But all these things will they do unto you for my name’s sake, because they know not him that sent me.
All these things will be done to Christ's followers for His name's sake because they belong to Him, bear His name and reveal His character, while those who do them have no experiential knowledge of the Father who sent Him. This means expulsion, arrest, hatred, misrepresentation, loss and even death, following the same pattern as the world's causeless hatred of Jesus Himself, since the servant is not greater than his Lord. He told the eleven this beforehand in the upper room to prepare them, so that when it comes they will remember His word and not be intimidated, discouraged or turned from the faith. With the dark warning He joined the bright promise of the Comforter, that they would bear witness to Him and suffering would become part of carrying the gospel rather than proof of failure. Therefore they are to abide in Him as branches in the vine, keep His commandments, love one another and let their light shine amid moral darkness without uniting with the world.
Setting and Wording
These words were spoken to the eleven disciples alone in the upper chamber after Judas had left, just before the approaching separation by death. They were uttered with divine love and tenderest sympathy, first directing thought to the great object of His mission and to His joy that all His humiliation and suffering would glorify the Father's name. They belong to His instruction shortly before His separation, preparing the disciples for their future work and teaching that their ministry must depend on divine power working through human effort. They commission them for their work, warning that they will face opposition because they bear His name from those who do not know the Father who sent Him. These lessons were meant to prepare and strengthen them for the trials and temptations ahead, and to help them remember His love as they carried out their work.
They belong to the instruction of John 13-17, which plainly outlines God's will and is to be believed and lived out before fellow ministers. They are part especially of the teaching in John 14 and 15, where love for Christ is evidenced by keeping His commandments and obedience is the Bible test for those who have received light. They belong to the teaching in John 15 on the relation of the branch to the vine and about the vine and its branches, spoken to prepare followers for opposition because they belong to Him. They are part of a chapter presented as an important lesson to read and obey, in the context of the world opposing those who follow Jesus. Their words are to be received as a message from God and presented in every home, and refusing the conditions Christ gives leaves a person unworthy to belong to His people when He comes in glory.
The disciples did not fully understand these words until after the resurrection. They were repeated afterward to sustain them in disappointment and trial and to bring comfort, peace, and hope to believers. They belong to the encouragement and hope of John 14, 15, and 16, spoken by One who knew the trials that would come to His church through unconverted believers, to comfort and strengthen disciples whose faith and courage would be severely tried. They were spoken near the close of His earthly ministry while a cruel death lay before Him, as words of courage and comfort offering hope to believers. They impart courage to stand fast in the most trying hour and bring strength and assurance to true believers as long as time shall last.
For my name's sake means because of loyalty to His name and connection to His name. It means because they bear His name and reveal His character, carry His message, and live by the principles of God's Word. It means because they remain loyal, refuse to join in others' schemes, and take a course that rebukes them, while their consistent lives expose and condemn the world's way of acting and serving so that their influence is hated. Christ's goodness and strict integrity set Him apart from the world and drew its hatred, and those who display the same qualities can expect similar hatred, increasingly evident as the end of time approaches. Those who reject the messengers and their heaven-sent message reject Christ Himself, and Christ's own persecution prepares them for the same treatment.
Because they know not Him means their persecutors do not know God the Father who sent Jesus. This ignorance is lack of experiential knowledge of the Father and Christ. To fail to recognize Christ is to fail to know the Father. To know Christ rightly is eternal life. As Christ was hated without cause, His people may be hated and punished despite blameless lives, because they obey God's commandments.
Persecution for Christ's Name
All that is done to Christ's followers is done for His name's sake, because they bear His name and remain loyal to Him, and because those who do it do not know the Father who sent Him. The warning was given beforehand so that when opposition comes they will remember it was foretold and will not be intimidated or cast down. Suffering for His sake in this way belongs to their witness and their calling, and is no evidence that they have failed in their mission. It stands in direct continuity with the world's prior hatred and persecution of Jesus Himself.
All these things include being expelled from synagogues and killed by those who think they are serving God. They include arrest and judgment under human laws that oppose God's law, accusation, misrepresentation and false speech, hatred and tribulation, hindrance and humiliation, peril and loss, and for faith's sake being cut off from house and heritage here. Followers may be falsely spoken against because those who reject God are hostile to purity and holiness, and rejection of truth and obedience to God's commandments can lead persecutors to support oppressive human laws against God's people. Such suffering, hindrance and humiliation are to be expected by those whom Christ has chosen out of the world.
