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Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of John 15:18

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If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before [it hated] you.

18. ye know that it hated me ] Better, know that it hath hated me (comp. Joh 15:20). As in Joh 14:1 the principal verb may be either indicative or imperative, and the imperative is preferable: the second verb is the perfect indicative, of that which has been and still is the case.

before it hated you ] ‘It hated’ is an insertion by our translators, and ‘before you’ is literally ‘first of you,’ like ‘before me’ in Joh 1:15 (see note there) and 30; excepting that here we have the adverb and there the adjective.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

18 25. The Hatred of the World to both Him and them

In strong contrast to the love and union between Christ and His disciples and among the disciples themselves is the hatred of the world to Him and them. He gives them these thoughts to console them in encountering this hatred of the world. (1) It hated Him first: in this trial also He has shewn them the way. (2) The hatred of the world proves that they are not of the world. (3) They are sharing their Master’s lot, whether the world rejects or accepts their preaching. (4) They will suffer this hatred not only with Him, but for His sake. All this tends to shew that the very hatred of the world intensifies their union with Him.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

If the world hate you – The friendship of the world they were not to expect, but they were not to be deterred from their work by its hatred. They had seen the example of Jesus. No opposition of the proud, the wealthy, the learned, or the men of power, no persecution or gibes, had deterred him from his work. Remembering this, and having his example steadily in the eye, they were to labor not less because wicked men should oppose and deride them. It is enough for the disciple to be as his Master, and the servant as his Lord, Mat 10:25.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Joh 15:18-25

If the world hate you

Kosmos: unregenerate humanity

is here presented.

I. AS GLOWING WITH HATE.

1. It was a hatred of goodness. To hate the mean, the selfish, the false, the dishonest, and morally dishonourable would be right. But evil was not the object of their hatred.

(1) It was good as embodied in the life of Christ. It hated Me before it hated you. How deep, burning, persistent, and cruelly operative was this enmity from Bethlehem to Calvary.

(2) It was good as reflected in His disciples. Just so far as they imbibed and reflected the Spirit of Christ were they hated. For My names sake.

2. It was a hatred developed in persecution. It was not a hatred that slumbered in a passion or that went off even in abusive language, it prompted the infliction of the greatest cruelties. The history of true Christians in all ages has been a history of persecution.

3. It was a hatred without a just reason. Without a cause. Of course they had a cause. The doctrines of goodness clashed with their deep rooted prejudices, its policy with their daily procedure, its eternal principles flashed on their consciences and exposed their wickedness. But their

cause was the very reason why they ought to have loved Christ. Christ knew and stated the cause of the hatred (Joh 15:19).

4. It was a hatred forming a strong reason for brotherly love amongst the disciples. Christ begins His forewarning them of it by urging them to love one another (Joh 15:17). As your enemies outside of you are strong in their passionate hostility towards you, be you compactly welded together in mutual love. Unity is strength.

II. AS LOADED WITH RESPONSIBILITY (Joh 15:22). These words must, of course, be taken in their comparative sense. Before He came amongst them the guilt of their nation had been augmenting for centuries, and they had been, filling up the measure of their iniquities. But great as was their sin before He came it was trifling compared to it now since His advent amongst them.

1. Had He not come they would not have known the sin of hating Him. Hatred towards the best of beings, the incarnation of goodness, is sin in its most malignant form, it was the culmination of human depravity. But had they not known Him they could not have hated Him, the heart is dead to all objects outside the region of knowledge.

2. Had He not come they would not have rejected Him. He came to His own and His own received Him not. The rejection of Him involved the most wicked folly, the most heartless ingratitude, the most daring impiety. If they which despised Moses law died without mercy under two witnesses, etc.

3. If He had not come they would not have crucified Him. What crime on the long black catalogue of human wickedness is to be compared to this?

Conclusion:

1. Good men accept the moral hostility of the unregenerate world. Your great Master taught you to accept it. It is in truth a test of your character and an evidence of your Christliness.

2. Nominal Christians read your doom. (D. Thomas, D. D.)

The world

The children of this world as distinguished from the children of God. Called the world as indicating number, confederacy, and spirit. Three characteristics.

I. GOVERNED BY SENSE.

II. LIVING FOR THE PRESENT.

III. RULED BY THE OPINIONS AND CUSTOMS OF MEN. (W. H. Van Doren, D. D.)

The world

The world of Johns day we know, as to its actual condition, from other sources. Let anyone turn over the pages of Tacitus, Martial, or Persius, and what he learns will put colour into Johns outlines: nay, one dare not say, turn over their pages, for some of them can scarcely be read without hurt by the saintliest living. The same world–at heart–we still find in the present century, under modern conditions. It has grown in wealth. It has become civilized and refined. Law has become a mightier thing. The glory of science was never half so radiant. But, looking close in, we still find the old facts–a dislike of God and love of sin, pride and self-sufficiency, a godless and selfish use of things men hating one another, selfishness fighting selfishness–an infinite mass of misery. Look beyond the borders of comfort and respectability, and think of what exists today round about us. Think of the unblest poverty that is growing side by side with enormous wealth and luxury, associated in many cases with vice and crime, crushing the spirit in ways that comfortable people cannot understand, and frequently aggravated by the temper in which it is borne, and by added evils which do not properly belong to it. Think of the ignorance that has grown to such proportions under the very shadow of our schools and churches. (J. Culross, D. D.)

Sheep among wolves

1. These words strike a discord in the midst of sweet music. The keynote of all that has preceded has been love, and just because it binds the disciples to Christ in a sacred community, it separates them from those who do not share in His life, and hence there result two communities–the Church and the World; and the antagonism between these is perpetual.

2. Our Lord is here speaking with special reference to the apostles, who were sent forth as sheep in the midst of wolves. If we may trust tradition, every one of that little company died a martyrs death, with the exception of John. But there is no more reason for restricting the force of these words to the hearer,, than there is for restricting any of the rest of this discourse.

I. WHAT MAKES THIS HOSTILITY INEVITABLE? Our Lord here prepares His hearers for what is coming by putting it in the gentle form of an hypothesis.

The frequency with which if occurs in this section is rely remarkable, but the tense of the original shows us that, whilst the form is hypothetical, the substance of it is prophetic. Jesus points to two things which make this hostility inevitable.

1. If we share Christs life, we must necessarily, in some measure, share His fate (verse 18). He is the typical example of what the world thinks of, and does to, goodness. And all who have the spirit of life which was in Jesus Christ will come under the same influences which carried Him to the cross. In a world like this it is impossible for a man to love righteousness and hate iniquity, and to order his life accordingly, without treading on somebodys corns.

2. And then (verse 19), there are two bands, and the fundamental principles that underlie each are in deadly antagonism. We stand in diametrical opposition in thought about God, self, duty, life, death, the future; and that opposition goes right down to the bottom of things, and, however it may be covered over, there is a gulf, as in some of those American cations: the towering banks may be very near–but a yard or two seems to separate them; but they go down for thousands and thousands of feet, and never get any nearer each other, and between them at the bottom a black, sullen river flows. If the world loves you it is because ye are of it.

II. HOW THIS HOSTILITY IS MASKED AND MODIFIED.

1. There are a great many bonds that unite men together besides religion or its absence. There are the domestic ties, the associations of commerce and neighbourhood, surface identities of opinion. We have all the same affections and needs, do the same sort of things. So there is a film of roofing thrown over the gulf. You can make up a crack in a wall with plaster after a fashion, and it will hide the solution of continuity that lies beneath. But, let bad weather come, and the bricks gape apart as before. And so, as soon as we get down below the surface of things and come to grapple with real, deep-lying, and formative principles of a life, we come to antagonism.

2. Then the world has got a dash of Christianity into it. Thus Christian men and others have, to a large extent, a common code of morality, as long as you keep on the surface; and do a great many things from substantially the same motives. And thus the gulf is partly bridged over; and so the hostility takes another form. We do not wrap Christians up in pitch and stick them up for candles in the emperors garden nowadays, but the same thing can be done in different ways. Newspaper articles, the light laugh of scorn, the whoop of exultation over the failures or faults of any prominent man that has stood out boldly on Christs side; all these indicate what lies below the surface, and sometimes not so very far below. Many a young man in a warehouse, trying to live a godly life, many a workman, commercial traveller, student, has to find out that there is a great gulf between him and the man that sits close to him; and that he cannot be faithful to his Lord and at the same time down to the depths of his being a friend of one who has no friendship to his Master.

3. And again the world has a conscience that responds to goodness, though grumblingly. After all, men do know that it is better and wiser to be like Christ, and that cannot but modify to some extent the manifestations of the hostility. But it is there all the same. Let a man for Christs sake avow unpopular beliefs, let him boldly seek to apply Christian principles to the fashionable and popular sins of his class or of his country, and what a chorus will be yelping at his heels! The law remains still, if any man will be a friend of the world he is at enmity wish God.

III. HOW YOU MAY ESCAPE THE HOSTILITY. A half-Christianized world and a more than half-secularised Church get on well together. And it is a miserable thing to reflect that about the average Christianity of this generation there is so very little that does deserve the antagonism of the world. Why should the world care to hate a professing Church, large tracts of which are only a bit of the world under another name? If you want to escape the hostility drop your flag, button your coat over the badge that shows that you belong to Christ, and do the thing that the people round about you do, and you will have a perfectly easy and undisturbed life. Of course, a Christianity that winks at commercial immoralities is very welcome on the exchange, a Christianity that lets beer barrels alone may reckon upon having publicans for its adherents, a Christianity that blesses flags and sings Te Deums over victories will get its share of the spoil. If the world can put a hook in the nostrils of leviathan, and make him play with its maidens, it will substitute good nature, half contemptuous, for the hostility which our Master here predicts. Christian men and woman I be you sure that you deserve the hostility which my text predicts.

IV. HOW TO MEET THIS ANTAGONISM.

1. Reckon it as a sign and test of our true union with Jesus Christ. Let us count the reproach of Christ as a treasure to be proud of, and to be guarded.

2. Be sure that it is your goodness, and not your evils or your weakness, that men dislike. The world has a very keen eye, and it is a good thing that it has, for the faults of professing Christians. Many bring down a great deal of deserved hostility upon themselves and of discredit upon Christianity; and then they comfort themselves and say they are bearing the reproach of the Cross. Not a bit of it. Be you careful for this, that it is Christ in you that men turn from, and not you yourself and your weakness and sin.

3. Meet this antagonism by not dropping your standard one inch. If you begin to haul it down where are you going to stop? Nowhere, until you have got it draggling in the mud at your foot. It is no use trying to conciliate by compromise. All that we shall gain by that will be indifference and contempt.

4. Meet hostility with unmoved, patient, Christ-like, and Christ-derived love and sympathy. The patient sunshine pours upon the glaciers and melts the thick-ribbed ice at last into sweet water. The patient sunshine beats upon the mist clouds and breaks up its edges and scatters it at the last. And our Lord here tells us that our experience, if we are faithful to Him, will be like His experience, in that some will hearken to our word though others will persecute, and to some our testimony will come as a message from God that draws them to the Lord Himself. The only conqueror of the world is the love that was in Christ breathed through us. The only way to overcome the worlds hostility is by turning the world into a church. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)

Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell

Verse 18. If the world hate you] As the followers of Christ were to be exposed to the hatred of the world, it was no small consolation to them to know that that hatred would be only in proportion to their faith and holiness; and that, consequently, instead of being troubled at the prospect of persecution, they should rejoice, because that should always be a proof to them that they were in the very path in which Jesus himself had trod. Dr. Lardner thinks that is a substantive, or at least an adjective used substantively, and this clause of the text should be translated thus: If the world hate you, know that it hated me, your CHIEF. It is no wonder that the world should hate you, when it hated me, your Lord and Master, whose lips were without guile, and whose conduct was irreproachable. See the doctor’s vindication of this translation, WORKS, vol. i. p. 306.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

In the latter part of this chapter our Lord cometh to comfort those who were his true disciples, against that third trouble, from the prospect they had of that hatred which the world would pour out and execute upon them, as soon as he should be withdrawn from them. Hatred is rooted and originated in the heart, and is properly a displeasure that the mind taketh at a person, which, fermenting and boiling in the mind, breeds an abhorrence of that person, anger, and malice, and a desire to do him mischief, and root him out; and then breaks out at the lips, by lying, slanders, calumnies, cursings, wishing of evil, &c.; and is executed by the hands, doing to such persons all the harm and mischief within the power of him that hateth: all this is to be understood under the general term

hate. By

the world here must be meant wicked men, in opposition to good men, who are often in Scripture called the world, because they are of the earth, earthly; they relish and savour nothing but worldly things, and pursue nothing but worldly designs. Against this our Saviour comforts them; first by telling them, that this part of the world hated him before it hated them, which must needs be so, because they hated them as his disciples, and for that very reason.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

If the world hate you,…. After our Lord had signified how much he loved his disciples and what great things he had done for them, he faithfully acquaints them with the world’s hatred of them, and what they must expect to meet with from that quarter, and says many things to fortify their minds against it; his words do not imply any doubt about it, but he rather takes it for granted, as a thing out of question; “if”, or “seeing the world hate you”; they had had some experience of it already, and might look for more, when their master was gone from them: wherefore, he, in order to engage their patience under it, says,

ye know that it hated me before it hated you; which words are an appeal of Christ to his apostles, for the usage he had met with from the wicked and unbelieving world of the Jews; how they had expressed their hatred, not only by words, calling him a gluttonous man, and a winebibber, a sinner, a Samaritan, a madman, one that had a devil, yea, Beelzebub himself, but by deeds; taking up stones to stone him more than once, leading him to the brow of an hill, in order to cast him down headlong, consulting by various means to take away his life, as Herod did in his very infancy; which was done, before they showed so much hatred to his disciples; and perhaps reference may be had to the original enmity between the seed of the woman, and the seed of the serpent, mentioned Ge 3:15; as well as to these instances. Moreover, the words , rendered “before you”, may be translated “the first” or “chief of you”, your Lord and head; and denotes the dignity, excellency, and superiority of Christ; wherefore it is suggested, that if he, who was so much before them in personal worth and greatness, was hated by the world, they should not think it hard, or any strange thing, that this should be their case.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

Hatred and Persecution Foretold.

18 If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. 19 If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. 20 Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also. 21 But all these things will they do unto you for my name’s sake, because they know not him that sent me. 22 If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin: but now they have no cloak for their sin. 23 He that hateth me hateth my Father also. 24 If I had not done among them the works which none other man did, they had not had sin: but now have they both seen and hated both me and my Father. 25 But this cometh to pass, that the word might be fulfilled that is written in their law, They hated me without a cause.

Here Christ discourses concerning hatred, which is the character and genius of the devil’s kingdom, as love is of the kingdom of Christ. Observe here,

I. Who they are in whom this hatred is found–the world, the children of this world, as distinguished from the children of God; those who are in the interests of the god of this world, whose image they bear, and whose power they are subject to; all those, whether Jews or Gentiles, who would not come into the church of Christ, which he audibly called, and visibly separates from this evil world. The calling of these the world intimates, 1. Their number; there were a world of people that opposed Christ and Christianity. Lord, how were they increased that troubled the Son of David! I fear, if we should put it to the vote between Christ and Satan, Satan would out-poll us quite. 2. Their confederacy and combination; these numerous hosts are embodied, and are as one, Ps. lxxxiii. 5. Jews and Gentiles, that could agree in nothing else, agreed to persecute Christ’s minister. 3. Their spirit and disposition; they are men of the world (Psa 16:13; Psa 16:14), wholly devoted to this world and the things of it, and never thinking of another world. The people of God, though they are taught to hate the sins of sinners, yet not their persons, but to love and do good to all men. A malicious, spiteful, envious spirit, is not the spirit of Christ, but of the world.

II. Who are they against whom this hatred is levelled-against the disciples of Christ, against Christ himself, and against the Father.

1. The world hates the disciples of Christ: The world hateth you (v. 19); and he speaks of it as that which they must expect and count upon, v. 18, as 1 John iii. 13.

