Luke 6:26  “Woe [to you] when all men speak well of you, for their fathers used to treat the false prophets in the same way. (NASB1995)

Jesus, seems to say here that if you are loved by everybody that you surely are not being truthful with everybody.  What is the cost of following Jesus.  No king ever went into battle without first sitting down and considering the cost.  Jesus said that. 

It’s very interesting that Jesus nowhere says woe to you when all men speak evil of you, but when all men speak good of you.  That distinction takes some deep thought.  Some. consideration. It’s talking about impressing his own as well as the world.

So we must also consider, this: Matthew 5:11  Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. (KJV)

Interesting isn’t it. If the ridicule we receive is false conserving us when we speak truth,and it comes because of our identification with Jesus (falsely for my sake) and then, we are persecuted but blessed.  If you are doing things to lift up Jesus to the world around you and for that you are ridiculed you should understand that you are  blessed in the kingdom. 

But wait a minute.  What does for My sake mean?  If our sin was so hated by Jesus, that He was willing to die for it; then what did His death accomplish?  

Peter says that God is long suffering or patient with us because He wants all to come to a knowledge of the truth.  But what truth?  Is the truth only that Jesus died for our sin, or that He loves that much?  That is truth, but is it all truth? There is certainly so much more written about His coming and why He came. So what really is the minimum that we need to know in order to come to Him with a contrite spirit or heart, and put ourselves in a place that we are not loved by the world or even by all in the church.  Do we look at serving Him with a minimalist approach in order to be loved?  

Do we really consider that there would be a cost associated with becoming a child of God?  

You have many times heard it said “the truth hurts”.  If a pastor wants to be a peacemaker and in order to do that he tells everyone that God loves them and that they are God’s children, when, in fact, many have nothing to do with God, and are openly living in sin which they love; then is this pastor truly blessed for being such a peacemaker?  Or is he in danger of being a false prophets, because he is willingly accepting of all manner of sin into his church, and he will never preach against the sin in our society.  He will never mention that God hates sin.  Jesus did not die so that we could go on sinning. He came to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.  Today, because of the watering down of sin in the churches, most do not even consider themselves to be sinners in need of Jesus the savior. 

So, what really does it mean to come to Jesus?  Can a follower of Jesus ignore what they are taught by Him through His disciples?  Go and make disciples.  Teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. 

Consider, who was it that spoke out against false prophets back in Biblical times?  When a nation turns on God, there are normally very few voices opposing it who are truly listened to.