John 15:18 If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you.
The world hates Christians that really know and believe in Jesus. We should find this as no surprise. They hated Jesus before they hated us. There are a couple of thoughts that you could apply from this verse.
We shouldn’t run from being hated and persecuted. Jesus didn’t and neither should we. So, we shouldn’t hide our faith. We should be bold in our witness and love for Jesus. We know that they will not accept the message, many times, but that gives us no excuse not to tell the truth.
On the other hand, they hate Christians many times for the dumb things that we do. We want to fight about things that aren’t important to our faith. You do not need to try to get lost people to live the holy lives that God’s people live. You do not need to try and be critical of others, proud of yourself and legislating their morality.
Morality will not save them. They need simply to know that they have sinned against a holy God and deserve eternal punishment but Jesus died to free them from their sin. Our arrogance often is the reason they hate us, not our faith.
We should be respectful of others even if they do not agree. We should not try to force them into submission to our message or method but wait on the Holy Spirit to convict of sin.
amen to that.