Used with permission
Approval is a word that people seek for, especially when they are involved in something. We sometimes base our success by the approval of men. We feel uneasy if we find that people don’t approve of our actions. That’s why we try to fix that thinking so that they may agree with us.
In our Christian lives, there is a warning for us regarding the search for the approval of men, especially if it will lead us to compromising our faith. Jesus said to His disciples in John 15:18 “If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you.” The world will always go opposite to what God wants us to do. Since we Christians are the children of God, we should not seek the approval of the world. If we live according to the will of God, know this; the world will hate you!
Sad to say, many Christians compromise their faith to gain approval from their unbelieving friends, co-workers, and neighbours. 1 John 3:1 says, “Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not.” God wants us to know that approval of the world is to be feared, not to be desired. The verse gives us the idea that the love of the Father is far more important than the approval of the world.
Therefore, “marvel not, my brethren, if the world hate you” (1 John 3:13). To be hated by the world may seem unpleasant, but rest assured that we are loved by God.
Brethren, let us always seek the approval of God rather than the world!
John 15:19 “If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.”