I read this passage and all I could think about was how ISIS is beheading folks who believe in God through Jesus Christ.
What passage you ask?
18 "If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. 19 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. 20 Remember the word that I said to you: 'A servant is not greater than his master.' If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours. 21 But all these things they will do to you on account of my name, because they do not know him who sent me. 22 If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have been guilty of sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin. 23 Whoever hates me hates my Father also. 24 If I had not done among them the works that no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin, but now they have seen and hated both me and my Father.
But they hate us. They do.
In the midst of that hatred though we need to know this: God is with us. The Lord Jesus Christ sent us a comforter: the Holy Spirit. He is with us. He cares for us. He is a part of us if we love and serve the Lord.
So I feel deeply for the Christians that are under attack. I wish they weren't. BUT I will pray that they know full well the truth of this passage. THEY (the Christians) aren't truly the ones hated.... the one truly hated is God and they just happen to be his representatives on earth and that's a GOOD thing to be and he will comfort them in their hour of need. The misguided, misled peoples after them have no excuse for their behaviour.. it's an act of hatred against the God they say they serve. But they don't truly know God, they truly don't.