Friday, October 23, 2015

True Christians will suffer persecution



Jesus Christ did not promise His followers prosperity or good
fortune, He warned them that in this world they will suffer
persecution.


We read the words of Jesus in John 15:18 He said to His
disciples:“If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me
before it hated you. 19“If you were of the world, the world would
love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you
out of the world, because of this the world hates you. 20“Remember
the word that I said to you, ‘A slave 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 the One who sent Me. 22“If I had not come and spoken to them,
they would not have 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 not have sin;
but now they have both seen and hated Me and My Father as well.
25“But they have done this to fulfill the word that is written in
their Law, ‘THEY HATED ME WITHOUT A CAUSE.’

If we follow Jesus Christ and we associate with Him the world will
reject us and they will hate us like they also rejected, hated and
persecuted Him.

Before Jesus was crucified He once again warned His disciples. We
read in John 16:32“Behold, an hour is coming, and has already come,
for you to be scattered, each to his own home, and to leave Me alone;
and yet I am not alone, because the Father is with Me. 33“These
things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the
world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the
world.”

If we follow Jesus Christ we must be blameless, pure and holy and
the world will hate us, WITHOUT CAUSE. Many professing Christians are
SINNERS like the rest of the world and they are the ones who
persecute those who follow and obey Jesus Christ, those who are LIKE
Jesus Christ, those who OBEY Him, those who live according to His
words. But we have to OVERCOME.

Jesus Christ OVERCAME, not by fighting but by doing the will of
His Father, by seeking the approval of the Father. We need to
overcome in this world of wickedness, not by fighting back, not by
doing as the world does but by living in obedience to Jesus Christ,
by being BLAMELESS, by being PURE, by SUFFERING PERSECUTION, by
turning the other cheek, by following the guidance of the Holy Spirit
and thus doing the will of God and then we will have the approval of
Jesus Christ.

We WILL suffer persecution, we will suffer tribulation if we
follow Jesus Christ, if we associate with Him. If we do not suffer
tribulation and persecution then we are not of Jesus, then we are of
the world, then we fit in with this world. But if we are of Jesus
Christ they will hate us and persecute us without reason.


Are we being persecuted for the sake of righteousness and for the
sake of obeying and following Jesus Christ? Are we of Christ? Are we
overcoming the world or are we giving in to temptation and to sin?
Are we also sinners like the rest of those who profess to be
Christians but they are not like Jesus Christ? If we are truly like
Jesus and we follow and obey Him we will not be accepted by this
world. They will hate and persecute us but we have to OVERCOME and
thus prove that we are children of God.











May Jesus bless you.

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