Faithfulness to Christ Will Stir Up Religious Rancour Despite Professed Tolerance

"He that is upright in the way is abomination to the wicked” (Proverbs 29:27).

“They hate him that rebuketh in the gate, and they abhor him that speaketh uprightly” (Amos 5:10).

It is the same now. Faithfulness to Christ will stir up religious rancour. In spite of the boasted liberalism of the day, men are still intolerant, and manifest their enmity just so far as they dare.

“And these things will they do unto you, because they have not known the Father, nor me” (John 16:3).

Here the Lord traces, once more, the world’s undying ill-will to its true source: it is because they are not acquainted with the Father and the Son. Hatred and persecution of God’s children are both the consequence and the proof of the spiritual ignorance of their enemies.

~Arthur Pink, "An Exposition of the Gospel of John"