How to know the Truth
John 8:31-32: If you obey Jesus Words then you will know the truth.
John 7:17-18: If you choose to do the will of God you will know the truth about doctrine even Jesus’ Words.
John 18:37: Those that are of the truth hear Jesus voice.
A lot of Christians battle with knowing the truth about very basic things, the truth about themselves, situations and most of all God’s will and what He is saying to them. The reason for this is because they are still listening to their tempters who have authority in their lives. People have not repented and still have fellowship with the enemy who lies to them. They then live in much confusion, doubts, and fears and so on. Many mask their confusion with hypocrisy through religious works and practises and guarding the religious knowledge they have studied and favoured through pride. These people start trusting in people who seem religious in hopes God will use them, completely blind to when and how the enemy uses them and become victim of further confusion.
To know the Truth it starts with obeying Jesus. We cannot even totally know the truth about Jesus’ doctrine unless we actually will to carry out God’s desire. Through obedience we break our relationship with the lying enemy, we see the results of obeying Jesus, and we experience the testimonies in the Bible and are walking in the Word of God, making us one with Him. From here it is about maintaining. Most Christians obey religious leaders and traditions but do not obey Jesus, so they continue in sin listening to the tempter who is a liar, who comes to steal, kill and destroy. Then these continue in darkness and confusion, they believe their own religious works and acts which make them a victim of self-deception and their own hypocrisy. In this foundation of confusion (Babylon) is where everything else is built. People continue battling and struggling thinking this is how it is suppose to be, not realising disobedience (sin), has blinded them and left them wandering the wilderness. In most cases they have submitted to blind leaders who are also in disobedience wandering in the same wilderness. Repent and obey Jesus come to know the truth and be made free.
Testing Spirits
Matthew 24:4-5: Jesus warned false christs will arise and deceive many.
Matthew 24:11, 24-26: Jesus warned false prophets and false christs will arise and do great signs and wanders and deceive many.
John 15:26 ,16:7-8: The Holy Spirit witnesses of the work of Jesus, reproving the world of sin, righteousness and judgement.
Many test spirits and try and test if they are hearing from God by asking for confirmation or repetition which is basically asking for signs. Jesus rebuked the generations that seek after signs and warned us that false prophets and christs will come with great signs and wanders. So with this understanding we should not to continue to test spirits with confirmations.
The Holy Spirit is the only one who testifies of Jesus, meaning He testifies of Jesus cause, purpose and work. This is done through proving the world wrong concerning sin, righteousness and judgement. When John was speaking to the newer converts of his day he gave them one example on how to test spirits through the testimony of reprove against sin, by telling them to ask if Jesus has come in the flesh. This is a testimony regarding the reprove of sin, because Jesus appearing in the flesh was to destroy sin which is the enemies work (1 John 3:8). We should be testing spirits based on the testimony, the witness of the Holy Spirit, not based on our own confirmations, standards and our own witness of Christianity and doctrines such as repetition and any other sign. Many test with confirmations and become deceived, test according to the testimony of the Holy Spirit.
Testing People
Matthew 7:13-23: Jesus warns us and tell us we can identify false prophets by their fruit. What they do, they continue sinning.
2 Peter 2:1: Peter warned us just as there were false prophets there will be false teachers among us, thus the false are tested the same way, by their fruit.
1 John 2:3-6: John stated anyone who says they know Jesus, but does not obey Him is a liar.
When it comes to testing people in this covenant it is very simple. Anyone who is sinning, who does not hold the testimony of victory in Jesus name yet they are teaching, prophesying, pastoring and so forth they are false. We were told by Jesus we know them by their fruits and He will say to many who say LORD, LORD and show their resume of spiritual giftings: depart from me you workers of lawlessness. There are few who find the narrow road, which means there are few who will speak and teach of it in purity. Those who continue sinning are lawless, they do not know Jesus, are not trained by Him, they do not have His laws written in their heart, thus they cannot teach others the teachings of Jesus, nor how to go to Jesus to overcome. Beware of them do not eat their food.
