Jesus says in John 15:18-19, "If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you."

It seems as though Jesus' words here are clear: if the world loves you, then you are not His; but if the world hates you, then you are His because it hated Him first.

I know, it seems harsh and maybe even a little unfair to say that as Christians we will literally be hated by the world–even though Jesus also said that unless we hate everyone, including ourselves, then we cannot truly be His disciples in Luke 14:26–but that's how it's supposed to make you feel.

The wonderful thing about Jesus is that He doesn't ever sugar-coat anything He says in the Bible. In John 15:18-19, He is simply warning us of the consequences and the life that we will face should we choose to follow Him. Just like in Luke 14:26 He is simply saying that we cannot be His disciples unless our love for Him makes the love that we have for those in our lives look like hatred.

The problem that I have been noticing more and more, however, is that many people who claim to be followers of Christ are simultaneously rejecting many of His teachings in order to appease the standards of their non-Christian peers.

To be clear, this type of thinking isn't isolated to notable megachurch pastors, but is an increasingly prevalent phenomenon among everyday churchgoers as well. That said, one of the more recent examples of this phenomenon occurring would be when Carl Lentz, the lead pastor of Hillsong NYC, didn't swiftly admit that abortion is a sin while on The View, but waited to do so days later after receiving substantial backlash.

Now, I'm not here to drag Lentz through the mud, but rather to point out the ramifications of this mentality, especially coming from the spiritual leaders of congregations.

If someone who is drinking alcohol in excess joins a congregation and the pastor, the person that they are looking to for spiritual guidance, stands in the pulpit every Sunday and declares that there is nothing wrong with consuming alcohol, even to the point of drunkenness, then how can that pastor expect that congregant to ever move forward from that sin?

The answer is that they can't.

As I mentioned earlier, this isn't limited to the relationship between a pastor and their congregation, but is something that is seeping into everyday relationships as well.

As Christians, we are called to be salt and light to the world and to be set apart from the world. If Christians are in clubs every weekend, getting drunk, having one-night-stands, receiving abortions should they become pregnant, partaking in recreational drug use, getting divorced from their spouse, committing adultery, or are living any sort of lifestyle that is at odds with the Word of God, then how is that Christian being salt and light to the world and showing that they are set apart from the world?

The answer is that they aren't.

Don't get me wrong, Isaiah 64:6 tells us, "But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousness are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away." So this isn't some holier-than-thou sermon from a high horse, because not a single one of us is clean in the eyes of the Lord. That's why He sent Jesus to die for our sins in the first place.

But, as Jesus mentions in the verse that I opened this article with, if we choose to follow Him, then we should expect to be hated by the world. And I don't know about you, but I would say that someone who is engaging in any of the things I just mentioned isn't exactly hated by the world. In fact, I would argue that they are embraced by the world with open arms.

Therein lies the danger in this phenomenon: if we seek validation from the world, rather than from our relationship with Christ, then we will never truly experience fulfillment.