Hello SunshineGirl, along with what others have said, I think that part of the reason (for those in the world hating us) is that we become something very different than we used to be, something very different than they continue to be. Even if we don't talk about God and the Bible to them, how we talk/what we say, in general, what we do, the values that we now espouse, what is truly important to us, etc., are an affront to them, to their sinful, worldly values and lifestyle choices (as our lives confirm, in a sense, perhaps their deepest fears, that there really is something wrong at the very core of their lives, just like their consciences have been trying to tell them all along).
And when we do witness to them about the Lord, the Gospel and therefore why we are different than we used to be, they often take offense because they think that what we're really saying to them is that we are "good", and they are "bad", which couldn't be further from the truth (as I know you know).
The Bible has a bit to say about this. For instance,
2 Timothy 3
12 All who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.
Sadly, this is true even in the case of our family members and friends who are not saved. As the Lord Himself told us,
Matthew 10
34 “Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth; I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.
35 For I came to SET A MAN AGAINST HIS FATHER, AND A DAUGHTER AGAINST HER MOTHER, AND A DAUGHTER-IN-LAW AGAINST HER MOTHER-IN-LAW;
36 and A MAN’S ENEMIES WILL BE THE MEMBERS OF HIS HOUSEHOLD."
The unsaved, those who are still "
natural" men and women, cannot understand or accept things from God's spiritual POV (as anything short of
foolishness, that is), until God changes them, just like He changed us, so that they finally can.
As the Lord Himself said to us about some of this (directly to us in Ezekiel and John, and then later through the pen of the Apostle Paul),
Ezekiel 36
26 “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.
27 I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances.”
John 3
3 Jesus answered and said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
1 Corinthians 2
12 Now ~we~ have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God,
13 which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words.
14 But a ~natural~ man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised.
15 But he who is spiritual appraises all things, yet he himself is appraised by no one.
16 For WHO HAS KNOWN THE MIND OF THE LORD, THAT HE WILL INSTRUCT HIM? But we have the mind of Christ.
God bless you!!
~Deuteronomy (David)
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