Do not follow people, especially those who testify they continue to sin and make excuses for sin. If a brother or sister stumbles in sin but repents seeking Jesus for the Grace to overcome and testify they have learned and apply what they have learned, they are not false but learning and growing in Grace. Encourage them to return to the LORD for the Grace they know is waiting on them. We are to grow in grace and eventually come to a place were we stop sinning, even to a place where we follow the Holy Spirit diligently and not even make mistakes. What matters is our hearts being in position to learn, obey, overcome and follow the LORD to maintain. This is sadly not the heart attitude of most Christians, though many agree with their lips when they hear it, by their life and testimony you know they are not practising it. Beware of those who continue sinning and have no fresh testimonies of victories especially concerning daily or weekly temptations. Beware of those who have no testimonies on learning from Jesus when they mess up and do not eventually have corresponding testimonies of victories due to the things they have learned from Jesus. Beware of those who continue sinning over and over and make excuses or justify their short comings, even if it's "optimistic". If this is you, then its time to repent and seek Jesus to get the testimony of victory.
You yourself, seek the LORD, hear His voice obey His instructions. He will lead you into fellowship with others who obey Him, for He is the door to His sheep (John 10:9). Beware of following after religious men who continue to sin, Jesus warned that if the blind leads the blind both will fall in a ditch (Matthew 15:12-14). Those who are gifted by Jesus, who are gifted pastors and teachers and so forth, will teach you to be trained by Jesus. They speak of the food Jesus has given them, how they learned from Him and teach you to do the same. Those who follow Jesus are used by Jesus to lead you to Jesus, so you will follow Jesus, not man, doctrine, church denomination, traditions nor ministry. Test the fruits, ask them, out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. If their testimony speaks of their defeat when it comes to sin (meaning they still fall or are stuck), even consistent slip ups (mistakes), if they are repenting everyday of the same sins or "mistakes", then they need to come to know Jesus and/or be trained by Him. Do not follow them, for they are not following Jesus. Seek Jesus for yourself. Pray for them and if the LORD leads, when your obedience is complete, when the beam is taken out your eye (Matthew 7:1-5) go back and testify of what the LORD has done in you.
False Christians
Matthew 7:15-23: You know them by their fruit. Gifted Christians can still not know Jesus and Jesus not know them.
2 Corinthians 11:3-15: Paul warned of false teacher and so forth as well as false angels of light.
Matthew 24:11, 24, Matthew 7:14: Jesus warned about many false prophets and false Christs, versus the few who even find the narrow way.
2 Peter 2:1-3: Peter exposes the nature of false teachers, they do not lead people to salvation but further destruction. People do not overcome and are made merchandise of.
2 Timothy 3:3-7: Having a form of godliness and denying the power (they do not overcome), ever learning but never coming to the knowledge of Truth… knowing the Truth sets us free.
Most Christians are deceived and on their way to hell. Ask a Christian if their religious leader still sins, they will tell you yes. So how can they learn how to stop sinning if their leader and teacher still sins? Jesus, Paul and Peter warned us of false teachers (as well as pastors), prophets, apostles and evangelists. Jesus told us we can identify them by what they do. Anyone trained by Him stops sinning and leads others directly to Him to receive the same testimony. Therefore a pastor who still sins, even if they preach well is considered false. The reason why is they cannot lead people to utter perfection because they themselves do not know the way of perfection, they are not walking with Jesus in obedience, even though they can talk about truth because they studied things about truth. Jesus warned us many false prophets will arise and deceive many. He told us few find the narrow way let alone walk on it. Anyone who continues to sin has not seen or known Jesus Christ, so how can they feed the sheep? What are they feeding them?
