Revelation 7:9-17; 1 John 3:1-3; Matthew 5:1-12
We know about love/hate relationships. Some are between us and our possessions, especially our devices. We love our mobile phones and all of the amazing things they can do; and we hate them when they malfunction, drop a call, or make us feel inept. We also have love/hate relationships with our sports teams. We love them when they’re winning and when they make it into post-season play, but we hate them when they have losing streaks or blow an important game. The more difficult love/hate relationships that we experience are the ones we have with the people in our lives whom we love even though they do or say things that anger, hurt, or disappoint us. But the one that is most destructive to us is the love/hate relationship we have with the world.
We love the world. We embrace its ideas of success. We pursue the goals that it says are important. We seek worldly comfort and security. We expend our time, money, and energy trying to win the favor and blessings of worldly people. As much as we love the world, the world hates us. But we won’t admit that the world hates us. And even if we do realize that the world hate us, we don’t understand why it does. We've forged a dysfunctional, co-dependent relationship with the world and live in a dangerous denial. We adjust and adapt to the world’s mistreatment in order to get what we can out of the hate-filled object of our affections. When we do, we’re missing out on the greater blessings of living in active opposition to the world.
When Jesus said, “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on My account” He was calling us to end our love affair with the world and live as the children of God. As the children of God our first and only love is Him who has shown us the extent of His love by suffering and dying for us — and for the world that still hates Him. When we reject the self-serving advances of the world and find our hope, peace, safety, and security in the arms of the God who unconditionally loves us, the world reviles us. When we seek to share His love to liberate those who are captive to the lusts of the world, the world persecutes us. When we model the love of Jesus in our lives, the world speaks all kinds of evil against us. Why? Because we are His saints, we are His children, and even though He loves the world the world hates Him. The world hates us because it hates Him. When we see this we find in Jesus the strength to ending our love/hate relationship with the world. Jesus has given us His Kingdom and freed us to rejoice and be glad in the loving relationship we have with Him — a love no hate can overcome.
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