Woe to you when all men speak well of you, For so did their fathers to the false prophets. (Luke 6:26, NKJV). We all have a desire to be received by our fellow man; in fact, we try to conduct ourselves in life in such a way that we will be received favorably. Many in life try to be socially conscience, kind and gentle when speaking, benevolent in actions, and never try to speak a bad word with regard to another to anyone. These are commendable to be sure, but are these things that will gain us the eternal home that the Lord promised to those who love Him? The answer is no. Consider what the Lord said a few verses earlier: Blessed are you when men hate you, And when they exclude you, And revile you, and cast out your name as evil, For the Son of Man’s sake (6:22).

From these two passage we gain some clear teachings from the Lord. First, the fact that men speak well of us may be a good thing, but let us be on our guard because it may be they speak well because we don’t speak of Christ to them. Second, we don’t want others to hate us for anything that we do, but if we are doing the Lord’s bidding, shall we be discouraged when they do? Some just really want to hate!

Let us be mindful of the Lord’s exhortation. For instance, when a person walks the life the Lord walked, the walk of the Lord’s servant will have conviction written all over it, and those in this world, walking after the pattern of Satan, will not like at all anything of righteousness (John 16:8-11). Therefore, let us choose wisely to whom we give our lives and for what reason. RT