Paul warned that these will have a form of godliness but deny the power. How is this? They have a form of godliness because they study and revere religious things, they look good on the outside like sheep as Jesus said. However on the inside they do not know Jesus, they deny the power because they continue to follow their tempters and sin against God, some teach people they cannot stop sinning, thus they kill assemblies of people with false teachings that lead to destruction. Others are ever studying the scriptures, but they do not come to the knowledge of truth, because they do not obey Jesus. They obey the traditions but never the Word of God who speaks to them. Then they teach others to do the same. Some preach the truths they study and even tell people to repent, but in the same breath admit they still sin and even worse, contradict the repentance preaching by saying we cannot stop sinning and cannot be perfect. Then there are those who know we are to be perfect and say they are striving for it, but they do not believe we can receive it in this life... so why are you striving for something you do not believe you can receive? Or they believe we can receive it but it's a life long process, so what happens if we die tomorrow? Only the morally perfect (righteous and holy) receive the perfection of the resurrection and glory. Hypocrisy means to act, many Christians are fake and actors believing they are real. Some act very well because of knowing about the truth and agreeing with scriptures, but by their life they do not obey Jesus and technically do not believe the truth about the scriptures, they believe and teach their own understanding about the scriptures. The ones who speak about the truth: they talk about truths (the act), but teach their corrupt understanding about the truth, which denies the power to live completely sin free.
Beware of this generations Christianity and Christians, if your testimony is the same as the many Christians you are on the broad path to destruction. Few find the narrow way to life. The narrow way is paved with righteousness, set-apartness and truth, those who walk on it cease from sin and live according to the Fathers desire.
Church of the Dead
Psalms 1:5: Sinners do not stand in the church of the righteous. There is no sin in Jesus' church.
Proverbs 21:16: Those to stray from understanding remain in the church of the dead. if you are sinning you are part of the church of the dead.
John 10:9: Jesus is the door to His church, you find Jesus' church through obeying Him, not by going down the road.
Hebrews 10:25-26, Matthew 18:20: We are not to forsake assembling, but we are not to assemble in hypocrisy but in Jesus name and assembling can be 2 or 3 anywhere.
1 John 1:1-5: We can not have fellowship with one another in Jesus if we are not obeying Him. Many are in fellowship in hypocrisy not in truth.
The church of the dead are assemblies who are full of sin and hypocrisy. A dead assembly can still preach about the truth, have signs and wanders, but if they are still lead by a sinning leader and full of members who continue to sin, they are dead. The true church of Jesus is scattered around the world, the members of His church are all trained by Him, obey Him and live their lives devoted to the will of the Father. They have put aside their own ambitions, desires, dreams and goals, they have been trained and overcome the tempter daily and walk as Jesus walked. Jesus is their head and leader, He speaks to each one and through Him and obedience to His Holy Spirit the members are in complete unity, because they are taught by the same perfect teacher. They own no building, property, nor do they charge for ministry, services or good works. Many are deceived into believing that the organized churches of this world are pleasing to Jesus, they feel because they like their church Jesus must like it too. Because they feel good and accepted they believe it must be the church of Jesus. Dear friends, God is good to the just and the unjust, we can not measure based on signs, wonders, preaching that convicts and even encouraging messages. It all comes down to fruit. An assembly that is full of sinning people is an assembly of sinners, if those sinners profess Jesus and lift up their traditions as important while still disobeying Jesus, this assembly is also an assembly of hypocrites. If this assembly talks about repentance, talks about being righteous but people are still sinning, this assembly is in even worse trouble than the others because they know the truth and are not doing it. Dear friends take this serious, if you are in a church partaking of their hypocrisy and you yourself are still sinning, its time to got to Jesus for the truth, do not die in your sins thinking you were going to heaven only to hear "Depart from me you who works lawlessness". Do not continue in their sins and condone it, go to Jesus do what He tells you to do, even if your church folks hate you for it. For all the prophets of old, including Jesus were hated because they were the few who held to God's standard and spoke up in the midst of their own people and were killed for it, Jesus said the same would happen with us (today in Europe and America Christians kill with words and mind games)... How can this testimony that Jesus had and said His followers will have be true of you, if you are doing and in fellowship with the same religious sinners and hypocrites who reject God and His Words?
