“If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you.” John 15:18-19 (NIV)

At the time of this post, social media is ablaze because apparently ‘Christians’ are upset that a certain corporation didn’t print reference to a certain Christian holiday on its seasonal cups. Unfortunately, by posting about this, I find myself in the awkward and ironic situation of perpetuating a trending topic I oppose by speaking against it. Oh well. C’est la vie.

Arguably most Christians, myself included, don’t care about what’s printed on a cup, provided it’s not outright anti-Christ. We are not boycotting a corporation for living up to its expected, secular status. In fact, it’s arguably better that our beliefs and celebrations aren’t secularized, commercialized, and monetized; so most Christians I know are not speaking out against the cup.

This topic has become much larger by those who oppose the ‘Christians’ crying out against the cups. They have taken it as an opportunity to attack Christians on social media insinuating we are focused on a cup rather than feeding the hungry and housing the homeless. Suddenly the ‘tolerant,’ ‘non-judgmental,’ ‘open-minded’ ‘progressives’ are painting broad strokes of generalized criticism against Christians.

Oh how tempting it is to go on tirades and rebuttals against each and every post attacking Christians by using this controversy invented by social media trolls; but that is not my style and our Savior would have more to say about that than what is printed on a cup. So let us as Christians turn the other cheek and remember…

“If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you.” John 15:18-19 (NIV)

URL:
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John%2015&version=NIV