“If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours. But all these things they will do to you on account of my name, because they do not know him who sent me. If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have been guilty of sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin. Whoever hates me hates my Father also. If I had not done among them the works that no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin, but now they have seen and hated both me and my Father. But the word that is written in their Law must be fulfilled: ‘They hated me without a cause.’ But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me. And you also will bear witness, because you have been with me from the beginning.”

The hour is at hand, the cross draws ever closer, and the work of Christ is on the cusp of completion. We’ve seen a shift in Jesus’s teaching during, and especially after the final Passover, and in knowing what is coming very soon, this makes sense. Jesus is about to endure suffering, the likes of which the world had never seen, and never would see again. The disciples were about to be thrust headfirst into a whirlwind of doubt and confusion, as their Messiah is arrested and crucified. Jesus tells them in John 16:20,

“… You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn into joy,”

And this is absolutely true, but that doesn’t mean that before the joy comes, they won’t be drowned in sorrow. Knowing that this is coming, we see Jesus recap crucial pieces of information, and offer words of comfort and encouragement before heading to the Garden of Gethsemane where He will be arrested. In this week’s passage, we see Jesus offer up words that may give some hope during the time between the cross and the empty tomb, but they seem to specifically address the opposition and oppression that those who follow Him will face after the ascension. His words are given as an assurance to those who have heard His voice, who have been made new in Him, who were born to glorify God, and to be hated by the world.

Born to be Hated

One of the most disconcerting things I’ve ever experienced is to receive unexpected hatred, venom, or violence. I’m not saying that enduring these things is a picnic when you know they’re coming, but they can be all the more damaging for the surprise. You enter a situation operating in a particular headspace, and for the most part, you know how you got there. Your generally peaceful or friendly disposition makes sense to you, it seems like the reasonable response to whatever the situation is. You can logically justify to yourself as to why you’re approaching things the way you are, and you don’t see any reason for hostility or conflict. Suddenly there’s screaming, there are angry words, and threats. The olive branch you were extending is snatched from your hand and used to beat you over the head. Not only do you have to stand before the unpleasantness and potential harm of the individual or group that is so enraged against you, but you have to work through the confusion of why you’re on the receiving end of their fury. While navigating the treacherous waters of a social interaction turned hostile, your mind has the added stress of playing catch up, trying to figure out how you ended up where you are now, and why you’ve become the focal point of another’s outpouring of rage. This is difficult on an individual level, person to person, social group to social group, and scales up as it gets larger. If a stranger hates you without cause that can be unpleasant, troublesome, or dangerous, but it’s also limited in its scope. If an entire group of people hate you because of your ethnic background, place of birth, or religious beliefs, that is considerably worse than one person hating you because of some perceived wrong. As Christians we should never be surprised when the world reveals its hatred of us. This can be difficult to keep in focus because in most of the free world today, we don’t face threats of physical violence or oppression. When you have emperor Nero literally using the burning bodies of Christians as streetlamps, it’s easy to identify that we’re hated. When ISIS painted Christian homes with a mark to identify them as “Nazarenes,” singling them out for persecution, it’s easy to identify that we’re hated. But Satan didn’t run into the garden and plunge a dagger into Adam’s heart. The serpent didn’t lunge at Eve, hissing and spitting with venomous fangs, leaving her hurt and dying. The enemy lies, twists and deceives. The long game of our opposition is not simply the bodily death of our flesh, but to place us in a position of rebellion against God, by any means necessary. Jesus said plainly in Matthew 10:28,

“And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.”

So whether the sway and nature of the world is encouraging us to fear it, or lulling us so that we start to lose our fear of anything at all, keep your eyes trained on the Truth of the Word. We are hated – we will always be hated. And as much as we may be despised, we are secondary recipients, simply receiving the same treatment that is aimed at the perfect and holy Savior, Christ Jesus.

1. The World Hates the Son

“If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.”

What we can understand from today’s passage is that Jesus is the recipient of hate to the highest degree. Saved in Christ, made new in the Spirit, we receive this same hatred, but secondarily. Paul writes in Romans 8:29,

“For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.”

