If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you.
Christ told His followers that the world's hatred of them only repeats the hatred it first aimed at Him Himself. It hates them because they no longer belong to it but He has chosen them out of it, and because it does not know the Father who sent Him. It hates them because their obedience, purity and holy character expose and condemn its sin, selfishness and disobedience. He told them this beforehand so they would not stumble or think they were abandoned, but would know He and the Comforter are with them and limits what their enemies can do. They must therefore come out and be separate rather than seek its friendship or favor, standing loyal to truth at any cost.
Setting and Context
Jesus spoke these words alone with the eleven disciples in the upper chamber after Judas had left, when He was about to speak of His approaching separation from them and His death. He first directed their thoughts to the great object of His mission, His joy that all His humiliation and suffering would glorify the Father's name. These words spoken before His separation from them later stayed their hearts through disappointment and trial and brought comfort and hope to believers.
They belong to His words of comfort, counsel, encouragement, courage and prayer in John 14-16, spoken knowing the trials His church would face, including through unconverted believers. They were spoken shortly before His death near the end of His earthly ministry to strengthen believers and to strengthen disciples whose faith and courage would be severely tried so they could endure without failing, even while He knew the terrible ordeal awaiting Himself. The disciples repeated them to sustain themselves through disappointment and trial, though they fully understood them only after the resurrection. His teaching in John 14-17 was meant to prepare and strengthen them for the trials and temptations they would face after He left them, and to keep His love in mind in their work and counsels.
It is part of the lesson of the vine and its branches about vital connection to Christ and abiding in Him, showing how believers are connected to Christ and must abide in Him. The chapter contrasts true branches with a vital connection to the vine with spurious branches that lack that connection. It teaches the same principles as His words about the bread of life, that people receive spiritual life by coming to Christ and believing in Him rather than dwelling on others' faults. Its lessons about the true vine and the branches call for committing the soul to God, seeking the Holy Spirit to mold and fashion character after the divine similitude, and being a co-worker with Jesus Christ by obeying His words and practicing what He taught. That obedience means not closing the door of hope to a confessing, pleading erring one but opening the door and welcoming her to the fold, doing what Christ would do in the same place, and laboring to save her soul.
It belongs to God's plainly expressed will in regard to His people in John 13-17 and to the divine antidote for the sin of the whole world, belonging to Christ's great process by which believers are made one with Him in this present life to be one with Him throughout all eternity. God means just what He says in it, and it must be believed in every verse and lived out, especially by those who minister in word and doctrine and are acquainted with present truth, and lived out before fellow ministers. John 13-17 needs careful study and earnest practice by all who honor God and Jesus Christ whom He sent, for its duties were specified by the Substitute and Surety and cannot be lived in neglect. Doing them bears the divine credentials to the world that God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son so that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life (John 3:16). Understanding it belongs to the philosophy of genuine missionary work, and those who do not understand it need to be reconverted and to watch unto prayer, while its lesson in John 15 belongs to the choice between obedience to Christ and allegiance to the world and calls His followers to faithful Christian living amid severe conflicts.
It was given before Christ's separation from them to prepare the disciples for their future work, teaching that their ministry must depend on divine power joined with human effort. It sets forth the standard and privilege of oneness with Jesus Christ and oneness with God that Jesus was sent to make possible, where humanity grasps divinity and divinity lifts humanity. The influence of His Holy Spirit is resisted when people do not come up to this standard, but the human being can take hold of the divine nature and become a partaker of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. It shows that Christ is on the side of believers and they are to be on His side, working with Him to the best of their ability to overcome the temptations of the enemy, never alone but with Christ revealing Himself to them when they labor unitedly and heartily for victory at every step. This working with Christ leads to eternal life, to enter through the gates into the city where there is no more death, no more sin, no more temptation, no devil and no Lucifer, with beauty of character and right to the tree of life, for earth's history will soon close.
Why the World Hates
The world's hatred of Christ's followers follows and repeats the hatred it first directed against Christ himself, so hostility toward them is hostility he already experienced. Jesus warned his chosen disciples beforehand that this would be their lot, that as he was persecuted they would be persecuted, while those who kept his teaching would also keep theirs. This persecution comes for his name's sake and belongs to their witness to him, and his prior experience assures them that such opposition is not evidence they have been abandoned or left to fight alone.