(1.) Observe how this comes in here. [1.] Christ had expressed the great kindness he had for them as friends; but, lest they should be puffed up with this, there was given them, as there was to Paul, a thorn in the flesh, that is, as it is explained there, reproaches and persecutions for Christ’s sake, 2Co 12:7; 2Co 12:10. [2.] He had appointed them their work, but tells them what hardships they should meet with in it, that it might not be a surprise to them, and that they might prepare accordingly. [3.] He had charged them to love one another, and need enough they had to love one another, for the world would hate them; to be kind to one another, for they would have a great deal of unkindness and ill-will from those that were without. “Keep peace among yourselves, and this will fortify you against the world’s quarrels with you.” Those that are in the midst of enemies are concerned to hold together.

(2.) Observe what is here included.

[1.] The world’s enmity against the followers of Christ: it hateth them. Note, Whom Christ blesseth the world curseth. The favourites and heirs of heaven have never been the darlings of this world, since the old enmity was put between the seed of the woman and of the serpent. Why did Cain hate Abel, but because his works were righteous? Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing; Joseph’s brethren hated him because his father loved him; Saul hated David because the Lord was with him; Ahab hated Micaiah because of his prophecies; such are the causeless causes of the world’s hatred.

[2.] The fruits of that enmity, two of which we have here, v. 20. First, They will persecute you, because they hate you, for hatred is a restless passion. It is the common lot of those who will live godly in Christ Jesus to suffer persecution, 2 Tim. iii. 12. Christ foresaw what ill usage his ambassadors would meet with in the world, and yet, for the sake of those few that by their ministry were to be called out of the world, he sent them forth as sheep in the midst of wolves. Secondly, Another fruit of their enmity is implied, that they would reject their doctrine. When Christ says, If they have kept my sayings, they will keep yours, he means, They will keep yours, and regard yours, no more than they have regarded and kept mine. Note, The preachers of the gospel cannot but take the despising of their message to be the greatest injury that can be done to themselves; as it was a great affront to Jeremiah to say, Let us not give heed to any of his words, Jer. xviii. 18.

[3.] The causes of that enmity. The world will hate them,

First, Because they do not belong to it (v. 19): “If you were of the world, of its spirit, and in its interests, if you were carnal and worldly, the world would love you as its own; but, because you are called out of the world, it hates you, and ever will.” Note, 1. We are not to wonder if those that are devoted to the world are caressed by it as its friends; most men bless the covetous,Psa 10:3; Psa 49:18. 2. Nor are we to wonder if those that are delivered from the world are maligned by it as its enemies; when Israel is rescued out of Egypt, the Egyptians will pursue them. Observe, The reason why Christ’s disciples are not of the world is not because they have by their own wisdom and virtue distinguished themselves from the world, but because Christ hath chosen them out of it, to set them apart for himself; and this is the reason why the world hates them; for, (1.) The glory which by virtue of this choice they are designed for sets them above the world, and so makes them the objects of its envy. The saints shall judge the world, and the upright have dominion, and therefore they are hated. (2.) The grace which by virtue of this choice they are endued with sets them against the world; they swim against the stream of the world, and are not conformed to it; they witness against it, and are not conformed to it. This would support them under all the calamities which the world’s hatred would bring upon them, that they were hated because they were the choice and the chosen ones of the Lord Jesus, and were not of the world. Now, [1.] This was no just cause for the world’s hatred of them. If we do any thing to make ourselves hateful, we have reason to lament it; but, if men hate us for that for which they should love and value us, we have reason to pity them, but no reason to perplex ourselves. Nay, [2.] This was just cause for their own joy. He that is hated because he is rich and prospers cares not who has the vexation of it, while he has the satisfaction of it.

–Populus me sibilat, at mihi plaudo

Ipse domi–

–Let them hiss on, he cries,

While in my own opinion fully blessed.

Timon in Hor.

Much more may those hug themselves whom the world hates, but whom Christ loves.

Secondly, “Another cause of the world’s hating you will be because you do belong to Christ (v. 21): For my name’s sake.” Here is the core of the controversy; whatever is pretended, this is the ground of the quarrel, they hate Christ’s disciples because they bear his name, and bear up his name in the world. Note, 1. It is the character of Christ’s disciples that they stand up for his name. The name into which they were baptized is that which they will live and die by. 2. It has commonly been the lot of those that appear for Christ’s name to suffer for so doing, to suffer many things, and hard things, all these things. It is matter of comfort to the greatest sufferers if they suffer for Christ’s name’s sake. If you be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are you (1 Pet. iv. 14), happy indeed, considering not only the honour that is imprinted upon those sufferings (Acts v. 41), but the comfort that is infused into them, and especially the crown of glory which those sufferings lead to. If we suffer with Christ, and for Christ, we shall reign with him.

Thirdly, After all, it is the world’s ignorance that is the true cause of its enmity to the disciples of Christ (v. 21): Because they know not him that sent me. 1. They know not God. If men had but a due acquaintance with the very first principles of natural religion, and did but know God, though they did not embrace Christianity, yet they could not hate and persecute it. Those have no knowledge who eat up God’s people, Ps. xiv. 4. 2. They know not God as he that sent our Lord Jesus, and authorized him to be the great Mediator of the peace. We do not rightly know God if we do not know him in Christ, and those who persecute those whom he sends make it to appear that they know not that he was sent of God. See 1 Cor. ii. 8.

2. The world hates Christ himself. And this is spoken of here for two ends:–

(1.) To mitigate the trouble of his followers, arising from the world’s hatred, and to make it the less strange, and the less grievous (v. 18): You know that it hated me before you, proton hymon. We read it as signifying priority of time; he began in the bitter cup of suffering, and then left us to pledge him; but it may be read as expressing his superiority over them: “You know that it hated me, your first, your chief and captain, your leader and commander.” [1.] If Christ, who excelled in goodness, and was perfectly innocent and universally beneficent, was hated, can we expect that any virtue or merit of ours should screen us from malice? [2.] If our Master, the founder of our religion, met with so much opposition in the planting of it, his servants and followers can look for no other in propagating and professing it. For this he refers them (v. 20) to his own word, at their admission into discipleship: Remember the word that I said unto you. It would help us to understand Christ’s latter sayings to compare them with his former sayings. Nor would any thing contribute more to the making of us easy than remembering the words of Christ, which will expound his providences. Now in this word there is, First, A plain truth: The servant is not greater than his Lord. This he had said to them. Matt. x. 24. Christ is our Lord, and therefore we must diligently attend all his motions, and patiently acquiesce in all his disposals, for the servant is inferior to his lord. The plainest truths are sometimes the strongest arguments for the hardest duties; Elihu answers a multitude of Job’s murmurings with this one self-evident truth, that God is greater than man, Job xxxiii. 12. So here is, Secondly, A proper inference drawn from it: “If they have persecuted men, as you have seen, and are likely to see much more, they will also persecute you; you may expect it and count upon it: for,” 1. “You will do the same that I have done to provoke them; you will reprove them for their sins, and call them to repentance, and give them strict rules of holy living, which they will not bear.” 2. “You cannot do more than I have done to oblige them; after so great an instance, let none wonder if they suffer ill for doing well.” He adds, “If they have kept my sayings, they will keep yours also; as there have been a few, and but a few, that have been wrought upon by my preaching, so there will be by yours a few, and but a few.” Some give another sense of this, making eteresan to be put for pareteresan. “If they have lain in wait for my sayings, with a design to ensnare me, they will in like manner lie in wait to entangle you in your talk.”

(2.) To aggravate the wickedness of this unbelieving world, and to discover its exceeding sinfulness; to hate and persecute the apostles was bad enough, but in them to hate and persecute Christ himself was much worse. The world is generally in an ill name in scripture, and nothing can put it into a worse name than this, that it hated Jesus Christ. There is a world of people that are haters of Christ. Two things he insists upon to aggravate the wickedness of those that hated him:–

[1.] That there was the greatest reason imaginable why they should love him; men’s good words and good works usually recommend them; now as to Christ,

First, His words were such as merited their love (v. 22): “If I had not spoken unto them, to court their love, they had not had sin, their opposition had not amounted to a hatred of me, their sin had been comparatively no sin. But now that I have said so much to them to recommend myself to their best affections they have no pretence, no excuse for their sin.” Observe here, 1. The advantage which those have that enjoy the gospel; Christ in it comes and speaks to them; he spoke in person to the men of that generation, and is still speaking to us by our Bibles and ministers, and as one that has the most unquestionable authority over us, and affection for us. Every word of his is pure, carries with it a commanding majesty, and yet a condescending tenderness, able, one would think, to charm the deafest adder. 2. The excuse which those have that enjoy not the gospel: “If I had not spoken to them, if they had ever heard of Christ and of salvation by him, they had not had sin.” (1.) Not this kind of sin. They had not been chargeable with a contempt of Christ if he had not come and made a tender of his grace to them. As sin is not imputed where there is no law, so unbelief is not imputed where there is no gospel; and, where it is imputed, it is thus far the only damning sin, that, being a sin against the remedy, other sin would not damn if the guilt of them were not bound on with this. (2.) Not such a degree of sin. If they had not had the gospel among them, their other sins had not been so bad; for the times of ignorance God winked at,Luk 12:47; Luk 12:48. 3. The aggravated guilt which those lie under to whom Christ has come and spoken in vain, whom he has called and invited in vain, with whom he has reasoned and pleaded in vain; They have no cloak for their sin; they are altogether inexcusable, and in the judgment day will be speechless, and will not have a word to say for themselves. Note, The clearer and fuller the discoveries are which are made to us of the grace and truth of Jesus Christ, the more is said to us that is convincing and endearing, the greater is our sin if we do not love him and believe in him. The word of Christ strips sin of its cloak, that it may appear sin.

Secondly, His works were such as merited their love, as well as his words (v. 24): “If I had not done among them, in their country, and before their eyes, such works as no other man ever did, they had not had sin; their unbelief and enmity had been excusable, and they might have had some colour to say that my word was not to be credited, if not otherwise confirmed;” but he produced satisfactory proofs of his divine mission, works which no other man did. Note, 1. As the Creator demonstrates his power and Godhead by his works (Rom. i. 20), so doth the Redeemer. His miracles, his mercies, works of wonder and works of grace, prove him sent of God, and sent on a kind errand. 2. Christ’s works were such as no man ever did. No common person that had not a commission from heaven, and God with him, could work miracles, ch. iii. 2. And no prophet ever wrought such miracles, so many, so illustrious. Moses and Elias wrought miracles as servants, by a derived power; but Christ, as a Son, by his own power. This was it that amazed the people, that with authority he commanded diseases and devils (Mark i. 27); they owned they never saw the like, Mark ii. 12. They were all good works, works of mercy; and this seems especially intended here, for he is upbraiding them with this, that they hated him. One that was so universally useful, more than ever any man was, one would think, should have been universally beloved, and yet even he is hated. 3. The works of Christ enhance the guilt of sinners’ infidelity and enmity to him, to the last degree of wickedness and absurdity. If they had only heard his words, and not seen his works,–if we had only his sermons upon record, and not his miracles, unbelief might have pleaded want of proof; but now it has no excuse. Nay, the rejecting of Christ, both by them and us, has in it the sin, not only of obstinate unbelief, but of base ingratitude. They saw Christ to be most amiable, and studious to do them a kindness; yet they hated him, and studied to do him mischief. And we see in his word that great love wherewith he loved us, and yet are not wrought upon by it.

[2.] That there was no reason at all why they should hate him. Some that at one time will say and do that which is recommending, yet at another time will say and do that which is provoking and disobliging; but our Lord Jesus not only did much to merit men’s esteem and good-will, but never did any thing justly to incur their displeasure; this he pleads by quoting a scripture for it (v. 25): “This comes to pass, this unreasonable hatred of me, and of my disciples for my sake, that the word might be fulfilled which is written in their law” (that is, in the Old Testament, which is a law, and was received by them as a law), “They hated me without a cause;” this David speaks of himself as a type of Christ, Psa 35:19; Psa 69:4. Not, First, Those that hate Christ hate him without any just cause; enmity to Christ is unreasonable enmity. We think those deserve to be hated that are haughty and froward, but Christ is meek and lowly, compassionate and tender; those also that under colour of complaisance are malicious, envious, and revengeful, but Christ devoted himself to the service of those that used him, nay, and of those that abused him; toiled for others’ ease, and impoverished himself to enrich us. Those we think hateful that are hurtful to kings and provinces, and disturbers of the public peace; but Christ, on the contrary, was the greatest blessing imaginable to his country, and yet was hated. He testified indeed that their works were evil, with a design to make them good, but to hate him for this cause was to hate him without cause. Secondly, Herein the scripture was fulfilled, and the antitype answered the type. Saul and his courtiers hated David without cause, for he had been serviceable to him with his harp, and with his sword; Absalom and his party hated him, though to him he had been an indulgent father, and to them a great benefactor. Thus was the Son of David hated, and hunted most unjustly. Those that hated Christ did not design there in to fulfil the scripture; but God, in permitting it, had that in his eye; and it confirms our faith in Christ as the Messiah that even this was foretold concerning him, and, being foretold, was accomplished in him. And we must not think it strange or hard if it have a further accomplishment in us. We are apt to justify our complaints of injuries done us with this, that they are causeless, whereas the more they are so the more they are like the sufferings of Christ, and may be the more easily borne.

3. In Christ the world hates God himself; this is twice said here (v. 23): He that hateth me, though he thinks his hatred goes no further, yet really he hates my Father also. And again, v. 24, They have seen and hated both me and my Father. Note, (1.) There are those that hate God, notwithstanding the beauty of his nature and the bounty of his providence; they are enraged at his justice, as the devils that believe it and tremble, are vexed at his dominion, and would gladly break his bands asunder. Those who cannot bring themselves to deny that there is a God, and yet wish there were none, they see and hate him. (2.) Hatred of Christ will be construed and adjudged hatred of God, for he is in his person his Father’s express image, and in his office his great agent and ambassador. God will have all men to honour the Son as they honour the Father, and therefore what entertainment the Son has, that the Father has. Hence it is easy to infer that those who are enemies to the Christian religion, however they may cry up natural religion, are really enemies to all religion. Deists are in effect atheists, and those that ridicule the light of the gospel would, if they could, extinguish even natural light, and shake off all obligations of conscience and the fear of God. Let an unbelieving malignant world know that their enmity to the gospel of Christ will be looked upon in the great day as an enmity to the blessed God himself; and let all that suffer for righteousness’ sake, according to the will of God, take comfort from this; if God himself be hated in them, and struck at through him, they need not be either ashamed of their cause or afraid of the issue.

Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary

If the world hateth you ( ). Condition of the first class. As it certainly does.

Ye know (). Present active second person plural indicative of or present active imperative (know), same form.

Hath hated (). Perfect active indicative, “has hated and still hates.”

Before it hateth you ( ). Ablative case after the superlative as with in 1:15.

Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament

If the world hate [ ] . Literally, hates. The indicative mood with the conditional particle assumes the fact as existing : If the world hates you, as it does.

Ye know [] . This may also be rendered as imperative : Know ye.

It hated [] . The perfect tense, hath hated. The hatred continues to the present time.

Before it hated you [ ] . Literally, first in regard of you. See on 1 15.

Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament

1) “If the world hate you,” (ei ho kosmos humas misei) “If the world hates you all,” and it will, 1Jn 3:13; as a church-body, and as individuals, and it will, as I told you in your Inaugural in the sermon on the mount, when I called you apart from the multitude, and addressed you as “The kingdom of heaven,” which you are, Mat 5:2-3; Mat 5:10-16; Mat 24:9.

2) “Ye know that it hated me before it hated you.” (ginoskete hoti eme proton humon memiseken) “You all know that it hated me first,” Joh 15:24; Joh 8:37; Joh 8:40; Joh 17:14; As it was prophesied, “They hated me without a cause,” Joh 15:25; Psa 35:19; Psa 69:4. Or you all take note that the world order, even the religious order, hated me before it hated you all.

Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary

18. If the world hate you. After having armed the Apostles for the battle, Christ exhorts them likewise to patience; for the Gospel cannot be published without instantly driving the world to rage. Consequently, it will never be possible for godly teachers to avoid the hatred of the world. Christ gives them early information of this, that they may not be instances of what usually happens to raw recruits, who, from wont of experience, are valiant before they have seen their enemies, but who tremble as soon as the battle is commenced. And not only does Christ forewarn his disciples, that nothing may happen to them which is new and unexpected, but likewise confirms them by his example; for it is not reasonable that Christ should be hated by the world, and that we, who represent his person, should have the world on our side, which is always like itself.

You know. I have translated the verb γινώσκετε in the indicative mood, you know; but if any one prefer to translate it in the imperative mood, know ye, I have no objection, for it makes no change in the meaning. There is greater difficulty in the phrase which immediately follows, πρῶτον ὑμῶν, before you; for when he says that he is before the disciples, this may be referred either to time or to rank The former exposition has been more generally received, namely, that Christ was hated by the world before the Apostles were hated But I prefer the second exposition, namely, that Christ, who is far exalted above them, was not exempted from the hatred of the world, and therefore his ministers ought not to refuse the same condition; for the phraseology is the same as that which we have seen twice before, in Joh 1:27 and 30, He who cometh after me is preferred to me, ( ὅτι πρῶτός μου ἦν,) for he was before me

Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary

EXPLANATORY AND CRITICAL NOTES

Joh. 15:18. If the world hate you, etc.He now directs the attention of the disciples to their relation toward the world. Christ loves His disciples, the world hates them, and in this they are one with their Lord (1Pe. 4:12-13).

Joh. 15:19. The world would love, etc., the love of affection. Notice the selfishness of the worlds love (Joh. 7:7; Mat. 5:46).

Joh. 15:20. Remember the word, etc.The reference is probably to some such saying as Mat. 10:16-24; but see also Joh. 13:16. He prepares them to encounter the persecution they would meet.

Joh. 15:21. But all these things, etc.The Lord considers the hatred as already manifested; it was inevitable in the nature of things. The persecutions, indeed, that arose about and against the apostles were instigated by hatred of the name of Jesus (Act. 4:30; Act. 5:41). They know not Him that sent Me.Had the Jews really had any true spiritual knowledge of God, would they have acted toward Jesus and His disciples as they did?

Joh. 15:22. If I had not come, etc.They shut their eyes against the light and closed their ears to the truth, and therefore they could not plead ignorance (Act. 17:30-31). They sinned wilfully after the revelation of the truth (Heb. 10:26); they are therefore without excuse.

Joh. 15:23. Hateth My Father, etc.The nadir of the heavenly, for God is love (1Jn. 4:8).

Joh. 15:24. If I had not done, etc.Not only did they reject Christs teaching, but His mighty works which confirmed it (Joh. 5:36; Joh. 9:30; Joh. 10:21; Joh. 10:37, etc.). Thus they were doubly without excuse (Rom. 1:20).

Joh. 15:25. They hated Me, etc. (Psa. 35:19; Psa. 69:4).Such is the attitude of the world to Gods true sons and servants in all ages.

Joh. 15:26. The Comforter (Joh. 14:16).The Spirit of Truth, i.e. the Spirit of Christ, who is the Truth and whose gospel is the truth. Proceedeth from ().From beside. The reference is to the mission of the Spirit. Testify.Bear witness (Joh. 14:26).

Joh. 15:27. And ye also shall bear witness, etc.They testified as to what they had seen and known, and what the Holy Spirit brought to their remembrance. But there was also a distinct witness-bearing of the Spirit (Act. 5:32).

Joh. 15:27. The Spirit does not teach historical facts, but reveals their true meaning. Hence the apostolic testimony and the testimony of the Spirit form but a single act, in which each contributes a different elementthe one the historic narrative, the other the internal evidence and the victorious power. This relation is reproduced in our day in all living preaching derived from Holy Scripture. St. Peter equally distinguishes the two kinds of testimony (Act. 5:32) (see Westcott, etc.).

MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.Joh. 15:18-27

Joh. 15:18-21. The hatred of Christs disciples by the world.In the upper chamber our Lord taught His disciples the new commandment of love. This was to be the rule and law of His Church. But the Christian spirit would lead to conflict in the world. Just as the world hated and persecuted the Master, because the truth which He was and taught brought condemnation to the world, so would it be with the disciples. Hatred and persecution, He foretold, would track their course through the world.

I. The source of hatred of the disciples: the world.

1. There are several meanings attached to the word world in the Scriptures. The term means

(1) the earth, the material world and its inhabitants. The world and they that dwell therein (Psa. 98:7), viewed as the works of the Creator;

(2) the inhabitants of the world, without any reference to their character (Joh. 16:28);

(3) the inhabitants of the world, viewed from the moral point of view. In this view it is called the present evil world (Gal. 1:4). It lies in the wicked one (1Jn. 5:19), and those who are in this world are not conformed to God. God is light, the world darkness; God is love, the world hatred, etc.

2. What causes this is sin. It may be urged that the world of men is not so depraved. Yet there may be many amiable men in an army of rebels. Sin causes enmity to God, hatred to His cause.

3. It was the enmity and hatred of this sinful world which our Lords disciples had to encounter. We see how the rebellious Jewsto whom Christ came as to His own, and they received Him notwere inimical to the gospel as preached by the apostles. They hated Christ without a cause (Joh. 15:25), for the real antagonism was that of hypocrisy and truth, sin and holiness.

4. Nor did this hatred end with Juda and Judaism. Wherever the disciples came into contact with the spirit of the world the same hatred blazed forth. It has burned in all the martyrdoms and persecutions of true followers of Christ from the apostolic age until the fires of the Inquisition were extinguished.
5. But even now it has not ceased. In subtle ways the world manifests its hatred of true followers of Christ. The sneer of the worldling at true piety, his covert attacks, innuendoes, and insinuations regarding followers of Christ and labourers for Him, show the old spirit still at work. And the absolute hostility which converts to the gospel have to endure in the ranks of bigoted Judaism, and in the midst of idolatrous communities, is the same as of old. Christian converts from Judaism, Mohammedanism, and idolatry need this same consoling word of the Master.

II. The cause of the worlds hatred to Christ and His disciples.

1. This has been in part dwelt on. But it is to be noticed more fully that the disciple must expect the world to wear this aspect toward him, for the Master was also hated by it.
2. As Christ was, so must His disciples be in the world. If they desire to have His glory, they must have fellowship in His sufferings. As He was made perfect through suffering, so will they be; for the servant is not greater than his Lord. If Christ is in us, and we are manifesting His life, we must expect to bear His reproach. 3. Persecution may seem to have ceased against the Church. But the spirit of the world is still the same. The world is ignorant of God, and those Christians who let their light shine before men bring condemnation to the impenitent and hatred to themselves oftentimes. For the world loves its own, and there must be want of harmony between it and the Church. Those that will live godly must suffer persecution. Where the living Christ manifests Himself, there also is seen the old serpent that bruised His heel. A Christianity that can endure the world, and with which the world is pleased, must have in some measure lost its true power.

4. Persecution in a gross sense has ceased in civilised lands. But there seems a time coming when it may be renewed (2 Thessalonians 2, etc.). The fanaticism of superstition and unbelief wants but the power to show the old spirit.

III. The spirit in which the disciple should meet the worlds hatred.

1. It is not to be met with hatred. Christ speaks of a must needs be, so long as men are what they are. But Christ came to save the world.

Then, like Thine own, be all our aim

To conquer them by love.

2. We must therefore meet the worlds hatred with faith, and undismayed. The Lord knows how to solace His own and deliver the godly in temptation and trial. The apostles joyfully departed from the council because they were accounted worthy to suffer shame for the name of Christ (Act. 5:41). Paul and Silas could pray and sing praises in the dungeon at Philippi (Act. 16:26). Paul could write of himself, I take pleasure, etc. (2Co. 12:10). Tertullian thus witnessed for Christ: We say it, and say it openly, freely, and without fear, and even under your tortures we shall cry from our torn and bleeding frames, We honour God in Christ.

3. We should meet the worlds hatred with gentleness and pitying love, as Christ did. Thus shall true disciples following Christ win men from a hostile world to the love and service of Christ. And there will be joy in the assured presence of the Master, and in the thought, Even as He is, so are we in this world (1Jn. 4:17).

Joh. 15:22-25. The inexcusableness of the sin of unbelief.The earthly ministry of the Saviour had come to a close. He was sent to His own possessions, and His own people received Him not (Joh. 1:11). He had, indeed, come for the fall and rising again of many in Israel, and for a sign which should be spoken against (Luk. 2:34). And unbelief in its various forms in all ages rests on much the same causes as in Juda of old.

I. The culmination of unbelief.I. It had grown rapidly during the last few months of Christs earthly course. At the beginning of Christs ministry there was a time when the rulers were not so inimical. Perhaps the outward form which the temptation took was attempts by these men to get our Lord to proclaim Himself a temporal Messiah (and see Joh. 6:15).

2. But when the Jewish rulers saw His determination to have nothing to do with their ideas of the Messianic kingdom, they refused to listen to the truth. Their spiritual pride, their hypocrisy, their low moral standard, were all brought home to them by the humility, the purity, the beauty, of Christs character. All this produced antagonism, and led them to shut their eyes to the truth so plainly evident in all Christs life.

3. And thus they arrived at deliberate and bold unbelief, and were even now seeking means to destroy the truth.

4. Unbelief is still the same. It results now, as of old, either from spiritual pride or moral antagonism. The gospel is humbling to human pride. Many will not entertain the idea that a spiritual and fundamental change is needed ere they can enter the kingdom. So did the Jews pride themselves on being Abrahams seed (Joh. 8:39). Many will not believe in Christs works; others reject the gospel because it demands holiness and self-denial; and thus many still remain in alienation and enmity.

II. The sin of unbelief.

1. How terrible are its consequences as here stated by Christ! Of the Jews He said, They have seen and hated both Me and My Father. It was nothing less than rejection and hatred of the God of love and His eternal Son. It was the rejection and hatred of Him who had been the God of their fathers, who had wrought wonders in the days of old and blessed them beyond any nation. It was the rejection and hatred of the divine Son who had come to seek and to save the lost.
2. And unbelief and rejection of the gospel are as sinful now. For if men would but examine it, they would at once see that it could not be from earth. The character of Christ is so heavenly and so noble that a careful consideration ought to show that all attempts to account for it in a merely natural way utterly fail.

III. The sin of unbelief is without excuse.

1. It was so in the case of the Jews since Christ had come among them.

(1) He taught them with authority. He spake among them as never man spake (Joh. 7:46).

(2) He wrought mighty works among them which in their less biassed moments bore conviction in on the minds of many of them (Joh. 10:41-42, etc.). All these should have appealed to them. They could plead no excuse to the effect that He had not given adequate proofs of His claims. Indeed, they were altogether without excuse; for they hated Him without a cause. His character and life, His works and teaching, should have been sufficient to convince.

2. Rejecters of Christ now have the same proofs. Attack after attack has been made on the authenticity of gospel historyattacks often most subtle and virulent. But it still stands; and the attacking theories have fallen. A system not founded on truth could not have withstood such attacks.
3. But more than that. Si monumentum requiris, circumspice. The proofs of the divine origin of the gospel are all around. The changed face of the world proclaims its truth. The whole course of Christian history, the whole realm of Christian biography, tell of its heavenly power. The pure and noble lives of true Christians, the conquests of Christian missions, the ability of the gospel to regenerate and raise men nearer Godall are proofs, that cannot be dismissed with a word, of the heavenly origin of the religion of Christ. And those who reject guiltily reject the Father and the Son, reject that power which evidently makes for righteousness and meets the requirements of the race.

Joh. 15:26-27. Zeal in defence of the divine interests.The apostles bore witness to Christ in preaching His gospel. And even although we may not be called to the same ministry, we ought to bear witness to God in defending His cause and His interests when they are assailed. People abandon the defence of the divine cause either through a false prudence or a culpable weakness. Here in the one case this false prudence is reproved, and in the other this hurtful weakness.

I. False prudence reproved.

1. God holds Himself to be dishonoured by such a prudence. It is His glory to be served by those who find their glory in His service, and who do not balance His interests with their own. Thus there is an indubitable obligation laid on Christian men to confess their faith, even at the expense of their lives. On thousands of occasions we ought to declare ourselves on the side of Godotherwise we sin against Him; for as Christ has said, He that is not for Me is against Me. The example of Davidhis zeal (Psalms 68).

2. This is a sort of prudence that even the world approves not of. A man would be regarded as a craven who did not come to the help of his friend. A subject would be treated as a rebel if in war he did not come to the aid of his prince. The rules of honour of the world even condemn our indifference in regard to the divine cause.

3. This is a kind of prudence that brings scandal on religion. For this indifference to the cause of God is considered to be a sign of secret alienation from Him. The world scarcely distinguishes the man who is indifferent to the things of God from the open libertine who is without doubt against Him. The reason is that libertinage does not dare to show itself fully, but comes forward under the guise of indifference. Whence comes occasion of offence to the weak. It was this that awoke of old the zeal of Elijah (1Ki. 18:21).

4. Such a prudence tends to encourage impiety. Libertinism does not exactly ask that it should be applaudedonly tolerated. This is sufficient to give it opportunity to take root and flourish. Is it said, My zeal would only irritate the evil? What although it did! You would have done your duty. But we must use discretion. True, provided it is a discretion which leads to the end to which zeal directs. But this zeal would lead to publicity and noise. It is not always prudent to avoid that when it is necessary. There is a kind of peace which is more dangerous than trouble. But must not one be careful in regard to ones neighbours? Away with such carefulness where the service of God is concerned! The apostles did not reason thus.

II. To abandon the divine cause is a most injurious weakness.

1. It deprives us of the greatest honour to which we could aspireto be defenders of the divine cause. It was in defence of this cause that the heroes of faith in the Old Testament and the New were distinguished. Have you the same boldness in the cause of Christ? Will God make use of you as He did of them?
2. It makes men odious and despicable. To whom?
(1) To good men, who behold this faithlessness with just indignation;

(2) to impious and sinful men even, who interpret the weakness of this conduct, and see very well that our indulgence toward them results from fear and littleness of mind.
3. The acme of our misery is this: we lack firmness only where the interests of God are concerned; we preach firmness strongly enough where our personal interests are concerned. When we think of this, can we listen to the testimony of our own hearts without blushing from shame and confusion?

4. This weakness may end in God withdrawing His grace and sending on us the most severe chastisements. Rather let us second His designs whilst He may be found, etc.; and by an ardour and zeal altogether new so prepare ourselves to hear from His mouth this glorious invitation, Come, good and faithful servants, etc. (Mat. 25:23).Bourdaloue.

ILLUSTRATIONS

Joh. 15:18. The hatred of Christs disciples by the world.The friends and disciples of Jesus Christ have two marks of their friendship and discipleship: the first is that they love one another; the second, that they are hated by the world. Concerning the first our Lord had spoken in the former part of this chapter. This text is worth hundreds of thousands of gulden; yes, no gold could buy it. For Christ Himself tells us therein that we are not of the world, and that this is the sign thereof, i.e. that the world hates us. This includes lofty contempt and excellent comfort; because if we are hated for His sake, it is because we have been chosen by Him and separated from the world, judged and marked by it (Luther). Just as the love of Christ is the ground of love of the brethren, so the hatred of the world rests on Christians because they abide in the love of their Lord. For just so little as the world can hate those who are of the world (Joh. 7:7), just so little can it love those chosen out of the world as friends of Jesus. The disciples would from the time of our Lords departure most painfully experience this. But let not your heart be troubled. It must so be and happen so long as the world is world and Christians are Christians, and so long as Abels race inhabits the earth with Cains race. That, however, which the blind world does as a curse God turns into pure blessing for His children. For the Vine-dresser cleanses the branches of the vine by means often of this hatred of the world; but He does not permit the world to tear one twig from the vine. If the world has hated that vine-stock, yet it must leave it scathless; yes, must even help its glorious growth by this bitter hatred. Thus, too, will it be with the beloved branches in spite of the cruel hatred and rage of the world.Translated from Dr. R. Besser.

