TEXT: John 15:18-16:4a

SUBJECT: Exposition of John #38: The World's Hate

The people of God must live in brotherly love. This is not an option, but the certain will of Christ--"These things I command you, that you love one another". We're to love each other for various reasons. It reflects the glory of God, for example. It also presents a powerful witness to the world. These are worth thinking about. Long and hard. But neither is in the text before us. In these verses, our Lord gives a third reason for brotherly love. What is it? In short: We need each other.

Why do believers need each other? Because we are unwelcome in this world. Just as persecuted minorities tend to stick together, believers in Christ must live in mutual love. Ben Franklin spoke to the Continental Congress: "Gentlemen, we will either hang together, or we will hang separately". He was right. The survival of the American Republic depended on the unity of its people. The same is true of the Kingdom of Christ.

Brothers and Sisters: We need to love each other. Because if we don't, nobody else will!

The warning, vv.18-25.

The world must hate the disciples of Christ. By "the world", I mean people not renewed by God's grace. By "hate", I mean just that--a personal animosity. By "disciples of Christ", I don't mean nominal or lukewarm believers, but people who "abide in Christ"--who meditate on His Word, who keep His commands, and who live in His love. Such people are--without exception--hated by the world.

This hate works its way out in various ways. It may be severe and obvious: "Mockings, scourgings, chains, imprisonments, being stoned, sawn in two, slain with the sword, exiled to deserts, caves, dens of the earth".

It may be more subtle. You may be excluded, backbitten, laughed at, or just not taken seriously. These things are often taken as light crosses compared to the heavier ones some have had to bear. I'm not so sure of that. There is a certain romance to martyrdom; a heroism in suffering for conscience sake. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Alexander Solzhenitsyn and Nelson Mandela are revered for it. But to be the butt of a joke? Nothing noble about that. But however it comes out, hate is at the bottom of it all.

The disciples of Christ are hated by the world and must be.

Why? Our Lord give three reasons:

In the first place, the world is xenophobic--it fears and hates things foreign. Some people feel this way about immigrants. If they speak with an accent, they're not welcome.

If they wear turbans--get 'em outta here! But have you ever thought about it? Believers are the ultimate immigrants! "Our citizenship is in heaven" Paul says. As is our origin, our way of life, and our destiny!

The world is nativist and Nazi! It abhors everything not "of its own". And nothing is less "of its own" than the disciples of Jesus Christ.

Like Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, we are "strangers and pilgrims", vagabonds and gypsies--and not welcome!

In the second place, the world hates Jesus Christ. The Lord's people are not crankier than others; we're not less polite or harder to get along with. No, we offend the world because we're in fellowship with Jesus Christ. What did the world do to Him?

Where do we start? He said, "They hated Me without a cause"--cf.v.25 and "persecuted Me"--cf.v.20. He was ignored, defamed, charged with insanity, and thought to have a devil. Then they got nasty! They flayed His back and punched His face, crowned Him with thorns and enthroned Him on a cross.

Insofar as we imitate our Lord, we must except similar treatment from the world. The Early Church didn't think otherwise! Paul was flogged; Peter was crucified. The disciples didn't take it personally! They "rejoiced at being counted worthy to suffer shame for His Name's sake".

The world has a serious problem with Jesus Christ. Is He misunderstood? If He were, He would have cleared up the confusion long ago. No, the world does not misunderstand Christ; it hates Him. His coming exposed the sins of the world and provoked its rage. The people preferred a vicious killer to the Son of God!

The fury was not relieved at the cross. Years later a man of great dignity must "breathe out slaughter against the disciples of the Lord". Need I recall the Roman Persecutions? The Spanish Inquisition? The burning of Anabaptists? The Gulags? Foxe's Book of Martyr's, Martyr's Mirror, By Their Blood, and many other books detail the millions who have been slain for the testimony of Christ. And they haven't scratched the surface.

Because the world is opposed to Jesus Christ, it must oppose His followers. Thus, "Friendship with the world is enmity with God". Here's why: its approval depends on your disloyalty to Christ. It can be had in no other way.

In the third place, the world hates God. "He who hates Me hates My Father also", v.23. The men who first heard these words would--for the most part--spend their whole lives laboring in Judea--the capital of monotheism. The Jews abhorred idols and claimed to fear and love and serve the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. But by persecuting the Early Church, they proved to be false men--hating believers because they hated Christ because they hated God. No way of getting around it.

John has addressed this theme often in His Gospel. Thus, I won't labor it here. But perhaps one aside may be helpful. Your love for God is no greater than your love for Christ. And your love for Christ is no greater than your love for His people--real, living and breathing people. "How can a man love God whom he has not seen, if he does not love his brother whom he has seen?"

The Witness of the Spirit and the Church, v.26-16:3.

These words must have shocked the Apostles. And dismayed them too. But maybe there's a loophole: If the Lord Jesus is taken away, the world might temper its hate. That sounds reasonable. But it just ain't so. For when our Lord quits this world via the cross, He's going to send the Holy Spirit to continue His work. The Spirit will "testify of [Him]"--I think by miracles, cf. Hebrews 2:4. But He won't be working alone; the disciples will also "bear witness". And this "witness" will get them into all kinds of trouble. Our Lord mentions two examples:

"They will put you out of synagogues". These services were a bit less formal than ours. Any man could speak up for God and open up topics for discussion. The early preachers did just that. "They showed by the Scriptures that Jesus was the Christ". And in every case--but one--they were tossed out on their ears! This hurt the believing Jew--hurt him badly. He loved the synagogue; he loved the reading of God's Word; he loved the prayers; he loved the fellowship; he loved the holy conversations. But he was no longer welcome! Till he renounced Jesus Christ. Which he could never do.

The same happens today--in churches. Good men, who aren't looking for a fight, are given the cold shoulder or told to leave if they make our Lord number one. This is a cross the Apostles bore. And, if God calls us to take it up, we must bear it too.

At the other extreme, "the time is coming that whoever kills you will think he does God a service". Exclusion may be the "Beginning of sorrows" and not the end. Martyrdom awaited the first disciples. All of them, it seems, were killed for their faith. James was beheaded, Peter was crucified. Tradition has it that some were burned alive, others thrown to the lions, and so on.

Martyrdom may not be our lot. But who knows? It may be. In any event, we must expect suffering--suffering for Christ's sake. Why? The Lord repeats Himself: "These things they will do to you because they have not known the Father nor Me". The world disapproves of God and of Christ. Therefore, it must disapproves of us who are in "the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord".

Why He told us, vv.1,3.

Why did our Lord say these things to His people? He explains: "That you should not be made to stumble"--that is, so that we won't be caught off-guard. The believer who is shocked and let down by opposition hasn't read His Bible! It warns us so often and clearly that we can only miss the warning if we want to! Like the ostrich, we stick our heads in the sand. But that is no safe place to be. Be forewarned.

The second reason is the more important one, it seems to me. "But these things I have told you, that when the time comes, you may remember that I told you of them". The future is unknown to mere mortals. Did the future unfold just as our Lord told us it would? Read the Book of Acts, and you'll see that it did. Compare these words to your own life and you'll see the same. Well, how did He see things so clearly? Deuteronomy 29:29 explains: "Secret things belong to the LORD our God". Our Lord foresaw the future in precise detail because He is "The LORD our God" to Whom the "secret things belong".

The warning, therefore, is designed to encourage us in the hard days that lie ahead and to increase our faith in the one to Whom these hard days belong. May God do both. For Christ's sake. Amen.