This treatment follows the pattern of the world's hatred, persecution and reproach of Jesus; as the servant is not greater than his Lord, His people cannot expect better treatment than their Lord received. Those who persecuted Christ will persecute them, and those who kept His word will keep theirs. They share Christ's own experience of being misjudged, maligned, misinterpreted and persecuted, and those loyal to God and His truth will not have the friendship of a world that belongs to God's enemies, so worldly flattery, applause and confidence are no evidence of being right but cause for alarm. Those who do God's work and plainly lift Him up to lead others to Him should therefore expect the world's hatred, as Christ was hated and persecuted before them. True Christians can have no fellowship with the world where judgment is turned backward and truth is fallen, because they represent a truth that works against all its ambitious plans, and that is why the world hates them. Their suffering repeats the reproach Jesus Himself endured, and the warning was given to help them remain faithful rather than abandon faith to escape dishonor and pain.
The hatred has no just cause in Christ or in His followers. It came upon Christ because His works were perfect with the Father, and because His goodness, strict integrity, perfect purity and wholehearted hatred of all sin reproved the world. Fallen angels hated Him for His purity and because He expelled them from heaven, and the proud, sensual generation living on earth when He came hated Him because His sinless life was a constant reproach to them, until their hatred led them to crucify Him. The same hatred without cause comes upon His people because they obey God's commandments and do His works, even when their lives are blameless. Ignorance of the Father who sent Him is lack of experiential knowledge of the Father and of Christ. For this reason His disciples should be prepared for arrest and judgment under human laws that oppose God's law.
Even those who have received light and evidence may still turn from Christ as determinedly as the Jewish nation did, and their rejection of His followers repeats the treatment Christ received. Christ spoke knowing beforehand the trials that would come to His church through unconverted believers, and knowing every phase of experience, conflict and manifold affliction His disciples would meet from the world. The word belongs to the encouragement and hope of John 14, 15 and 16, spoken to comfort and strengthen disciples whose faith and courage would be severely tried. It imparts courage to stand fast in the most trying hour, and brings strength and assurance to true believers as long as time shall last. The plain warning was given to prepare them for the time of trial and great temptation to lose faith in a dark, troubled future, holding together with the dark warning the bright hopeful promise of the Comforter and their calling as His witnesses. It requires Christians not to become fretted and impatient in contact with worldly men but to keep the temper whatever is said or done, to allow no irritated feelings and words that manifest lack of faith which works by love and sanctifies the soul, to put away personal pride and self-sufficiency, and to maintain an untarnished Christlike reputation through faith in Christ.
Not Knowing the Father
The world cannot receive the truth because it does not know the Father who sent Jesus nor Jesus Christ the Son, even though Christ draws it and it refuses to come to Him to know Him. For this reason, when those in sacred trust hold the truth firmly and teach it distinctly and positively before the world, the world will not look on them with favor but will dislike, hate, and persecute them for Christ's name, just as it hated and persecuted Christ before them. There is no peace to be obtained by uniting interests with the world or by uniting with unbelievers, and every ray of light given to living human agencies is to shine amid the moral darkness that envelopes the world.
The world will accuse, misrepresent, hate, and bring tribulation upon believers for Christ's sake because it does not know the Father, does not know Jesus, and does not know the power of the truth. It stands at enmity with God and His people and is not pleased with real, vital godliness and firm, steadfast character. Whatever the Christian does religiously and conscientiously for Christ's sake is not understood or appreciated, motives cannot be understood, and Christian character cannot be discerned, because spiritual things are spiritually discerned and the unseen inner life woven with the life of God and hid with Christ in God is unknown to the world.
Rejection is culpable when people have received Christ's teaching and witnessed His works, for greater light brings greater accountability. Those who refuse the disciples and the heaven-sent message they carry reject Christ Himself, so their suffering is not proof that their mission is false. They are persecuted because they bear His name and carry His message, and because their persecutors do not know God who sent Jesus.
Opposition comes because Christ has chosen His followers out of the world, not because they are insufficiently social or strict in conduct. It comes because of loyalty to His name and belonging to Him, because they live by the principles of God's Word, refuse transgression and disobedience that would offend God, refuse to join in others' worldly schemes and customs, and take a course that rebukes them. Rejection of truthful reproof does not make the messenger evil, but reflects the world's rejection of Christ and the Father whom opposers do not know.
