“You have wasted enough time doing what unbelievers desire—living in their unrestrained immorality and lust, their drunkenness and excessive feasting and wild parties, and their forbidden worship of idols. They think it’s strange that you don’t join in these activities with the same flood of unrestrained wickedness. So they slander you.” I Peter 4:3-4 CEB
On Lauryn Hill’s iconic album The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, there’s a profound lyric in the song “Superstar.” It says “They’ll hail you, then nail you. No matter who you are.” It’s such a true statement, as often times in life the people who praise and support you one day will be the same people who criticize and oppose you the next. While that can be bad from a worldly view, it’s actually good from a Biblical view.
In the scriptures above, Peter encourages true believers who are facing slander from nonbelievers. In fact, the whole letter is written as an encouragement to those who don’t fit in anymore. He even opens by addressing them as strangers in their home lands (I Peter 1:1). As Jesus taught, when we are born again, we shouldn’t still look like the world. We shouldn’t continue to practice sin. As a result, those who used to love us hate us.
If the world loves you after you’ve been saved, it means they still view you as one of their own. If the world hates you, it means you no longer belong to them (John 15:19).
So let the world nail you now because you don’t do those sinful things anymore. It’s just further evidence of your growth in God. And if they still hail you, pray that God reveals whatever may still persists in your life that isn’t pleasing to Him.