“But and if ye suffer for righteousness’ sake, happy are ye: and be not afraid of their terror, neither be troubled;” (1st Peter 3:14)
This is not a subject to be taken lightly, I believe our opening verse goes along with Hebrews 12:8, “But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons.”
If we were speaking of percentages, I would conjecture that those who have been imprisoned, tortured and killed for the name of the Lord Jesus Christ is low compared to what most suffer for the Lord, what we are all called to be, rejected by the world.
How many people do you know that say they are Christians, not just those who say they believe in God, but those who profess a faith in the Lord Jesus Christ whom the world does not hate, in fact they get along quite well with just about everyone. How many people that sit in the pews with you every Sunday morning have been rejected by their own family and friends, whose only acquaintances are those who live their lives for the glory of God?
“If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you.” John 15:18 is not a popular verse with many who claim to know the Savior, nor is it preached from the pulpit much anymore. After all, how are you to reach them for the Lord if you do not become a close personal friend of theirs first, you would not dare to tell them that the wrath of God abides on them because they are wicked, that their lives are lives of sin in the eyes of the Lord, that they need to repent and call upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ for the salvation of their soul, they might reject you because of that message. No, its best just to be a Christian on Sunday morning for a while, and then get back out into the world, be one of them, do not make any waves, be their friend and then perhaps one day in the future they will see what a nice, polite and friendly person you are, and then you can do what you are supposed to do, invite them to church.
Jesus called them hypocrites. How do you know you are not one?
How many friends and family members do you keep in close and fairly constant communication with, how many will stay by your side because you are not one of those Christians that tries to shove Jesus down their throat. How many of your co-workers feel comfortable around you, have no problem conversing with you, and how many of them go to church also, but that is where they leave their supposed faith, at church.
Here, I’ll give you a little advice, if you want to be friends with a lot of people, do not talk about the Living God, do not bring up the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and never, ever say anything about the Holy Spirit, except maybe in church every once in a while.
“But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven.” (Matt. 10:33)
Rejection, that is the path of the one who has been born again, hated by the people of this world, that is the walk of the one who has been crucified with Christ. The pain of your siblings never speaking to you again, your friends all deserting you, all those you work around everyday calling you the Jesus freak, the Bible thumper or the preacher boy. All a lite thing, all welcomed and rejoiced over, all suffered for the One who bore all the world’s suffering and sin.
Are you a Christian or a hypocrite?
I do not know you, but you do, can you look back and see if who you were is who you are now, are those wicked people of your past still in your life, or are they all in the past now?