Be Courageous and Speak the Truth
Be Strong, Be Well — Tuesday, April 6, 2021
If people reject the truth, they will face the consequences (John 12:48). We will know we did the right thing and stood with Jesus in speaking it.
This principle has been around since the days of the prophets. God told Ezekiel, “Yet, if you warn the wicked, and he does not turn from his wickedness, nor from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity; but you have delivered your soul” (3:19).
As long as we speak God’s word, we will be hated by most. In Jesus’ prayer in the garden, He told His Father, “I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world” (John 17:14).
This is the sentiment of an excerpt from Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s book, The Cost of Discipleship.
“The messengers of Jesus will be hated to the end of time. They will be blamed for all the division which rend cities and homes. Jesus and his disciples will be condemned on all sides for undermining family life, and for leading the nation astray; they will be called crazy fanatics and disturbers of the peace. The disciples will be sorely tempted to desert their Lord. But the end is also near, and they must hold on and persevere until it comes. Only he will be blessed who remains loyal to Jesus and his word until the end.”
Dietrich Bonhoeffer was born in Germany in 1906. After studying in Berlin and then New York City, he returned to Germany to speak out against the Nazi regime. He was later arrested and executed for conspiracy in 1945.
Regardless of his political views, Bonhoeffer was correct about the messengers of Christ. Jesus said, “And you will be hated by all for My name’s sake. But he who endures to the end shall be saved” (Mark 13:13). “Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name’s sake” (Matthew 24:9).
But He also wanted them to remember, “If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you...If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would have no sin; but now they have seen and also hated both Me and My Father” (John 15:18, 24).
If we are courageous and continue to speak the truth, we’ll always be in good company. —Chris