Confirming (phase 3), - The Last Supper – Second Part: The last discourses of Jesus (step 23) - session 5

I have told you this so that you may not fall away

Jn 15:18-16:3

If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. - (15:18, and pretty much the rest of the chapter)

There are some who lament that the Church seems so at odds with society, who think we should omit those parts of the gospel that offend some people. There are those who believe that "accepting people where they are" means expecting them to remain as they are.

We may have the way of the world, or we may have the way of Christ, but if we try to have both we will find ourselves dismayed when they really do come into conflict.

I wish I could remember which men's conference speaker said that the essence of Christianity is change. (It might have been Matthew Kelly, but I don't remember for certain.)  Jesus came to deliver us from death in sin to life in his righteousness. That requires change. And those who insist that there is nothing wrong with people being the way they are in some way that they consider central to their being are going to hate that part of the gospel message.

I'm as resistant to change as the next person, so I'm preaching to myself here.

If someone is in grave physical danger and insists on remaining their, we may have the power to overcome their free will in order to move them to safety. The danger of sin is greater than any threat to our physical life. Christ has won the victory over sin, delivered us from the kingdom of sin, darkness and death into the kingdom of holiness, light and life. But he will not steamroll our free will to insist that we fully embrace the relocation that he has made possible for us. We can love the world for what it offers us, or we can love Jesus, but sooner or later we are not going to be able to serve these two masters.

I have said all this to you to keep you from falling away. They will put you out of the synagogues; indeed, the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he is offering service to God. - (16:1-2)

This had proven true by the time this gospel was written. It was good that Jesus prepared them for the day to come. In our society we are mostly free from the threat of martyrdom for our faith, but it may not always be so, and in the nearer term there may be significant sacrifices which we are blessed to accept for the sake of our faith.