We are raised up, made co-heirs with Christ – but Jesus is eternally the firstborn, the Chief inheritor. What we receive both in the glory of eternity, and in contempt from the world is like what Jesus has received, but not equal to it. This stands as an immense comfort. Hebrews 4:15–16 tells us,

“For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”

We are not alone, and we are not the forerunners of our faith. The Way that we walk was cleared and paved by the work and Word and blood of Jesus. The world did not understand, and hated Christ, and they hate us as Christians who follow Him. This discord between the Truth of God and the world is a core theme of Scripture, covered over and over again. We can see is in Jesus’s discourse with the ruling Jews in John 8:42–47,

“Jesus said to them, ‘If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and I am here. I came not of my own accord, but he sent me. Why do you not understand what I say? It is because you cannot bear to hear my word. You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies. But because I tell the truth, you do not believe me. Which one of you convicts me of sin? If I tell the truth, why do you not believe me? Whoever is of God hears the words of God. The reason why you do not hear them is that you are not of God.’”

Paul addressed this matter on much more than one occasion, but we see is summed up in 2 Corinthians 4:4–5,

“In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake.”

One of the best examples, simply put, and stark in its contrast is James 4:4, which tells us,

“You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.”

We have two very clear options – either we go with the course of the culture, we make peace with our sin nature and the world, and we choose war with God, or we follow God and find ourselves as enemies of the world. Jesus reminds His disciples (and us), that He chose them out of the world, which calls us back to much of the message of the Good Shepherd passage of John 10. Jesus stated in John 10:2–5,

“But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the gatekeeper opens. The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. A stranger they will not follow, but they will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers.”

In being called to Christ in this way, we are transformed, made new – we are reborn. Jesus covered this in John 3:1–6,

“Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, ‘Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.’ Jesus answered him, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.’  Nicodemus said to him, ‘How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?’ Jesus answered, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.’”

We are all born of flesh when our lives begin, and that flesh causes us by our very nature to sin. When we are called to Christ we are born again, new in the Spirit. In being born new we enter into the love of God, but we also become recipients of the same hatred that the world pours out on the Son.

2. The World Hates the Father

“Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours. But all these things they will do to you on account of my name, because they do not know him who sent me. If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have been guilty of sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin. Whoever hates me hates my Father also. If I had not done among them the works that no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin, but now they have seen and hated both me and my Father.”

Consider something for a moment – the entirety of the Christian faith stands upon Christ resurrected. Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 15:17–20,

“And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied. But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.”

Jesus cannot be raised from the dead if He did not die, affirming that, before we can stand on the legitimacy of His resurrection, we must stand on the legitimacy of His death. We preach Christ, not just killed, but crucified. When Jesus says, “If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you,” it bears remembering that His persecution culminated in His death on a cross. While every Christian doesn’t face literal crucifixion, it’s helpful to keep in mind that if the world’s power was what had final say, this is what would be done to the message of the gospel – utter destruction in the most humiliating, shameful way possible. When we are ignored, looked down upon, belittled, mislabeled, judged and condescended to, it should come as no surprise. We follow Christ, the world in its wickedness hates Christ, and a servant is not greater than his master. We saw this expressed by Jesus earlier in John’s gospel, after washing the disciples feet in John 13:16,

“Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him.”

Jesus communicates the same message in a different setting in Matthew 10:24–25

“A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master. It is enough for the disciple to be like his teacher, and the servant like his master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign those of his household.”

It’s not hard to grasp the meaning and implications of this, but if we want a real-world example from Scripture, we can see one in 1 Samuel 31:1–6, at the death of the first king of Isreal, Saul of Gibeah,

“Now the Philistines were fighting against Israel, and the men of Israel fled before the Philistines and fell slain on Mount Gilboa. And the Philistines overtook Saul and his sons, and the Philistines struck down Jonathan and Abinadab and Malchi-shua, the sons of Saul. The battle pressed hard against Saul, and the archers found him, and he was badly wounded by the archers. Then Saul said to his armor-bearer, ‘Draw your sword, and thrust me through with it, lest these uncircumcised come and thrust me through, and mistreat me.’ But his armor-bearer would not, for he feared greatly. Therefore Saul took his own sword and fell upon it. And when his armor-bearer saw that Saul was dead, he also fell upon his sword and died with him. Thus Saul died, and his three sons, and his armor-bearer, and all his men, on the same day together.”