Peter identified that many religious leaders will teach people and make merchandise of them. This is exactly what is happening today. Churches of today collect money, time and labour from people while never teaching them how to go to Jesus to learn from Him, to overcome and to walk in their God given purpose. If they did they would be Spirit led and lose control over people and lose a lot of the worldly ambitions and operations they now glorify and worship. There would be no choir, praise team, concerts, bands, banquets for friends and other believers, plays, pulpits, pews, fund raising nor income. So they do not promote anyone to depend on Jesus alone, they preach it but teach people to depend on the church and people call this depending on Jesus, they preach two or more Gospels, the gospel of the cross which is true, then the gospel of the church building and denomination that leaves the people building the pyramid of these churches for the pharaoh pastors. Some churches preach truths, while teaching lies about the truths they preach and then in hypocrisy correct people regarding those truths based on tradition. Many "good" churches are "good" because of apparent gifts and preaching that is from God, but because the leaders still sin, they never teach people how to really overcome, so even these churches are full of people who are dead in their sins but full of religious energy and zeal. Many never heed the call of Jesus in their hearts and die in their sins because they are trapped in these very seductive religions of Christianity who have lied to them. Many Christians are servants of their church and denominations and hold the testimony of a religious spirit. Few are the slaves of Jesus and hold the testimony of Jesus that has come from Gods mouth that destroys sin. The religious lie and say its about the relationship with Jesus, yet they cannot honestly say Jesus has set them free completely from sin, trained them personally and they follow and obey Him and no longer sin, as John testified our testimony should be. They lie because their relationship is with their church and the people in the church, not with Jesus as they claim.
Be part of the church of the righteous who belong to Jesus. This is the only Church Jesus is coming back for, they have no name, they are organized by city, for they are a Holy Nation, they are known by their TESTIMONY and it is proved by their fruit. Jesus is the door to His church, you enter through repentance and you abide in Him through following and obeying Him alone. If you are a true follower of Jesus, then you follow Jesus, if you follow Jesus you stop sinning and start getting hated by others especially other believers because of the witness you hold of Jesus (witnesses see something, its not theory or theology). Beware of the church of the dead who revere Jesus themed things but is drunk of the cup of hypocrisy, stuffed full of the leaven of the Pharisee.
John 8:31-32: If you obey Jesus Words then you will know the truth.
John 7:17-18: If you choose to do the will of God you will know the truth about doctrine even Jesus’ Words.
John 18:37: Those that are of the truth hear Jesus voice.
A lot of Christians battle with knowing the truth about very basic things, the truth about themselves, situations and most of all God’s will and what He is saying to them. The reason for this is because they are still listening to their tempters who have authority in their lives. People have not repented and still have fellowship with the enemy who lies to them. They then live in much confusion, doubts, and fears and so on. Many mask their confusion with hypocrisy through religious works and practises and guarding the religious knowledge they have studied and favoured through pride. These people start trusting in people who seem religious in hopes God will use them, completely blind to when and how the enemy uses them and become victim of further confusion.
To know the Truth it starts with obeying Jesus. We cannot even totally know the truth about Jesus’ doctrine unless we actually will to carry out God’s desire. Through obedience we break our relationship with the lying enemy, we see the results of obeying Jesus, and we experience the testimonies in the Bible and are walking in the Word of God, making us one with Him. From here it is about maintaining. Most Christians obey religious leaders and traditions but do not obey Jesus, so they continue in sin listening to the tempter who is a liar, who comes to steal, kill and destroy. Then these continue in darkness and confusion, they believe their own religious works and acts which make them a victim of self-deception and their own hypocrisy. In this foundation of confusion (Babylon) is where everything else is built. People continue battling and struggling thinking this is how it is suppose to be, not realising disobedience (sin), has blinded them and left them wandering the wilderness. In most cases they have submitted to blind leaders who are also in disobedience wandering in the same wilderness. Repent and obey Jesus come to know the truth and be made free.
Testing Spirits
Matthew 24:4-5: Jesus warned false christs will arise and deceive many.
Matthew 24:11, 24-26: Jesus warned false prophets and false christs will arise and do great signs and wanders and deceive many.
John 15:26 ,16:7-8: The Holy Spirit witnesses of the work of Jesus, reproving the world of sin, righteousness and judgement.
