“If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.” (John 15:18-19 NKJV)
I like to start my articles off with a Bible verse. Perhaps that is because I write Biblical Commentary, or perhaps it is just because I want to convey a lot of things to you and I have limited space to do so. Now, both of those can be true, I do not have to choose in that case, but it is not so with some things.
You see, we cannot have divided interests when it comes to who we serve. We have to pick between serving the world and ourselves, and serving Jesus. We cannot seek the approval of the world and the approval of Jesus. You simply cannot please both, and you have no choice to not pick a side.
Dr. Adrian Rogers once shared an illustration and I will do my best to convey it — it went something like this: An unbeliever came up to Dr. Rogers and told him she wanted to shake his hand and that she loved his sermon, but she was not yet willing to accept Christ. Dr. Roger’s said, “Very well, if you choose to accept Christ, shake my right hand and if you choose to reject Christ shake my left.” The bewildered lady said, ...