The hatred comes because they do not belong to the world but he has chosen them out of the world and ordained them to go and bring forth fruit that remains, with whatsoever they ask of the Father in his name given them, and he commands them to love one another. If they belonged to the world it would love them as its own, but their separation from its way of life sets them against its values, so they should not expect it to welcome them. Their rejection follows from not belonging to the world but being chosen out of it.
The hatred comes because persecutors do not know the Father who sent Christ and therefore cannot receive the truth, having refused his drawing. For this reason they will face religious exclusion and even death for bearing witness, and Christ foretold this so his disciples would remember his warning and not be shaken when it came. Those who receive the followers' message receive Christ, while those who reject it reject Christ and the Father who sent him. Christ's example also tests his followers: they must be able to say they are hated without cause.
The hatred comes because Christ's purity, holiness, self-denial and sinless life exposed and reproved sin, selfishness and corruption. He hated sin, and his sinless life reproved the proud and sensual people around him, who hated him and finally crucified him. The blameless lives, strict integrity, goodness and holy character of his followers likewise expose and condemn the worldly course, making their influence a reproach, so their faith and conduct provoke opposition and persecution. Those who are chosen out of the world and live with his goodness and strict integrity are hated because their character differs from the world's, and this hatred will become more evident as the end of time draws near.
The hatred comes because they obey God's commandments and do his works, refuse the path of transgression and disobedience that would offend God, and refuse to join the world's schemes and purposes. It comes because they hold the truth firmly and teach it distinctly and positively before the world, with every entrusted ray of light to shine forth amid moral darkness, and because they proclaim truth and practical holiness that awakens opposition from the unrenewed heart. His people are hated without cause even when their lives are faultless and their characters blameless, since Christ was pure and did only good yet was treated as a criminal and condemned without evidence. Those in offices of sacred trust who so stand will not be looked on with favor, and those who work to lead people to Jesus should expect the same.
Being hated for telling the truth does not prove the truth-teller has an evil spirit, for Christ himself was so accused.
Pattern of Persecution
As servants are not greater than their Lord, rejection and persecution borne for Christ's name repeat what was done to Him, and those who kept His teaching will also keep the teaching of His followers, while those who reject His messengers and their heaven-sent message reject Him and the Father who sent Him. At the close of the world's history the deeds done to Christ will be repeated against His followers on the same ground, that they are not of the world but chosen out of it.
The hostility takes the form of religious exclusion and even death for bearing witness. It includes being buffeted, despised, derided, maligned and hated, with gossip, falsehood, slander, false witness and reproach, and with stumbling blocks laid in the way. It brings contempt and scorn, being cut off from house and heritage, and constant insult, abuse and opposition, yet such treatment should not make the faithful sad or shaken.
His people are hated without cause and condemned without evidence even when their lives are faultless and their characters blameless. Just so Christ was pure and without spot or stain and did only good, yet was treated as a criminal and condemned without evidence, and rebellious men who spoke against Him will surely speak against His followers and fabricate reasons to cast reproach on those who draw away from untruth. Those chosen out of the world who obey God's commandments and do His works and labor to lead souls to Jesus must expect this hatred, and must be able to say they are hated without cause.
This enmity is a far-reaching, unwearied conflict between Christ and His followers and Satan with his angels and fallen men united to reproach, bruise, wound and exterminate them to the close of time. It began with Cain's murder of Abel, whose right doing exposed the wicked's course, and continues from Christ's time to His return and to the close of time, and as long as sin and sinners remain. The outward character of persecution changes with the times but the principle and spirit is the same that has slain the chosen ever since Abel, bringing the same humiliation, reproach and suffering as the Master, and it will become more evident as the end draws near.
At the close of history this hatred comes when humanity is without the controlling power of the Spirit of God and is stirred by satanic influences, with principalities and powers and rulers of darkness united against God in the person of His saints through misrepresentation, falsehood and false witnesses. As Satan constantly afflicted Christ by perverting His doctrines, misrepresenting His teachings, assailing His pure character with falsehoods and stirring prejudice through the chief priests, Pharisees and Sadducees until He could scarcely live three and a half years after His public ministry began and malignity reached its height at the crucifixion, so hearts remain open to prejudice, falsehood, misrepresentation and hell-born slander. Because followers are not of the world even as Christ is not of the world, they are reviled, persecuted, falsely accused of evil for His name's sake, and even killed by those thinking they serve God while not knowing the Father nor Christ, yet persecutors can only bruise the heel while faithful standing in defense of Jehovah's law wounds the rebel's head.
