Perspective: Hated for the Right Reasons

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Hated for the Right Reasons

Stay alert.  This is hazardous work I'm assigning you.  You're going to be like sheep running through a wolf pack, so don't call attention to yourselves.  Be as shrewd as a snake, inoffensive as a dove.

Matthew 10:16 (The Message)

Why me?
Why am I not welcome in your company?
Why do you treat me like an enemy?
If you believe the way you say you do
Oh, then why am I unlovable to you?
Oh, why am I unlovable to you?

From "Unlovable" by Plumb

In the Gospel of John, we read that, during the evening before Jesus is arrested, He warns the Disciples that they will face hostility for following Him.  He says, "If the world hates you, know that it hated me first."¹  He goes on to say, "Remember what I told you, 'Servants aren't greater than their master.'  If the world harassed me, it will harass you too."²

It seems to me that nowadays a lot of Christians misinterpret Jesus' words, thinking that, if they experience pushback or criticism of any kind, then people must hate them for following Jesus.  They seemingly experience the resistance they face as a kind of affirmation that they are doing what is right, failing to even consider that the pushback or criticism might actually be legitimate.

People who think in this way are guilty of committing a logical fallacy known as affirming the consequent.³  If a particular action results in a certain consequence, we cannot automatically assume the converse, that every instance of a certain consequence is the result of the particular action.  For example, there are many people who have been arrested for taking a stand against injustice, but we cannot assume that every person who has ever been arrested was arrested for taking a stand against injustice.

Christians cannot interpret the disdain of others as a sign that they are following Christ faithfully.  In fact, it might actually be a sign that they are following Christ rather poorly.  For example, members of the Westboro Baptist Church, who are notorious for picketing funerals, are probably some of the most hated "Christians" in America.  Members of this so-called "church" are hated not because they are following Jesus but because they have the utter depravity to make a mockery of a funeral, where people are grieving the loss of a loved one.  Christ announces blessing and comfort for "those who mourn,"⁴ and followers of Christ are instructed to "weep with those who weep."⁵

Jesus says to the Disciples, "If you belonged to the world, the world would love you as its own.  However, I have chosen you out of the world.  This is why the world hates you."  In the New Testament, the word world is used in at least two different ways.  First, there is the world that God loved so much that God sent Jesus to save it.⁶  Second, there is the world that followers of Jesus are instructed not to love.⁷  The former is the world God created and fully intends to save, and the latter is the world in it's current state, a world in desperate need of saving.⁸  Jesus has called the Disciples out of the world as it is and has brought them into His work in saving the world.

When Jesus suggests that the world hates Him, He does not mean that everyone in the world hates Him.  When we read the Gospels, we can see that Jesus is actually loved by many people in his own time.  What Jesus means is that He has come into a world where He will be executed, even though He has done nothing to warrant execution.  The people who hated Jesus were the people who had the influence and authority to have Him put to death.  They hated Him because He rocked the proverbial boat.  People who have privilege and power hate people who rock the boat, because they are afraid of losing their privilege and power.

When followers of Jesus challenge the principalities and powers at work in this world, as Jesus did, then they can expect to be mistreated, as Jesus was.

In another Gospel, when Jesus sends out the Disciples, He says, "I am sending you out like sheep into the midst of wolves; so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves."⁹  They will face hostility, but they must not give people any reason to be rightfully hostile toward them.  People who follow Jesus will be hated if they rock the boat like He did, but being hated is not a sign that one is truly following Jesus.  One might be hated simply for being a contemptible person.  If we must be hated in this world, then we need to be sure that we are hated for the right reasons.


Notes:

1. John 15:18 (CEB)
2. John 15:20 (CEB)
3. Wikipedia: "Affirming the Consequent"
4. Matthew 5:4 (NRSV)
5. Romans 12:15 (NRSV)
6. John 3:16-17
7. 1 John 2:15
8. Brian Zahnd.  "The Things Above."  Word of Life Church, 05/16/2021.
9. Matthew 10:16 (NRSV)

The photograph of the thorns was taken by Alex Grichenko, and it has been released to the public domain.  The photographer is in no way affiliated with this blog.