The World Will Hate You

Overview

We’ve been going through the book of Matthew looking at the big blocks of teaching Jesus gives his disciples for how he wants his followers to live. While the Sermon on the Mount was mainly about how Christian disciples would relate to each other, starting with this passage, Jesus turns around and says, “But now here’s how I want my disciples to relate to the world.”

This passage was Jesus teaching on how to move into a new town or a new neighborhood or a new city as Christian disciples and begin to do mission, begin to do Christian ministry. The whole passage is about, first of all, how we are to share the compassion of Jesus (verses 5–15); secondly, how we are to share the offense of Jesus (verses 16–23); and thirdly, where we are to get the power to do that (verses 24 and 25).