The same spirit that crucified Christ and killed the apostles moved later persecutions to try to destroy those beloved by God. Religious authorities claiming power over conscience may persecute such followers in loyalty to conviction and thirst for their blood, as Satan and the Jews did toward Jesus. Christ and the martyrs were put to death because they seemed to despise the wisdom of their time and presented truths without first appealing to established opinions, and Luther's accusers likewise called his reforming work proud, presumptuous and divisive.
Courage Amid Hatred
Jesus told beforehand exactly how the world would treat His followers — that they would be buffeted, despised, derided, maligned and hated because it hated Him before it hated them — so that such treatment should not make them sad. He did this because He knew every conflict, difficulty, affliction and dark troubled future they would meet, including religious exclusion and even death for bearing witness at the hands of persecutors who do not know the Father who sent Him. The warning was given so they would remember it when hatred came, would not stumble in doubt, would not be shaken, sad or discouraged, and would know that rejection and persecution for His name repeating what happened to their Lord is no evidence they have been abandoned or left to fight alone. It belongs to the encouragement and hope spoken in John 14-16 by One who knew the trials His church would face, even through unconverted believers, and who cared for disciples whose faith and courage would be severely tried while He Himself knew the terrible ordeal awaiting Him. The hatred comes because they do not belong to the world but He has chosen them out of the world and ordained them to go and bring forth fruit that remains, with whatsoever they ask of the Father in His name given them, and He commands them to love one another; if they were of the world the world would love its own.
His followers are not left alone in trials, for the Comforter testifies of Christ while they bear witness to Him, and the Holy Spirit cheers and strengthens them to do His work faithfully and remain faithful in the face of persecution and reproach. Christ is on the side of believers and they are to be on His side, revealing Himself to them as they labor unitedly and heartily for victory at every step, working with Him to the best of their ability to overcome the temptations of the enemy. They are to overcome the world as He overcame it for them, working for heaven and to see the King in His beauty unto eternal life, to enter through the gates into the city where there is no more death, no more sin, no more temptation and no devil, with beauty of character and right to the tree of life, for earth's history will soon close. This working with Christ is done within limits God permits to enemies, during His personal absence, unto faithfulness that endures.
Faithful labor to build up truth will bring gossip, falsehood, slander, reproach and persecution, since a consistent course rebukes unbelief, pride and selfishness, including opposition from a spurious and merely formal Christianity with no reformative energy. Those faithful to God are not harmed by reproach or opposition; rather faith, patience, meekness and love bud and blossom amid clouds and darkness in ways they will not in the sunshine of prosperity. Lack of worldly esteem or influence does not mean lack of the Father's favor, and even those cut off from house and heritage for faith because men do not know the Father, who give their hearts to Christ, receive the message of His grace and rest upon the Son of God as Substitute and Surety, may still be filled with joy. Those who set the heart on God and strive to do His will have a constant battle with the enemy of all righteousness who in every conceivable way seeks to discourage and cast down, yet they are known by fruit, for a pure fountain will not send forth an impure stream and a true Christian will not utter abuse or enter contention; their consolation is union with the highest authorities of heaven, and by trusting in Christ and advancing step by step the children of God will gain the victory.
When meeting worldly men who do not believe the truth, Christians must not become fretted, impatient or terrified, must keep temper whatever is said or done against them, must show no irritated feelings, personal pride or self-sufficiency, but must remain Christlike in order to maintain an untarnished reputation. Though servants may face trials and have their message rejected with false witness, reproach and persecution — for rebellious people spoke against Christ who was without spot or stain and will surely speak against His followers — they are to remember Christ and continue sowing the truth and cultivating the ground where Jesus first sowed rather than abandoning the work or seeking an easier field. Those made partakers of His reproach should not complain, for the servant is not greater than his lord, and joined to the warning is the command to love one another as He loved them and to stop surmising evil, backbiting and doing evil to brethren.
