Realistic Expectations

The Church, here in America, has had it very easy. We have enjoyed the freedom of religion from our nation’s inception. We’ve been able to worship the Lord, practice our faith, and share our faith with great liberty.



I, personally, am grateful to God for this freedom. I’m grateful that we’ve been able to share the gospel not only among our fellow believers, but also among those who don’t know him. I’m grateful that we are able to share Jesus with our community, our nation, and the world with impunity.



This freedom, however, has caused us to feel shocked as we witness the suffering of believers in other parts of the world. We feel that they should possess the same freedom of religion that we enjoy. We feel that, like us, they should be able to worship freely, proclaim the gospel freely, and live out their faith freely.



We also experience the same sense of bewilderment as our freedoms are challenged here in our nation. We are shaken when others challenge our rights. We are shaken when our freedoms are contested.



We are surprised, we experience a sense of panic, even though this is to be expected. It should be expected because of what Jesus experienced. And it should be expected because of the warning he’s given us.



In John 15:18-19, Jesus says: "If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.”

We shouldn’t be surprised by what’s being experienced by our fellow believers around the world, nor should we be surprised when others attempt to curtail our freedoms, because the world hated Jesus. When Jesus came into the world, he was despised and rejected. When he came into the world he was not received.

The world continues to have the same response to Jesus even today. The world continues to despise him and reject him. The world will not receive him any more now than it did then.

It’s to be expected, then, that we will also be hated. Because of it’s hatred of Jesus, the world will naturally hate us. Our association with Christ will automatically bring this response.

Realizing this, we should make use of our freedoms while we have them. We must not neglect this freedom. We must proclaim Jesus with all fervency, realizing that we may not possess these freedoms forever.

Yet, we must also be realistic when it comes to the world’s response to us. Although we don’t generally welcome suffering, we shouldn’t consider it an anomaly. We must understand that this is to be expected. And, like our brothers in faith around the world, we must continue to faithfully proclaim Christ, even in the face of hatred and persecution.