Luke 17:17, “And Jesus answering said, Were there not ten cleansed? but where are the nine?”
Ten people had leprosy and Jesus healed them all. Only one came back to
glorify God by thanking Jesus. The Lord's feelings were hurt that the other
nine didn't show any appreciation.
A faithful Christian who walks with the Lord will care, because God cares. A sign of a faithful Christian is a believer who cares. Such a believers cares about sharing the gospel. They care about helping the poor and needy. They care about morality. They care about the way people treat other people. They care, as Jesus cared. The Lord healed these lepers because He truly cared.
Jesus got His feelings hurt because they didn't care. The Lord has a big heart, full of unconditional love and easily hurt. The more that a person cares, the more easily their feelings are hurt. Part of being a good Christian is having your feelings hurt all the time. The reason is because whereas you have grown to care in the Lord, most people selfishly have not. Instead, many people are cold-hearted, calloused and mean.
Some people are hateful and mean, and will deliberately be mean and cruel to a believer who is kind, friendly and caring just to provoke them, hoping they'll get upset and then try to discredit that Christian's testimony. As a Christian believer becomes more like the Lord—full of compassion, generosity and concern, the hateful world will seem more hostile and cruel. This is why the Bible warns that a believer who lives godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution (2nd Timothy 3:12).
So if you are faithfully serving the Lord and
find yourself getting your feelings hurt all the time, be encouraged that
it's only because you are being conformed into the very image of Jesus
Christ (Romans 8:29). I've heard some preachers say that a dead man cannot
have his feelings hurt, so if you're dead in Christ, then you can't get your
feelings hurts. Those preachers are totally wrong! The Bible says that the
Lord Himself got His feelings hurt, wondering why only one out of ten people
that He helped returned to thank Him. The Lord even broke down in tears when
His friends and disciples doubted His ability to raise Lazarus from the dead
(John 11:35). They told Jesus that Lazarus wouldn't have died if He had been
there. That really hurt Jesus' feelings and moved Him to tears of sadness
for their doubting.
The Cruel And Heartless Sinful World
The Bible warns against following the path of unsaved, spiritually ignorant, people who are alienated from the life of God, WHO BEING PAST FEELING have chosen a life of greed, sexual immorality and all manner of filthy sin...
Ephesians 4:17-19, “This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind, Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart: Who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.”
We learn from the preceding Scriptural passage that a life of sin and lack of feelings are synonymous. This includes feelings toward others, feelings toward right or wrong, feelings toward the things of God, et cetera. A lack of feelings and indifference are brother and sister to each other. Is it any wonder why so many Americans don't have any feelings anymore against abortion, homosexuality and sin in general? Many people these days are cold, suspicious and unfriendly because of the wickedness of society, and it's only going to get worse.
The Bible evidences what I am teaching in Matthew 24:12, “And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.” Love for sin causes people not to care or feel anymore. The Greek word for “iniquity” means “unpunished evil.” This refers to all sinful agendas, including that of the abortionists, who've taken the lives of over 53,000,000 American lives and by all indications have gotten away with it. But the Bible warns that judgment day is coming in eternity (Hebrews 9:27). Ecclesiastes 14:13, “For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.” Jesus warned that this includes words spoken (Matthew 12:36). Proverbs 24:12 warns that everyone will be held accountable even for their thoughts and intents.
The hallmark quality trait of being a Christian who's right with God is CARING about everything. I CARE, and I want you to care as well. God cares according to 1st Peter 5:7 and Philippians 4:6-7. The farther that the pendulum swings one way, the farther that it swings the other way. So the more you care, the more you are going to feel the coldness of others who don't care. We are supposed to care as Christians, even when others don't, because the Lord cares and He will reward us in spite of what others do.
The wicked world is cruel and it is not
surprising that heathens act the way they do. 2nd Timothy 3:1-7 foretold of
woeful wickedness in the last days, when people will be selfish,
self-centered, self-righteous and full of evil. And so it is today in the
end of 2012.
How To Cope With Hurt Feelings—Overcome Evil With Good
I try to respond with an act of kindness when someone is unkind. For example, if a waitress is mean, I'll leave a big tip and a gospel tract. Unfortunately, there are many times when there is nothing I can do, and so I have to leave it in the Lord's hands for judgment. Sometimes people are going to deliberately be cruel, mean or unkind to you. Some people will cheat you, which has become commonplace in America today. Thieves, liars and crooks abound in American society today (especially in our government). Others will take advantage of you unfairly. Oftentimes there will be absolutely nothing you can do legally nor ethically, except to let it go into God's hands. This is the way of the sinful world (Galatians 5:19-21). The Bible teaches to overcome evil with good in Romans 12:21, “Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.”