The passage calls disciples to represent Christ who loved the world and gave His life for it, to help others rather than turn away from people in need, and to show love and forbearance toward one another while seeking to save people from sin. It calls for love and for resignation to bear any cross or difficulty, warns against lack of love and unwillingness to suffer, and calls for sacred union with God in which the salvation of God is seen in a remarkable manner. It points to a great work Jesus must do for believers before standing in review at the Judgment, and urges immediate readiness through humbling the soul before God, seeking the Lord, confessing wrong and letting light shine forth because the Lord is working. The verse so given brings the true believer courage to stand fast in the most trying hour and brings strength and assurance as long as time shall last, spoken to strengthen disciples whose faith and courage would be severely tried so they could endure without failing.
Separation and Loyalty
No one can mingle with the world and at the same time be united with Christ, but must come out from the world and be separate, renouncing the world with influence wholly on the Lord's side. This separation is of eternal importance, requiring refusal to love self, indulge inclination, or compromise faith and thereby become servants of Satan enlisted in his army. The Christian's life is hid with Christ in God as an unseen inner life woven with the life of God, and spiritual things are spiritually discerned, so the world with blinded eyes and perverted powers cannot discern, understand, esteem, or appreciate it. Those who maintain the sacredness of character that belongs to them will reveal the vast difference between the world and obedience to Christ in love for souls.
There is no peace to be gained by uniting interests with unbelievers or yielding to the world's influence and conforming to its principles and customs in order to secure its friendship and favor, for the world cannot receive the truth since it does not know the Father who sent Christ. Where such fellowship is attempted, judgment is turned away backward and justice stands afar off, truth is fallen in the streets and equity cannot enter, and he that departs from evil makes himself a prey. Professed friendship from the ungodly is dangerous and ends in enmity, as Israel's mingling with the Philistines in pleasure and worship turned those professed friends into bitter enemies seeking their destruction. Satan works through the ungodly under cover of pretended friendship to allure God's people into sin and separate them from God, and when their defense is removed he leads his agents to turn against them and seek to destroy them.
Flattery, applause, praise, sympathy, confidence and favor from the world are no evidence that a man is right but a matter for alarm, for they can draw professed Christians into its spirit and make them dependent on human approval, blurring the difference between serving God and serving the world. Its scorn for those who uphold God's truth reflects their Christian integrity, while its approval belongs to those who conform to its ways. Bearing the cross for Christ distinguishes His followers from the world and may bring ridicule, censure, or hostility, and when they face none their conformity to the world may be the reason.
Loyalty requires standing in God's strength and following truth and conscience despite opposition, for those who serve God and those who do not cannot live in full harmony. This opposition can arise when Christians step away from the world's customs, including in keeping the Sabbath, and can come even from family members. Believers must not trade loyalty to God for the world's friendship but must remain faithful to the truth and separate from disobedience, ready to sacrifice anything rather than lose God's favor, and must walk humbly rather than rely on their own merits. Those who turn toward worldliness may hate both the light and the messengers who bring reproof, and try to silence them, because God's truths condemn sin and call to righteousness and wrongdoers label those who uphold them fanatics.
The world's hatred by itself does not prove one is hated for Christ's sake. A person who promotes false teaching and division may be hated because the message and conduct turn people away from the truth, yet wrongly claim the hatred is the same as the world's hatred of Christ. Likewise uncultivated manners, quarrels over truth, or making the Sabbath as annoying as possible can turn a Christian into a stumbling block and bring deserved reproach on the truth, which is not the hatred promised to those hated for doing good and following Christ.
Hatred is the appointed lot because the world hated Christ before them, and the work of saving souls advances by aggressive warfare in the midst of opposition, peril, loss, and human suffering, with Christianity worked out in self-denial and cross-bearing and no easy and flattering path to heaven marked out. A consistent course rebukes unbelief, pride and selfishness, so a humble Christian is called narrow, bigoted and exclusive, a zealous one is called a fanatic, and one who speaks truth decidedly and proclaims the day of the Lord in the spirit and power of Elijah is called excitable and denouncing. For this reason believers are accused, misrepresented and hated for Christ's sake and pass through much tribulation, with the world at enmity against God and His people and not pleased with real, vital godliness and firm, steadfast character. Truth and practical holiness awaken opposition from the unrenewed heart, while a merely formal or popular religion with no reformative energy does not, revealing the conflict between Christ and the powers opposed to Him.
