¹⁴ “I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.”

The world today has it all wrong. If Jesus was such a non-threatening, non-judgmental, always gentle, accepting person, then why did the world of His day hate Him? That makes absolutely no sense. But, when taken at face value, the Jesus of the Bible (contrary to the imagined “Jesus” of moralists), would be just as much hated today as back in the first century. Today’s “world” would have found some way to execute Him. Social media would explode with invectives and venom against Him. The political pundits would slam Him for narrow-mindedness, for claiming that He alone was the truth and the way to God. He would be mocked for saying such cultish statements as, “You must eat my flesh and drink my blood.” He would be roundly labeled as a hypocrite and religious bigot for implying that anyone who believed anything other than His truth was destined for a lost eternity. If He lived today, He would not think twice about walking into a local mega-church and chasing out the carnival-barkers, overturning the modern day money tables of church capital campaigns.

No, Jesus would not have made many friends today. And neither will those who follow closely His teachings. Because the world hates Jesus, it will also hate us. The disciples in the Upper Room were being prepared for this. They would soon enough find out how true Jesus’ statement was here. Early Christian history leads us to believe that all of the apostles died as martyrs, except John who died as an old man—and even then he suffered extreme persecution. These were fearless men who spoke the Word of God readily and powerfully. They were well trained and well equipped.

In spite of persecution, “the Word of the Lord kept on spreading” (Acts 6:7, see also 12:24, 19:20). That is how Luke, the writer of the book of Acts describes the expansion of the Christian mission. It was “The Word” that spread, that increased.

So, in a hostile world, we believers today, likewise, are well equipped with the Word of God. On our part, we need to become well-trained in the use of the Word. Paul writes, “Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom …” (Col 3:16a). Using the analogy of the Word being food, the writer of Hebrews challenges us, “…Solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil” (Heb 5:14). We need to train ourselves in the Word and meditate on it regularly.

Lord, my desire is to feed on Your Word daily, that I might be fully equipped.