Joh. 15:22. The boldness of unbelief.As to the manner in which unbelief takes the field against faith, I read recently of a glaring instance in a religious journal. An intelligent Christian farmer, in the vicinity of Caln, brought to his minister, with great indignation, a little book which had been sent him by post, and which bore the title, The Return Home from Heaven to Earth, a Book for Free Christians, printed at Stuttgart 1851. In this tractate, in the form of a catechism with question and answer, the most naked infidelity was taughtthe Bible laid under suspicion of being a book of fables, heaven and everything heavenly denied, and the earth alone, as our true home, and the world of sense as the only element in which to live, held up to honour. Return home from heaven to earth! Yes, so runs the watchword of the sensualist. He does not desire to look beyond the horizon of earth; therefore for him everything that comes from an unseen world and would lead men thitherBible and church, heaven and eternity, God and Saviour, religion and Christianityis a cause of offence and foolishness. Therefore he desires to call men back from heaven to earth. The watchword of faith, however, runs otherwise: The return home from earth to heaven. Here we have no continuing city, but we seek one to come; we look not on the things which are seen, but on the things which are not seen. Thence did our undying souls come; thither our heart goes forth like a childs heart toward his fathers house. Thence our Lord and Saviour has come to bring heavenly light, heavenly power, heavenly comfort, into this poor dark world; thither He has prepared a way for us through His divine teaching His heavenly example, His holy death, His glorious ascension; and thither will He also lead us, so that where He is we, whom the Father has given Him, may be with Him. Now, which of these is the true way? Will we agree with the catechism of unbelief, Return home from heaven to earth? Shall we leave the heavenly air and light of faith, in which we hitherto have been so well and happy, and come back to our five senses like a snail into its shell, or creep like a mole into its hole. Shall Christendom retreat like a defeated army from a land it cannot possess, a city that it cannot takeretreat from the blessed province of faith, and abandon the heavenly city with its glittering walls, and renounce the heavenly inheritance which the Captain of our salvation had gained by His blood, whither for eighteen hundred years so many thousand believing souls have looked amid the afflictions of time, where we also hoped to find our eternal home and to rest from toil in the heavenly Sabbath? Shall we let all this go as a booty that pertains not to us, as a dream, behind which there is nothing? Shall we give it all up simply because it lies beyond our earthly horizon, because it is not strengthened and confirmed by the evidence of our five senses? Never! Our faith is the victory that overcomes the world. It overcame the world and the worlds doubt eighteen hundred years ago, as the message Christ is risen went victoriously through all lands. It overcomes the world and its doubt to-day also; for it rests on a divine testimony (1Jn. 5:9).Translated from Karl Gerok.

Joh. 15:27. Boldness in witness-bearing for Christ.Yes, Christians, you in reality put away your true glory when, among the subjects that come before you, and in regard to which your zeal should be engaged, you do not dare, from a timidity that is weak and craven, either to speak or to act for the cause of God. For what is more worthy of a great spirit, of a noble and dignified soul, than the defence of such a cause? and what can we propose to ourselves in the world as a more honourable aim? When yon labour for yourselves alone, how little do you become; whatever you may do all is small and limited, is reduced to that nothingness and that vanity inseparable both from your persons and your position. But when you interest yourselves for the cause of God, all that you do, even according to mens ideas, possesses I know not what of the divine, which they are forced to honour, and which awakes in them for you a secret respect. You seek for glory, wrote Augustine to a man of the world, and where will you find this glory that you seek better than in the exercise of an ardent zeal for everything connected with the service of your God, i.e. to protect those who engage in it, to reprove those who dishonour it, to cause abuses in connection with it to cease, to maintain discipline, to oppose yourself like a wall of brass and like a pillar of bronze to the enterprises of error and of impiety? If you wish to acquire a solid merit, in order to commend yourself to men, by what other way can you hope to attain to that end? What is it that has immortalised the names of the great men of Old Testament history, and those of the New Testament story? Was it not this that has impressed on all minds such general sentiments of esteem and constant admiration for these illustrious Maccabees? What distinguished Constantine and Theodosius among the Christian emperors? Was it not that zeal for the honour of God and His law by which they were animated? Traverse, said the brave Mattathias, when instructing his children from his deathbedtraverse all the generations, and see if those of our ancestors whose memory is blessed have merited the praise and respect of the people otherwise than by the power and courage which they displayed when the cause of the Lord called for their aid. Do not imagine you will ever arrive at such a degree of glory as that to which they attained, unless through the same resolution. And do not be blind enough to suppose that any purely human success only, regarding which the world may compliment you, will ever enable you to equal them. Thus spoke this saintly and noble church-father. And this is what I would say after him, Christians. No, whoever you may be, do not expect to find any true glory other than that which will come to you through the holy ardour which will make it plain that you are Gods and for God. By the so-called successes you may achieve otherwise, and for which men applaud, you may make some noise in the world. But with this fleeting flame, as Scripture teaches, your memory will perish. This glory which you have sought apart from God, and in which God has no part, will vanish like smoke. And after you have shone for a little with a false lustre, it will leave you in eternal darkness.Translated from Bourdaloue.

Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell

PERSEVERING UNION OF THE PERSECUTED

Text 15:18-27

If the world hateth you, ye know that it hath hated me before it hated you.

If ye were of the world, the world would love its own: but because ye are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.

Remember the word that I said unto you, A servant is not greater than his lord. If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they kept my word, they will keep yours also.

But all these things will they do unto you for my names sake, because they know not him that sent me.

If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin: but now they have no excuse for their sin.

He that hateth me hateth my Father also.

If I had not done among them the works which none other did, they had not had sin: but now have they both seen and hated both me and my Father.

But this cometh to pass, that the word may be fulfilled that is written in their law, They hated me without a cause.

But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall bear witness of me:

and ye also bear witness, because ye have been with me from the beginning.

Queries

How had Jesus chosen the disciples out of the world?

How does Jesus speaking to the people bring sin (Joh. 15:22)?

In what way would the Comforter bear witness of Christ?

Paraphrase

Do not be overcome with despair when the world hates you, but take courage by understanding why the world hated me before it hated you. If your nature and character were worldly, the world would love you. But because your nature is not now in harmony with the world, due to My word which is now in you and has set you apart from the world, for this very reason the world despises you. You must keep on remembering the precept which I have taught you: A servant cannot hope to enjoy a better life than his master. If the worldlings have persecuted Me, the Master, they will most certainly persecute you, the servant. If any of them have kept My word, they will keep your word also which will be the word of the Masters appointed servants. And all of these persecutions they will bring upon you due to their hatred of Me because they do not know and love the One who sent Me. If I had not come and spoken to them the plain and final revelation of God they would not have been so acutely aware of their sinfulness. But now that I have come and they have rejected Me and My word they shall be condemned more severely, for they have no excuse whatever for their unbelief. Whoever hates Me, hates God My Father also. Moreover, if I had not proved My deity and Messiahship to the Jews through the works which I didand no other messenger of God has ever done such worksthey would not be guilty of the terrible sin of rejecting the Messiah. But now they are compelled by the miracles to recognize that the Father is with Me and so in hating Me they hate both Me and My Father. And the Father is using all this hatred to fulfill His plan of redemption in Me which He prophecied in their Scriptures, They hated me without a cause. But when the Helper comes, the Person whom I will send from the Father to be with you, I mean the Spirit of Truth, He will be a divine personality bearing witness to Me and sustaining the witness which you, who have been with Me from the beginning of My ministry, shall also make concerning Me to the world.

Summary

His disciples will be persecuted because the world hates Him. The world hates Him because of the perfect piercing revelation He made of Gods righteousness. God will use the worlds hatred to fulfill His redemptive purposes. They are not to despair in their persecution for they will have the divine Helper to sustain them in their work of witnessing.
precious possession he has. And if any man will lay down his life for a friend he has loved him as fully as he is able. But there is something

Comment

The vital union between Christ and His followers results in a fellowship of fruitfulness (Joh. 15:1-11); a fellowship of confidence and communion (Joh. 15:12-17); this union also results in a fellowship of suffering! Because this unity binds them into one sanctified body, it separates them from all those who do not wish to participate in this holy calling. Jesus came to call men apart from the world. This naturally results in enmity on the part of the world (Mat. 10:34-39).

The if of Joh. 15:18 does not mean there may be the possibility that the world will hate you. In the original Greek idiom it means there is no question but that the world hates you.

Why should the world hate those whose very purpose is to do good? First, those who seek to do good must seek to propagate truth. What the Christian believes and teaches to be precious, the world regards as valueless. Much of what the Christian regards to be wrong, the world regards as right. Second, the righteous life of the Christian is a constant rebuke and judgment on unrighteous living and is, therefore, in direct opposition to the worldly life. All of this is because the world is out of harmony with the will of God. Men of the world walk by sight and not by faith. Their main interest is in satisfying the desires of the flesh and the pride of life. They have no concern for the hereafter. They are only after the here. It all depends upon what a man judges to be valuableit depends on where the treasure is, for there will the heart be also. If a man loves darkness, he will hate the light (cf. our comments on Joh. 3:18-21).

There is an alternative! If the follower of Christ would escape the hostility of the world and become one of the worlds hail, fellow, well met children, all the Christian need do is lower his flag, cover up his badge and do as the Romans do and he will be loved by the world. As Maclaren puts it, A half-Christianized world and a more than half-secularized Church get on well together . . . why should the world care to hate or trouble itself about a professing Church, large parts of which are only a bit of the world under another name? When Christian people and churches become vain, earthly, sensual, given to pleasure, wealth, and ambition, the world will not oppose them . . . BUT GOD WILL!

But true disciples of Jesus are not of the world. When Jesus calls men out from the world and sanctifies them by His word, His Spirit abides in them (cf. Joh. 17:13-19). Henceforth they seek to make their every thought and deed captive to His will. Because they have overcome the world by faith and Christ now lives in them, the world hates them and makes war upon them (cf. 2Ti. 3:12).

There are three approaches Jesus makes to prepare and arm His little children for their trying hours ahead. First, He tells them plainly that they must expect persecution. Fore-warned is fore-armed. Had He disguised or tempered His warning it would have been the worse for them when the persecution, in all its terribleness, came upon them. He told them plainly that they would be betrayed by parents and brethren and even put to death (cf. Luk. 21:12-17). Second, He tells them that whatever they may have to suffer, they can take heart in the fact that He, their Master, has suffered like persecution and hatred before them. The servant should be proud to share in tribulations with One who is so much greater than he, and regard his suffering a privilege rather than a burden (Joh. 15:18; Joh. 15:20). (cf. also 2Co. 4:17-18; Php. 3:10; Jas. 1:2-4; 1Pe. 4:12-16.) Third, Jesus tells these men that the worlds hatred is a necessary outcome of their being called into fellowship with Him. They may either forfeit the privileges of such a fellowship and go back to the world, or they may retain the peace, hope and love of this fellowship and suffer the tribulations that necessarily accompany such an election. When He said remember He was referring to when He first sent them out. He warned them then that they would be hated and persecuted (cf. Mat. 10:16-25).

If men are of the attitude to obey God and His Son, they will obey the words of Gods messengerswhen Gods messengers speak Gods word. The apostles were inspired and thus their messages had the inherent authority of God. Men today who are spokesmen for God may expect true followers of Christ to heed their preaching but only so long as their preaching conforms to the written Word of God, the Bible. When men do not heed the word of Christ, it shows that they have not the love of the Father in them (cf. Joh. 5:42-43; Joh. 8:43-47).

In Joh. 15:22 through Joh. 15:25 are some of the most solemn words to ever fall from the lips of the Saviour of men. He plainly declares that by both His teachings and His miraculous works He demonstrated enough proof of His Sonship, Messiahship that men who reject Him have absolutely no excuse. In comparison with the sin of not listening to His words, and being taught by His works, all other sins dwindle into nothing. Jesus does not mean to say that these men would have been clear of all sin. The Jew was condemned by the Law; the Gentile committed sins against his conscience (cf. Rom. 1:1-32; Rom. 2:1-29). But as black as these sins are, they are white compared with the blackness of the to love one another. He does not merely command love but with the command supplies the motive. And Christs friends, living close to Him, and bearing fruit will get what they ask from the Father. Why? sin of rejecting the revelation of God in His Son, Jesus Christ. The rejection of the Messiah was the crowning act of rebellion by the Jews against God which brought down the vengeance of God and caused them to become a by word among the nations. They rejected the Great Prophet (cf. Deu. 18:15-16; Act. 3:22-23). How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation (cf. Heb. 2:1-4)?

As light comes to a man and increases, so his responsibility to follow and live in the light increases (cf. Luk. 12:47-48). See also our comments on Joh. 9:35-41. The measure of the guilt is the brightness of the light. No shadows are so black as those which are cast by the brightest noonday sun and no sin is so black as the rejection of the revelation of God in His Son who was in the brightness of His glory, and the express image of His person.

Jesus spake as no other man had spoken; He did works which no other prophet had ever donenot even Moses. The proof is so clear that men cannot plead ignorance. To most men the gospel has been so often presented that they cannot say they have had no opportunity. There is no excuse for their sin. They do not know the time of their visitation (cf. Luk. 19:41-44).

And the terribleness of this sin of hating Christ and His disciples is made even worse in that it is irrational and unreasonable. It is hatred without a cause. Jesus said that this hatred was foreknown by God and prophesied in the Old Testament. It was all within the purpose of God. It would be used by God to carry out His redemptive plan in Christ, the Lamb, the Suffering Servant. The same hatred by the enemies of God was shown to Gods king David, but the final fulfillment of the worst that such hatred could do come from Gods enemies against the One of whom David was but the shadowy type, the eternal Son of David. This prophecy is in Psa. 35:19; Psa. 69:4sometimes the entire Old Testament was called the law (including poetry, history and prophets). But Jesus had broken no law, injured no one, hated no one. To the contrary He sought only to do good to friend and enemy alike. What cause or reason had anyone for hating Jesus? What cause or reason has anyone today for hating Jesus? Some evil words and works have been done by evil men in the name of Jesus and His church, but the Word of Christ proclaimed and lived in the spirit of Christ has always sought the good of friend and enemy alike. What reason can the world give for hating true disciples of Jesus? None!

Now the climax to this section. He has poured out the deepest longings of His heart that they will persevere during the persecution that will inevitably come upon them. So now He promises again the Comforter. This is the Holy Spirit, that divine Person He promised and described in the preceding chapter. He will come as the Helper. In their witnessing to the world they will have the companionship and fellowship of this divine One. As eyewitnesses they must testify concerning Jesus (cf. Act. 1:21-22; Act. 4:19, etc.). The Holy Spirit would come to them and guide them infallibly in calling to their remembrance, without error, what they had seen with their own eyes and heard with their own ears (cf. 1Jn. 1:1-4; 2Pe. 1:16-21) and He would guide them into all truth which Christ had not yet taught them. But more than this, the Holy Spirit would accompany the apostles and bear witness to Jesus through the miracles He wrought through them (cf. Heb. 2:4).

If, then, God be for us, who can be against us (cf. Rom. 8:35-39)!

Quiz

Why does the world hate Christ and His followers?

Name the three ways in which Jesus prepared the disciples for the persecution to come upon them?

What is indicated of men today who will not listen and obey gospel preaching?

What did Jesus mean when He said If I had not come . . . they had not had sin?

Why do men, who have had opportunity to hear of Christ, have no excuse for their sin?

Why is hatred of Christ irrational and unreasonable?

In what ways would the Holy Spirit bear witness to Jesus?

Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series

(18) If the world hate you.He has spoken of their close union with Himself, and of their love to each other. He proceeds in the remainder of the chapter to speak of their relation to the world. There is a striking contrast between the love in the last verse, and the hatred in this. There was the more need for them to be close bound to each other, and to their Lord, on account of the hatred which awaited them in the world.

