And all Nations will hate you because you are My followers. Matthew 10:22

Just before Jesus sent his best friends out to the villages of Israel He gave them instructions and told them to 'heal the sick, raise the dead, cure those with leprosy and cast out demons.'  He instructed them to take nothing along on the journey, not even the smallest change.  I am reminded of a book I read by a guy named, "Brother Andrew" and how he too was sent out by his christian training school without any money.  Not a single coin.  He was instructed to depend on God alone for his needs and the results were amazing.  (You can read about it in his book, "God's Smuggler.")

After Jesus gave basic instruction to His friends, He then spent a lot of time telling them that they WOULD BE HATED.  He goes into great detail saying that they will be whipped, thrown in jail, and that "ALL nations will hate you because you are my followers".  He even said that their own families would turn against them.

 When I read those verses, it was as if I saw a huge collision on earth. When the truths about the Kingdom of Jesus are declared, there is a clash.  Light starts to invade darkness and the darkness reacts with anger.  It is almost a given.  Darkness cannot bear the light.

Matthew Henry has this to say about some of the verses in Matthew 10:  Christ foretold troubles, not only that the troubles might not be a surprise, but that they might confirm their faith. He tells them what they should suffer, and from whom. Thus Christ has dealt fairly and faithfully with us, in telling us the worst we can meet with in his service; and he would have us deal so with ourselves, in sitting down and counting the cost. Persecutors are worse than beasts, in that they prey upon those of their own kind. The strongest bonds of love and duty, have often been broken through from enmity against Christ. Sufferings from friends and relations are very grievous; nothing cuts more. It appears plainly, that all who will live godly in Christ Jesus must suffer persecution; and we must expect to enter into the kingdom of God through many tribulations. With these predictions of trouble, are counsels and comforts for a time of trial. The disciples of Christ are hated and persecuted as serpents, and their ruin is sought, and they need the serpent's wisdom.

I haven't heard the phrase 'counting the cost' in a long time.  When I was first saved in high school, during the Jesus Movement, hundreds were coming to the faith and we talked about telling new converts to 'count the cost'.  Christianity is not for wimps, it's for warriors!!  Now we say things like, "Jesus has a wonderful plan for your life" which is true and I say it all the time but we are often forgetting the other side.  "Are you willing to suffer for Jesus?"

In my mind, Jesus cannot be any clearer or plainer when He speaks about persecution to His disciples and there is no doubt in my mind that He was thinking of you and I when He spoke.  "Students are to be like their teacher, and slaves are to be like their Master.  And since I, the Master of the household, have been called the prince of demons, the members of my household will be called by even worse names!"  Matthew 10:25

A new religion is creeping into the world and it is called Universalism.  All of its members claim to be Christians and to love Jesus.  One common theme I have seen among all of them is that they long to be loved.  If they see a fellow Christian being hated, they will immediately blame the Christian and tell him that he is in the wrong.

Two glaring examples are Rob Bell and Joel Osteen.  Rob Bell was so embarrassed by street evangelists that he made a video mocking a Christian who evangelized with a bull-horn.  In my opinion, Rob just wants to be loved.  He couldn't bear that anyone would lump him in with nerdy, uncool, brash Christians.  I have to confess that I don't know a whole lot about Rob Bell or Joel Osteen but my impression with both men is that they long to be loved.  Joel takes it so far that he is afraid to even say what the bible says about homosexuality.

Don't get me wrong.  I want to be loved as well.  I can't stand it when people don't like me.  It hurts. However, I hope that I will never compromise truth for my own longings.  Fear stops me all the time from being bold in my testimony for Jesus but I want to be counted worthy to suffer for Jesus.  To be honest, I rarely suffer for Jesus and I do long to be loved when I am on the streets evangelizing.  I am sure the disciples were loved when they healed the sick and cast out demons!  So, maybe, for the Christian both sides of the coin will be true.  We will be loved and people will be grateful to us for helping to usher them out of darkness and into the light.  On the other hand, we will be hated and sneered at.  The worst I usually get is cursing, jeering and contempt and that is when I say things like, "Jesus is God" or "Jesus is the only path to salvation."  The light of my words hits in the darkness of others and demons rise up to the challenge.

To sum up:  If we are receiving no persecution for our faith, are we making our lives too comfortable? We should not be embarrassed of our faith or be afraid of being hated.  We should always stand up for Jesus and be true soldiers of the cross.

“I could not help but think that somewhere along the way we had missed what was radical about our faith and replaced it with what is comfortable.” 
― David Platt, Radical: Taking Back Your Faith from the American Dream


“When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.” 
― Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship

Spurgeon talks of the perseverance of one open air preacher, John Furz, who encountered a bit of opposition when he preached.

“Once recommenced, the fruitful agency of field-preaching was not allowed to cease… The preachers needed to have faces set like flints, and so indeed they had. John Furz says: ‘As soon as I began to preach, a man came straight forward, and presented a gun at my face; swearing that he would blow my brains out, if I spake another word.
 However, I continued speaking, and he continued swearing, sometimes putting the muzzle of the gun to my mouth, sometimes against my ear. While we were singing the last hymn, he got behind me, fired the gun, and burned off part of my hair.’

“After this, my brethren, we ought never to speak of petty interruptions or annoyances.” 
—From Charles Spurgeon’s sermon: Open-Air Preaching—A Sketch of its History and Remarks Hereon