You are in for trouble when everyone says good things about you. That is what your own people said about those prophets who told lies.
[Luke 6:26 CEV]
Christian musician, Derek Webb, shares how Christianity isn’t a “popularity contest” and that we need to suffer for Jesus.
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DEREK WEBB: When you start trying to write songs and playing music that is about some of the harder content in terms of kind of what Jesus commanded us to do in terms of loving our neighbors, loving our enemies, you know, it’s a hard word. And you’re not always going to find that that sells you a lot of records, you’re not always going to find that that makes you a lot of friends. So I really like Luke 6:26, where Jesus said, “Woe to you when all men think good of you.” That is to say, a wise man once told me that if you’re telling the truth to people and they love you for it, then you’re probably not telling the truth to people. That following Jesus is not a popularity contest. It’s not always about being efficient or successful, it’s about being faithful. And sometimes that looks like one thing and sometimes it looks like another. But I take a lot of comfort in the fact even Jesus said, listen, the point is not that all men would really love you and that you’d be super popular. I mean, if anything it’s going to be the opposite of that. The only thing he really promised us is that he would never leave us or forsake us, but that we would suffer. And we’re just not accustomed to suffering anymore in this country and in our churches. And when we have to do very much of it, like good consumers we go elsewhere, where we don’t have to suffer so much. I think that’s the wrong response. I think we need to stay and we need to suffer, and we need to share in the sufferings of Jesus and await for him to return. And he promises all these things.
Please note that the views expressed in this story are not necessarily the views of the American Bible Society. Story posted on October 2nd, 2007 and filed under Derek Webb, Bible, Video Stories, Struggles.