1 John 3:1 – See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God; and such we are. For this reason the world does not know us, because it did not know Him.

Have you ever been in a foreign country, a different culture a different language; it can be quite intimidating. I remember the first time Parris and I went to South Korea for a conference, we were very young and knew absolutely no one. Thankfully after a few days we met other people at the conference and were able to settle in to a great experience; it just didn’t start out like that. If my memory serves me right it was an unusually rainy week with flooding in parts of Seoul. Before the conference started I think we had a couple of days where we wandered in underground shopping areas that went on for miles. It was easy to get lost and not understanding a word it was quite intimidating because we knew no one and no one knew us.
Reading this verse today reminded me of this, without our Christian community we are strangers in a strange land. No one in the world’s culture really “knows” you, at least not the new you. Our fellowship in this life is with the Holy Spirit and with others of like and precious faith. Don’t be surprised if you don’t fit in, you shouldn’t. Here is what the Believer’s Bible Commentary says about this verse.

“Now as we walk about from day to day, the world does not recognize us as children of God. The people of the world do not understand us nor the way we behave. Indeed, the world did not understand the Lord Jesus when He was here on earth. “He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him.” Since we have the same characteristics as the Lord Jesus, we cannot expect the world to understand us, either.”

So consider it a compliment if you don’t fit in, get those odd looks or even sometimes face out and out ridicule, its only because you are becoming like Jesus. The world is run by a different spirit, the spirit of antichrist, which is becoming more blatant as time goes on. The Lord will return soon, until then rejoice because the Spirit of the Lord is in you and on you no matter what the lost people do or say.