Wednesday | 03 June 2026

Despising Christ

Every son of God must cease from despising the chastening of the Lord by taking Christ’s yoke upon them to learn from Him. In this regard, Jesus directed His followers, saying, ‘Come to Me, all you who labour and are heavy laden [or depressed on account of carnality], and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.’ Mat 11:28‑30.

Christ did not despise others, nor Himself. Rather, He was Himself despised. Establishing this point, the prophet Isaiah declared, ‘He is despised and rejected by men, a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.’ Isa 53:3.

We hide our faces from Christ, and therefore despise Him through the presumption that belongs to being a zealot. A zealot is a person who covets the Law and the life that is promised to those who keep the Law. Our zealotry is revealed by our use of the Law to judge ourselves and to judge others. We find definition and self‑validation through these judgements. In so doing, we reject the light of the knowledge of our sanctification that shines from the face of Christ.

Paul was clear that exercising these judgements brings us under the condemnation of the Law. Rom 2:1. As we have just considered, hiding our faces from Christ through our judgements of ourselves, and others, demonstrates that we despise Him. Significantly, Paul explained that, by despising Christ, we also ‘despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads to repentance’. Rom 2:4. We forego the gift of repentance that Christ finished for us, and desires to give to us, in the fellowship of His offering and sufferings.