If there is one thing I have learned from rap music, it’s that haters are gunna hate. It seems like haters is one of the most popular thing to rap about these days, Jay-z raps about it, Kanye West raps about it, they rap about it together in on their new album. Drake put out his first album in 2010 and a few songs are about haters (on the first album!!!) Nicki Minaj, 50 cent, Eminem, Dr. Dre, Andre 3000, 2Pac, Biggie smalls, all the biggest names in rap, sing about haters.

It got me thinking, why is everyone talking about haters? I mean really, what’s the big deal? Then reading in Matthew it hit me, Jesus talked about it! So my guess is rappers are thinking “If Jesus talked about it, so will I!”. Funny they don’t talk about how it’s wrong to even look at a woman with lustful eyes like Jesus did in Matthew 5:28. Anyways, Matthew 11:18 says “For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, 'He has a demon.' ¹⁹The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, 'Look at him! A glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!' Yet wisdom is justified by her deeds." Jesus is saying people hated John the baptizer because he was weird; he had a steady diet of bugs and honey (Matt 3:4), and smelt like a jr. high boy after gym class who hasn’t been introduced to deodorant yet, and his favorite shirt was made of 100% camel hair. Now Jesus was hated even more; He claimed to be God (John 14:10) and He hung out with the rejects of society, shared a meals and wine with them (Luke 19).  People hated both of them; the living in the woods and wearing of the camel hair verses the embracing culture and bringing the gospel to it. Really what Jesus is saying with this verse is that we will never be able to please everyone, its’ impossible, if Jesus couldn’t do it, neither can we.

We place so much emphasis on being accepted, and being liked by peers that often times we lose the message of the gospel that God has placed on our life. It seems like it gets to a point where we are more concerned with what the haters think and say rather than what God thinks.  We really need to ask our selves, who are we trying to impress, who are we seeking acceptance from? Are we as believers more concerned with haters or Jesus?

See God calls us to take the gospel to the culture that we are living in, no one said this will be easy, no one said that people will always agree with you, no one said there aren’t going to be haters, in fact in Matthew 16:25 Jesus says, “For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” When we live a life after Christ we truly find who we are made to be. Let that be the acceptance we seek and find in Christ, not the acceptance that culture will give, that will fade quicker than a Lady Gaga hairstyle. We should be the people who find our worth in Christ, this doesn’t mean we hate everyone else, this doesn’t mean hate people who first hate us, no!  We accept the fact there will be people who don’t agree and love them anyways because Christ first loved us. This is one of the hard parts about living the gospel in our lives, we don’t get to rap about our haters, we don’t get to pick fights with them over national radio like rappers do, we get to love them, and through this love, Christ is shown.

IF this was awful…don’t hate on me! This is the first time I have ever blogged, and I have a lot to learn. Hopefully it’ll will just get better from here.