The Burden of Speaking Truth

“They hate the one who rebukes in the gate, and they abhor the one who speaks uprightly.”

Amos 5:10 NKJV

It is no secret that the world we live in now is an evil one – it is full of perverse thinking and void
of truth. All throughout history, the world has rejected God; Even God’s chosen people have
rejected God. After all, when Amos utters his prophecy from God, he does so with the nation of
Israel in mind (Amos 1:1). Other prophets of God – Ezekiel, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and others – were
rejected or considered outcasts because of their message(s). Ezekiel was told that no one would
listen to his message (Ezekiel 3:7). Now that is a tough burden to bear in mind – “no one will
listen to you, and you will be hated!”

The prophets, even Jonah who did so reluctantly, preached the message of God nonetheless.
Some were received and were listened to (Jonah for example), and others were rejected outright.
Jesus Christ, of whom the prophets preached and pointed to, must have shared a similar burden
to the prophets. In the Gospel of John, it is said of Jesus, “He was in the world, and the world
was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and His own did
not receive Him” (John 1:10-11). Jesus exposed the world’s sins and He came to be a light upon
a dark world, but the world hated the One who spoke uprightly. The world rejected also the
apostles who ministered after Him. They, being filled with the same Spirit of prophecy and truth
that Jesus and the prophets had, were hated and abhorred by many.

So, here is the hard truth for us – preach the truth, preach it right, and you will be hated by the
world. It is a tough burden to bear, but our love and fear for God and for a correction of
lost souls must supersede our fear of the world.

Joshua Dykes