Those who persecute people who love and fear God are deluded by Satan. Their suffering belongs within the conflict between the party led by Satan and the party led by Jesus, endured for His name by those who bear it. When the servant's message is rejected, the servant is to keep working and sowing the seeds of truth.
Foretold to Strengthen Witness
Christ gave the warning beforehand so that when expulsion from synagogues and killing by those who think they serve God comes, His followers will remember what He said and will not be intimidated or cast down. The foreknowledge that reproach would repeat what He Himself endured was meant to keep them from abandoning faith to escape dishonor and pain, and to hold them faithful in trial without discouragement or doubt. He knew every phase of experience, conflict, and manifold affliction they would meet from the world, and He spoke plainly to prepare them for the time of trial and great temptation to lose faith in a dark, troubled future. This belongs to the encouragement and hope of John 14, 15, and 16, spoken to comfort and strengthen disciples whose faith and courage would be severely tried, even by trials coming through unconverted believers.
The warning imparts courage to stand fast in the most trying hour, bringing strength and assurance to true believers as long as time shall last. Suffering for His name in carrying the gospel is part of following the Master's path through peril, loss, and suffering, not evidence that the mission has failed or is false. Opposition tests and develops faith, patience, trust in God, and other virtues, for consistent lives expose and condemn the world's way of acting and serving and therefore are hated as Christ was hated before them. Those who refuse the disciples and the heaven-sent message they carry reject Christ Himself.
With the dark warning He gave the bright promise of the Comforter who would testify of Christ, and the disciples too would bear witness without discouragement or doubt. Those who do God's work and plainly lift Him up to lead others to Him should expect the world's hatred, as Christ was hated without cause and persecuted before them. Those chosen out of the world cannot expect better treatment than their Lord, so the persecution done to Him will also be done to them and the obedience given to His word will also be given to theirs.
Yet those so chosen may still be filled with joy, for He desires His own joy to remain in them and their joy to be full. Bearing much fruit glorifies the Father and marks them as His disciples, and keeping His commandments and living peculiar from the world gives the privilege of claiming His blessing and a whole salvation through His cleansing blood and whole sacrifice against Satan's pressing darkness that says they cannot be saved. For their faith many will be cut off from house and heritage here, yet by giving their hearts to Christ, receiving the message of His grace, and resting upon their Substitute and Surety, even the Son of God, they may still be filled with joy, serving God with all heart, might, mind, and strength as children of God in love to one another as He loved.
Obedience and Present Application
John 15 calls for abiding in Christ through a living, vital connection as branches to the vine, distinguishing true branches from spurious ones. Love for Christ is evidenced by keeping His commandments, which is the Bible test for those who have received light. This is the same lesson as receiving and living by His Word, for those who truly believe and take the Word into practical life obey it and have eternal life. When this instruction is lived out it brings unity with one another and with Christ and helps God's people stand the test. It remedies dissension and calls for living in unity with Christ and one another. It requires respecting Christ, having faith in Him, entrusting helpless souls to the hope in His promises, and living those promises before the world.
Christ commands His followers to love one another and to represent Him through love and service that helps souls rather than turning away from need. Everyone who remains in the living vine has something to do, and maintaining the sacredness of character that belongs to the Christian is revealed in love for souls. There is no peace to be obtained by uniting interests with the world, for the world cannot receive the truth because it does not know the Father or the Son, though Christ draws it and it refuses to come to know Him. Therefore when those in sacred trust hold the truth firmly and teach it distinctly and positively, the world will not look on them with favor but will hate and persecute them for Christ's name, so no peace is gained by uniting with unbelievers. True Christians can have no fellowship with the world where judgment is turned backward and truth is fallen, because they represent a truth that works against all its ambitious plans, and every ray of light given to living human agencies is to shine amid the moral darkness that envelopes the world.
The work of saving souls moves forward through aggressive warfare amid opposition, peril, loss, and human suffering. Christianity is worked out in self-denial and cross-bearing, because Christ by His own experience marked out no easy and flattering path to heaven. Christ's goodness and strict integrity set Him apart from the world and drew its hatred, and those who display the same qualities can expect similar hatred, increasingly evident as the end of time approaches. The same hatred without cause that Christ faced comes upon His people because they obey God's commandments and do His works, and rejection of truth and obedience can lead persecutors to support oppressive human laws against God's people, for which disciples should be prepared for arrest and judgment under human laws that oppose God's law. Stepping away from the world's customs to obey God, including keeping the Sabbath, requires bearing a cross and may bring hostility even within families. Such suffering, hindrance, and humiliation are to be expected by those Christ has chosen out of the world.
