I remember when Jan and I were invited as guests to an exquisite dinner where a world-class chef prepared a meal for a small number of guests. We were served sorbet between the multiple courses and pairings to keep our palates clean and refreshed so we could taste the distinctive flavors of each unique dish that was set before us.

The cleansing effect of the sorbet of truth is needed from time to time in the Church or our distinctive message regarding Jesus will wander into lesser assignments motivated primarily by a need to get people to like us and keep religious and cultural feathers unruffled. That descent into the lesser is always at the expense of declaring what some have viewed as the harsh dividing reality about Jesus and His message. Trying to explain that message without understanding and sharing the core truth about Jesus and His distinctive love, muddles the palate of our message.

In our attempt to model a loving and accepting message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, it is too easy to succumb to a compromise of the core message of the Kingdom of God, that apart from Jesus, there is no hope of salvation. Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father, but through me” (John 14:6). Period. No exceptions. No other options are available. 

While the Gospel is the most compassionate and caring message ever spoken on planet Earth, it also has a sharp and divisive edge. That edge is clarity about who Jesus is as the way, truth, and life. The distinctive nature of that message caused the Lord to say to His first disciples, “You will be hated by everyone because of My name, but the one who perseveres to the end will be saved” (Matthew 10:22). This is not about casually mentioning the Lord’s name without clarity at a social gathering. It is the exclusivity of what the name implies. There is no other way to the Father – only in the name of Jesus is there a way to God and a hope of eternal life. That message and its distinctive nature are what has been the driving force behind 2,000+ years of sacrificial mission work.

As the Lord was instructing His disciples about the end of time, He referred to wars and rumors of war, the rise of false messiahs, and nation rising against nation. It was like He was referring to the headlines in our moment in history. To cap off those warnings, He said, “Then they will deliver you over to be persecuted and killed, and you will be hated by all nations because of My name” (Matthew 24:9).  It’s the Name, once again and what it means, that is the point of departure from all other false hopes of redemption apart from Jesus.

“Do not be surprised, brothers and sisters, if the world hates you” (I John 3:13). For those who understand the singularity of Jesus Christ and His message, they are not surprised when such hatred occurs because of the name of Jesus. The surprise happens for those who have allowed the preeminence of Jesus to be lowered and fall into line with the false god offerings that seem more palatable to the numbed senses of the deceived.

As our faith is being clarified and becomes more distinctive, the words of the Lord spoken just prior to His arrest apply now more than ever before. “If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you. 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, because of this the world hates you” (John 15: 18-19).