Currently Reading What Jesus Demands from the World By John Piper see related

This is another post taken from the book I'm reading by John Piper. Here is a section that I thought was good from the chapter Demand #28 "Having Enemies May Mean You Are In Step With Jesus" :

"Jesus demands also assumes that we will have enemies and that not all will be reconciled to us, no matter what we do. He shows us that having enemies is not necessarily a bad thing but may mean we are keeping in step with him. For example,he pronounced a blessing on those who are persecuted on account of their allegiance to him. "Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account" (Matt. 5:11) In other words, having enemies is to be expected: "If they have called the master of the house beelzebul, how much more will they malign those of his household...If they persecuted me,they will also persecute you" (Matt. 10:25 ; John 15:20).

In fact, Jesus warned that if there were no persecution, it may be a sign of being more like a false prophet than like Jesus: "Woe to you, when all people speak well of you, for so their fathers did to the false prophets" (Luke 6:26). Enmity between the world and the followers of Jesus is rooted in the truth that the world rejects him (John 18:37) and in the deep difference Jesus makes when he changes a person: "If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you" (John 15:19; cf. 17:14). Therefore, we should not assume that if we have enemies we must have done something wrong. That may be true, and we should search our hearts for unnecessary offenses and repent, but Jesus said very plainly that faithful disciples will have enemies. Expect it.

Do you hear that. Expect to be persecuted by unbelievers if you are faithful in your service to our Lord. As Paul said, count it all joy that you would be worthy of being persecuted for Christs sake. Yes, the persecution does hurt us in the flesh because of our feelings,but when we focus on what it all means for eternity, to me those feelings just don't hang around long because they are worthless. Sometimes we get wounded by words and the way we are treated, but God always heals the wounds, only the scares remain sometimes to remind us that God does care for us and to remind us what He has brought us thru. May God bless yall!

~Grampy~