The verse is to be taken to heart as a call to bear the cross and endure difficulty for Christ's name. That call exposes lack of love and lack of resignation to suffer, and points to sacred union with God in which the salvation of God is seen in a remarkable manner. It requires immediate readiness before standing in review at the Judgment, humbling of soul before God, confession where wrong has been done, and letting light shine forth because the Lord is working, showing the great work Jesus must do for believers. Christians must not become fretted and impatient in contact with worldly men but keep the temper whatever is said or done, put away irritated feelings, personal pride, and self-sufficiency, and maintain an untarnished Christlike reputation through faith in Christ. When the servant's message is rejected, the servant is to keep working and sowing the seeds of truth, holding with the dark warning the bright hopeful promise of the Comforter and the calling as His witnesses, while those who persecute people who love and fear God are deluded.
Practicing the lessons of the true vine means working as a co-worker with Christ to save even an adversary through whom the enemy works to injure, who has treated one badly and hurt the soul, yet stands like a sheep bleating about the fold with confessions and pleadings for another trial. Obedience requires accepting the confessions, opening the door of hope instead of closing it, and welcoming the erring one to the fold without asking for promises and without evidence of marked change of character. It requires calling that person to die to self and live unto Christ, to behold no human being but fix the eye upon Jesus as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, and to accept and lift up Jesus and yoke up with Him so as to be an overcomer, lest there be a fall into snare and bitter reflection. People whose lives are ruled by worldly values do not have Christ's words abiding in their hearts, and their selfishness and disregard for the needy reveal a character unlike Christ's, who gave Himself to serve and uplift others. Their conduct is recorded and weighed as a measure of moral worth and whether they can be trusted with heaven's eternal riches. Christ's works and the influence of His Spirit are resisted because people do not come up to the standard it is their privilege to reach, yet God sent Jesus to make it possible for humanity to grasp divinity and for divinity to lift up humanity into oneness with God. That privilege of unity is to be claimed by taking hold of the divine nature and becoming a partaker of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust, for humanity and divinity combined bring oneness with God.
All these things will be done to Christ's followers for His name's sake because they belong to Him, bear His name and reveal His character, while those who do them have no experiential knowledge of the Father who sent Him. This means expulsion, arrest, hatred, misrepresentation, loss and even death, following the same pattern as the world's causeless hatred of Jesus Himself, since the servant is not greater than his Lord. He told the eleven this beforehand in the upper room to prepare them, so that when it comes they will remember His word and not be intimidated, discouraged or turned from the faith. With the dark warning He joined the bright promise of the Comforter, that they would bear witness to Him and suffering would become part of carrying the gospel rather than proof of failure. Therefore they are to abide in Him as branches in the vine, keep His commandments, love one another and let their light shine amid moral darkness without uniting with the world.
Setting and Wording
These words were spoken to the eleven disciples alone in the upper chamber after Judas had left, just before the approaching separation by death. They were uttered with divine love and tenderest sympathy, first directing thought to the great object of His mission and to His joy that all His humiliation and suffering would glorify the Father's name. They belong to His instruction shortly before His separation, preparing the disciples for their future work and teaching that their ministry must depend on divine power working through human effort. They commission them for their work, warning that they will face opposition because they bear His name from those who do not know the Father who sent Him. These lessons were meant to prepare and strengthen them for the trials and temptations ahead, and to help them remember His love as they carried out their work.
They belong to the instruction of John 13-17, which plainly outlines God's will and is to be believed and lived out before fellow ministers. They are part especially of the teaching in John 14 and 15, where love for Christ is evidenced by keeping His commandments and obedience is the Bible test for those who have received light. They belong to the teaching in John 15 on the relation of the branch to the vine and about the vine and its branches, spoken to prepare followers for opposition because they belong to Him. They are part of a chapter presented as an important lesson to read and obey, in the context of the world opposing those who follow Jesus. Their words are to be received as a message from God and presented in every home, and refusing the conditions Christ gives leaves a person unworthy to belong to His people when He comes in glory.