Far from being a commendation for suicide, this helps us see the dynamic between a king and one of his closest servants, and that Saul’s armor bearer expected no better treatment from their enemies than his master would have received. Jesus’s declaration in today’s passage, “If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have been guilty of sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin,” ties us back to John 9:41, where Jesus told some of the Pharisees,

“If you were blind, you would have no guilt; but now that you say, ‘We see,’ your guilt remains.”

This ties back to John 3:17–21, where Jesus told Nicodemus,

“For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.”

Sin exists in a fallen world, but without the Light of Christ, we lack the contrast to see it. His very presence is judgement upon darkness, because He reveals that the darkness is there. Now sometimes we can get bogged down in the nature of Jesus as the Son. The world hates Christ, the world crucified Christ, the Son offered up His life that we might know salvation – all of this is true. But it all has to be taken into proper context with what Jesus said in John 10:30,

“I and the Father are one.”

As He puts it so succinctly in today’s passage, “Whoever hates me hates my Father also.”

To reference James 4:4 once again, “friendship with the world is enmity with God.”

 When you hate the Son, you by default hate the Father because the two are One. This helps us understand that the world, which sought the death of Christ; the world, which opposes the Truth of the gospel, does not limit itself to the singular person of Christ, but aims higher, rebelling against the Father, as well as the Son.

3. The World Hates the Spirit

“But the word that is written in their Law must be fulfilled: ‘They hated me without a cause.’ But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me. And you also will bear witness, because you have been with me from the beginning.”

To the matter of hating without cause, we see this addressed repeatedly in Psalms, with a few examples being, Psalm 35:7–8,

“For without cause they hid their net for me; without cause they dug a pit for my life. Let destruction come upon him when he does not know it! And let the net that he hid ensnare him; let him fall into it—to his destruction!”

Psalm 35:19,

“Let not those rejoice over me who are wrongfully my foes, and let not those wink the eye who hate me without cause.”

Psalm 69:1–4,

“Save me, O God! For the waters have come up to my neck. I sink in deep mire, where there is no foothold; I have come into deep waters, and the flood sweeps over me. I am weary with my crying out; my throat is parched. My eyes grow dim with waiting for my God. More in number than the hairs of my head are those who hate me without cause; mighty are those who would destroy me, those who attack me with lies. What I did not steal must I now restore?”

Psalm 69:9,

“For zeal for your house has consumed me, and the reproaches of those who reproach you have fallen on me.”

This is not to say that the wicked don’t think they have a right or cause for persecution, but that their motives are twisted and warped, not grounded in Truth. They don’t pursue righteousness, they operate under personal motives. We’ve seen throughout this passage that Jesus is both giving warning, and comfort to His disciples, and by extension, to us, while also painting a picture of the scope of the hatred the world holds for righteousness. As He addresses the matter of the “Helper” of the Holy Spirit, something should hopefully click (if it hasn’t already) – the world hates God entirely. This isn’t some partial thing, some lukewarm opposition. It is firm, it is final, and it is infected to the very core. The world hates the person of the Son, hates the Creator and Invisible God that is the Father, and hates the Spirit that indwells each and every believer. The world opposes the Spirit that drives the Great Commission, the command we see given in Matthew 28:19–20,

“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

While we operate as those who have already been delivered to victory, we cannot lose sight of the true nature of the world and of the enemy – because as long as we are blessed to hold a clear view of the Light, we cannot help but see the darkness for what it truly is. We see this contrast from an eternal standpoint at the end of Revelation. What awaits us is eternity praising the Father in His presence. No sin, no separation, entering into a place of harmony, peace and perfection that we cannot fully comprehend with mortal minds. Conversely, we see what awaits the world, those in open rebellion against the Lord, in Revelation 20:11–15,

“Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. From his presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done. And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done. Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.”

And Revelation 21:8,

“But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.”

The world is broken, and the world will be broken until it is destroyed. But we don’t acknowledge this with sorrow, but in triumph. We are called out of the world, made lights to the world, and blessed to share the redemptive Truth of Christ. We have the joy of knowing that as we are rejected, so our Lord and Savior was rejected first, and that in solidarity with Him, we are not without hope. We are armored in righteousness, we march forward in peace, with faith on our arm, and the hope of salvation upon our brow. We are more than conquerors by His provision, blessed to share what we’ve been given to all who might receive it, until we leave this world we sojourn in, and go home.

Pastor Chris’s sermon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VytcILz5MSs