Christ told His followers that the world's hatred of them only repeats the hatred it first aimed at Him Himself. It hates them because they no longer belong to it but He has chosen them out of it, and because it does not know the Father who sent Him. It hates them because their obedience, purity and holy character expose and condemn its sin, selfishness and disobedience. He told them this beforehand so they would not stumble or think they were abandoned, but would know He and the Comforter are with them and limits what their enemies can do. They must therefore come out and be separate rather than seek its friendship or favor, standing loyal to truth at any cost.
Setting and Context
Jesus spoke these words alone with the eleven disciples in the upper chamber after Judas had left, when He was about to speak of His approaching separation from them and His death. He first directed their thoughts to the great object of His mission, His joy that all His humiliation and suffering would glorify the Father's name. These words spoken before His separation from them later stayed their hearts through disappointment and trial and brought comfort and hope to believers.
They belong to His words of comfort, counsel, encouragement, courage and prayer in John 14-16, spoken knowing the trials His church would face, including through unconverted believers. They were spoken shortly before His death near the end of His earthly ministry to strengthen believers and to strengthen disciples whose faith and courage would be severely tried so they could endure without failing, even while He knew the terrible ordeal awaiting Himself. The disciples repeated them to sustain themselves through disappointment and trial, though they fully understood them only after the resurrection. His teaching in John 14-17 was meant to prepare and strengthen them for the trials and temptations they would face after He left them, and to keep His love in mind in their work and counsels.
It is part of the lesson of the vine and its branches about vital connection to Christ and abiding in Him, showing how believers are connected to Christ and must abide in Him. The chapter contrasts true branches with a vital connection to the vine with spurious branches that lack that connection. It teaches the same principles as His words about the bread of life, that people receive spiritual life by coming to Christ and believing in Him rather than dwelling on others' faults. Its lessons about the true vine and the branches call for committing the soul to God, seeking the Holy Spirit to mold and fashion character after the divine similitude, and being a co-worker with Jesus Christ by obeying His words and practicing what He taught. That obedience means not closing the door of hope to a confessing, pleading erring one but opening the door and welcoming her to the fold, doing what Christ would do in the same place, and laboring to save her soul.
It belongs to God's plainly expressed will in regard to His people in John 13-17 and to the divine antidote for the sin of the whole world, belonging to Christ's great process by which believers are made one with Him in this present life to be one with Him throughout all eternity. God means just what He says in it, and it must be believed in every verse and lived out, especially by those who minister in word and doctrine and are acquainted with present truth, and lived out before fellow ministers. John 13-17 needs careful study and earnest practice by all who honor God and Jesus Christ whom He sent, for its duties were specified by the Substitute and Surety and cannot be lived in neglect. Doing them bears the divine credentials to the world that God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son so that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life (John 3:16). Understanding it belongs to the philosophy of genuine missionary work, and those who do not understand it need to be reconverted and to watch unto prayer, while its lesson in John 15 belongs to the choice between obedience to Christ and allegiance to the world and calls His followers to faithful Christian living amid severe conflicts.
It was given before Christ's separation from them to prepare the disciples for their future work, teaching that their ministry must depend on divine power joined with human effort. It sets forth the standard and privilege of oneness with Jesus Christ and oneness with God that Jesus was sent to make possible, where humanity grasps divinity and divinity lifts humanity. The influence of His Holy Spirit is resisted when people do not come up to this standard, but the human being can take hold of the divine nature and become a partaker of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. It shows that Christ is on the side of believers and they are to be on His side, working with Him to the best of their ability to overcome the temptations of the enemy, never alone but with Christ revealing Himself to them when they labor unitedly and heartily for victory at every step. This working with Christ leads to eternal life, to enter through the gates into the city where there is no more death, no more sin, no more temptation, no devil and no Lucifer, with beauty of character and right to the tree of life, for earth's history will soon close.
Why the World Hates
The world's hatred of Christ's followers follows and repeats the hatred it first directed against Christ himself, so hostility toward them is hostility he already experienced. Jesus warned his chosen disciples beforehand that this would be their lot, that as he was persecuted they would be persecuted, while those who kept his teaching would also keep theirs. This persecution comes for his name's sake and belongs to their witness to him, and his prior experience assures them that such opposition is not evidence they have been abandoned or left to fight alone.