The disciples did not fully understand these words until after the resurrection. They were repeated afterward to sustain them in disappointment and trial and to bring comfort, peace, and hope to believers. They belong to the encouragement and hope of John 14, 15, and 16, spoken by One who knew the trials that would come to His church through unconverted believers, to comfort and strengthen disciples whose faith and courage would be severely tried. They were spoken near the close of His earthly ministry while a cruel death lay before Him, as words of courage and comfort offering hope to believers. They impart courage to stand fast in the most trying hour and bring strength and assurance to true believers as long as time shall last.
For my name's sake means because of loyalty to His name and connection to His name. It means because they bear His name and reveal His character, carry His message, and live by the principles of God's Word. It means because they remain loyal, refuse to join in others' schemes, and take a course that rebukes them, while their consistent lives expose and condemn the world's way of acting and serving so that their influence is hated. Christ's goodness and strict integrity set Him apart from the world and drew its hatred, and those who display the same qualities can expect similar hatred, increasingly evident as the end of time approaches. Those who reject the messengers and their heaven-sent message reject Christ Himself, and Christ's own persecution prepares them for the same treatment.
Because they know not Him means their persecutors do not know God the Father who sent Jesus. This ignorance is lack of experiential knowledge of the Father and Christ. To fail to recognize Christ is to fail to know the Father. To know Christ rightly is eternal life. As Christ was hated without cause, His people may be hated and punished despite blameless lives, because they obey God's commandments.
Persecution for Christ's Name
All that is done to Christ's followers is done for His name's sake, because they bear His name and remain loyal to Him, and because those who do it do not know the Father who sent Him. The warning was given beforehand so that when opposition comes they will remember it was foretold and will not be intimidated or cast down. Suffering for His sake in this way belongs to their witness and their calling, and is no evidence that they have failed in their mission. It stands in direct continuity with the world's prior hatred and persecution of Jesus Himself.
All these things include being expelled from synagogues and killed by those who think they are serving God. They include arrest and judgment under human laws that oppose God's law, accusation, misrepresentation and false speech, hatred and tribulation, hindrance and humiliation, peril and loss, and for faith's sake being cut off from house and heritage here. Followers may be falsely spoken against because those who reject God are hostile to purity and holiness, and rejection of truth and obedience to God's commandments can lead persecutors to support oppressive human laws against God's people. Such suffering, hindrance and humiliation are to be expected by those whom Christ has chosen out of the world.
This treatment follows the pattern of the world's hatred, persecution and reproach of Jesus; as the servant is not greater than his Lord, His people cannot expect better treatment than their Lord received. Those who persecuted Christ will persecute them, and those who kept His word will keep theirs. They share Christ's own experience of being misjudged, maligned, misinterpreted and persecuted, and those loyal to God and His truth will not have the friendship of a world that belongs to God's enemies, so worldly flattery, applause and confidence are no evidence of being right but cause for alarm. Those who do God's work and plainly lift Him up to lead others to Him should therefore expect the world's hatred, as Christ was hated and persecuted before them. True Christians can have no fellowship with the world where judgment is turned backward and truth is fallen, because they represent a truth that works against all its ambitious plans, and that is why the world hates them. Their suffering repeats the reproach Jesus Himself endured, and the warning was given to help them remain faithful rather than abandon faith to escape dishonor and pain.
The hatred has no just cause in Christ or in His followers. It came upon Christ because His works were perfect with the Father, and because His goodness, strict integrity, perfect purity and wholehearted hatred of all sin reproved the world. Fallen angels hated Him for His purity and because He expelled them from heaven, and the proud, sensual generation living on earth when He came hated Him because His sinless life was a constant reproach to them, until their hatred led them to crucify Him. The same hatred without cause comes upon His people because they obey God's commandments and do His works, even when their lives are blameless. Ignorance of the Father who sent Him is lack of experiential knowledge of the Father and of Christ. For this reason His disciples should be prepared for arrest and judgment under human laws that oppose God's law.
Even those who have received light and evidence may still turn from Christ as determinedly as the Jewish nation did, and their rejection of His followers repeats the treatment Christ received. Christ spoke knowing beforehand the trials that would come to His church through unconverted believers, and knowing every phase of experience, conflict and manifold affliction His disciples would meet from the world. The word belongs to the encouragement and hope of John 14, 15 and 16, spoken to comfort and strengthen disciples whose faith and courage would be severely tried. It imparts courage to stand fast in the most trying hour, and brings strength and assurance to true believers as long as time shall last. The plain warning was given to prepare them for the time of trial and great temptation to lose faith in a dark, troubled future, holding together with the dark warning the bright hopeful promise of the Comforter and their calling as His witnesses. It requires Christians not to become fretted and impatient in contact with worldly men but to keep the temper whatever is said or done, to allow no irritated feelings and words that manifest lack of faith which works by love and sanctifies the soul, to put away personal pride and self-sufficiency, and to maintain an untarnished Christlike reputation through faith in Christ.
