The Meaning Of Hated Of All Men

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Hi R____,
Thank you for sharing this thought with me.

The answer to your question is yes, you are right on track with scripture with your comments. Being “hated of all men”, just like “losing your life”, is not necessarily connected with physical acts of violence against any of us. Being hated of all men is simply being rejected by all men, and losing our lives is simply losing everything that is precious to us in this world.

Mat 10:22  And ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake: but he that endureth to the end shall be saved.
Mat 10:39  He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it.

This sometimes brings us to wish these were literal statements, but they are not necessarily literal. They can be literal, and men can, to this very day, become physically hateful toward the words of Christ, but that is not necessary for these words to be fulfilled in our lives. Notice that both of the above verses are in Mat 10.
Here is a Biblical example of how the Greek word translated ‘hated’ here is to be understood as it relates to “losing our lives for Christ’s sake”. This is also in Mat 10.

Mat 10:37  He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.

But now notice how this same statement is worded in Luke.

>Luk 14:26  If any [ man] come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.

So to hate our father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters and our own lives, simply means that we are to love our parents and children and friends less than we love God. “He that loves father or mother more than me” in Mat 10, is not ‘hating his father and mother” as Christ instructs us in Luk 14.
In like manner, we do not need to be shot in the head or physically crucified to be “crucified with Christ” or “buried with Him in baptism”.

Gal 2:20  I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.
Rom 6:3  Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?

How are we “crucified with Christ” today? How are we “baptized into His death” today? We do so by living as He lived, and in doing that we die His death.
Peter tells us that Christ left us an example and that we should follow in His footsteps. Peter tells us that this is our very calling.

1Pe 2:21  For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps:

But if you are so ‘foolish’ as to believe those words, and if you are so extreme as to do what Christ did and “break the sabbath” and “not go up to the feast”, then you will in very short order be hated by your own family and friends and by all men. No, they may not physically throw sticks and stones at you, but you will be ostracized, and they will speak evil of you, even as you live up to your calling and follow in Christ’s example and in His steps.

Joh 5:18 Therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him, because he not only had broken the sabbath, but said also that God was his Father, making himself equal with God.
Joh 7:8 Go ye up unto this feast: I go not up yet unto this feast; for my time is not yet full come.

For Christ to “break the sabbath” and not be at the feast on the first day was the modern equivalent of ignoring Christmas and Easter or your anniversary or your child’s birthday. The custom and the laws of the church of His day required these days be kept exactly as the days of our modern traditions are required of us.

Exo 12:14  And this day shall be unto you for a memorial; and ye shall keep it a feast to the LORD throughout your generations; ye shall keep it a feast by an ordinance for ever.
Exo 12:15  Seven days shall ye eat unleavened bread; even the first day ye shall put away leaven out of your houses: for whosoever eateth leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that soul shall be cut off from Israel.
Exo 12:16  And in the first day there shall be an holy convocation, and in the seventh day there shall be an holy convocation to you; no manner of work shall be done in them, save that which every man must eat, that only may be done of you.

Nevertheless, Christ did not keep those days as they were commanded to be kept. He came to “reform” and to “change” the law.

Heb 7:12  For the priesthood being changed, there is made of necessity a change also of the law.
Heb 9:10  Which stood only in meats and drinks, and divers washings, and carnal ordinances, imposed on them until the time of reformation.
Gal 4:9  But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage?
Gal 4:10  Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years.
Gal 4:11  I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain.

That is the example and footsteps we are given to follow, and it is few who can go there simply because “you will be hated of all men” if you do, and you will “lose your life for Christ’s name’s sake” if you do. This will be the attitude of those who are closest to you:

Gen 37:10 And he told it to his father, and to his brethren: and his father rebuked him, and said unto him, What is this dream that thou hast dreamed? Shall I and thy mother and thy brethren indeed come to bow down ourselves to thee to the earth?

The answer to Jacob’s question is ‘yes, you will’. That is typified by the reward of ruling over our flesh and its fear of rejection, here and now, and the coming rulership over the kingdoms of this world and the judging of this world and the angels will all be well worth any sacrifice required of us in this age, but it is very few indeed who are given that grace.
You remain in my prayers, that God will strengthen you to follow in Christ’s steps, and remain faithful to the example He has left us.

Your brother in Christ,
Mike

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