Surprise: Some People Don't Like Me

“Those people are surprised now that you do not do the same wrong things they do. And they say wrong things about you.” 1 Peter 4:4

Let’s face it, none of us wants to be disliked. I didn’t huge slices of my time to theater productions in high school hoping people would boo me onstage. I didn’t join my first Kiwanis club hoping the people in town would call me names. The same is for all of us, isn’t it? Perhaps you are part of a hunting club, or a group who plays dominoes once a month, or the Yearbook club at school. We never join with the thought, “And I’m sure this will make me hated by my friends.”

So, let’s be honest, very few decide to follow Jesus expecting that will be unaccepted as a result. Honestly, in my experience, I have found more friendships as a result of knowing Christ than I did before. Becoming a Christian at seventeen meant I made some choices about what sort of parties I now attended, but I actually received very little negative rebuff when I became one of the “Jesus People” back in 1972.

Don’t think it is because I hid my faith; much the opposite. Within weeks of being “born again” I was carrying a big red Bible to school every day and reading it on the field at lunch. When I brought my guitar I would sing and play the new Christian songs I was learning. I joined the “Fish Club” the group of Christians who met on my high school campus.

In fact, one evening a friend of mine and I went out for pizza. Dave and I had come to Christ within a few months of each other. As we entered PJ’s pizza, two girls from my school who attended Young Life (a para-church organization that reaches out to teens) were sitting at a table. I quickly brought Dave over, saying “There’s a couple of sisters here I want you to meet.” As we arrived at the table, Dave asked them, “Oh, so you are Christians too?” “Yeah”, one offered, “But we don’t preach it all the time like Mark does.”

It is true, I have missed some opportunities in business because of my walk with Jesus. And, on a rare occasion, someone has said mean-spirited things about me. And, even rarer, those things have been simply because I followed Jesus. (More often, it has been because they simply didn’t like me. It wouldn’t have mattered if I followed Mickey Mouse as my savior for them.) So, honestly, I’ve always had a hard time dealing with these verses that talk about how badly I’ll be treated as I follow Christ.

So, let me offer two thoughts. The first is, we live in a very different environment than the one in which Jesus preach and the apostles wrote. This whole “Jesus is the Messiah” business was brand new then and it decidedly went against the grain for both Jews and non-Jews alike. To claim someone who cursedly died on a cross was the Savior of all was ridiculous to the Jews. It was plain blasphemy to also say Jesus was God-in-the-flesh.

The non-Jews were mostly Romans, and served a myriad of gods and goddesses. Some were imported from other nations, some from their own pantheon of mythical deities. The pronouncement that there was One God who had walked the dusty earth of Palestine and then died and come back to life three days later was simple silliness to the Greeks. This was not a God to be worshiped; not one who lets his creatures whip his back to shreds and give him the death sentence.

Those two scenarios are a far cry from 21^st century North America. For all the whining that the United States is no longer a “Christian country” (as if it ever was one), Christianity is given a great deal of respect. Even those who do not believe usually acknowledge the benefits that Christianity in general has bestowed on our country. From hospitals to education, many of our institutions meant to further the well-being of men and women were founded by Christian organizations.

But, somewhere along the way the North American church took a sharp right turn. Instead of first being known as people who were compassionate and contributing to the welfare of the needy, we were seen as politically motivated and judgmental of all who disagreed. It would interest the reader to know that, before the mid 1950s, many Evangelical organizations actually had a reasonable “pro-choice” understanding of abortion. History can help perspective if we are willing to do the research.

So, when a 21^st century American reads passages like 1 Peter 4:4, we sometimes have to go looking for someone who is hassling the Christians. We cry out, “Put Christ back in Christmas” and betray our ignorance of exactly what the “X” means in all those signs of the season. “X”, or “Chi” is the first letter of “Christ” in Greek. “Xmas” is merely an abbreviation for “Christ”mas, not an attack on Christians. But, see, none of us have been locked up yet for following Christ, so we have to look for Peter’s fulfillment somewhere else.

We need to pull back just a few inches, and not cry “Persecution” every time something doesn’t go the way we Christians would like. Sometimes it is an isolated instance which we magnify into a conspiratorial attack on the Church. Other times, if we get all our information from certain news sources, we never hear the entire story. In the last ten years or so, I have attempted to do exactly that; find the rest of the story. The “persecution” withers away by half as we really are willing to use some reason.

Yet, sometimes we still hold back, for fear that people won’t respond well. But it is important that I know their response is not because they think I’m another judgmental Christian. The sort of thing Peter is talking about is when others attack you simply because you are a follower of Jesus. If they are not attacking your view on abortion, physician-assisted suicide, homosexuality or global climate change, it may just be that they are Democrats, and have nothing to do with Jesus.

I have gone through, and going through, a significant change in the last ten years. I once was one who spouted all the right peripheral issues that Christians were supposed to believe. And, I saw everyone who believed otherwise as people who were attacking Christianity.

Today it is different. I have never loved Jesus more, and I am far less passionate about those political ideas. My passion for Him, though has never been higher. Don’t worry about getting all the ideologies right. Dig in and learn the intimacy of being with Jesus. Yes, there will those who may not like your commitment to Jesus. Just don’t get it confused with people who have some questions about how Jesus’ church occasionally acts.