What an outrageous title! But it is the truth! The cross is an offense to those who are perishing. People do not want to be told that they are sinning. God’s Word is not popular and neither should we seek to be popular. We tell the truth in love and live with the results. We don’t twist the truth to be acceptable. The Truth is absolute. The Truth is the same yesterday, today and forever. The Truth contains no sin and yet the Truth is that God loves us in spite of our sin. Jesus came into the world because He loves the world but He did not compromise the Law which is perfect and unalterable. In John 3:17, He tells us that He did not come into the world to condemn the world but to save it. The rest of the chapter, Jesus tells the world that it is in darkness and needs to repent and turn to Him and be forgiven. He does not seek popularity. In fact, the last verse in chapter 3 should shake us to realize how horrible sin is in the eyes of God.

Do you see the heart of God in this? He does not approve of sin to get along with us. He hates sin and for that reason He is hated.

Standing before Pilate, Jesus was asked, What is truth? Truth was hated, Truth was crucified. Will we tell people what they want to hear so that we will not be cancelled? Certainly not and yet, the Gospel is often compromised or silenced to avoid conflict. Entire churches and denominations have split over the redefinition of sin. Pressure from Woke Theology intimidates to be more progressive, more relevant. If we are not careful, we can fail to become the salt and light that God desires. If salt loses its saltiness, it becomes worthless (Matthew 5:13).

We are exhorted to “love the sinner and hate the sin”, that is a Godly command. But also we must love the sinner by refusing to compromise the truth. We cannot deny that God’s Word is perfect and worthy of total obedience. We must not tell the world what they want to hear so that the world will like us. That is why we should expect to be hated!

If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. John 15:8

Please listen to Gary Hamrick’s powerful message “The Cost of Trading Truth for a Lie”