Hated? Of Course You Are!

There is no escaping the counter message of Jesus Christ. He leads us away from delusion and the slavery to the passions, and that always creates conflict with a world that prefers delusion.

At a recent spiritual retreat, I was asked how one should prepare to deal with questions about the faith when others ask about it. Many of our Orthodox brothers and sisters usually get very nervous when somebody asks them about our Orthodox Faith.

It’s a good question but points to a more profound challenge – as most good questions do!

While it may be satisfying to get some essential talking points to share with folks, and it is a good thing to have some training in the basics of the faith so you can articulate your reasons for your serious commitment to the faith, you may find my answer to this question a bit counter-intuitive.

The best defense of the faith is silence. Kinda strange answer coming from someone who talks so much!

OK, I know that requires some explanation. I mean that the best testimony to the power of the faith isn’t well-honed debate tactics and strong work in the apologetic jujitsu of verbal combat but the serious commitment to the internal work of transformation in my own life. The best testimony and defense of the faith is faithfulness itself.

Now, that doesn’t mean we should be lax when it comes to the natural and good perfecting of our communication skills, our love for our neighbor that calls us to love them so much that we desire them to know the faith as well. And it doesn’t mean we neglect the intellectual work, serious development of our minds, and our logical understanding of the faith. But it does mean we see the limitations of all that good work.

Much of the foolishness that passes as debate on the Orthodox social media scene would be better served by more silence, less vitriol, and less preening triumphalism.

Look at today’s Matins Gospel Lesson in Luke 21:12-19:

“The Lord said to his disciples, ‘Beware of men who will lay their hands on you and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors for my name’s sake. This will be a time for you to bear testimony. Settle it therefore in your minds, not to meditate beforehand how to answer; for I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which none of your adversaries will be able to withstand or contradict. You will be delivered up even by parents and brothers and kinsmen and friends, and some of you they will put to death; you will be hated by all for my name’s sake. But not a hair of your head will perish. By your endurance you will gain your lives.’”

No crafty rhetoric will suffice—no canned sales pitch. No lengthy training in debate tactics or apologetic skills will ever be as effective as a heart so internally prepared by love and faithfulness in the practice of the faith to overcome the broken and death-enslaved philosophy of the world without Christ.

That world will always be suspicious of you and this suspicion will always degenerate into outright hostility at times. Just look around you today. Christians are the most persecuted people on the planet!

So, the best way to prepare for that inevitable reality is to practice the Faith, follow the Church's disciplines, learn to pray, fast, and give alms, and always strive to love God and others more than yourself.

There is simply no argument strong enough to overcome love. Our love is toward God in the active practice of the wisdom of the Faith and toward others as an example of faithfulness to Christ. All rhetoric sounds shallow and tiny in the face of one who loves as Christ loves.

Sadly, I always have to add the caveat that “love” doesn’t mean passive support for someone, no matter their behavior. No, this terrible and fearful love of Christ always means a cross and a death and a resurrection from an old way of living to the new way of living in communion with God, the UnCreated.

As we continue in the Afterfeast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, I will never forget hearing an old preacher warn us that there will come a day when we humans will want a Christianity without the Cross. What did he mean by that? Simply put, we will work to take the hard part out of true love. But the Faith won’t let us forget that part of loving like Christ means being courageous enough to face the purposeful death of a deluded life in exchange for the “new creature” St. Paul promised was our purpose in following Jesus. The love we Christians proclaim always means facing the hard work of being hated by a world that prefers their madness to the sober sanity of Christ.

Today, you will be confronted with a world gripped by various ideologies that all have one thing in common: You will work at an office where intrigue and gossip shape the politics of that place. You will be in family situations marred by dysfunction and learned behavior that only leads to co-dependency and not true communion. You may even attend a parish where loving others is difficult. The answer won’t be eternal arguments. The answer won’t be better rhetoric or more skilled communication tools. The answer will be your interior practice of the Faith and the stubborn refusal to turn anyone you meet into an enemy! So, practice the faith and allow your “silence” to shout the Answer to the world! That’s what it means to live a Normal Orthodox life!

P.S. Save, O Lord, Your people, and bless Your inheritance. Grant victory to the faithful against the adversaries of the Faith. And protect Your people by Your Holy Cross.

Fr. Barnabas Powell is the parish priest at Sts. Raphael, Nicholas, and Irene Greek Orthodox Church in Cumming, GA. He is also the founder of Faith Encouraged Ministries and produces the Faith Encouraged Daily Devotional on Substack.