You have the obligation to speak out against evil
Do you hurt? I want you to meditate on Jesus's suffering. If you haven't read my previous article, please, read this; Love your enmies
I want you to know that Jesus loves you, and suffered a terrible death to free you from sin.
There were people that knew that he was the Messiah, yet, still treated him terribly.
But, God used this for good. Christ defeated sin on the cross (Romans 6:5-11, pretty much all of Colossians 1).
But, what I keep going back to, is this, and it's something for me to remember when I hurt (which I am doing right now),
“And the soldiers led him away inside the palace (that is, the governor's headquarters), And they clothed him in a purple cloak, and twisting together a crown of thorns, they put it on him. And they began to salute him, “Hail, King of the Jews!” And they were striking his head with a reed and spitting on him and kneeling down in homage to him. And when they had mocked him, they stripped him of the purple cloak and put his own clothes on him. And they led him out to crucify him”. Mark 15:16-20.
Jesus Christ was scourged, mocked, spit upon, and crucified. But, he willingly suffered a terrible fate to save sinners. Which is a group that includes you and I.
As humans, we want to avoid suffering. We want to avoid being hurt, but, I think that we won't even think twice before hurting other people.
And, when that hurt comes, we so much want to avoid any potential hurt from the other party, that we go into defensive mood. Either we retreat completely, or, we try to hurt the other person, more.
Neither is healthy.
But, if you want to know what I think, I think we shouldn't tolerate people treating us like crap, BUT, also, we should accept suffering if I comes our way.
Adam Charles Hovey is the host of the weekly Bible study, Coffee and Christianity, the founder of the Catholicism, news, and whatever community on Locals, and, if you'd like to help him out, go to Help with medical bills
*All verses from ESV Catholic Edition with Deuterocanonical Books, Copyright 2017 by Crossway.