The hatred comes because they do not belong to the world but he has chosen them out of the world and ordained them to go and bring forth fruit that remains, with whatsoever they ask of the Father in his name given them, and he commands them to love one another. If they belonged to the world it would love them as its own, but their separation from its way of life sets them against its values, so they should not expect it to welcome them. Their rejection follows from not belonging to the world but being chosen out of it.
The hatred comes because persecutors do not know the Father who sent Christ and therefore cannot receive the truth, having refused his drawing. For this reason they will face religious exclusion and even death for bearing witness, and Christ foretold this so his disciples would remember his warning and not be shaken when it came. Those who receive the followers' message receive Christ, while those who reject it reject Christ and the Father who sent him. Christ's example also tests his followers: they must be able to say they are hated without cause.
The hatred comes because Christ's purity, holiness, self-denial and sinless life exposed and reproved sin, selfishness and corruption. He hated sin, and his sinless life reproved the proud and sensual people around him, who hated him and finally crucified him. The blameless lives, strict integrity, goodness and holy character of his followers likewise expose and condemn the worldly course, making their influence a reproach, so their faith and conduct provoke opposition and persecution. Those who are chosen out of the world and live with his goodness and strict integrity are hated because their character differs from the world's, and this hatred will become more evident as the end of time draws near.
The hatred comes because they obey God's commandments and do his works, refuse the path of transgression and disobedience that would offend God, and refuse to join the world's schemes and purposes. It comes because they hold the truth firmly and teach it distinctly and positively before the world, with every entrusted ray of light to shine forth amid moral darkness, and because they proclaim truth and practical holiness that awakens opposition from the unrenewed heart. His people are hated without cause even when their lives are faultless and their characters blameless, since Christ was pure and did only good yet was treated as a criminal and condemned without evidence. Those in offices of sacred trust who so stand will not be looked on with favor, and those who work to lead people to Jesus should expect the same.
Being hated for telling the truth does not prove the truth-teller has an evil spirit, for Christ himself was so accused.
Pattern of Persecution
As servants are not greater than their Lord, rejection and persecution borne for Christ's name repeat what was done to Him, and those who kept His teaching will also keep the teaching of His followers, while those who reject His messengers and their heaven-sent message reject Him and the Father who sent Him. At the close of the world's history the deeds done to Christ will be repeated against His followers on the same ground, that they are not of the world but chosen out of it.
The hostility takes the form of religious exclusion and even death for bearing witness. It includes being buffeted, despised, derided, maligned and hated, with gossip, falsehood, slander, false witness and reproach, and with stumbling blocks laid in the way. It brings contempt and scorn, being cut off from house and heritage, and constant insult, abuse and opposition, yet such treatment should not make the faithful sad or shaken.
His people are hated without cause and condemned without evidence even when their lives are faultless and their characters blameless. Just so Christ was pure and without spot or stain and did only good, yet was treated as a criminal and condemned without evidence, and rebellious men who spoke against Him will surely speak against His followers and fabricate reasons to cast reproach on those who draw away from untruth. Those chosen out of the world who obey God's commandments and do His works and labor to lead souls to Jesus must expect this hatred, and must be able to say they are hated without cause.
This enmity is a far-reaching, unwearied conflict between Christ and His followers and Satan with his angels and fallen men united to reproach, bruise, wound and exterminate them to the close of time. It began with Cain's murder of Abel, whose right doing exposed the wicked's course, and continues from Christ's time to His return and to the close of time, and as long as sin and sinners remain. The outward character of persecution changes with the times but the principle and spirit is the same that has slain the chosen ever since Abel, bringing the same humiliation, reproach and suffering as the Master, and it will become more evident as the end draws near.
At the close of history this hatred comes when humanity is without the controlling power of the Spirit of God and is stirred by satanic influences, with principalities and powers and rulers of darkness united against God in the person of His saints through misrepresentation, falsehood and false witnesses. As Satan constantly afflicted Christ by perverting His doctrines, misrepresenting His teachings, assailing His pure character with falsehoods and stirring prejudice through the chief priests, Pharisees and Sadducees until He could scarcely live three and a half years after His public ministry began and malignity reached its height at the crucifixion, so hearts remain open to prejudice, falsehood, misrepresentation and hell-born slander. Because followers are not of the world even as Christ is not of the world, they are reviled, persecuted, falsely accused of evil for His name's sake, and even killed by those thinking they serve God while not knowing the Father nor Christ, yet persecutors can only bruise the heel while faithful standing in defense of Jehovah's law wounds the rebel's head.
