The Standard June 28, 2025
“Just because I disagree with you doesn’t mean I hate you. We need to relearn that in our society.” This timely quote, attributed to a few different sources, warrants consideration. Why in our culture are we frequently encouraged to assume that if a person treats others with love and respect yet disagrees with them about some current issue, the person actually harbors deep-down hate for them? On the other hand, why do we too often think that if someone hangs out with a friend or quotes them or says positive things about their good characteristics that their beliefs completely align? Surely, it is healthy to have friends with whom we disagree. No healthy human relationship ever involves 100% agreement. Our friends and families might disapprove of certain actions we take or things we believe, but hopefully still love us.
More and more it seems like Christians and people of other faiths are expected to celebrate actions which they view as contrary to God’s design or purpose and to say things which they deem to be untrue. This should not be. On the other hand, followers of Christ should not expect that everyone will understand or want to live by biblical standards. We should recognize that there will be those who indeed recoil at us studying Scripture and articulating what we interpret as God’s roadmap for human thriving.
Despite our differing values, Jesus taught us to love God first and to love our neighbors as ourselves. We must treat everyone with dignity, even those who do not hold our convictions. It is likely that our beliefs and values will sound unusual to many. Mutual respect and tolerance are important for everyone.
It would be difficult to encapsulate how countercultural Jesus was. Prevailing ideas and practices did not define how he lived. Jesus was empathetic to the woman caught in adultery, for example. He rescued her from physical harm yet did not leave her to continue in soul-crushing patterns. Jesus told her to leave her life of sin. How would that message be received today?
Scripture teaches that there is truth and that Christ-followers should abide in God. The world won’t understand all of our ways, but how we treat our neighbors should stand out and capture its attention. By virtue of the disconnect between God’s ways and our natural tendencies, every Christian should be a countercultural Christian.
Jesus says to his disciples, “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. Remember what I told you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also.” “They will treat you this way because of my name, for they do not know the one who sent me.” John 15: 18-20a, 21
The Apostle Paul reminds Christians, “Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God- this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is- his good, pleasing and perfect will.” Romans 12:1-2
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