“Everyone will hate you because of me, but whoever holds out till the end will be preserved from harm.”

Mattityahu (Mat) 10:22 CJB

https://bible.com/bible/1275/mat.10.22.CJB

I heard that in the opening ceremony for the 2024 Summer Olympic games in Paris, France, they made a mockery of Christianity. Apparently, people are all offended.

Maybe I should be as well, but it seems to me that means believers are doing something right. At least according to Jesus, they are.

Jesus said that if they hated Him, they will hate us. Jesus’ message was one that got Him crucified. And His message wasn’t merely love God, love people. That wasn’t enough to get Him killed. He claimed the title of Messiah. He said He was the Son of God, equal to God. He even said, “I AM” claiming the divinity as one of the trinity.

Jesus called people to a new way. He called us to live a new way. He said that people would not understand. Not only that, they would hate us. He said to rejoice when we are persecuted and mocked and belittled because our reward is coming.

I don’t think we get credit for being hated when we are obnoxious or arrogant. I don’t think we should rejoice for being persecuted when we’re seeking to make politics the ultimate goal and getting “our” candidate elected takes precedence over preaching the gospel to every nation, tribe, and tongue.

We are not better than anyone else. We of all people know the depth of our depravity, the full wages of what our sins deserve, and what we would have been apart from the grace of God. We know more than anyone how dependent we are on God for anything in this life and for any hope of a next life in heaven.

If people only say nice things about us as Christians, we’re doing something wrong. Or we’re not doing the right things loud enough like loving our enemies, blessing those who curse us, and being salt and light. Jesus said woe to those when all people speak well of you because they did the same for the false prophets. The world says it will only applaud what we say when we sound just like them, but really then we will have zero reason to exist.

I love how the disciples didn’t get offended when they were persecuted and mocked. Even when they were beaten and thrown in prison for preaching about Jesus, they chose to count it all joy. They rejoiced that they had been counted worthy to suffer for the Name. They knew that ultimately nothing could stand against the message of the Cross and that the power of Jesus would prevail as it had at Golgotha over sin, death, and hell.

May we rejoice when people mock us not for being jerks but for being faithful witnesses. May we count it all joy when people mistreat us not for how we shame those who think differently than us but for how we love those whom Jesus loved.