READ: Jn. 15:18–27: If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you … He who hates Me hates My Father also … They hated Me without a cause … the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of Me …
Precisely when the disciples answer Jesus’ love with love for Him and one another, they meet the world’s hatred. Jesus points to two causes. First, the disciples are not of the world; they do not adapt themselves to unbelief. Included in “the world” is the greater part of unbelieving Israel.
The second cause, connected to the first, is that the world hates Jesus. Hatred is a deep aversion toward Him. Ultimately, this hatred leads to His crucifixion. Because Jesus chose His disciples as His beloved ones, the world also hates them. Matters would be very different if they joined the world.
This requires a choice to follow their calling and suffer shame for Christ’s sake. Their position as Christ’s servants means that how people treat Christ determines how they treat them.
Since the world does not know God the Father, who sent Jesus, and since they rejected His words and miracles, they are fully guilty. Their stance toward Jesus is also their stance toward the Father, for the Father and the Son are one; they hate the Father as well.
But the hatred of humanity towards God, Christ, and His disciples is not a failure of God’s rule. It fulfills God’s counsel. God wants to reach the crucifixion of His Son through this unjust hatred—hatred without cause (v.25; cf. Ps. 35:19; 69:5). Even now believers must endure the world’s hatred. The disciples and we have the comfort that the Holy Spirit will strengthen us to continue to testify of Christ in a hostile world full of hatred and violence (v.26).
Do you know a form of suffering for Christ’s sake?
Sing: Hymn 41:1,4 (1984) / 53:1,4 (2014)