Not Knowing the Father
The world cannot receive the truth because it does not know the Father who sent Jesus nor Jesus Christ the Son, even though Christ draws it and it refuses to come to Him to know Him. For this reason, when those in sacred trust hold the truth firmly and teach it distinctly and positively before the world, the world will not look on them with favor but will dislike, hate, and persecute them for Christ's name, just as it hated and persecuted Christ before them. There is no peace to be obtained by uniting interests with the world or by uniting with unbelievers, and every ray of light given to living human agencies is to shine amid the moral darkness that envelopes the world.
The world will accuse, misrepresent, hate, and bring tribulation upon believers for Christ's sake because it does not know the Father, does not know Jesus, and does not know the power of the truth. It stands at enmity with God and His people and is not pleased with real, vital godliness and firm, steadfast character. Whatever the Christian does religiously and conscientiously for Christ's sake is not understood or appreciated, motives cannot be understood, and Christian character cannot be discerned, because spiritual things are spiritually discerned and the unseen inner life woven with the life of God and hid with Christ in God is unknown to the world.
Rejection is culpable when people have received Christ's teaching and witnessed His works, for greater light brings greater accountability. Those who refuse the disciples and the heaven-sent message they carry reject Christ Himself, so their suffering is not proof that their mission is false. They are persecuted because they bear His name and carry His message, and because their persecutors do not know God who sent Jesus.
Opposition comes because Christ has chosen His followers out of the world, not because they are insufficiently social or strict in conduct. It comes because of loyalty to His name and belonging to Him, because they live by the principles of God's Word, refuse transgression and disobedience that would offend God, refuse to join in others' worldly schemes and customs, and take a course that rebukes them. Rejection of truthful reproof does not make the messenger evil, but reflects the world's rejection of Christ and the Father whom opposers do not know.
Those who persecute people who love and fear God are deluded by Satan. Their suffering belongs within the conflict between the party led by Satan and the party led by Jesus, endured for His name by those who bear it. When the servant's message is rejected, the servant is to keep working and sowing the seeds of truth.
Foretold to Strengthen Witness
Christ gave the warning beforehand so that when expulsion from synagogues and killing by those who think they serve God comes, His followers will remember what He said and will not be intimidated or cast down. The foreknowledge that reproach would repeat what He Himself endured was meant to keep them from abandoning faith to escape dishonor and pain, and to hold them faithful in trial without discouragement or doubt. He knew every phase of experience, conflict, and manifold affliction they would meet from the world, and He spoke plainly to prepare them for the time of trial and great temptation to lose faith in a dark, troubled future. This belongs to the encouragement and hope of John 14, 15, and 16, spoken to comfort and strengthen disciples whose faith and courage would be severely tried, even by trials coming through unconverted believers.
The warning imparts courage to stand fast in the most trying hour, bringing strength and assurance to true believers as long as time shall last. Suffering for His name in carrying the gospel is part of following the Master's path through peril, loss, and suffering, not evidence that the mission has failed or is false. Opposition tests and develops faith, patience, trust in God, and other virtues, for consistent lives expose and condemn the world's way of acting and serving and therefore are hated as Christ was hated before them. Those who refuse the disciples and the heaven-sent message they carry reject Christ Himself.
With the dark warning He gave the bright promise of the Comforter who would testify of Christ, and the disciples too would bear witness without discouragement or doubt. Those who do God's work and plainly lift Him up to lead others to Him should expect the world's hatred, as Christ was hated without cause and persecuted before them. Those chosen out of the world cannot expect better treatment than their Lord, so the persecution done to Him will also be done to them and the obedience given to His word will also be given to theirs.
Yet those so chosen may still be filled with joy, for He desires His own joy to remain in them and their joy to be full. Bearing much fruit glorifies the Father and marks them as His disciples, and keeping His commandments and living peculiar from the world gives the privilege of claiming His blessing and a whole salvation through His cleansing blood and whole sacrifice against Satan's pressing darkness that says they cannot be saved. For their faith many will be cut off from house and heritage here, yet by giving their hearts to Christ, receiving the message of His grace, and resting upon their Substitute and Surety, even the Son of God, they may still be filled with joy, serving God with all heart, might, mind, and strength as children of God in love to one another as He loved.
