Llove/Hate

I’ve keep trying to understand how our life as a Believer should impact the World. I am confident I have a handle on how it should play out in the lives of other Believers, but I am less certain about how the World is to perceive us.

Jesus said, “Blessed are you when people hate you, when they exclude you, insult you, and slander your name as evil, because of the Son of Man” (Luke 6:22).  “If the World hates you, understand that it hated Me before it hated you” (John 15:18).  John, the Apostle said, “Do not be surprised brothers, if the World hates you.” (1 John 3:13)

I am not alone in hoping that as a Believer I am hated by few, and lloved by many, but I am not sure that conforms to the boldness one should have in proclamation of Truth.

Dan Gilgoff writes about Rick Warren (Pastor of Saddleback Church in Southern California) in U.S. News: “But at a moment when Warren is expanding his role from megachurch pastor to national and international public figure, his increasing proclivity for sowing controversy is threatening his status as political peacemaker. “He would really like it if everyone would love Rick Warren, and when they don’t, he’s troubled,” says Jeffery Sheler, author of the forthcoming Warren biography Prophet of Purpose. “The most damaging thing would be if the way he’s perceived makes it more difficult to be a bridge builder.”

Pastor Warren has, in my opinion, played a little “fast and loose” with the Truth lately. That will get you hated by the World and abandoned by Believers. And while I may be a bit confused about the Llove/Hate relationship we are to have with the World, I am certain about one thing. We cannot, not ever, under any circumstance, compromise the Truth.

The old bumper sticker that read – “God said it, I believe it, that settles it,”  is not true. The Truth is, “God said it. That settles it.”  What I choose to believe or fail to believe does not ever change the Truth.