The same spirit that crucified Christ and killed the apostles moved later persecutions to try to destroy those beloved by God. Religious authorities claiming power over conscience may persecute such followers in loyalty to conviction and thirst for their blood, as Satan and the Jews did toward Jesus. Christ and the martyrs were put to death because they seemed to despise the wisdom of their time and presented truths without first appealing to established opinions, and Luther's accusers likewise called his reforming work proud, presumptuous and divisive.
Courage Amid Hatred
Jesus told beforehand exactly how the world would treat His followers — that they would be buffeted, despised, derided, maligned and hated because it hated Him before it hated them — so that such treatment should not make them sad. He did this because He knew every conflict, difficulty, affliction and dark troubled future they would meet, including religious exclusion and even death for bearing witness at the hands of persecutors who do not know the Father who sent Him. The warning was given so they would remember it when hatred came, would not stumble in doubt, would not be shaken, sad or discouraged, and would know that rejection and persecution for His name repeating what happened to their Lord is no evidence they have been abandoned or left to fight alone. It belongs to the encouragement and hope spoken in John 14-16 by One who knew the trials His church would face, even through unconverted believers, and who cared for disciples whose faith and courage would be severely tried while He Himself knew the terrible ordeal awaiting Him. The hatred comes because they do not belong to the world but He has chosen them out of the world and ordained them to go and bring forth fruit that remains, with whatsoever they ask of the Father in His name given them, and He commands them to love one another; if they were of the world the world would love its own.
His followers are not left alone in trials, for the Comforter testifies of Christ while they bear witness to Him, and the Holy Spirit cheers and strengthens them to do His work faithfully and remain faithful in the face of persecution and reproach. Christ is on the side of believers and they are to be on His side, revealing Himself to them as they labor unitedly and heartily for victory at every step, working with Him to the best of their ability to overcome the temptations of the enemy. They are to overcome the world as He overcame it for them, working for heaven and to see the King in His beauty unto eternal life, to enter through the gates into the city where there is no more death, no more sin, no more temptation and no devil, with beauty of character and right to the tree of life, for earth's history will soon close. This working with Christ is done within limits God permits to enemies, during His personal absence, unto faithfulness that endures.
Faithful labor to build up truth will bring gossip, falsehood, slander, reproach and persecution, since a consistent course rebukes unbelief, pride and selfishness, including opposition from a spurious and merely formal Christianity with no reformative energy. Those faithful to God are not harmed by reproach or opposition; rather faith, patience, meekness and love bud and blossom amid clouds and darkness in ways they will not in the sunshine of prosperity. Lack of worldly esteem or influence does not mean lack of the Father's favor, and even those cut off from house and heritage for faith because men do not know the Father, who give their hearts to Christ, receive the message of His grace and rest upon the Son of God as Substitute and Surety, may still be filled with joy. Those who set the heart on God and strive to do His will have a constant battle with the enemy of all righteousness who in every conceivable way seeks to discourage and cast down, yet they are known by fruit, for a pure fountain will not send forth an impure stream and a true Christian will not utter abuse or enter contention; their consolation is union with the highest authorities of heaven, and by trusting in Christ and advancing step by step the children of God will gain the victory.
When meeting worldly men who do not believe the truth, Christians must not become fretted, impatient or terrified, must keep temper whatever is said or done against them, must show no irritated feelings, personal pride or self-sufficiency, but must remain Christlike in order to maintain an untarnished reputation. Though servants may face trials and have their message rejected with false witness, reproach and persecution — for rebellious people spoke against Christ who was without spot or stain and will surely speak against His followers — they are to remember Christ and continue sowing the truth and cultivating the ground where Jesus first sowed rather than abandoning the work or seeking an easier field. Those made partakers of His reproach should not complain, for the servant is not greater than his lord, and joined to the warning is the command to love one another as He loved them and to stop surmising evil, backbiting and doing evil to brethren.
