John 15:18-25

¹⁸"If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated Me first. ¹⁹If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. ²⁰Remember the words I spoke to you: 'No servant is greater than his master' [John 13:16]. If they persecuted Me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed My teaching, they will obey yours also. ²¹They will treat you this way because of My name, for they do not know the One who sent Me. ²²If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin. Now, however, they have no excuse for their sin. ²³He who hates Me hates My Father as well. ²⁴If I had not done among them what no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin. But now they have seen these miracles, and yet they have hated both Me and My Father. ²⁵But this is to fulfill what is written in their Law: 'They hated Me without reason' [Psalms 35:19; 69:4]."

Jesus is warning the disciples of impending persecution in v18-20. He uses the word hate repeatedly. He’s saying that God’s pruning will come to them in the form of persecution. (Calvin says here that a preacher of the whole and true gospel will never be able to escape the world’s hatred.) In the opening verses of chapter 16, when He tells them why He’s saying these things, in order that they might know in advance and not be caught off guard; He even speaks of their impending death. Perhaps John was thinking of the death of his brother, James (Acts 12:2) as he recorded these words from his memory. Who knows what form God’s pruning shears will work in our lives? Have you experienced pruning that you’d like to share?

If the disciples have learned one thing well, throughout the course of their time with Jesus, it is that the world as a whole is opposed to Him and hates Him. Ultimately, this is because the world loves their own father, the devil, and hates God (as we saw in John 8:31-47). Jesus came to reveal the Father to men; and when men hated Jesus, they showed that they hated God the Father, even while they were claiming to worship Him. Furthermore, we see the reason the world will hate Jesus’ disciples – they are not of the world (anymore). Jesus has chosen them out of the world (this means “set apart” or sanctified. Yet, as Jesus will pray in John 17, disciples of Christ are to remain in the world (physically) but be not of the world (spiritually). By the word “world,” Jesus is referring to a massive number of unregenerate souls serving their father, the devil, in darkness.

Jesus tells His disciples in v20 to remember that no servant is greater than his master. When the world hates us, it is only because the world hates Jesus; when sinners turn to Christ for forgiveness and righteousness as a result of our evangelism, it is only because they heed the words of Christ spoken to them internally by the Holy Spirit. Thus when the world rages in hatred against Christians, it is out of ignorance, for they suppress the knowledge they have of the Creator God and act in ignorance to the reality of His presence and impending judgment.

V22, along with v24, has often been used to suggest that the only sin is that of unbelief. There are vast theological problems with this assessment. Just to mention one, consider that if this assessment was true, it would be a grievous error to proclaim the gospel to foreign lands; they would certainly be better off to have never heard of Jesus, than to have heard and thereby been forced to decide one way or another. Jesus is declaring, rather, that His words to the Jews serve as the final element of revelation that they will receive – with their willful rejection of Christ, they are making their final decision on their eternal destiny. This is much like Romans, where Paul gives all of the benefits of being Jewish. It’s not enough.

Jesus’ words and actions among the people, then, served as the final stamp of their wickedness and just condemnation. Even if they had an excuse for their sins (ignorance) before Jesus came (which they didn’t), their unwarranted rejection of Him left them without excuse; although this, too, was a fulfillment of prophecy (see Psalm 35:19; 69:4). How unreasonable it is to hate God! Yet the world at large did so by their denial of Jesus Christ; but Jesus had chosen His disciples out of the world, and so it would be different with them. They loved Jesus, and hence, the Father; but the world would hate them,, and hence, the Father. This is the exclusivity of the Christian faith. One cannot love God and despise Jesus; one cannot love God and fail to worship Jesus as only Savior and Lord. This is from the mouth of Jesus Himself! For us, when the world crashes down, our reply – abiding in Jesus – ought to be to quote Scripture. “Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him” (Job 13:15).