Why is Christianity so disliked?

Just under 10 years ago, I preached my last sermon as an elder at the church we had helped found. On that occasion I was led to encourage the church to love one another, using as my text John 13.35:

by this all people will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another.

Today, in the Lord’s providence, my last sermon as one of your assistant ministers, is also from the same chunk of Scripture in John’s gospel, albeit just a couple of chapters later.But in John 15 the focus shifts from love to hate (John 15.17):

These things I command you, so that you will love one another.

Next verse, John 15.18:

If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you.

The difference between these two texts speaks into the way in which our cultural situation has changed in that timescale. Back in 2011 we knew we were living in a post-Christian era. The remarkably privileged position that Christianity had occupied in western culture for a number of generations had come to an end. We could console ourselves though with the belief that a post-Christian world was more like the world of the New Testament church. We could proclaim and reason and advocate faith in Jesus as one option among many. That last sermon at the Lighthouse Church was in many ways a plea for the church’s loving conduct to serve as an attractive and faithful witness to the watching world. A world, if you like, considering and weighing up whether Jesus was worth following.

That was then. This is now. Over the course of the last 10 years, maybe slightly more, another seismic shift has occurred. If you haven’t noticed yet, our culture is changing rapidly from being post-Christian to anti-Christian. We’re no longer one neutral option among many – we’re increasingly seen as the problem! Think about it. Each one of us has a story to tell along these lines, don’t we? It might be a conversation with a non-Christian family member or neighbour which turns south: “how can you believe that?” It might not have been levelled at us personally, but we’ve certainly heard our brothers and sisters being labelled ‘bigots’, ‘intolerant’, ‘judgemental’, ‘unloving’. It may be that you live in fear at school or in the workplace – yeah you’re convinced about what Jesus says, but if your mate or boss or patient ever found out that you really do only believe there are only two genders, or abortion is wrong in any circumstance – then you’d be out on your ear. Out of that friendship group, out of a job, struck off. It might be that you’ve read or watched something recently where the language, our language, language of justice, goodness, equality, dignity, worth, value, has been hijacked and now simply describes evil and sin.

I read a headline in The Week in February:

Christians “pose an insidious threat”.

Employment tribunals declare, and I quote:

Belief in Genesis 1:27…[that God created mankind male and female] is incompatible with human dignity and conflicts with the fundamental rights of others.

Times have changed. But the word of the Lord lasts forever.

This morning we begin a short new series examining some of the questions that either we’re being asked, or we’re asking ourselves, as we come to terms with the fact that we feel more and more out of step with what most people around us appear to believe. And we begin in John 15 as we tackle the fundamental question, why is Christianity so disliked? Let’s pray before we do that:

Lord we desperately need your wisdom. Both to understand the times and live faithfully in them. In our short time together this morning, please speak to our hearts through your word and equip and empower us to live faithfully for you. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

If you’ve got your bibles, do open them up to John 15. We’re parachuting right into the middle of Jesus’ final teaching to his disciples. He is about to be arrested, tried and crucified so these words that he chooses to leave his followers with are pretty significant. And he warns them, they will face hostility. Look at John 15.18:

If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you.

We’re a bit list-y, a bit bullet-pointy, this morning. If you’re someone who likes taking notes of headings, then you’ll enjoy this. If you’re not, I apologise now! But, according to God, here’s the first reason Christianity is so disliked:

1. The world hates Jesus (John 15.18)

know that it has hated me before it hated you.

Now it’s important we understand who Jesus is referring to as the world here. Basically, it is everyone in rebellion to God - all those who’ve rejected Jesus as Lord. They hate us, because they hate Jesus. Now to you and I (who know Jesus) that doesn’t make any sense does it? Why would anyone hate him who is the source of life, peace, forgiveness? Why would anyone hate him who befriends the outcast and the sinner and who is gentle and kind? But they do. And the world that crucified him will not treat his followers any differently. Second:

2. Christians have been chosen out of the world (John 15.19)

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.

Jesus says we will be hated because we have been chosen out of the world. We were once ‘one of them’, so to speak. But not anymore. And so when the world looks at us it looks with ridicule, it looks with contempt, it looks with disgust that we no longer think, speak or act in the same manner. If you carried on getting lashed with your mates, if you carried on with the destructive gossip, if you carried on being disobedient to your parents, or bosses or to the government, if you carried on fulfilling every evil desire and lust, if you carried on unquestioningly championing the latest cause – be it the LGBT agenda, BLM, if you carried on doing all these things – the world would love you as one of its own. But you’ve been chosen to be different - to testify to something, someone, greater and that’s why the world hates you. It wants you back. It wants to squeeze you into its mould. It hates the fact that you have been chosen. Thirdly, Christianity is so disliked because:

3. The world doesn’t know God (John 15.21)

But all these things they will do to you on account of my name, because they do not know him who sent me.

It would be easy to hate the world, wouldn’t it? But the Father doesn’t. He loved the world so much that he sent his only son so that the world, a world in open rebellion and hostility to him, so that that world would come to know him in restored relationship. Fourthly, and finally for now, Christianity is so disliked because:

4. Jesus exposes sin (John 15.23)

If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have been guilty of sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin.