Ye know that it hated me before it hated you.It is better to take the first word as an imperative, Know that it hated . . . The very hatred, then, is a bond of union with their Master, and this thought should supply strength to meet it, and joy even when suffering from it (Joh. 15:11). (Comp. 1Pe. 4:12-13.)

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

18-27. Hatred of the world to the apostles, Joh 15:18-21; its guilt and aggravation, Joh 15:22-25; against which shall be the testimony of the Comforter and the apostles to Christ, Joh 15:26-27.

Thus far in his valedictory the Saviour has enjoined the adherence in love of his apostles to himself and to each other. From this internal bond of union he now turns to an external pressure from a hostile world, which may aid to render that union still more compact.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

18. If the world hate you He had just been softening their heart with lessons of love. But to the loving heart no pain is greater than the consciousness of being the object of hate, and this little band of apostles are to be the central object of hatred to a surrounding world. The if suggests no doubt of the fact, but prepares them for the terrible reality and furnishes them the antidote it hated me before it hated you. You are hated, then, not because you are bad, but because you are good. It is the hatred of badness against goodness; for they hated incarnate goodness before they hated you.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

“If the world hates you, you know that it hated me before it hated you. 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, that is the reason why the world hates you.”

The disciples had already seen the response of men to Jesus Himself. They knew therefore that true goodness was not popular. For a while the world will admire good men because they recognise something in them that their basic conscience approves, but let those good men in some way disturb their consciences and they will immediately turn against them. This hatred arises because they are ‘not of the world’. They do not have the same aims, the aims of self-indulgence, of self-aggrandisement, of self-advancement. Thus they are a constant rebuke to the world.

The world likes a little bit of goodness, but not too much, for then it becomes a nuisance and interferes with their plans. So the disciples should not be surprised to find themselves hated. Those who hated the One Who chose them, will also hate those who are chosen. They are hated because they are Christ’s representatives, and because they teach the truth which often goes against what men believe. To the fact that Jesus was hated John bears constant testimony (Joh 1:5; Joh 1:10-11; Joh 3:11; Joh 5:16; Joh 5:18; Joh 5:43; Joh 6:66; Joh 7:1; Joh 7:30; Joh 7:32; Joh 7:47-52; Joh 8:40; Joh 8:44-45; Joh 8:48; Joh 8:52; Joh 8:57; Joh 8:59; Joh 9:22; Joh 10:31; Joh 10:33; Joh 10:39; Joh 11:50; Joh 11:57; Joh 12:37-43).

‘The world’ here refers to the society of men who live apart from the teachings of Christ and of the Father. They are not under His rule, or in His Kingdom. Rather they are ruled by their own suppositions and ideas and ambitions, and lie in the arms of the Evil One (1Jn 5:19). This is the common use of ‘the world’ in John.

But again notice that the disciples are not of the world, and this is because Jesus has chosen them out of the world. This was a particular choosing as witnessed in Joh 15:16, but now it is clear that it is more than that. It connects with that mysterious divine choice which is spoken of elsewhere in Scripture. In the end those who are His are so because He has chosen them and given them to His Son (Joh 6:37; Joh 6:44; Joh 10:26-27 compare Rom 8:28-30; Rom 8:33; Rom 11:5; 1Co 1:9; Eph 1:4; Jas 2:5; 1Pe 1:1-2). And as everything they do and are goes beyond what the world aims for, in the end they will be hated, especially by the authorities.

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

3). The Disciples Must Not Be Surprised If They are Hated By the World ( Joh 15:18-25 ).

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

Fourth Scripture Filled: Hatred from the World In Joh 15:18 to Joh 16:4 John the apostle records the fourth Old Testament prophecy fulfilled during Jesus’ Passion. Jesus prepares the disciples for His departure by telling them about the hatred of the world being a fulfillment of prophecy. This hatred will be experienced by His disciples when they learn how to abide in the vine (Joh 15:1-17). As we abide in Him and go forth to produce fruit, we face certain persecutions from the world. As we testify the name of Jesus, the world will certainly hate us.
Joh 15:18 If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you.
Joh 15:19 If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.
Joh 15:19 “I have chosen you out of the world” – Scripture References –
1Co 10:6, “Now these things were our examples, to the intent we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted.”
2Ti 2:4, “No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier.”
Jas 1:27, “Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world .”
Joh 15:20 Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also.
Joh 15:20 “Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord” Scripture References –
Mat 10:24, “The disciple is not above his master, nor the servant above his lord.”
Luk 6:40, “The disciple is not above his master: but every one that is perfect shall be as his master.”
Joh 13:16, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord; neither he that is sent greater than he that sent him.”
Joh 15:20 “If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also” – Comments – This phrase is an example of poetic Hebrew parallelism, found throughout the Gospel of John, especially in the first chapter.
Joh 15:21 But all these things will they do unto you for my name’s sake, because they know not him that sent me.
Joh 15:22 If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin: but now they have no cloke for their sin.
Joh 15:22 Comments – The word “sin” in Joh 15:22 is singular in the Greek text, referring to the sinful nature of mankind. Thus, Jesus said that the one who believes not in Him is already judged for his sinful nature (Joh 3:18). Once Jesus came and manifested God’s love and holiness to mankind, they were no longer without excuse. All people can know the general revelation about God through His creation; but special revelation of God’s plan of redemption came through Jesus Christ. We find Paul saying the same thing in his speech to the Athenians on Mar’s Hill (Act 17:30).
Joh 3:18, “He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”
Act 17:30, “And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent:”
Joh 15:23 He that hateth me hateth my Father also.
Joh 15:24 If I had not done among them the works which none other man did, they had not had sin: but now have they both seen and hated both me and my Father.
Joh 15:24 Comments – Jesus offered them good works, works that no Old Testament prophet had ever preformed, such as opening the eyes of the blind (Joh 9:32).
Joh 9:32, “Since the world began was it not heard that any man opened the eyes of one that was born blind.”
Joh 15:25 But this cometh to pass, that the word might be fulfilled that is written in their law, They hated me without a cause.
Joh 15:25 Old Testament Quotes in the New Testament Joh 15:25 quotes from either Psa 35:19 or Psa 69:4.
Psa 35:19, “Let not them that are mine enemies wrongfully rejoice over me: neither let them wink with the eye that hate me without a cause .”
Psa 69:4, “ They that hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of mine head: they that would destroy me, being mine enemies wrongfully, are mighty: then I restored that which I took not away.”
Joh 15:26 But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me:
Joh 15:26 “But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth” Comments – The Comforter will be sent from the Father because of Jesus’ request on the day of Pentecost.
Joh 15:26 “he shall testify of me” Comments – Jesus tells His disciples that the Holy Spirit’s primary office will by to testify of Him. We look back in the Old Testament and see how the Father testified of Himself. We then see in the Gospels of how Jesus testified of the Father. Now, in the book of Acts and New Testament Epistles we see the Holy Spirit testifying of Jesus Christ.
Joh 15:27 And ye also shall bear witness, because ye have been with me from the beginning.
Joh 16:1 These things have I spoken unto you, that ye should not be offended.
Joh 16:1 Comments – Within the context of Joh 15:18 to Joh 16:4 Jesus is explaining how the world will hate us and persecute us because of our testimony of Jesus Christ.
Joh 16:2 They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service.
Joh 16:2 “the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service” Comments – The Jews began persecuting and killing the Christians in the name of religious duty as early as the book of Acts. Saul of Tarsus oversaw the death of Stephen and many other early Christians.
Gal 1:13-14, “For ye have heard of my conversation in time past in the Jews’ religion, how that beyond measure I persecuted the church of God, and wasted it: And profited in the Jews’ religion above many my equals in mine own nation, being more exceedingly zealous of the traditions of my fathers.”
After Jerusalem was destroyed in A.D. 70 by the Romans, their emperors began to persecute and kill all Christians in the Roman Empire in the name of their gods. These persecutions lasted until Constantine declared Christianity the official state religion.
This prophecy has certainly come true in the beliefs of the Muslim religion. This religion builds its doctrine around the fact that all non-Muslims should be killed. They kill Christians in the name of their god. Listen to these verses from the Koran: [248]
[248] E. H. Palmer, The Qur’n part 1, in The Sacred Books of the East, ed. F. Max Mller (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1880), 102, 170, 173, 176-177.
“The reward of those who make war against God and His Apostle, and strive after violence in the earth, is only that they shall be slaughtered or crucified, or their hands cut off and their feet on alternate sides, or that they shall be banished from the land.” (Surah 5.36)
“Prepare ye against them what force and companies of horse ye can, to make – the enemies of God, and your enemies, and others beside them, in dread thereof.” (Surah 8.60)
“But when the sacred months are passed away, kill the idolaters wherever ye may find them; and take them, and besiege them, and lie in wait for them in every place of observation.” (Surah 9.5)
“Fight those who believe not in God and in the last day, and who forbid not what God and His Apostle have forbidden, and who do not practice the religion of truth from amongst those to whom the Book has been brought, until they pay the tribute by their hands and be as little ones.” (Surah 9.29)
The Muslim religion has a history of war and persecutions against Jews, Christians and all non-Muslims societies. They have spread their faith by force, and not by the will of their victims, but rather by fear of terror, and not by faith in God.
This is a description of the spirit of antichrist. It is the powers of darkness at war against God’s people, both Jews and Christians alike. The New Testament refers to different types of spirits, such as unclean spirit, spirits of infirmity, spirits of divination, deaf and dumb spirits, seducing spirits, etc. However, the spirit of antichrist is a particular spirit that will focus on making war against the children of God. 1Jn 4:3 tells us that this spirit is already in the world and has been making war with God’s children since his day. Jesus describes the antichrist when He told His disciples, “that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service.”
Joh 16:2, “They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service.”
Jesus also refers to this spirit in Matthew 24-25.
Mat 24:9, “Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name’s sake.”
Joh 16:2 Scripture Reference – Note a similar verse:
Joh 9:22, “These words spake his parents, because they feared the Jews: for the Jews had agreed already, that if any man did confess that he was Christ, he should be put out of the synagogue.”
Note:
Joh 15:13-14, “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you.”
Joh 16:1-2 “These things have I spoken unto you, that ye should not be offended. They shall put you out of the synagogues” – Comments – Robert Gundry says that the Jews during the last part of the first century, when John wrote his Gospel, incorporated a Benediction against Heretics into the liturgy of their services in an effort to ostracize all Jewish Christians from synagogues. Since it was possible that many Jewish converts were expelled from these synagogues, he suggests that John may have included the story of the healing of the blind man and the response from the Pharisees (Joh 9:1-34) as a source of encouragement to these persecuted Jewish Christians. [249]
[249] The benediction reads, “For the excommunicate let there be no hope, and the kingdom of pride do Thou quickly root out in our days. And let the Christians and the heretics perish as in a moment. Let them be blotted out of the book of life, and with the righteous let them not be written. Blessed art Thou, O Lord, who subdueth the proud.” See Robert H. Gundry, A Survey of the New Testament, revised edition (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Publishing House), 104.
Joh 16:1-2 Comments The Institution of the Church – Jesus’ words in Joh 16:1-2 are the first indications that the institution of the Church will not be associated with the Jewish nation. This is because the Church is to be born largely out of the Gentile nations. The Jewish nation will reject these believes and persecute them.
Joh 16:4 “But these things have I told you, that when the time shall come, ye may remember that I told you of them” – Comments – Jesus was able to speak to them face to face for the final time. After His resurrection and ascension, He will speak to them by the Spirit of God.
“And these things I said not unto you at the beginning, because I was with you” Comments – Jesus could have spoken to them from the beginning, meaning He knew all of these things about His passion and resurrection from the beginning.
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures

Joh 15:18-19 . But now your relation to the world! as far as Joh 15:27 .
In your fellowship, love; from without, on the part of the unbelieving, hatred against you! Consolation for you: (imperat.) (Joh 1:15 ), . Comp. 1Pe 4:12-13 . This hatred is a community of destiny with me . A further consolation: this hate is the proof that you no longer belong to the world , but to me through my selection of you (Joh 15:16 ); therein exists the reason for it. How must that fact tend to elate you! Comp. 1Jn 3:13 ; 1Jn 4:5 .
The fivefold repetition of is solemn. Comp. Joh 3:17 .
] “ Suum dicitur pro vos , atque sic notatur interesse mundi,” Bengel. Comp. Joh 7:7 . They have become a foreign element to the world, and therewith the object of its antipathy; , Euth. Zigabenus; comp. Plat. Lys . p. 214 B; .
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary

DISCOURSE: 1698
CONSOLATION TO THE PERSECUTED
Joh 15:18-20. If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep your s also.
WELL might our Lord enjoin his Disciples to love one another; for, if they be not united in affection towards each other, they will in vain look for any love in the world. They are as sheep in the midst of wolves: the wolves indeed are kept from devouring now, as they have done in former times; but the disposition to devour still remains in the minds of ungodly men, and the godly are still regarded as their legitimate prey [Note: Isa 59:15.]. Our Lord may be considered as addressing his own immediate Disciples in the first place: but the grounds on which he teaches them to expect hatred from the world, are such as apply equally to all his people in every age; and consequently we may consider the words as addressed to all his followers.
We shall take occasion from them to consider,
I.
What it is in Christians that calls forth the enmity of the world
The reasons usually assigned are, that they are enthusiasts, and hypocrites, and disturbers of the peace of mankind: but the true reasons are those which our Lord assigns in the text, namely,
1.
Their election out of the world
[The whole world lieth in wickedness, all being equally alienated from God, however they may differ from each other in their moral conduct. But God has from eternity chosen a people, whom he has given to his dear Son, and whom in due time he calls by his grace, and brings out of natures darkness into the marvellous light of his Gospel. These, when called, are made sensible that they owe the change, not to any merit or power in themselves, but altogether to the effectual working of his grace: and they acknowledge thankfully their obligations to him, saying, By the grace of God I am what I am [Note: See 2Ti 1:9. Rom 11:5.].
This acknowledgment is very offensive to the world. They cannot endure to hear of the sovereignty of God: they think that God cannot choose some to be objects of his favour without being unjust to others. Though they cannot but see that God has exercised his sovereignty in every age, in the case of Abraham, for instance, and of Isaac, and of Jacob, and of the Jewish nation, and of those nations that now enjoy the light of his Gospel, yea, in the redemption of fallen man when he never provided such a remedy for the fallen angels, yet they will not allow him to do so now: and every person who ascribes his conversion to the distinguishing grace of God, they consider as actuated by consummate pride; when, in fact, the doctrine of election is the most humiliating that can be imagined, and the denial of it is the fruit of ignorance and presumption
That this is a principal ground of mens enmity against the people of God is asserted by our Lord: and it is confirmed by every part of the sacred records. Why did Cain hate Abel, but for the distinguishing favour shewn him by God [Note: Gen 4:4-5. 1Jn 3:12.]? In like manner Esau hated Jacob, not merely for the manner in which he had gained the blessing, but because the birthright was transferred to him. Thus Saul hated David also, because he saw that God was with him: and the Jews sought to destroy our Lord for no other reason than because he had brought to their recollection some instances wherein God had imparted to Gentiles favours which he had withheld from his own peculiar people [Note: Luk 4:25-29.].]
2.
Their separation from the world
[When once the Christian sees the sin and danger of a carnal life, he will of necessity depart from it. He not only desires to obey the command which says, Come out from among them and be separate, but he perceives, that, with his new views and principles, he can no more maintain communion with the world than light can with darkness, or Christ with Belial [Note: 2Co 6:14-17.]. Hence he no longer walks in the broad road that leadeth to destruction, but in the narrow path that leadeth unto life.
This is another great occasion of offence to the ungodly world; for in departing from the pursuits and vanities of the world, the Christian does, in effect, declare the danger of those who still adhere to them; just as Noah condemned the world by building the ark, and Lot condemned Sodom by fleeing from it [Note: Pro 28:4.]. Those who are of the world, the world will approve and love; because their spirit and conduct have a direct tendency to justify the world in all its proceedings: but those who, like their Lord, are not of the world, and refuse to be conformed to its maxims and ways, will assuredly become objects of the worlds displeasure; for though their testimony be never audibly delivered, it will be seen and felt; and every effort will be made on the part of the world to bring back those who have deserted its standard and enlisted themselves under the banners of the Lord Jesus [Note: Psa 38:20. Gal 4:29.].]
That there is, however, no cause for alarm, will appear, if we consider,
II.
What are those considerations which Christ has suggested for their support
We confine ourselves to those mentioned in the text
1.
Our Lord himself was so treated
[For the truth of this he appeals to his own Disciples: they had seen how justly he was characterized by the prophet, as one whom man despised, and whom the nation abhorred [Note: Isa 49:7.]. They had seen how ill he had been treated, notwithstanding his unerring wisdom, his spotless piety, his unbounded benevolence.
Now, if He, our Head and Chief, was so hated by an ungodly world, how can we hope to escape their enmity? We have in him an indisputable proof, that no wisdom, no prudence, no perfection of character, can enable us to obtain the approbation of worldly men: on the contrary, the more entirely we resemble him, the more shall we be hated by his enemies.
And may we not find in this abundant consolation? If we were not so treated, we should have reason to doubt whether we were walking as he walked: but if we are reviled and persecuted as he was, then have we an evidence that we belong to him; and we have reason to rejoice, inasmuch as we are partakers of his sufferings [Note: 1Pe 4:12-13.].]
2.
He has forewarned us to expect no other treatment than that which he himself received
[We might well suppose, that, if he was so treated, we should meet with similar treatment: for reason itself teaches us that the servant ought not to expect a better reception than his lord. But our Saviour himself also has told us this [Note: Mat 10:22-26], and particularly calls upon us to remember his words. Indeed, if we only remembered what he has spoken to us, we should never be surprised at any thing that we meet with; seeing that he has so plainly forewarned us of it. He has even told us, that the persecutions we meet with shall turn unto us for a testimony. Being then forewarned, we should be forearmed. This was the consideration with which St. Paul endeavoured to comfort the Thessalonians, when they were startled at the greatness and multitude of his afflictions [Note: 1Th 3:4.]: and, in truth, if the Scriptures be fulfilled in us, as they were in Christ, we may well be reconciled to whatever an ungodly world may inflict upon us.]
Address
1.
Those who are afraid of incurring the hatred of the world
[Doubtless the hatred of the world is not to be desired: we should rather, if it could be, that they should love us: but, if the friendship of the world be incompatible with fidelity to God [Note: Jam 4:4.], then may we very cheerfully forego it. If we be apprehensive of consequences, what is there to fear [Note: Isa 51:12-13.]? Man, at the utmost, can only kill the body; whereas God can kill the soul: and therefore God only and exclusively should be the object of our fear [Note: Luk 12:4-5.].]
2.
Those who have braved and borne the enmity of the world
[Do you repent of what you have done? Has not God made up to you all that you ever suffered for his sake? Do you think that you will ever feel regret, when you come to heaven, that you suffered so much in your way thither? Are you not even ashamed that you ever for a moment accounted the cross of Christ heavy, or that you groaned under its weight? Sure I am, that you shall receive an hundredfold even in this life, with persecutions; and that one moments enjoyment of your Saviours presence will abundantly repay all that you endured for his sake. Be not careful then what men may do against you: only seek to cut off occasion from those who seek occasion; and determine through grace, that they shall find no occasion against you, except concerning the law of your God.]

Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)

18 If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you.

Ver. 18. If the world hate you, &c. ] As it will because it is condemned by your contrary practice, and is carried on by a contrary principle. Moab was irked because of Israel, or, did fret and vex at them,Num 22:3-4Num 22:3-4 . Bats fly against the light. Some barbarous nations curse the sun when it shines hot upon them, and shoot up their arrows against it.
Ye know that it hated me first ] Shall we think to speed better than our betters? Elias is not better than his fathers. Luther was angry with those that set forth his sufferings, since they were nothing to the sufferings of Christ. All our troubles are but as the slivers and chips of his cross.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

18 27. ] Their relation to the world: and, Joh 15:18-21 , ground of the world’s hatred . On the connexion, see above.
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament

18. ] See ch. Joh 7:7 . , most probably imperative , know ye . The assertion of their knowledge of the fact would in all likelihood be conveyed in the past tense, , or , or : cf. for the imperative, ch. Luk 24:43 ; Luk 10:11 ; Luk 12:39 ; Gal 3:7 ; Heb 13:23 ; for the indicative, ch. Joh 14:17 : Act 20:34 ; 2Co 8:9 ; Phi 2:22 ; 1Jn 2:29 (see note there); Joh 4:2 ; for both combined, Mat 24:32-33 [217] ; for the past tense in assertion, Luk 16:4 ; ch. Joh 5:42 ; Joh 6:69 ; Joh 8:52 ; Joh 8:55 alli [218] . The great proof of this hatred to Him was yet to come, but is viewed as past. This knowledge brings comfort, 1Pe 4:12-13 .
[217] When, in the Gospels, and in the Evangelic statement, 1Co 11:23-25 , the sign () occurs in a reference, it is signified that the word occurs in the parallel place in the other Gospels, which will always be found indicated at the head of the note on the paragraph. When the sign () is qualified , thus, ‘ Mk.,’ or ‘ Mt. Mk.,’ &c., it is signified that the word occurs in the parallel place in that Gospel or Gospels, but not in the other or others .
[218] alli = some cursive mss.
Joh 15:19 not only explains this hatred, but derives additional comfort from it, as a sign that they were not (any longer) of the world; but chosen out of it by Him, and endued with a new life from above.
In , not ., we have the true practice of the world hinted at, and the false character of the world’s love, as a mere , set forth. “ Suum dicitur pro vos , atque sic notatur Interesse mundi,” Bengel. In this ‘loving their own,’ the children of this world fall into hating one another.
Meyer remarks the solemnity of thus repeated five times.
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament

Joh 15:18-25 . The relation of the disciples to the world .
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson

Joh 15:18 . , “If the world hates you,” as it does (indicative); “the world” is contrasted with “one another” of Joh 15:17 , with the disciples who were to love. , “ye know,” or, if it be taken as an imperative, “know ye,” that it has hated me, , “before you,” and, as in Joh 1:15 where also the superlative is found, not only “before” in point of time, but as the norm or prototype.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson

John
SHEEP AMONG WOLVES
Joh 15:18 – Joh 15:20 .
These words strike a discord in the midst of the sweet music to which we have been listening. The key-note of all that has preceded has been love-the love of Christ’s friends to one another, and of all to Him, as an answer to His love to all. That love, which is one, whether it rise to Him or is diffused on the level of earth, is the result of that unity of life between the Vine and the branches, of which our Lord has been speaking such great and wonderful things. But that unity of life between Christians and Christ has another consequence than the spread of love. Just because it binds them to Him in a sacred community, it separates them from those who do not share in His life, and hence the ‘hate’ of our context is the shadow of ‘love’; and there result two communities-to use the much-abused words that designate them-the Church and ‘the World’; and the antagonism between these is deep, fundamental, and perpetual.
Unquestionably, our Lord is here speaking with special reference to the Apostles, who, in a very tragic sense, were ‘sent forth as sheep in the midst of wolves.’ If we may trust tradition, every one of that little company, Speaker as well as hearers, died a martyr’s death, with the exception of John himself, who was preserved from it by a miracle. But, be that as it may, our Lord is here laying down a universal statement of the permanent condition of things; and there is no more reason for restricting the force of these words to the original hearers of them than there is for restricting the force of any of the rest of this wonderful discourse. ‘The world’ will be in antagonism to the Church until the world ceases to be a world, because it obeys the King; and then, and not till then, will it cease to be hostile to His subjects.
I. What makes this hostility inevitable?
Our Lord here prepares His hearers for what is coming by putting it in the gentle form of an hypothesis. The frequency with which ‘If’ occurs in this section is very remarkable. He will not startle them by the bare, naked statement which they, in that hour of depression and agitation, were so little able to endure, but He puts it in the shape of a ‘suppose that,’ not because there is any doubt, but in order to alleviate the pain of the impression which He desires to make. He says, ‘If the world hates,’ not ‘if the world hate’; and the tense of the original shows that, whilst the form of the statement is hypothetical, the substance of it is prophetic.
Jesus points to two things, as you will observe, which make this hostility inevitable. ‘If the world hate you, ye know that it hated Me before it hated you.’ And again, ‘If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.’ The very language carries with it the implication of necessary and continual antagonism. For what is ‘the world,’ in this context, but the aggregate of men, who have no share in the love and life that flow from Jesus Christ? Necessarily they constitute a unity, whatever diversities there may be amongst them, and necessarily, that unity in its banded phalanx is in antagonism, in some measure, to those who constitute the other unity, which holds by Christ, and has been drawn by Him from ‘out of the world.’
If we share Christ’s life, we must, necessarily, in some measure, share His fate. It is the typical example of what the world thinks of, and does to, goodness. And all who have ‘the Spirit of life which was in Jesus Christ’ for the animating principle of their lives, will, just in the measure in which they possess it, come under the same influences which carried Him to the Cross. In a world like this, it is impossible for a man to ‘love righteousness and hate iniquity,’ and to order his life accordingly, without treading on somebody’s corns; being a rebuke to the opposite course of conduct, either interfering with men’s self-complacency or with their interests. From the beginning the blind world has repaid goodness by antagonism and contempt.
And then our Lord touches another, and yet closely-connected, cause when He speaks of His selecting the Apostles, and drawing them out of the world, as a reason for the world’s hostility. There are two groups, and the fundamental principles that underlie each are in deadly antagonism. In the measure in which you and I are Christians we are in direct opposition to all the maxims which rule the world and make it a world. What we believe to be precious it regards as of no account. What we believe to be fundamental truth it passes by as of little importance. Much which we feel to be wrong it regards as good. Our jewels are its tinsel, and its jewels are our tinsel. We and it stand in diametrical opposition of thought about God, about self, about duty, about life, about death, about the future; and that opposition goes right down to the bottom of things. However it may be covered over, there is a gulf, as in some of those American canons: the towering cliffs may be very near-only a yard or two seems to separate them; but they go down for thousands and thousands of feet, and never are any nearer each other, and between them at the bottom a black, sullen river flows. ‘If ye were of the world, the world would love its own.’ If it loves you, it is because ye are of it.
II. And so note, secondly, how this hostility is masked and modified.
There are a great many other bonds that unite men together besides the bonds of religious life or their absence. There are the domestic ties, there are the associations of commerce and neighbourhood, there are surface identities of opinion about many important things. The greater portion of our lives moves on this surface, whore all men are alike. ‘If you tickle us, do we not laugh; if you wound us, do we not bleed?’ We have all the same affections and needs, pursue the same avocations, do the same sort of things, and a large portion of every one’s life is under the dominion of habit and custom, and determined by external circumstances. So there is a film of roofing thrown over the gulf. You can make up a crack in a wall with plaster after a fashion, and it will hide the solution of continuity that lies beneath. But let bad weather come, and soon the bricks gape apart as before. And so, as soon as we get down below the surface of things and grapple with the real, deep-lying, and formative principles of a life, we come to antagonism, just as they used to come to it long ago, though the form of it has become quite different.
Then there are other causes modifying this hostility. The world has got a dash of Christianity into it since Jesus Christ spoke. We cannot say that it is half Christianised, but some of the issues and remoter consequences of Christianity have permeated the general conscience, and the ethics of the Gospel are largely diffused in such a land as this. Thus Christian men and others have, to a large extent, a common code of morality, as long as they keep on the surface; and they not only do a good many things exactly alike, but do a great many things from substantially the same motives, and have the same way of looking at much. Thus the gulf is partly bridged over; and the hostility takes another form. We do not wrap Christians in pitch and stick them up for candles in the Emperor’s garden nowadays, but the same thing can be done in different ways. Newspaper articles, the light laugh of scorn, the whoop of exultation over the failures or faults of any prominent man that has stood out boldly on Christ’s side; all these indicate what lies below the surface, and sometimes not so very far below. Many a young man in a Manchester warehouse, trying to live a godly life, many a workman at his bench, many a commercial traveller in the inn or on the road, many a student on the college benches, has to find out that there is a great gulf between him and the man who sits next to him, and that he cannot be faithful to his Lord, and at the same time, down to the depths of his being, a friend of one who has no friendship to his Master.
Still another fact masks the antagonism, and that is, that after all, the world, meaning thereby the aggregate of godless men, has a conscience that responds to goodness, though grumblingly and reluctantly. After all, men do know that it is better to be good, that it is better and wiser to be like Christ, that it is nobler to live for Him than for self, and that consciousness cannot but modify to some extent the manifestations of the hostility, but it is there all the same, and whosoever will be a Christian after Christ’s pattern will find out that it is there.
Let a man for Christ’s sake avow unpopular beliefs, let him try honestly to act out the New Testament, let him boldly seek to apply Christian principles to the fashionable and popular sins of his class or of his country, let him in any way be ahead of the conscience of the majority, and what a chorus will be yelping at his heels! Dear brethren, the law still remains, ‘If any man will be a friend of the world he is at enmity with God.’
III. Thirdly, note how you may escape the hostility.
A half-Christianised world and a more than half-secularised Church get on well together. ‘When they do agree, their agreement is wonderful.’ And it is a miserable thing to reflect that about the average Christianity of this generation there is so very little that does deserve the antagonism of the world. Why should the world care to hate or trouble itself about a professing Church, large parts of which are only a bit of the world under another name? There is no need whatever that there should be any antagonism at all between a godless world and hosts of professing Christians. If you want to escape the hostility drop your flag, button your coat over the badge that shows that you belong to Christ, and do the things that the people round about you do, and you will have a perfectly easy and undisturbed life.
Of course, in the bad old slavery days, a Christianity that had not a word to say about the sin of slave-holding ran no risk of being tarred and feathered. Of course a Christianity in Manchester that winks hard at commercial immoralities is very welcome on the Exchange. Of course a Christianity that lets beer barrels alone may reckon upon having publicans for its adherents. Of course a Christianity that blesses flags and sings Te Deums over victories will get its share of the spoil. Why should the world hate, or persecute, or do anything but despise a Christianity like that, any more than a man need to care for a tame tiger that has had its claws pared? If the world can put a hook in the nostrils of leviathan, and make him play with its maidens, it will substitute good-nature, half contemptuous, for the hostility which our Master here predicts. It was out-and-out Christians that He said the world would hate; the world likes Christians that are like itself. Christian men and women! be you sure that you deserve the hostility which my text predicts.
IV. And now, lastly, note how to meet this antagonism.
Reckon it as a sign and test of true union with Jesus Christ. And so, if ever, by reason of our passing at the call of duty or benevolence outside the circle of those who sympathise with our faith and fundamental ideas, we encounter it more manifestly than when we ‘dwell among our own people,’ let us count the ‘reproach of Christ’ as a treasure to be proud of, and to be guarded.
Be sure that it is your goodness and not your evils or your weakness, that men dislike. The world has a very keen eye for the inconsistencies and the faults of professing Christians, and it is a good thing that it has. The loftier your profession the sharper the judgment that is applied to you. Many well-meaning Christian people, by an injudicious use of Christian phraseology in the wrong place, and by the glaring contradiction between their prayers and their talks and their daily life, bring down a great deal of deserved hostility upon themselves and of discredit upon Christianity; and then they comfort themselves and say they are bearing the ‘reproach of the Cross.’ Not a bit of it! They are bearing the natural results of their own failings and faults. And it is for us to see to it that what provokes, if it does provoke, hostile judgments and uncharitable criticisms, insulting speeches and sarcasms, and the sense of our belonging to another regiment and having other objects, is our cleaving to Jesus Christ, and not the imperfections and the sins with which we so often spoil that cleaving. Be you careful for this, that it is Christ in you that men turn from, and not you yourself and your weakness and sin.
Meet this antagonism by not dropping your standard one inch. Keep the flag right at the masthead. If you begin to haul it down, where are you going to stop? Nowhere, until you have got it draggling in the mud at the foot. It is of no use to try to conciliate by compromise. All that we shall gain by that will be, as I have said, indifference and contempt; all that we shall gain will be a loss to the cause. A great deal is said in this day, and many efforts are being made-I cannot but think mistaken efforts-by Christian people to bridge over this gulf in the wrong way-that is, by trying to make out that Christianity in its fundamental principles does approximate a great deal more closely to the things that the world goes by than it really does. It is all vain, and the only issue of it will be that we shall have a decaying Christianity and a dying spiritual life. Keep the flag up; emphasise and accentuate the things that the world disbelieves and denies, not pushing them to the ‘falsehood of extremes,’ but not by one jot diminishing the clearness of our testimony by reason of the world’s unwillingness to receive it. Our victory is to be won only through absolute faithfulness to Christ’s ideal.
And, lastly, meet hostility with unmoved, patient, Christlike, and Christ-derived love and sympathy. The patient sunshine pours upon the glaciers and melts the thick-ribbed ice at last into sweet water. The patient sunshine beats upon the mist-cloud and breaks up its edges and scatters it at the last. And our Lord here tells us that our experience, if we are faithful to Him, will be like His experience, in that some will hearken to our word though others will persecute, and to some our testimony will come as a message from God that draws them to the Lord Himself. These are our only weapons, brethren! The only conqueror of the world is the love that was in Christ breathed through us; the only victory over suspicion, contempt, alienation, is pleading, persistent, long-suffering, self-denying love. The only way to overcome the world’s hostility is by turning the world into a church, and that can only be done when Christ’s servants oppose pity to wrath, love to hate, and in the strength of His life who has won us all by the same process, seek to win the world for Him by the manifestation of His victorious love in our patient love.
Dear brethren, to which army do you belong? Which community is yours? Are you in Christ’s ranks, or are you in the world’s? Do you love Him back again, or do you meet His open heart with a closed one, and His hand, laden with blessings, with hands clenched in refusal? To which class do I belong?-it is the question of questions for us all; and I pray that you and I, won from our hatred by His love, and wooed out of our death by His life, and made partakers of His life by His death, may yield our hearts to Him, and so pass from out of the hostility and mistrust of a godless world into the friendships and peace of the sheltering Vine. And then we ‘shall esteem the reproach of Christ’ if it fall upon our heads, in however modified and mild a form, ‘greater riches than the treasures of Egypt,’ and ‘have respect unto the recompense of the reward.’
May it be so with us all!
Fuente: Expositions Of Holy Scripture by Alexander MacLaren

NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Joh 15:18-25
18″If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you. 19If 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. 20Remember 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. 21But all these things they will do to you for My name’s sake, because they do not know the One who sent Me. 22If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin. 23He who hates Me hates My Father also. 24If 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. 25But they have done this to fulfill the word that is written in their Law, ‘They hated Me without a cause.'”
Joh 15:18 “If” This is a first class conditional sentence, which is assumed to be true from the author’s perspective or for his literary purpose. The world, a fallen human system, hates the followers of Jesus.
“the world” John uses this term in several ways: (1) the planet, as a metaphor for all mankind (cf. Joh 3:16) and (2) as human society organized and functioning apart from God (cf. Joh 10:8; 1Jn 2:15-17). See Special Topic at Joh 14:17.
“hates you” This is a present active indicative; the world continues to hate (cf. Joh 15:20).
“you know” This is a present active imperative. Believers’ knowledge of the NT truths will help them face a fallen world’s persecution.
“that it has hated Me before it hated you” This is a perfect active indicative. The pronoun “Me” is emphatic (cf. Joh 7:7). This reveals the world’s opposition to God, His Messiah, and His people (cf. Joh 17:14; 1Jn 3:13).
Believers are one in Christ’s love and one in Christ’s persecution (cf. Rom 8:17; 2Co 1:5; 2Co 1:7; Php 3:10; 1Pe 4:13). Identification with Christ brings peace, joy, and persecution, even death!
Joh 15:19 “If” This is a second class conditional sentence which is called “contrary to fact.” This should be translated “if you were of the world, which you are not, then the world would love you, but it does not.”
Joh 15:20″Remember” This is a present active imperative , like Joh 15:18, or a present active indicative, possibly a question (LB).
“a slave is not greater than his master” When one compares this verse with Joh 13:16, it becomes obvious that Jesus used proverbial sayings in different ways.
“If they persecute Me. . .if they kept My word” These are two first class conditional sentences which are assumed to be true from the author’s perspective. The term “persecuted” means to pursue as a wild animal. Persecution is the norm for followers of Christ in a fallen world (Mat 5:10-12; Joh 16:1-3; Joh 17:14; Act 14:22; Rom 5:3-4; Rom 8:17; 2Co 4:16-18; 2Co 6:3-10; 2Co 11:23-30; Php 1:29; 1Th 3:3; 2Ti 3:12; Jas 1:2-4; 1Pe 4:12-16).
However, notice that although some will reject the Apostles’ words and even persecute them, there will be others who will hear and respond! They themselves are proof of this reality!
Joh 15:21 “they do not know the One who has sent me” This obviously refers to the Father. It implies that the Jews as well as Gentiles do not know God. “Know” is used in its Semitic (OT) sense of personal relationship (cf. Gen 4:1; Jer 1:5). The lost world persecuted believers because (1) they belong to Jesus, who they also persecuted and (2) they do not know God!
Joh 15:22 “If I had not come” This is another second class conditional sentence, which means “contrary to fact.” It should be translated “If I had not come back and spoken to them, which I did, then they would not have sin, which they do.” Responsibility is related to knowledge (see SPECIAL TOPIC: THE UNPARDONABLE SIN at Joh 5:21). In this context the fruitless branches (i.e., Judas and the Jews) had great opportunity for knowledge, much more than those who only had natural revelation (i.e., Gentiles, cf. Psa 19:1-6; Rom 1:18-20 or Joh 2:14-15).
Joh 15:23 The continual opposition to Jesus is continual opposition to God (cf. Joh 15:24).
Joh 15:24 “If” This is another second class conditional sentence which means “contrary to fact.” It should be translated “If I had not done the works among them which no one else did (but which I did), then they would not have sin, which they do.”
Light brings responsibility (cf. Joh 1:5; Joh 8:12; Joh 12:35; Joh 12:46; 1Jn 1:5; 1Jn 2:8-9; 1Jn 2:11; Mat 6:23).
“they have both seen and hated Me and My Father as well” These are both perfect active indicatives which show a settled attitude. To reject Jesus is to reject the Father (cf. 1Jn 5:9-13).
Joh 15:25 It is surprising that the term “Law” or “Torah” is used to describe a quote from Psa 35:19; Psa 69:4. Usually the term is used of the writings of Moses, Genesis through Deuteronomy.
The mystery of the Jewish rejection of Jesus in the face of such obvious revelation was attributed to willful unbelief (cf. Isa 6:9-13; Jer 5:21; Rom 3:9-18).
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley

If. App-118.
world. Greek. kosmos. See Joh 14:17 and App-129.
ye know = know (imperative mood) Greek. ginosko. App-132.
hated = hath hated. Therefore continues to hate.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

18-27.] Their relation to the world: and, Joh 15:18-21, ground of the worlds hatred. On the connexion, see above.
Fuente: The Greek Testament

Joh 15:18. , hates) So far from loving you. [In this there is described, 1) the unreasonable hatred of the world in general, Joh 15:18-25 : 2) the confirmation of the truth which stands in contrast to the same, Joh 15:26-27 : 3) the hatred accompanied with more violent paroxysms, Joh 16:1-4: 4) the greater force of the confirmation, Joh 15:5-11.-V. g.]-, know ye) [But Engl. Vers. ye know]. They did know it: ch. Joh 11:8, The disciples say, Master, the Jews of late sought to stone Thee: and yet they are ordered now more to reflect on this very fact: Joh 15:20, Remember, etc., ch. Joh 16:4.-) prior to its hating you.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament

Joh 15:18
Joh 15:18
If the world hateth you, ye know that it hath hated me before it hated you.-The hatred of the world for Jesus was seen in the treatment the people gave him. They rejected his words, refused to obey him, and persecuted him. If they were true followers, they might expect the same treatment.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary

Joh 15:18-27
If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also. But all these things will they do unto you for my names sake, because they know not him that sent me. If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin: but now they have no cloak for their sin. He that hateth me hateth my Father also. If I had not done among them the works which none other man did, they had not had sin: but now have they both seen and hated both me and my Father. But this cometh to pass, that the word might be fulfilled that is written in their law, They hated me without a cause. But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me: And ye also shall bear witness, because ye have been with me from the beginning.
These words acquire a peculiar solemnity when we recall the fact that they were uttered by our Lord Jesus Christ when the dark shadow of the cross, which expressed the worlds hatred toward Him, was already falling across His pathway. On ahead He saw Calvary where He, the sinless One, was to be made sin for us. And there He was to experience all the hatred and malignity that man, activated by demon power, could heap upon Him. He had no illusions as to His future. He knew from the first just how His earthly ministry would end. He came from heaven to close it in that very way. He said, long before, The Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many (Mat 20:28; Mar 10:45). He knew that He would meet with rejection on every side, but He came to die for those who hated Him, for those who trampled upon the love and grace of God as seen in Him.
And now He calls upon those who trust Him to walk with Him, recognizing the fact that this world system is incurably evil, that it can never be improved but will ever stand in opposition to God. Many Christians have imagined that it can be improved. Many have supposed that it was the program of the church to make the world over, and so, to make it better. But as you look out upon this world today after nineteen hundred years of gospel preaching it is still the most wicked of all possible worlds. And it is just as evil now as it ever was. People ask, But is not the world better, because of so many millions of Christians in it? They forget that Christians are not of the world, for the Lord Jesus Christ tells us right here that He has chosen us out of the world. So when you want to see whether the world is any better than it was when it crucified the Lord of glory, subtract the church and everything connected with it, and all you have left is the world in its stark hideousness and hatred of God-just the same wicked world today as when its representatives cried in Pilates judgment hall, We have no king but Caesar (Joh 19:15), and as for Jesus, Crucify him! crucify him (Luk 23:21; Joh 19:6)! And so these words come down to us, If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you (Joh 15:18). And we need to remember that we begin our Christian life by choosing One whom the world rejects. We identify ourselves with Him by faith. That is why the Spirit of God elsewhere says, Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever (1Jn 2:15-17). Some people are perplexed when we use this term, the world. They ask the question, Just what do you mean when you speak of Christians not loving the world and Jesus choosing us out of the world. What world do you mean? Do you mean the universe as such? No Do you mean the globe? No, not that. What, then? This order or system of humanity that has turned its back on God. That is the world. And that world, I repeat, is just the same today as it ever was. When a Christian tries to be a friend of the world, he constitutes himself, at least in that act, into an enemy of God. Scripture uses strong language for those of His children who try to be friends of the world. In James we read, Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God (4:4).
We have pledged ourselves to the One whom the world rejects. Therefore, we are guilty of spiritual adultery if we throw our arms about the world that has refused Him. Oh, if every Christian could realize that he is called out of the world. If we only understood the heavenly nature of our calling, we would not raise so many questions as to whether there is any harm in this or that. The one great question would be, Is this of the Father, or is it of the world? If it is for the glory of God, I can go on with it gladly, but if not, then it should have no place in my life as a Christian.
This world hates Christianity. We see many examples of that today. How Christians are suffering in various parts of the world where once they seemed to have a welcome! Only a few years back Japan was heartily patronizing Christianity, and today they are declaring that it is an enemy of the State. The last word we hear is that all Christian missionaries are ordered to leave the land. Why? Because they know that Christianity is the very antithesis of the theories that they are now advocating and by which they hope to dominate eastern Asia. We see the same attitude on the part of other great world powers. Christ is still the hated One. The opposition to Him becomes more and more intense. It behooves us to ask ourselves if we are really prepared to stand with and for Him no matter what attitude men may take round about us. They hate our Lord. They hate His very grace and lovingkindness because it is such a reflection upon their pride and spirit of warfare that is opposed to the humility of Jesus. Men detest Him for His very lowliness.
He says, If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you (Joh 15:19). What a wonderful thing to be chosen out of the world! I am sure when we look forward and think of the judgment, we can thank God that we have been chosen out of the world.
But what shall we say of those who hope to be delivered and who profess to be Christians, but who are now seeking to get all the pleasure and good times the world can give them. One thinks of Lot and his family so long ago. They moved down to Sodom in order that they might participate in worldly things, tired of the life of separation lived up there on the hills of Palestine. Step by step downward, until they became ensconced in Sodom. Then came the day when the judgment of God was about to fall upon that guilty city and the angels came to bring the message, Escape for thy life; look not behind thee, neither stay thou in all the plain; escape to the mountain, lest thou be consumed (Gen 19:17). We are told the angels commanded Lot to go to his relatives in the city, men who had married his daughters and tell them that tomorrow the judgment was to fall. But they mocked Lot when he talked to them about judgment. Why? Because he had lived so much like the rest of them. And now they thought he was demented.
Are you and I so living that our testimony really counts when we warn men to flee from the wrath to come, or are we living so near to the edge of the world, are we so much like those around us, that others question whether we really believe what we are professing? Oh, if there ever was a day when God is calling to absolute separation from this world, this is the time!
Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also (Joh 15:20). There you have the two classes, those who are subject to Him and those who refuse to own his authority. The lines are being drawn closer and closer, and will be drawn more and more definitely. As we read our Bibles and the newspapers and look around about us, we cannot help but believe that even now, perhaps, we are moving right on toward the darkness and horrors of the Great Tribulation. And if that be so, the hour when the Lord Jesus Christ shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first (1Th 4:16) must be very close at hand. Let us see that we so live, so behave ourselves, so use the talents that God has entrusted us with in order that our actions toward those about us, in the family, in the professing church and in the world around, will carry weight. That when we hear that voice, that shout, that trump, we will go with gladness and not be ashamed before Him at His coming.
One thing I am sure of is that there will never be a Christian in that day who will wish he had been a little more worldly or enjoyed more of the frivolity of the present moment. But there will be tens of thousands of believers who will in that day be willing to give almost anything if they had been more interested in the things of the Lord during the little time that they spent in this scene. God give us to live as those who have been chosen out of the world! When we came to Christ we said farewell to the world. We left it all for His names sake. Oh, how can we then go back on that which meant so much to us in the hour of our first love.
Let us search our hearts, and if we find that the world means more to us now than it did then, let us repent and do our first works over again that we may have His approval in the coming day.
The world hates God; it will hate us. If we are seeking its love, it will only be at the cost of faithfulness to Christ. That is the trouble with the world. It does not know God. Do we know Him? We never can know Him if we reject Jesus Christ. He says, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me (Joh 14:6). There is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved (Act 4:12). He came to reveal the Father. He has told out all that God is, and if men spurn Him, it is because they know not God. When we receive Him, we receive eternal life. And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent (Joh 17:3).
If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin: but now they have no cloak for their sin (15:22). Responsibility increases with knowledge. People have said to me, If that is true, then what about the heathen? Are not the heathen all right just as they are? Why should we go to them with the gospel? For if we do not go, they will not have sin. Does that mean that the heathen are saved without the gospel? Not at all. The first chapter of the epistle to the Romans explains that. It is not because of what they do not know-not because of the rejection of the Savior of whom they have never heard-but because of what they do know, because of the light of conscience which they already have that they are condemned. They are doing day by day the things that their own consciences tell them are wrong.
The Christian is to go to them with the gospel and proclaim a full and free salvation through the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ, bringing a message of joy and happiness such as they never have known in their idolatry. When they hear, they are responsible to accept the gift of God. Every time we preach the gospel here at home we must remember that to some it is the savour of death unto death; and to others the savour of life unto life (2Co 2:16). Men, hearing the message, either accept Christ as Savior or spurn the Word and increase their condemnation. It is a solemn thing when life is offered and men refuse it. That is what we are told in the earlier part of this book when Jesus was speaking to Nicodemus. He said, This is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God (Joh 3:19-21).
And so the greatest condemnation rested upon those who heard and rejected Christ when He came. He came and revealed God. They rejected Him, and thus rejecting Him they had no cloak for their sin, for in hating Him they hated His Father also.
If I had not done among them the works which none other man did, they had not had sin: but now have they both seen and hated both me and my Father (15:24). That is, the Lord Jesus Christ not only ministered by word of mouth but He authenticated His teaching by His acts of power, and every miracle wrought by Christ proved that He was what He professed to be, the holy, spotless Son of God. The people went in crowds to see His miracles, but they rejected the One who wrought these works and therefore, added to their own condemnation. Of this He says, But this cometh to pass, that the word might be fulfilled that is written in their law, They hated me without a cause (v. 25). He quotes from Psalm 69, where we have a wonderful prophetic picture of His dying on the cross for our sins. It is in that connection we read, They hate me without a cause (v. 4). There was no reason why Jesus should be hated. He came with a heart full of love for mankind and went about doing good. Men spurned Him because His very purity brought their impurity out into the light, His very holiness accentuated their unholiness, His perfect righteousness but manifested their unrighteousness. They said, Get Him out of the way!
There is a story told of an African chiefess who happened to visit a mission station. The missionary had a little mirror hung up on a tree outside his cabin. The chiefess happened to look into the mirror and saw herself reflected there in all her hideous paint and evil features. She gazed at her own ugly, grotesque countenance, started back in horror, and said, Who is that horrible looking person inside that tree? Oh, they said, it is not in the tree. The glass is reflecting your own face. She could not believe it until she held that mirror in her hand. She said, I must have the glass. How much will you sell it for? Oh, he said, I dont want to sell it. But she insisted and begged, until finally he thought it might be best to sell it to her to avoid trouble. So he named the price, and she took it. Then as she said, I will never have it making faces at me again, she threw it down and broke it to pieces.
That is the way people treat the Bible and Jesus Christ. The Word of God shows up mens wickedness. They say, Down with Christ! We dont want your Bible, and we dont want your Christ.
But now, what is our power for testimony as we go to meet a world like this? In the last two verses Jesus again refers to that blessed One whose coming He had promised in the earlier part of His discourse. But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me: and ye also shall bear witness, because ye have been with me from the beginning (vv. 26-27). We have no power in ourselves. As Christians we are weak and have no ability to stand against the enemy, but greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world (1Jn 4:4). And so our reliance is upon the Divine Comforter, the third person of the Trinity, who has come to take the Saviors place and to empower us to go forth and bear witness that through this testimony men may be saved.
Fuente: Commentaries on the New Testament and Prophets

