Christians To Be Hated And Persecuted (J61)

“My dear ones, the world has hatred for me;
They will hate and persecute you as well;
If you belonged to them, they would love thee;
They love darkness, and the light wish to quell!
I have been sent by God, whom they don’t know;
If I had not come and spoke truth to them,
The world surely would not hate Christians so;
They’d not be guilty of sins against Him!
They who hate me hate my Father as well,
For they saw the miracles I did,
Knowing no pow’r but God’s in me did dwell,
Yet they don’t believe, keeping their sins hid!
The Holy Spirit will tell about me;
You, too, must tell the world how to live free!

Scripture Quoted: John 16:22-24 (NIV)
‘ ‘if I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin. Now, however, they have no excuse for their sin. He who hates me hates my Father as well. If I had not done among them what no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin. But now they have seen these miracles, yet they have hated both me and the Father.’ “

Commentary on: John 15:18-27 (NIV)
Time after time, in speaking to the Pharisees, trying to convince them He was genuine, that He had been sent by God the Father, and therefore He was speaking the truth in claiming to be the promised Messiah (Christ), Jesus had pointed to the miracles He had done as proof that He was from God. No one else, before or since, has done such healing and miraculous signs of divinity. In fact, you, too, ought to believe in Jesus as Lord, because of the historical evidence that supports their reality and the Bible which testifies about their happening. The Jews of His day had all seen and heard of the miracles He had done, and still rejected Him as the Christ; they have no excuse to present to God at the final judgment for their sins. If you read this blog, yet continue in your unbelief, you have no excuse for your sins. It is this blog that informs you about Jesus, and His offer to save you from condemnation by believing in Him; if you had never heard of Jesus before today, by reading this poem, Scripture and commentary, you have heard. You need nothing else.

By the term “world”, Jesus means the great host of non-believers in the world. Tragically, we must add the millions of supposed Christians that are predicted to “fall away” during the end-time tribulation. The persecution began soon after Jesus left the earth. Even though the church grew larger with many new Christians in the first 3 centuries, there were unimaginably high numbers of believers martyred by the Roman emperors; through the centuries millions of Christians have died for their faith in Jesus Christ. More Christians were killed in the twentieth century for their belief than even in those first 3 centuries. The slaughter of Christians continues in this 21st century. Jesus warns us, and I warn you: Belief in Jesus as Lord separates you from the “world”, in the sense of being accepted and unpersecuted by the society in which you live. Becoming more and more vicious each day is the hatred of Jesus and His followers in America and the rest of the world. You may not be adding years to your earthly life to accept Him as your Savior, but there are benefits now and more benefits to come in the everlasting life in heaven after physical death. You must think in terms of eternity rather than in terms of this life only.

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him will not die, but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16)

"That if you confess with your mouth, 'Jesus is Lord', and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved." (Romans 10:9)