Preach the Gospel Seriously and Expect to Be at War with the Whole World!

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It's very easy to tell anyone, " You think the whole world is wrong and only you are right." What might be ignored is that sad to say most of the time the whole world is wrong and there are times only a few people are right. Didn't Jesus say in Matthew 7:13-14 that only a few enter the narrow way to life and many enter into the broad road of destruction? That's why nobody can say if you're perfect the world will love you. No, if you're perfect the world will hate you all the more. The worldly definition of perfect doesn't match up with God's definition of perfection.

Preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ means you'll have very few loyal supporters and a lot of enemies to pray for as they antagonize you. The whole sinful world is hostile to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The problem of the world is that it surrounds on the three areas of sin. 1 John 2:16 describes these three areas as the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life. Preach deliverance from sin and the sin lovers will hate you because it attacks their lusts. Preach that salvation from sin is by faith alone in Jesus Christ and the works salvation crowd will hate you because it attacks the pride of life. 2 Corinthians 4:4 calls Satan the god of this world. The world either knowingly or unknowingly worships Satan. The problem is most people don't even realize they're actually worshiping Satan through idolatry.

Nobody should ever join the ministry in hope for fame. The idea is absurd because 2 Timothy 3:12 says that the godly will suffer persecution. The true prophets of God were outcasts because the people only wanted to hear the false prophets (Isaiah 30:10). Jeremiah is the best example of a prophet who was the loser of losers in the worldly sense. A godly pastor won't get much acceptance around the world. The Pope gets all the attention. Popular cult leaders of big time cults get all the attention. A godly pastor should only expect an angry crowd of haters. John 15:18-19 has Jesus warning His disciples that the world will hate them. Worse, many people will persecute Christians in the name of God (John 16:2).

But there's one thing that God promises. Yes, the narrow road will get narrower. The road will get harder and harder. Christianity has never been about having your best life now. Yet Jesus promises that even with a high cost for being a Christian but there's the infinite value. It's not about a mansion right here on Earth. You may not even get one mansion, you may live life like Jeremiah did but the infinite value is true riches in Jesus Christ. Matthew 6:19-20 tells people not to be too occupied with material riches but rather to lay up treasures in Heaven. Matthew 5:11-12 promises that there's only genuine blessing through suffering for the name of Christ. The fire is hot but God gives grace to the Christian to endure all tests. He won't test Christians beyond what they can't do because He is able. This world will just perish before its Creator, God Almighty.


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