Religion vs. the World

I was thinking through the life of Jesus at the times when He was “persecuted”; as in, abused, rejected, scorned, lied against, cast out, killed. It wasn’t by the worldly, sinning, smoking, fornicating, stealing, politicking individuals — it was by the leaders of the organised-body-of-religion-of-His-time. The “sinners” embraced Him, the self-righteous persecuted Him.

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As believers, we talk a lot about how the world is persecuting us for doing right. We also have this fear/avoidance of “sinners” because we say they reject the truth. But when the Truth walked on earth, it was the actual sinnerest sinners who embraced Him. It certainly doesn’t seem like it was the “world” that persecuted Jesus and the disciples 🤔
Unless the definition of “world” has now been taken out of context?
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When the religious bodies operate with the standards of the powers of the world and not the standards of Love in Christ, they become the “world”.
And when Christians condemn rather than love, they become the world as well.
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The question is, if sinners loved Jesus, and the self-righteous were the ones who hated Him, how can we apply that to our experience of “persecution” as Christians today?🤔
When you think about times that you felt persecuted, where did it come from? Who is persecuting who?

Please share your (non-legalistic) thoughts!😅