here and now, we know we'd much rather be taken out of the situation we are in and put in another that would aid our walks with Christ and yet we have the lives we have and there seems to be nothing we can do to change them- nothing that seems rational and keeps us with our loved ones, nothing that seems rational and keeps us living the way we are used to living. Lord, we need your help desperately we are weak, we are sinners, we are the lowest of the low.
Lord, please help us!
By your mercy Lord!
Amen.
“In God is my salvation and my glory: the rock of my strength, and my refuge, is in God.”- Psalm 62:7
Mat 6:34 Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.
Php 4:8 Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.
It's not easy giving up the habit of thinking for others, not when you've spent most of your life doing so. And it's not the thinking for others that might be construed as being a good thing. Believing others are thinking well of you, well... that is a good thing right? It makes a person feel happy to think others are thinking good things of them, holding them in 'high esteem' or even in 'esteem' that isn't quite so high. How often do people do that though, as a rule, believe others are thinking good things of them? It could happen a lot more than I imagine it happen simply because I fall far down the opposite side of that particular coin. I've made a habit of believing everybody thinks bad things of me, everybody holds me in 'low esteem' or 'very low esteem'. People talk about having self-esteem where we think good of ourselves. Then label people as having low self-esteem or high self-esteem. Of course a lot of low self-esteemers think that to hold themselves in high esteem is to be prideful and that's wrong, right? Do you think it's possible to have no esteem? Neither high nor low, but simply no concern over the self? Sure, some will say this or that person has 'no' self-esteem and what they mean is they think very, very low of themselves, so technically they have esteem for themselves it's just far down on the low side. If they truly had no self-esteem they wouldn't be thinking badly of themselves or good of themselves, right?
People like me, for I can only speak for myself really, who have LOW self-esteem often believe no others can think good of them, they can't be held in high esteem by others simply because the bad parts of them outweigh the good by far- yeah, that's low self-esteem. Have you ever been told what another thinks of you? The old- 'I thought you were...but you're not.' Have you ever told someone else that? 'I thought you were better than that? I thought you were different, better. I thought you were...' It doesn't matter really does it, because knowing another is telling you that they thought you were 'better' than what you apparantly are, hurts. If one person thinks that way then others have to do the same and frankly you believe it yourself, that some how some way you're not quite as good as you should be. Low self-esteem can be born that way.
It's so easy for me to imagine others thinking. I like to think for them you see. I imagine (and I do have a vivid imagination) that others think a lot of bad things about me. Those closest to me I tend to believe think the worst of me. In my liking to think for others I imagine their thoughts are consistently wishing I was different, better than I am. No one can really accept me for me and I don't even accept me for me because I've failed so many expectations I had for myself.
Recently I started to think for others as I always do and my thoughts were making me more and more depressed. I'd tell myself my thoughts for what they were thinking were true- that their actions past and present confirm it to be so. I tell myself not to be delusional and believe they are thinking differently because the past has shown that NOT to be true. Such a vile trap you know, all caught up in the reality and the supposed reality of thoughts. The lines are so blurred there is no telling where they really are and the confusing is as depressing as the thoughts. Part of me doesn't want to know the REAL thoughts because taking them out of my own mind and confirming them would hurt even more. Yet there is torture in thinking, in believing what is thought even if there is no way of knowing except by confirmation.
Does this all sound confusing, well I'm not surprised, it is confusing. I've been nudged by this thought though- Stop thinking for others. Just stop.
When I fill the heads of others with thier supposed bad thoughts whether true or not, I'm thinking for them. We are told in the Bible what things to think on... and rightly so.
Php 4:8 Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.
True things.
Honest things.
Just things.
Pure things.
Lovely things.
Things of good report.
Virtuous things.
Praise worthy things.
No where in there are we told to think of bad things, to imagine being thought of badly- a bad thing. So what if it's true. So what if someone you love thinks you're a bumbling idiot most of the time, you are NOT supposed to think on that because that isn't a good thing. Yes, it said to think on true things, but ---
The greek word used there for true--
ale?the?s
al-ay-thace'
From G1 (as a negative particle) and G2990; true (as not concealing): - true, truly, truth.
Whose truth are we to think on?
Joh 14:6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
Jesus is the truth and through Jesus, through His righteousness as we claim it, we may be bumbling idiots to others but to God we are sons and daughters of merit. Christ's redeemed and that's the truth. What God thinks of us means more than what any other person on earth thinks. This is truth.
We are to think on true things in Jesus. Honest, just, pure, lovely, good reports, virtuous, and praiseworthy thoughts. We are not told to think on anything negative, anything bad, anything depressing.
Yes, the Bible says this--
Php 2:3 Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves.
We are to esteem others better than ourselves, we are to do things in lowliness of mind, and those of us who have very LOW self-esteem find it easy to esteem everyone better than ourselves but that's not what this is talking about, not really. Let's read it in context--
Php 2:1 If there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies,
Php 2:2 Fulfil ye my joy, that ye be likeminded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind.
Php 2:3 Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves.
Php 2:4 Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others.
Php 2:5 Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:
Php 2:6 Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:
Php 2:7 But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:
Php 2:8 And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.
When we think others are thinking bad of us there is little love there, little joy. We are caught up in SELF. We aren't thinking of the other person we are thinking FOR the other person and in truth, no matter how well you think you know someone you can't THINK for them, you just can't. When we dwell on our own thoughts of what others are thinking we are being very selfish and yes, we are esteeming ourselves above them but even thinking they are thinking on us. Sure, our thoughts my be negative and all, we might believe that others are better than we are, but in a way that depresses us and leaves us wishing we were better than what we are. This isn't what is meant at all. Esteeming another above ourselves is not putting ourselves down. Jesus did not downgrade Himself while esteeming others. Jesus took on the servant form of flesh and taught His followers to love others as He loves them putting their welfare first. We should, if we are truly esteeming others above ourselves, not think they are thinking badly but that their thoughts are their own to have and to be accountable for and hopefully, prayfully they are thoughts that are good thoughts.
I've rambled on lots today but it's been a rough week. I hope and pray for the faith I need to hold fast. The enemy assaults us on all sides and if he can turn us against ourselves he's as victorious as if he's trapped us in some other way. He doesn't care how he gets us, he'll stoop as low as he can, as deceptively as he can. I thank God through Jesus Christ that we are victorious in our Lord and Savior's righteousness, forgiven by Him, and called to be His now and forever. By His grace, by His love. In the Holy Spirit's guidance and comfort.
Amen.
3/27/11