A Name Cast Out

Luke 6:22 KJV

Blessed are ye, when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you from their company, and shall reproach you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of man's sake.

When Jesus spoke these words I suppose He referred to being cast out of the synagogue for professing faith in Jesus Christ. Those earliest believers were all Jews and all had

• Emotional
• Traditional and
• Familial

connections to the synagogue. Faith in Jesus Christ seemed compatible to synagogue membership but was obviously not. Though they may have wished to continue their participation, the people of the synagogues themselves cast them out.

There is another way our names are cast out today, and for other reasons. Now, rather than being physically kicked out of an congregation our names may be cast out into the world through some sort of broadcast or social networking. We are accused of evil things. It may not necessarily be because we believe in Christ, but because someone uses our faith as a means to accuse us of hypocrisy or of some sort of breech of our faith because we do not conform to their wishes for us. Satan is a master at using Scripture, not as a tool of encouragement but as a weapon of guilt. We must not allow those who throw out Christian phrases to manipulate us, even with Scripture, into

• Doing or
• Being or
• Saying

what they want us to. Our place is to listen to the voice of the Lord; to follow His guidance through His Word.

Those who cast out our names are taking the same course as those who

• Slew Jesus
• Stoned Stephen
• Beheaded Paul, and
• Massacred millions of believers

just because they did not conform to a particular sort of religious expectation.

Pray for them. Try to be a blessing to them. But do not let them manipulate you.