Wednesday in the Word...John 15:18-25...In hate there is love?

The hatred and persecution of the world for being a Christian is hard to take.  Our earthly desire is to hate and persecute back.  How do we keep God's command to love our enemies?  Jesus gives us and His disciples a new way to look at what is really happening when someone says "I don't like you!"

Today's Wednesday in the Word will cover John chapter 15 and verses 18 through 25 which read,

v.18 - “If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you." 

After speaking of loving one another, Jesus gives us the reality of the world that we live in.  It is a broken world that runs on hate and some hate is coming the way of the followers of Jesus.  Jesus tells His disciples and us that just as He loved us before we loved Him, He was hated before we were hated.  Jesus has led the way in how to love and also in how to respond to the hate.  We have a Savior who goes before us on both fronts.

v.19 - "If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you." 

Because this hate is coming at you from the world, it is actually a sign that you are not of the world.  Any hate is hard to take but the upside is the realization of being one who has been taken out of the world by God.  It seems odd to say but you really want to be hated by the world because of Christ.  The world hates you because God's love for you has been realized by you as God's gift of grace through faith in Jesus' life, death, and resurrection.

v.20 - "Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A slave is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; if they kept My word, they will keep yours also."

If Jesus is the master and He was persecuted, then we who are the slaves will obviously be persecuted too.  This should not be a surprise.  No one likes persecution but it is a fact of life for the Christian.  But...if someone is a Christian and keeping God's word, those Christians will keep their word with one another also.  You are a part of a tight family that is loyal to one another as we together endure the persecution of the world.  While we don't like persecution, we are so thankful for the true family of God that operates on God's command to love one another.

v.21 - "But all these things they will do to you for My name’s sake, because they do not know the One who sent Me." 

Jesus wants us to remember why the persecution and hate is coming.  It is hard not to take it personally but Jesus says it is because of our association with Him.  He is the focal point of the persecution and hate.  They are responding this way because they don't know God and therefore they don't know Jesus.  They don't know the God who so loved this broken world that He sent His One and only Son.  Instead of repenting and responding to God's love, they are are resisting and running the other way.

v.22 - "If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin." 

Think opposites here.  Jesus did come and Jesus did speak to them.  Jesus made Himself very known to them.  He spoke, He healed, and He did miracles verified by them and what did they do?  Did they believe?  No, they have the sin of disbelief.  They have no excuse for this sin of disbelief because Jesus has made Himself known to them over and over again.  He didn't hide behind a tree or reside in the dark alleys.  Jesus at times was so open about who He was that His opponents were picking up rocks to stone Him for saying that He was God.  

v.23 - "He who hates Me hates My Father also." 

Those picking up the stones didn't just hate Jesus but they also hated God.  They probably wouldn't say that but Jesus teaches us and His disciples that you can't have one without the other.  Today many people love Jesus but hate God but that is not possible.  If you hate one, you hate the other and if you love one, you love the other.  The reason the world thinks it can divide the two is because they don't see Jesus and the Father as one.  They create the Jesus of the New Testament to look like a Hollywood hunk waving a rainbow flag while they paint the God of the Old Testament to look like the grim reaper pointing His bony finger.

v.24 - "If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would not have sin; but now they have both seen and hated Me and My Father as well."

In verse 22 the emphasis was on what Jesus said and this verse the emphasis is on what Jesus did, His works.  These are works described here as things that no one else has done.  When you think of what Jesus did, especially mentioning the raising people from the dead, the category is correct.  No one has done what Jesus did and how did they respond?  The answer is the same as before.  They committed the sin of disbelief.  They didn't believe and they hated Jesus which in turn means they hated God too.  Maybe they thought they loved God by hating Jesus, like Saul also known as Paul, but he found out on the Damascus Road that he was wrong.  Not only is Jesus connected to God but Jesus is connected to His children.  Jesus said to Saul/Paul, "Why are you persecuting Me?"  But was Saul/Paul persecuting Jesus directly?  It seems he was just throwing Christians in jail but Jesus is equating those Christians with His very self just like He is with His Father God.

v.25 - "But they have done this to fulfill the word that is written in their Law, ‘They hated Me without a cause.’"

So the hatred and the persecutions of the world toward Jesus was actually to fulfill what the Scriptures had already said.  Jesus the Messiah would come and make Himself known through His words and His works and the result prophesied would be a rejection by His own.  They are without cause because they not only were eye witnesses of His power but they were the holders of the Scriptures that spoke of Him and their actions.  Their hate and persecution are not a surprise to Jesus and therefore their hate and persecution of Christ's followers should not be a surprise either.  In a weird way, this type of hate and persecution is a comfort to the Christian because of Jesus' words given here.  Ironically, the hate of world confirms God's love for His own.

Adam