dealing with haters

You may be the most godly person in the world but it won't matter to some folks, somebody will find an excuse to hate you. Hate is a spirit that originates from the devil, he is a master at selling his hatred for you to other people. The devil has no problem finding people who will do his dirty work.
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John 15:18 If the world hate you, you know that it hated me before it hated you.

Jesus is to blame for all this hatred and what did He do to incur all this hatred? He spoke the truth in love! You could rob a bank or even kill a certain man and you would not attract the hatred that the righteous must deal with. The devil emulates everything he sees God do but because of his nature everything he does is the opposite of what God does. People are ignorant of the works of the devil, they are in lock step with him and they call it good. The devil convinced the very people Jesus healed to cry out for His crucifixion. As they drove those nails into Jesus' hands and feet, He said this: Father, forgive them they know not what they do. All the people who called for His death were agents of the devil and did not know it.

John 17:14 I have given them You Word; and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.

When you believe and accept the Word of God you become different and the world hates people who are different than them. If we are not careful, we will fall into the snare of the devil and begin to hate people who don't believe in God like we do. The first thing a hater wants is for the subject of their scorn to defend themselves and begin a fruitless argument. Jesus had to deal with haters all the time and they were His own people. No matter what He said, it would not register with them. He could not reason with a hater and we can't either. They are not interested in any kind of dialogue, they have one objective and that is to hate.

Romans 12:21 Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.

Haters want to pull you down to their level and make you a permanent enemy, someone to fight with for no reason. They have a real problem when they can't provoke you to fight with them. When a man is a dedicated hater, not even Jesus could say anything to change them. He loved them and healed them because they were agents of the devil and didn't even know it. The truth means nothing to the devil, he is the father of lies and he believes his lies are the truth. It is impossible to reason with a liar, they would first have to admit they are wrong. Acts of love are strange occurrences for a hater, they don't know how to deal with it nor do they understand it.

Mathew 5:44 ...do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which lie about you and persecute you.

Haters expect a backlash from everyone they persecute, they don't know how to deal with someone they can't rile up. Haters only know how to hate because they are the agents of their father the devil. They have not been trained on how to respond to kindness. Jesus tells us to pray for them, pray what? Pray for their salvation and their deliverance from the devil, they do not know they are serving the devil. Prayer has converted a lot of haters, I know because I was one. Love is a very difficult force to contend with, it is a stronger spirit than the spirit of hate. Don't pray for their demise, it is God's responsibility to avenge His elect and He decides when.