Christ’s Representatives to the World
Then, from that day on, they plotted to put Him to death. - (John 11:53)
When I travel, people often will ask me what I do for a living. Quite honestly, I don’t like to tell them up front because it can put up a wall. Some people become angry when I tell them I’m a pastor. I’m a representative of God to them, so they take their anger at Him out on me. “Let me ask you a few questions,” they say. Then they fire off their list: “Why does God do this?” “Why doesn’t God do that?” “What about this?” “What about that?”
There are people today who hate Jesus Christ and everything He stands for. They despise His teachings. And if you proclaim those teachings or try to live by them, you’re categorized as a narrow-minded fanatic and as insensitive and hateful.
It’s another way of saying, “If you don’t believe in what I believe, if you don’t believe we can make up the rules as we go, if you believe there are absolutes, right and wrong, good and evil, then I don’t like what you believe. And I’ll oppose you.”
Jesus said, “If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you” (John 15:18–19).
I accept the fact that I’m a representative of God. I’m not ashamed of it. And if you’re a Christian, then you are a representative of God too. We don’t want to be hated by people, of course. But because we’re representatives of Christ, that will bother people. If you follow Jesus Christ and His teachings and stand up for what you believe, then people will hate you.
Summary sentence: If you follow Jesus and His teachings, you can expect opposition and even hatred!
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