Jesus told his followers, including those of us who follow him now, that we would face hatred because our spiritual nature in Christ is different than the world - foreign to those who don't yet know God personally.
John 15:19
"If you belonged to the world, the world would treat you with affection and
would love you as its own. But because you are not of the world [no
longer one with it], but I have chosen (selected) you out of the world,
the world hates (detests) you.")
If you've lived in another country or even moved from one part of the country to another, you have some insights into culture shock and how to cope with the differences that just might inform your spiritual journey on earth this side of heaven.
I want God to be proud of the way I've conducted myself here. I want to look like His kid, not like the rest of the people around me and I want to love people so well that they'd consider a relationship with Him over what they are accustomed to in the evil world around us.
2 Corinthians 1:12
"For our proud confidence is this: the testimony of our conscience, that in holiness and godly sincerity, not in fleshly wisdom but in the grace of God, we have conducted ourselves in the world, and especially toward you."
Amen! When you live in another culture, you strive to learn the language and customs, to "fit in." But as citizens of heaven, God asks us to be in the world but not of it. If we look, act, speak no differently than the world, or strive to adopt it's customs, why would people want to be part of God's Kingdom?
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