Obedience and Present Application
John 15 calls for abiding in Christ through a living, vital connection as branches to the vine, distinguishing true branches from spurious ones. Love for Christ is evidenced by keeping His commandments, which is the Bible test for those who have received light. This is the same lesson as receiving and living by His Word, for those who truly believe and take the Word into practical life obey it and have eternal life. When this instruction is lived out it brings unity with one another and with Christ and helps God's people stand the test. It remedies dissension and calls for living in unity with Christ and one another. It requires respecting Christ, having faith in Him, entrusting helpless souls to the hope in His promises, and living those promises before the world.
Christ commands His followers to love one another and to represent Him through love and service that helps souls rather than turning away from need. Everyone who remains in the living vine has something to do, and maintaining the sacredness of character that belongs to the Christian is revealed in love for souls. There is no peace to be obtained by uniting interests with the world, for the world cannot receive the truth because it does not know the Father or the Son, though Christ draws it and it refuses to come to know Him. Therefore when those in sacred trust hold the truth firmly and teach it distinctly and positively, the world will not look on them with favor but will hate and persecute them for Christ's name, so no peace is gained by uniting with unbelievers. True Christians can have no fellowship with the world where judgment is turned backward and truth is fallen, because they represent a truth that works against all its ambitious plans, and every ray of light given to living human agencies is to shine amid the moral darkness that envelopes the world.
The work of saving souls moves forward through aggressive warfare amid opposition, peril, loss, and human suffering. Christianity is worked out in self-denial and cross-bearing, because Christ by His own experience marked out no easy and flattering path to heaven. Christ's goodness and strict integrity set Him apart from the world and drew its hatred, and those who display the same qualities can expect similar hatred, increasingly evident as the end of time approaches. The same hatred without cause that Christ faced comes upon His people because they obey God's commandments and do His works, and rejection of truth and obedience can lead persecutors to support oppressive human laws against God's people, for which disciples should be prepared for arrest and judgment under human laws that oppose God's law. Stepping away from the world's customs to obey God, including keeping the Sabbath, requires bearing a cross and may bring hostility even within families. Such suffering, hindrance, and humiliation are to be expected by those Christ has chosen out of the world.
The verse is to be taken to heart as a call to bear the cross and endure difficulty for Christ's name. That call exposes lack of love and lack of resignation to suffer, and points to sacred union with God in which the salvation of God is seen in a remarkable manner. It requires immediate readiness before standing in review at the Judgment, humbling of soul before God, confession where wrong has been done, and letting light shine forth because the Lord is working, showing the great work Jesus must do for believers. Christians must not become fretted and impatient in contact with worldly men but keep the temper whatever is said or done, put away irritated feelings, personal pride, and self-sufficiency, and maintain an untarnished Christlike reputation through faith in Christ. When the servant's message is rejected, the servant is to keep working and sowing the seeds of truth, holding with the dark warning the bright hopeful promise of the Comforter and the calling as His witnesses, while those who persecute people who love and fear God are deluded.
Practicing the lessons of the true vine means working as a co-worker with Christ to save even an adversary through whom the enemy works to injure, who has treated one badly and hurt the soul, yet stands like a sheep bleating about the fold with confessions and pleadings for another trial. Obedience requires accepting the confessions, opening the door of hope instead of closing it, and welcoming the erring one to the fold without asking for promises and without evidence of marked change of character. It requires calling that person to die to self and live unto Christ, to behold no human being but fix the eye upon Jesus as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, and to accept and lift up Jesus and yoke up with Him so as to be an overcomer, lest there be a fall into snare and bitter reflection. People whose lives are ruled by worldly values do not have Christ's words abiding in their hearts, and their selfishness and disregard for the needy reveal a character unlike Christ's, who gave Himself to serve and uplift others. Their conduct is recorded and weighed as a measure of moral worth and whether they can be trusted with heaven's eternal riches. Christ's works and the influence of His Spirit are resisted because people do not come up to the standard it is their privilege to reach, yet God sent Jesus to make it possible for humanity to grasp divinity and for divinity to lift up humanity into oneness with God. That privilege of unity is to be claimed by taking hold of the divine nature and becoming a partaker of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust, for humanity and divinity combined bring oneness with God.