Don’t misunderstand this. Jesus is not saying that if he hadn’t come everyone would have been guiltless! He is saying that he came, he spoke, he acted and the world rejected him. He exposed the hypocrisy of the religious leaders and they hated him for it. He exposed the bankruptcy of any notion of self-made righteousness with God. And when we speak and act the same message as Jesus, then we are hated too. When we tell people the gospel, the good news that we’re not good people who occasionally do bad things, but we are sinners deep down in our hearts, rebels and rejectors of God, that Jesus came to take the punishment for that sin and set us free, and to provide forgiveness with God, reconciliation and adoption into his family, that new life is available, that there is a sure and certain hope of heaven, that Jesus is the only way, truth and life and that the only response is to humble ourselves and repent. When we say all that, it exposes sin and people hate it.

So according to Jesus Christianity is so disliked, it’s hated. And it’s hated because:
• The world hates Jesus
• Jesus followers have been chosen
• The world doesn’t know God
• Its message and practice exposes sin.

Four brief applications in response to those truths:

1. Don’t be surprised!

The purpose of these verses is to remove the element of surprise when persecution, hatred, does happen. John 15.18 begins:

If the world hates you…

The assumption here is that it will. It could be translated ‘because the world hates you.’ Jesus said the world will hate you. He is forewarning us, arming us with the knowledge that Christians will be hated. If you’ve relatively recently committed your life to Jesus and are still trying to figure out all the implications, please don’t be surprised at hatred and rejection by the world. It’s what we should expect.

Maybe you’re with us (or watching online this morning) and you wouldn’t yet call yourself a Christian. Please know this, Jesus has the words of eternal life, he offers forgiveness and eternity and there is nothing better than that. But don’t let anyone mis-sell you Christianity. The way of following Jesus imitates his life, suffering now, glory later. Folks, we’re engaged in a spiritual battle. We’re at war! And when we’re at war we expect hostility! When a soldier is shot at, he might not like it, but he’s not surprised, his feelings aren’t hurt – he doesn’t peer out over his foxhole and shout “Oi, was it something I said?” No, he expects it, and he plans on it! Which leads to our second application:

2. Be prepared – both for opposition and obedience!

Look back at John 15.20:

If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours.

Undoubtedly, the situation is bleak and it may well get much worse yet. But it’s by no means automatic that the all the world will hate you. Remember, God in his mercy turned your life around. He turned mine around! So, when you make that stand, when you have that conversation, when you live the way you do, don’t presume that everyone will hate. Some will oppose, yes, but some will be attracted. God is still in the business of changing lives! The apostle Peter backs up this need to be prepared. In his first letter he writes (1 Peter 3.15):

always be ready to make a defence to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; [and here’s the way to do it]...with gentleness and respect

That is the key – the way to engage, and debate, and to share and to comment is always (even/especially online) gently and with respect. So don’t be surprised, be prepared, thirdly:

3. Be distinctive!

John 15.19 says:

you are not of the world.

Christian, do you hear that? You are not of the world. The goal is not to be liked. It’s not to fit in. It’s not to be respected. At all costs. The goal is to be faithful to Jesus and leave the results up to him. A word of warning though. It is possible to be distinctive and hated for the wrong reasons. Let me give you a few:

a. There’s a difference between proclaiming truth and picking a fight

Jesus never sought out controversy. He didn’t go looking for it. He wasn’t argumentative. He just faithfully proclaimed the truth. Of course when he did that, he was persecuted because the world hates truth and wants to destroy it. But if we get argumentative, aggressive, unkind and wrapped up in winning the argument, we are stepping away from the godly distinctives we are called to; Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness and self-control.

b. There’s also a difference between loving the world and re-joining it

God loved the world self-sacrificially. As followers of Jesus that’s our calling too. We need to share God’s love, but we must avoid thinking like the world and behaving like it. Sadly, for Anglicans, many of our current leaders set an appalling example. We had the extraordinary sight this week of the Bishop of Manchester being interviewed on TV about the Health Secretary saying, and I quote:

I’m more worried about the fact that he failed to keep the social distancing than I am about the fact that here was a middle-aged bloke having a bit of a fling.

We need to pray for our leaders and ourselves, that we would have the courage to love the world but not capitulate to its ever-changing sense of morality at the expense of what God says is right and wrong. We also need to be distinctive by remembering:

c. There’s a difference between exercising caution and living in fear

No-one needs to volunteer for persecution or martyrdom. Sometimes it can be wise to keep quiet, take your time, pick your battles and avoid inflaming a situation. But when we become motivated more by fear than by wise strategy, you can be sure your ability to be distinctive will evaporate. JPC, don’t be surprised that Christianity is hated, be prepared, be distinctive, and lastly:

4. Take heart

Have a look at John 15.25:

But the word that is written in their Law must be fulfilled

Take heart, God is in control! What he has ordained will come to pass. Whatever hatred, persecution, slander, job loss, humiliation, legal action is coming your way, he will give you the courage, the strength and the power through the Holy Spirit to meet it! Let me close by adapting the words of AW Tozer. Friends – this world is not a playground, it’s a battleground. We’re not here to play, we’re here to fight – against sin, the world and the devil. This world is not our home, heaven is. And the longer we live in this world, the more homesick we should become!