Why Does The World Hate Us?

Alba 9-15-13 (Revised 9-18-2022)

WHY DOES THE WORLD HATE US?

John 15:18-25

A woman in India watches as her sister is dragged off by Hindu nationalists. She doesn’t know if her sister is alive or dead.

A man in a North Korean prison camp is shaken awake after being beaten unconscious; the beatings begin again.

A woman in Nigeria runs for her life. She has escaped from Boko Haram, who kidnapped her. She is pregnant, and when she returns home, her community will reject her and her baby.

A group of children are laughing and talking as they come down to their church’s sanctuary after eating together. Instantly, many of them are killed by a bomb blast. It’s Easter Sunday in Sri Lanka.

These people don’t live in the same region, or even on the same continent. But they share an important characteristic: They are all Christians, and they suffer because of their faith.

While Christian persecution takes many forms, it is defined as any hostility experienced as a result of identification with Jesus Christ.

From Sudan to Afghanistan, from Nigeria to North Korea, from Colombia to India, followers of Christianity are targeted for their faith. They are attacked; they are discriminated against at work and at school; they risk sexual violence, torture, arrest and much more.

In just the last year (2022 World Watch List reporting period), there have been: Over 360 million Christians living in places where they experience high levels of persecution and discrimination

5,898 Christians killed for their faith

5,110 churches and other Christian buildings attacked

4,765 believers detained without trial, arrested, sentenced or imprisoned

[This information is current (September 16, 2022) from a website, Open Doors, which tracks persecution of Christians.]

One of the things that confuses many Christians is the attitude of non-Christians toward them. Even in the United States we experience backlash against us as Christians.

Dr James Merritt while giving the annual President’s message back at the 2002 Southern Baptist Church convention (and while under the constant stream of protesters walking and jeering outside) said the following:

"We face a secular culture that is becoming increasingly strident and militant in its anti-Christian, anti-truth, anti-God mentality and I fear the danger of facing this spirit with a lackadaisical heart. More and more we are being told to sit down, shut up, go along and get along, be inclusive, be tolerant, be nice and be quiet,"

You would think that since we come to the world with the greatest and most important message in all of history that the world would applaud and cheer.

Sadly, people often are not waiting for that message with open arms. In fact, the Bible says that the world does not want us or our message. They hate us. Hate? That is what Jesus said.

Turn to John 15:18-25. John 15:18-25 quotes Jesus saying, 18 “If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. 19 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.

20 Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. If they kept My word, they will keep yours also. 21 But all these things they will do to you for My name’s sake, because they do not know Him who sent Me.

22 If I had not come and spoken to them, they would have no sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin. 23 He who hates Me hates My Father also. 24 If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would have no sin; but now they have seen and also hated both Me and My Father. 25 But this happened that the word might be fulfilled which is written in their law, ‘They hated Me without a cause.’

What Jesus said has proven to be all too true. A list of early martyrs who were witnesses to the life of Jesus is compiled from numerous sources outside the Bible, the most-famous of which is Foxes’ Christian Martyrs of the World.

Around 34 A.D., one year after the crucifixion of Jesus, Stephen was thrown out of Jerusalem and stoned to death. Approximately 2,000 Christians suffered martyrdom in Jerusalem during this period.

James, the half brother of Jesus, led the early church in Jerusalem and was the author of the New Testament book by his name. At age 94, he was beaten and stoned, and finally had his brains bashed out with a fuller’s club.

Matthias was the apostle who filled the vacant place of Judas. He was stoned at Jerusalem and then beheaded. This hatred for Christians didn't end in that first century.