Many test spirits and try and test if they are hearing from God by asking for confirmation or repetition which is basically asking for signs. Jesus rebuked the generations that seek after signs and warned us that false prophets and christs will come with great signs and wanders. So with this understanding we should not to continue to test spirits with confirmations.
The Holy Spirit is the only one who testifies of Jesus, meaning He testifies of Jesus cause, purpose and work. This is done through proving the world wrong concerning sin, righteousness and judgement. When John was speaking to the newer converts of his day he gave them one example on how to test spirits through the testimony of reprove against sin, by telling them to ask if Jesus has come in the flesh. This is a testimony regarding the reprove of sin, because Jesus appearing in the flesh was to destroy sin which is the enemies work (1 John 3:8). We should be testing spirits based on the testimony, the witness of the Holy Spirit, not based on our own confirmations, standards and our own witness of Christianity and doctrines such as repetition and any other sign. Many test with confirmations and become deceived, test according to the testimony of the Holy Spirit.
Testing People
Matthew 7:13-23: Jesus warns us and tell us we can identify false prophets by their fruit. What they do, they continue sinning.
2 Peter 2:1: Peter warned us just as there were false prophets there will be false teachers among us, thus the false are tested the same way, by their fruit.
1 John 2:3-6: John stated anyone who says they know Jesus, but does not obey Him is a liar.
When it comes to testing people in this covenant it is very simple. Anyone who is sinning, who does not hold the testimony of victory in Jesus name yet they are teaching, prophesying, pastoring and so forth they are false. We were told by Jesus we know them by their fruits and He will say to many who say LORD, LORD and show their resume of spiritual giftings: depart from me you workers of lawlessness. There are few who find the narrow road, which means there are few who will speak and teach of it in purity. Those who continue sinning are lawless, they do not know Jesus, are not trained by Him, they do not have His laws written in their heart, thus they cannot teach others the teachings of Jesus, nor how to go to Jesus to overcome. Beware of them do not eat their food.
Do not follow people, especially those who testify they continue to sin and make excuses for sin. If a brother or sister stumbles in sin but repents seeking Jesus for the Grace to overcome and testify they have learned and apply what they have learned, they are not false but learning and growing in Grace. Encourage them to return to the LORD for the Grace they know is waiting on them. We are to grow in grace and eventually come to a place were we stop sinning, even to a place where we follow the Holy Spirit diligently and not even make mistakes. What matters is our hearts being in position to learn, obey, overcome and follow the LORD to maintain. This is sadly not the heart attitude of most Christians, though many agree with their lips when they hear it, by their life and testimony you know they are not practising it. Beware of those who continue sinning and have no fresh testimonies of victories especially concerning daily or weekly temptations. Beware of those who have no testimonies on learning from Jesus when they mess up and do not eventually have corresponding testimonies of victories due to the things they have learned from Jesus. Beware of those who continue sinning over and over and make excuses or justify their short comings, even if it's "optimistic". If this is you, then its time to repent and seek Jesus to get the testimony of victory.
You yourself, seek the LORD, hear His voice obey His instructions. He will lead you into fellowship with others who obey Him, for He is the door to His sheep (John 10:9). Beware of following after religious men who continue to sin, Jesus warned that if the blind leads the blind both will fall in a ditch (Matthew 15:12-14). Those who are gifted by Jesus, who are gifted pastors and teachers and so forth, will teach you to be trained by Jesus. They speak of the food Jesus has given them, how they learned from Him and teach you to do the same. Those who follow Jesus are used by Jesus to lead you to Jesus, so you will follow Jesus, not man, doctrine, church denomination, traditions nor ministry. Test the fruits, ask them, out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. If their testimony speaks of their defeat when it comes to sin (meaning they still fall or are stuck), even consistent slip ups (mistakes), if they are repenting everyday of the same sins or "mistakes", then they need to come to know Jesus and/or be trained by Him. Do not follow them, for they are not following Jesus. Seek Jesus for yourself. Pray for them and if the LORD leads, when your obedience is complete, when the beam is taken out your eye (Matthew 7:1-5) go back and testify of what the LORD has done in you.