The passage calls disciples to represent Christ who loved the world and gave His life for it, to help others rather than turn away from people in need, and to show love and forbearance toward one another while seeking to save people from sin. It calls for love and for resignation to bear any cross or difficulty, warns against lack of love and unwillingness to suffer, and calls for sacred union with God in which the salvation of God is seen in a remarkable manner. It points to a great work Jesus must do for believers before standing in review at the Judgment, and urges immediate readiness through humbling the soul before God, seeking the Lord, confessing wrong and letting light shine forth because the Lord is working. The verse so given brings the true believer courage to stand fast in the most trying hour and brings strength and assurance as long as time shall last, spoken to strengthen disciples whose faith and courage would be severely tried so they could endure without failing.
Separation and Loyalty
No one can mingle with the world and at the same time be united with Christ, but must come out from the world and be separate, renouncing the world with influence wholly on the Lord's side. This separation is of eternal importance, requiring refusal to love self, indulge inclination, or compromise faith and thereby become servants of Satan enlisted in his army. The Christian's life is hid with Christ in God as an unseen inner life woven with the life of God, and spiritual things are spiritually discerned, so the world with blinded eyes and perverted powers cannot discern, understand, esteem, or appreciate it. Those who maintain the sacredness of character that belongs to them will reveal the vast difference between the world and obedience to Christ in love for souls.
There is no peace to be gained by uniting interests with unbelievers or yielding to the world's influence and conforming to its principles and customs in order to secure its friendship and favor, for the world cannot receive the truth since it does not know the Father who sent Christ. Where such fellowship is attempted, judgment is turned away backward and justice stands afar off, truth is fallen in the streets and equity cannot enter, and he that departs from evil makes himself a prey. Professed friendship from the ungodly is dangerous and ends in enmity, as Israel's mingling with the Philistines in pleasure and worship turned those professed friends into bitter enemies seeking their destruction. Satan works through the ungodly under cover of pretended friendship to allure God's people into sin and separate them from God, and when their defense is removed he leads his agents to turn against them and seek to destroy them.
Flattery, applause, praise, sympathy, confidence and favor from the world are no evidence that a man is right but a matter for alarm, for they can draw professed Christians into its spirit and make them dependent on human approval, blurring the difference between serving God and serving the world. Its scorn for those who uphold God's truth reflects their Christian integrity, while its approval belongs to those who conform to its ways. Bearing the cross for Christ distinguishes His followers from the world and may bring ridicule, censure, or hostility, and when they face none their conformity to the world may be the reason.
Loyalty requires standing in God's strength and following truth and conscience despite opposition, for those who serve God and those who do not cannot live in full harmony. This opposition can arise when Christians step away from the world's customs, including in keeping the Sabbath, and can come even from family members. Believers must not trade loyalty to God for the world's friendship but must remain faithful to the truth and separate from disobedience, ready to sacrifice anything rather than lose God's favor, and must walk humbly rather than rely on their own merits. Those who turn toward worldliness may hate both the light and the messengers who bring reproof, and try to silence them, because God's truths condemn sin and call to righteousness and wrongdoers label those who uphold them fanatics.
The world's hatred by itself does not prove one is hated for Christ's sake. A person who promotes false teaching and division may be hated because the message and conduct turn people away from the truth, yet wrongly claim the hatred is the same as the world's hatred of Christ. Likewise uncultivated manners, quarrels over truth, or making the Sabbath as annoying as possible can turn a Christian into a stumbling block and bring deserved reproach on the truth, which is not the hatred promised to those hated for doing good and following Christ.
Hatred is the appointed lot because the world hated Christ before them, and the work of saving souls advances by aggressive warfare in the midst of opposition, peril, loss, and human suffering, with Christianity worked out in self-denial and cross-bearing and no easy and flattering path to heaven marked out. A consistent course rebukes unbelief, pride and selfishness, so a humble Christian is called narrow, bigoted and exclusive, a zealous one is called a fanatic, and one who speaks truth decidedly and proclaims the day of the Lord in the spirit and power of Elijah is called excitable and denouncing. For this reason believers are accused, misrepresented and hated for Christ's sake and pass through much tribulation, with the world at enmity against God and His people and not pleased with real, vital godliness and firm, steadfast character. Truth and practical holiness awaken opposition from the unrenewed heart, while a merely formal or popular religion with no reformative energy does not, revealing the conflict between Christ and the powers opposed to Him.