April 8

If you were of the world, it would love you as its own. Instead, the world hates you, because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. — John 15:19 BSB

If you walk in the fear of God and follow the path of a persecuted and despised Jesus, the world will hate and despise you just as it hated and despised Him. As He Himself said, “If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you” (John 15:18). God Himself has placed enmity between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent (Gen. 3:15), and nothing will shield you from the manifestation of this enmity if you are truly on Christ’s side. Neither rank, wealth, education, nor personal virtues can protect you from the scorn of men if you are a sincere follower of the Lord Jesus Christ, living out in practice what you hold in principle.

If you are not conformed to Christ in His suffering here, you will not be conformed to His glorified likeness hereafter. But if by living for Christ and His cross your name is cast out as evil, wear it as a badge of honor, like the breastplate of a Christian warrior. If people misrepresent your motives or actions and seek to tear you down with the cruelest lies, do not be disheartened as long as you are innocent. They cannot bestow upon you a more honorable crown than to slander your godly life. It is a crown your Master wore before you when they crowned His head with thorns. If you feel as I have felt, you may at times even consider yourself unworthy to suffer persecution for His name’s sake.