Remember what I told you: the servant is not greater than his master; if they persecuted me,
they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will keep yours as well.
All this they will do to you on account of my name, because they do not know the One who sent me.

REFLECTION:
It is certainly true that “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son”.
And because of this we the disciples of Jesus have a responsibility to bring his message of hope
and salvation to the whole world. He wills, after all, that all people might be saved,
that they might come to know him as the Savior that the Father had sent.
We must therefore care for the world – and not just for people, but for the created world as well.
But it is just as true that there is, between us and the world a “necessary againstness” that cannot be denied nor minimized.
We do not belong to the world any more than Christ belongs to it. We belong to him,
and while we are called to assist the world in knowing him, this isn’t our home. Our citizenship is in heaven.
As long as we keep this “againstness” in mind,
as long as we remember that no matter how much we seek to assist the world by introducing Jesus to it,
we will not lose ourselves in its ways nor be enticed to forget that the way of Jesus is always going to be different.

© Copyright Bible Diary 2020