This world is not your home
This world is not your home: Being side-lined, overlooked, and treated as if you are a second-rate citizen, is to be expected
For me, this past week has been challenging on many fronts. It felt as if the entire year’s troubles were all condensed in a single week, right at the end of an already difficult year. As a believer in Jesus Christ, the year was testing when I look around me and see how just about everything is more and more contrary to the Word of God. Since the world does not believe in God or His Word, the best course of action is to silence those who proclaim it, and otherwise ridicule them. We were warned a long time ago that this would happen:
1These things have I spoken unto you, that ye should not be offended. 2They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service. 3And these things will they do unto you, because they have not known the Father, nor me. 4But these things have I told you, that when the time shall come, ye may remember that I told you of them. And these things I said not unto you at the beginning, because I was with you. 5But now I go my way to him that sent me; and none of you asketh me, Whither goest thou? 6But because I have said these things unto you, sorrow hath filled your heart. – John 16:1-6
Jesus was very clear when He told the disciples “these things” – the information He shared with them in John 15. To summarise the chapter (John 15), the disciples are reminded that they must abide in Him (John 15:4-8); and to keep His commandments (John 15:10). These two go together. You cannot abide in Him if you do not also do what He says. For us, in the year 2021, going into 2022, the message is as true as it was for the disciples. After all, they were warned when they as the church, would be persecuted. In the same way we are (going to be) persecuted, targeted, singled out, and ridiculed, for the sake of the Gospel we carry.
Jesus continues His warning to the disciples, but gives then this one very important bit of information:
33These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world. – John 16:33
The warnings of trouble are given so that we may have peace. Jesus sets the world and Himself in direct opposition. While we will have tribulation in this world (general animosity towards believers, simply for who they believe in), we should take heart, because He has already overcome the world. He has already been victorious and this He said even before He rose from the dead.
If Jesus has overcome the world and we abide in Him (John 12:46 and John 15:5-7), then we will overcome as well. We will be victorious when we remain planted in Him, and when He is the rock of our foundation (Luke 6:47-49). May 2022 be the year in which you renew your commitment to be a follower of Jesus Christ, despite that goes on around you. Be happy, take heart; Jesus has already sealed victory on your behalf. Your eternal home is heaven, not the Earth. Live your earthly life knowing you will have peace and rest in the presence of Jesus, who on your arrival in heaven, will present you to the Father. This is your greatest reward.