False Christians
Matthew 7:15-23: You know them by their fruit. Gifted Christians can still not know Jesus and Jesus not know them.
2 Corinthians 11:3-15: Paul warned of false teacher and so forth as well as false angels of light.
Matthew 24:11, 24, Matthew 7:14: Jesus warned about many false prophets and false Christs, versus the few who even find the narrow way.
2 Peter 2:1-3: Peter exposes the nature of false teachers, they do not lead people to salvation but further destruction. People do not overcome and are made merchandise of.
2 Timothy 3:3-7: Having a form of godliness and denying the power (they do not overcome), ever learning but never coming to the knowledge of Truth… knowing the Truth sets us free.
Most Christians are deceived and on their way to hell. Ask a Christian if their religious leader still sins, they will tell you yes. So how can they learn how to stop sinning if their leader and teacher still sins? Jesus, Paul and Peter warned us of false teachers (as well as pastors), prophets, apostles and evangelists. Jesus told us we can identify them by what they do. Anyone trained by Him stops sinning and leads others directly to Him to receive the same testimony. Therefore a pastor who still sins, even if they preach well is considered false. The reason why is they cannot lead people to utter perfection because they themselves do not know the way of perfection, they are not walking with Jesus in obedience, even though they can talk about truth because they studied things about truth. Jesus warned us many false prophets will arise and deceive many. He told us few find the narrow way let alone walk on it. Anyone who continues to sin has not seen or known Jesus Christ, so how can they feed the sheep? What are they feeding them?
Paul warned that these will have a form of godliness but deny the power. How is this? They have a form of godliness because they study and revere religious things, they look good on the outside like sheep as Jesus said. However on the inside they do not know Jesus, they deny the power because they continue to follow their tempters and sin against God, some teach people they cannot stop sinning, thus they kill assemblies of people with false teachings that lead to destruction. Others are ever studying the scriptures, but they do not come to the knowledge of truth, because they do not obey Jesus. They obey the traditions but never the Word of God who speaks to them. Then they teach others to do the same. Some preach the truths they study and even tell people to repent, but in the same breath admit they still sin and even worse, contradict the repentance preaching by saying we cannot stop sinning and cannot be perfect. Then there are those who know we are to be perfect and say they are striving for it, but they do not believe we can receive it in this life... so why are you striving for something you do not believe you can receive? Or they believe we can receive it but it's a life long process, so what happens if we die tomorrow? Only the morally perfect (righteous and holy) receive the perfection of the resurrection and glory. Hypocrisy means to act, many Christians are fake and actors believing they are real. Some act very well because of knowing about the truth and agreeing with scriptures, but by their life they do not obey Jesus and technically do not believe the truth about the scriptures, they believe and teach their own understanding about the scriptures. The ones who speak about the truth: they talk about truths (the act), but teach their corrupt understanding about the truth, which denies the power to live completely sin free.
Beware of this generations Christianity and Christians, if your testimony is the same as the many Christians you are on the broad path to destruction. Few find the narrow way to life. The narrow way is paved with righteousness, set-apartness and truth, those who walk on it cease from sin and live according to the Fathers desire.
Church of the Dead
Psalms 1:5: Sinners do not stand in the church of the righteous. There is no sin in Jesus' church.
Proverbs 21:16: Those to stray from understanding remain in the church of the dead. if you are sinning you are part of the church of the dead.
John 10:9: Jesus is the door to His church, you find Jesus' church through obeying Him, not by going down the road.
Hebrews 10:25-26, Matthew 18:20: We are not to forsake assembling, but we are not to assemble in hypocrisy but in Jesus name and assembling can be 2 or 3 anywhere.
1 John 1:1-5: We can not have fellowship with one another in Jesus if we are not obeying Him. Many are in fellowship in hypocrisy not in truth.
