Christ or the World: Who Owns You?

This morning,* Bessie and I were reading John 15:15-21:

“If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me
first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is,
you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is
why the world hates you. Remember the words I spoke to you: ‘No servant is
greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also.
They will treat you this way because of my name, for they do not know the one
who sent me.”

We were impressed again with the either/or of belonging to
Christ or the world. And it is the world that recognizes the difference and
takes action. The question is, does the world recognize you as someone to love,
or to hate?

*Written November 1987.

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