NEW
BELIEVER; OPPOSITION; CHRISTIANS: IN THE WORLD

Elijah found out something that we are not teaching very well to new Christians. We ought to tell them that when they follow Jesus all the way, His enemies will be their enemies. We ought to tell them that they will be rejected in this world, just as Elijah—and Jesus—were rejected.

We are getting our new converts off to a bad start. We tell them that following Jesus as Lord is just the smoothest, easiest, slickest thing in the world. “Jesus is not going to lay any burdens on you,” we reassure them. “Jesus is going to get you out of all your troubles.”

I will come right out and say it: We ought not to tell them such lies!

We ought to tell them that if they will follow on to love and obey the Lord, this world will think the same of them that it thought of Him. What the world thought of Jesus was cruelly demonstrated on a rugged cross atop a hill outside Jerusalem.

1 Kings 19:9–10; John 15:18–21; John 16:33

Men Who Met God, 97, 98.