The church of the dead are assemblies who are full of sin and hypocrisy. A dead assembly can still preach about the truth, have signs and wanders, but if they are still lead by a sinning leader and full of members who continue to sin, they are dead. The true church of Jesus is scattered around the world, the members of His church are all trained by Him, obey Him and live their lives devoted to the will of the Father. They have put aside their own ambitions, desires, dreams and goals, they have been trained and overcome the tempter daily and walk as Jesus walked. Jesus is their head and leader, He speaks to each one and through Him and obedience to His Holy Spirit the members are in complete unity, because they are taught by the same perfect teacher. They own no building, property, nor do they charge for ministry, services or good works. Many are deceived into believing that the organized churches of this world are pleasing to Jesus, they feel because they like their church Jesus must like it too. Because they feel good and accepted they believe it must be the church of Jesus. Dear friends, God is good to the just and the unjust, we can not measure based on signs, wonders, preaching that convicts and even encouraging messages. It all comes down to fruit. An assembly that is full of sinning people is an assembly of sinners, if those sinners profess Jesus and lift up their traditions as important while still disobeying Jesus, this assembly is also an assembly of hypocrites. If this assembly talks about repentance, talks about being righteous but people are still sinning, this assembly is in even worse trouble than the others because they know the truth and are not doing it. Dear friends take this serious, if you are in a church partaking of their hypocrisy and you yourself are still sinning, its time to got to Jesus for the truth, do not die in your sins thinking you were going to heaven only to hear "Depart from me you who works lawlessness". Do not continue in their sins and condone it, go to Jesus do what He tells you to do, even if your church folks hate you for it. For all the prophets of old, including Jesus were hated because they were the few who held to God's standard and spoke up in the midst of their own people and were killed for it, Jesus said the same would happen with us (today in Europe and America Christians kill with words and mind games)... How can this testimony that Jesus had and said His followers will have be true of you, if you are doing and in fellowship with the same religious sinners and hypocrites who reject God and His Words?
Peter identified that many religious leaders will teach people and make merchandise of them. This is exactly what is happening today. Churches of today collect money, time and labour from people while never teaching them how to go to Jesus to learn from Him, to overcome and to walk in their God given purpose. If they did they would be Spirit led and lose control over people and lose a lot of the worldly ambitions and operations they now glorify and worship. There would be no choir, praise team, concerts, bands, banquets for friends and other believers, plays, pulpits, pews, fund raising nor income. So they do not promote anyone to depend on Jesus alone, they preach it but teach people to depend on the church and people call this depending on Jesus, they preach two or more Gospels, the gospel of the cross which is true, then the gospel of the church building and denomination that leaves the people building the pyramid of these churches for the pharaoh pastors. Some churches preach truths, while teaching lies about the truths they preach and then in hypocrisy correct people regarding those truths based on tradition. Many "good" churches are "good" because of apparent gifts and preaching that is from God, but because the leaders still sin, they never teach people how to really overcome, so even these churches are full of people who are dead in their sins but full of religious energy and zeal. Many never heed the call of Jesus in their hearts and die in their sins because they are trapped in these very seductive religions of Christianity who have lied to them. Many Christians are servants of their church and denominations and hold the testimony of a religious spirit. Few are the slaves of Jesus and hold the testimony of Jesus that has come from Gods mouth that destroys sin. The religious lie and say its about the relationship with Jesus, yet they cannot honestly say Jesus has set them free completely from sin, trained them personally and they follow and obey Him and no longer sin, as John testified our testimony should be. They lie because their relationship is with their church and the people in the church, not with Jesus as they claim.
Be part of the church of the righteous who belong to Jesus. This is the only Church Jesus is coming back for, they have no name, they are organized by city, for they are a Holy Nation, they are known by their TESTIMONY and it is proved by their fruit. Jesus is the door to His church, you enter through repentance and you abide in Him through following and obeying Him alone. If you are a true follower of Jesus, then you follow Jesus, if you follow Jesus you stop sinning and start getting hated by others especially other believers because of the witness you hold of Jesus (witnesses see something, its not theory or theology). Beware of the church of the dead who revere Jesus themed things but is drunk of the cup of hypocrisy, stuffed full of the leaven of the Pharisee.