When someone hurts me and there's nothing I can do about it, I lose myself in helping another person, glorifying God with my life. That is how to live with a broken-heart. Take every stumbling-stone and turn it into a stepping-stone to help others in Jesus' precious name. Always share the gospel with the people that you're helping... ALWAYS!!! Charity means nothing if it's not done in Jesus' name to reach souls for Christ with the gospel.
The banking cartel are stealing American's homes and there's nothing we can do. Our leaders don't care anymore, nor do they represent the best interests of the citizens. There's little we can do. As long as our Christian leaders are in bed together with the government through 501c3 business licensing of churches, we don't stand a chance. The shameful U.S. presidential election of 2012 clearly demonstrated the apostasy across America, when most churches (even Independent Fundamental Baptists) all rallied behind Mormon sex-cult leader Mitt Romney as the lesser of two evils. It was appalling, sickening and a disgrace upon our nation's churches. It evidenced that Christians in the United States are easily manipulated into voting for the most evil, hideous and demonic of candidates, simply by choosing a pro-abortion liberal as their opponent.
Until Bible-believing Christians start caring enough to think for themselves, and stop listening to the programming of the lying liberal newsmedia, we are doomed as a nation. Part of turning from our wicked ways in 2nd Chronicles 7:14 is to awake from our spiritual slumber and start calling a spade a spade, and a liberal a liberal, and a devil a devil, and same-sex marriage a sin, and abortion murder, and the Federal Reserve System a fraud, and Mr. Obama a liar of liars and open borders treason. It's time to wake up to righteousness my friend!
And if that's not enough Biblical evidence to convince you that Jesus got His feelings hurt, please read Hebrews 4:15-16...
Hebrews 4:15-16, “For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.”
The Lord understands our FEELINGS, having been through the same temptations, afflictions and hardships of life that we endure day-by-day. Yet, the Bible teaches that Christ never sinned, not even in thought, not even once!
Don't you think Jesus got His feelings hurt when the Pharisees spread lies that he was an illegitimate child born out of fornication (John 8:41)? Of course the Lord was deeply hurt! Jesus lived with a broken heart over the unbelief in Jerusalem, weeping over that wicked city in Luke 19:41.
Jesus always went about, overcoming evil with
good. After all the hatred, evil deeds and slanderous words hurled against
Him, Romans 5:8 says that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us.
Jesus could have abandoned that cross and left us to rot in the fires of
Hell, but the Lord chose with the joy set before Him to endure the cross and
die for our many sins. All men are horrible sinners, I don't care who you
are. There is no sinner as rotten as the man who thinks another person to be
more sinful than he, for self-righteousness saturates that man's arrogant
soul, blinding him to the woeful and wretched condition of his own being in
God's eyes. Our ONLY righteousness is the imputed righteousness of the Lord
Jesus Christ, which comes only by way of faith in the death, burial and
miraculous resurrection of our Lord from the dead.
Part Of Being A Faithful Christian Means Having Our Feelings Hurt
One of the hardest things to do as a Christian sometimes is to love the loveless, give to the selfish and care for the uncaring. When we go out of our way to be nice, generous and kind to someone, and then they are mean, unresponsive or unkind in return, it's easy sometimes to forget that Christianity is often a one-way street. It is totally reasonable that unsaved, worldly and carnally-minded people would not be able to return the unconditional love, uncommon generosity and genuine concern that we give to them in Jesus' precious name.
The world doesn't think we're sincere. Instead they are suspicious, wondering what our true intentions are, discrediting us at the first opportunity. Like Satan, they only have darkness in them, so their understanding is darkened and they can only think in carnal, worldly and selfish terms. As Christians we have the light of Christ in us, the hope of glory. Unlike the Devil and unsaved people who can only reflect the light, superficially mimicking Christian qualities; we as born-again Christians actually have Christ, the light, living within us as the Holy Spirit (1st Corinthians 3:16-17; Romans 8:9).
Christians are the light of the world (Matthew 5:14), because we have Christ, Who is the true light (John 8:12) living within us. Isaiah 9:2, “The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined.” John 1:4-5, “In him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.”