world
kosmos = world-system. Joh 16:11; Joh 16:33; Joh 7:7. (See Scofield “Rev 13:8”).
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes

Joh 15:23-25, Joh 3:20, Joh 7:7, 1Ki 22:8, Isa 49:7, Isa 53:3, Zec 11:8, Mat 5:11, Mat 10:22, Mat 24:9, Mar 13:13, Luk 6:22, Heb 12:2, Jam 4:4, 1Jo 3:1, 1Jo 3:3, 1Jo 3:13
Reciprocal: Gen 37:4 – hated him Exo 20:5 – of them 1Ki 22:24 – smote Micaiah 2Ki 19:28 – thy rage 2Ch 18:7 – I hate him 2Ch 19:2 – hate the Lord Psa 34:21 – they Psa 38:19 – they that Pro 29:10 – The bloodthirsty Isa 66:5 – Your Mic 3:2 – hate Mat 7:14 – narrow Mat 25:45 – Inasmuch Mar 9:50 – have peace Mar 15:21 – to bear Luk 12:52 – General Luk 19:14 – General Joh 8:23 – ye are of Joh 12:11 – General Joh 17:11 – but Joh 17:14 – the world Joh 17:22 – the glory Act 7:26 – ye are Act 16:20 – do 2Co 6:14 – for Gal 1:4 – from Heb 12:3 – contradiction 1Jo 5:19 – and the
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

8
It should have beer regarded as an honor for a disciple of Christ to be hated by the world. Such hatred began when He attacked the wickedness of the world, and it would be logical for the followers of such a teacher to be accorded the same sentiments. The truth is that one of the evidences of a man’s relation to Christ morally is the persecution that is heaped upon him (2Ti 3:12).
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary

Joh 15:18. If the world hateth you, know that it hath hated me before it hated you. It is the active work of the disciples that has been before us in the preceding verses, but that work always has provoked, and always will provoke the worlds hatred. In such a prospect, therefore, there is need for strength; and strength is given by means of truth presented in one of the double pictures of our Gospel,the first extending to the close of chap. 15, the second to chap. Joh 16:15. First of all, in that hatred which they shall certainly experience, let them behold a proof that, engaged in their Masters service, they are really filling their Masters place; and let them feel that the trials that befell Him ought surely to be no strange thing to them. Their Master, their Friend, their Redeemer trod the same path as that which they must tread. What thought could be more touching or more full of comforting and ennobling influences?
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament

Vv. 18-20. If the world hates you, know that I have been the object of its hatred before you. 19. If you were of the world, the world would love what belongs to it; but because you are not of the world and I have drawn you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. 20. Remember the word which I have said to you:the servant is not greater than his master; if they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my word, they will keep yours also.
Jesus does not wish merely to announce to His disciples the hatred of which they are going to be the object on the part of the world; He wishes to fortify them against it; and He does so by saying to them, first: it will hate you as me (Joh 15:18-20); then: it will hate you because of me (Joh 15:21-25). Nothing makes us more ready to suffer as Christians than the thought that there happens to us only what happened to Christ, and that it happens to us for Him. may be taken as an imperative, like (remember), Joh 15:20 : Consider what has happened with regard to me, and you will understand that everything which happens to you is in the natural order. The indicative sense, however, is more simple: If a similar experience befalls you, you know the explanation of it already: you know indeed that….
By their union with Christ, the disciples represent henceforth on earth a principle foreign to humanity which lives apart from God, to the world. This manifestation therefore appears strange to the world; it is offended by it; it will seek to get rid of it. , I have chosen, indicates here the call to faith, not to the apostleship; by this word to choose Jesus would designate the act by which He has drawn them to Himself and detached them from the world; the thought of divine predestination is not found here, any more than in Joh 15:16. The close relation formed by this act of Jesus between Himself and the disciples is formulated in Joh 15:20 by the expressions master and servant. The quoted axiom has the same sense as in Mat 10:24, but a different sense from Joh 13:16. In ch. 13 it is an encouragement to humility; here it is an encouragement to patience.
It is natural to regard the two cases set forth by Jesus in Joh 15:20 as both real. The mass of the people will no more be converted by the preaching of the apostles than by that of Jesus. But as Jesus has had the satisfaction of rescuing isolatedindividuals from ruin, this joy will also be granted to the disciples. This meaning seems to me preferable to that ofGrotius, who gives to the second clause an ironical sense, or to that of Bengel, who takes , to keep, in the sense of maliciously watching, or, finally, to the interpretation of Lucke, Meyer, de Wette, Hengstenberg, Weiss, who see in the two sides of the alternative proposed only two abstract propositions between which the apostles can easily decide which one will be realized for them; as if Jesus and themselves had not also gained some of the members of the .
Fuente: Godet Commentary (Luke, John, Romans and 1 Corinthians)

15:18 {6} If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before [it hated] you.
(6) When the faithful ministers of Christ are hated by the world as their master was, it should not cause them to fear, but rather strengthen and encourage them.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes

Jesus wanted to prepare His disciples for the opposition that they would face after His departure. To do this He announced first that they would encounter opposition from the world (cf. 1Jn 3:13). Here the world (Gr. kosmos) refers to the mass of unbelievers. The conditional sentence in the Greek text assumes the reality of what Jesus stated for the argument’s sake. The world would hate them. A person cannot be an intimate friend of Jesus (i.e., an abiding believer) without drawing hatred from His enemies.
The world hates Jesus because He testified that its deeds are evil (Joh 7:7). His abiding disciples draw hatred from the world because they associate with Him and His teachings and because they seek to advance His mission. Remembering the world’s hatred for the Master makes bearing that hatred easier for His disciple.
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)

XIV. THE SPIRIT CHRIST’S WITNESS.
“If the world hateth you, ye know that it hath hated Me before it hated you. If ye were of the world, the world would love its own: but because ye are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. Remember the word that I said unto you, A servant is not greater than his lord. If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; if they kept My word, they will keep yours also. But all these things will they do unto you for My name’s sake, because they know not Him that sent Me. If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin: but now they have no excuse for their sin. He that hateth Me hateth My Father also. If I had not done among them the works which none other did, they had not had sin: but now have they both seen and hated both Me and My Father. But this cometh to pass, that the word may be fulfilled that is written in their law, They hated Me without a cause. But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, He shall bear witness of Me: and ye also bear witness, because ye have been with Me from the beginning. These things have I spoken unto you, that ye should not be made to stumble. They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the hour cometh, that whosoever killeth you shall think that he offereth service unto God. And these things will they do, because they have not known the Father, nor Me. But these things have I spoken unto you, that when their hour is come, ye may remember them, how that I told you. And these things I said not unto you from the beginning, because I was with you. But now I go unto Him that sent Me; and none of you asketh Me, Whither goest Thou? But because I have spoken these things unto you, sorrow hath filled your heart. Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I go, I will send Him unto you. And He, when He is come, will convict the world in respect of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: of sin, because they believe not on Me; of righteousness, because I go to the Father, and ye behold Me no more; of judgment, because the prince of this world hath been judged. I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. Howbeit when He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He shall guide you into all the truth: for He shall not speak from Himself; but what things soever He shall hear, these shall He speak: and He shall declare unto you the things that are to come. He shall glorify Me: for He shall take of Mine, and shall declare it unto you. All things whatsoever the Father hath are Mine: therefore said I, that He taketh of Mine, and shall declare it unto you.”– Joh 15:18-27, Joh 16:1-15.
Having shown His disciples that by them only can His purposes on earth be fulfilled, and that He will fit them for all work that may be required of them, the Lord now adds that their task will be full of hazard and hardship: “They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the time cometh that whosoever killeth you will think that he offereth service unto God.” This was but a dreary prospect, and one to make each Apostle hesitate, and in the privacy of his own thoughts consider whether he should face a life so devoid of all that men naturally crave. To live for great ends is no doubt animating, but to be compelled in doing so to abandon all expectation of recognition, and to lay one’s account for abuse, poverty, persecution, calls for some heroism in him that undertakes such a life. He forewarns them of this persecution, that when it comes they may not be taken aback and fancy that things are not falling out with them as their Lord anticipated. And He offers them two strong consolations which might uphold and animate them under all they should be called upon to suffer.
I. “If the world hateth you, ye know that it hath hated Me before it hated you. If ye were of the world, the world would love its own; but because ye are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.” Persecution is thus turned into a joy, because it is the testimony paid by the world to the disciples’ identity with Christ. The love of the world would be a sure evidence of their unfaithfulness to Christ and of their entire lack of resemblance to Him; but its hate was the tribute it would pay to their likeness to Him and successful promotion of His cause. They might well question their loyalty to Christ, if the world which had slain Him fawned upon them. The Christian may conclude he is reckoned a helpless and harmless foe if he suffers no persecution, if in no company he is frowned upon or felt to be uncongenial, if he is treated by the world as if its aims were his aims and its spirit his spirit. No faithful follower of Christ who mixes with society can escape every form of persecution. It is the seal which the world puts on the choice of Christ. It is proof that a man’s attachment to Christ and endeavour to forward His purposes have been recognised by the world. Persecution, then, should be welcome as the world’s testimony to the disciple’s identity with Christ.
No idea had fixed itself more deeply in the mind of John than this of the identity of Christ and His people. As he brooded upon the life of Christ and sought to penetrate to the hidden meanings of all that appeared on the surface, he came to see that the unbelief and hatred with which He was met was the necessary result of goodness presented to worldliness and selfishness. And as time went on he saw that the experience of Christ was exceptional only in degree, that His experience was and would be repeated in every one who sought to live in His Spirit and to do His will. The future of the Church accordingly presented itself to him as a history of conflict, of extreme cruelty on the part of the world and quiet conquering endurance on the part of Christ’s people. And it was this which he embodied in the Book of Revelation. This book he wrote as a kind of detailed commentary on the passage before us, and in it he intended to depict the sufferings and final conquest of the Church. The one book is a reflex and supplement to the other; and as in the Gospel he had shown the unbelief and cruelty of the world against Christ, so in the Revelation he shows in a series of strongly coloured pictures how the Church of Christ would pass through the same experience, would be persecuted as Christ was persecuted, but would ultimately conquer. Both books are wrought out with extreme care and finished to the minutest detail, and both deal with the cardinal matters of human history–sin, righteousness, and the final result of their conflict. Underneath all that appears on the surface in the life of the individual and in the history of the race there are just these abiding elements–sin and righteousness. It is the moral value of things which in the long run proves of consequence, the moral element which ultimately determines all else.
II. The second consolation and encouragement the Lord gave them was that they would receive the aid of a powerful champion–the Paraclete, the one effectual, sufficient Helper. “When the Paraclete is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall bear witness of Me: and ye also bear witness, because ye have been with Me from the beginning.” Inevitably the disciples would argue that, if the words and works of Jesus Himself had not broken down the unbelief of the world, it was not likely that anything which they could say or do would have that effect. If the impressive presence of Christ Himself had not attracted and convinced all men, how was it possible that mere telling about what He had said and done and been would convince them? And He has just been reminding them how little effect His own words and works had had. “If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin: … if I had not done among them the works which none other did, they had not had sin: but now have they both seen and hated both Me and My Father.” What power, then, could break down this obstinate unbelief?
Our Lord assures them that together with their witness-bearing there will be an all-powerful witness–“the Spirit of truth”; one who could find access to the hearts and minds to which they addressed themselves and carry truth home to conviction. It was on this account that it was “expedient” that their Lord should depart, and that His visible presence should be superseded by the presence of the Spirit. It was necessary that His death, resurrection, and ascension to the right hand of the Father should take place, in order that His supremacy might be secured. And in order that He might be everywhere and inwardly present with men, it was necessary that He should be visible nowhere on earth. The inward spiritual presence depended on the bodily absence.
Before passing to the specific contents of the Spirit’s testimony, as stated in Joh 16:8-11, it is necessary to gather up what our Lord indicates regarding the Spirit Himself and His function in the Christian dispensation. First, the Spirit here spoken of is a personal existence. Throughout all that our Lord says in this last conversation regarding the Spirit personal epithets are applied to Him, and the actions ascribed to Him are personal actions. He is to be the substitute of the most marked and influential Personality with whom the disciples had ever been brought in contact. He is to supply His vacated place. He is to be to the disciples as friendly and staunch an ally and a more constantly present and efficient teacher than Christ Himself. What as yet was not in their minds He was to impart to them; and He was to mediate and maintain communication between the absent Lord and themselves. Was it possible that the disciples should think of the Spirit otherwise than as a conscious and energetic Person when they heard Him spoken of in such words as these: “Howbeit when He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He shall guide you into all the truth: for He shall not speak from Himself; but what things soever He shall hear, these shall He speak: and He shall declare unto you the things that are to come. He shall glorify Me: for He shall take of Mine, and shall declare it unto you”? From these words it would seem as if the disciples were justified in expecting the presence and aid of One who was very closely related to their Lord, but yet distinct from Him, who could understand their state of mind and adapt Himself to them, who is not identical with the Master they are losing, and yet comes into still closer contact with them. What underlies this, and what is the very nature of the Spirit and His relation to the Father and the Son, we do not know; but our Lord chose these expressions which to our thought involve personality because this is the truest and safest form under which we can now conceive of the Spirit.
The function for the discharge of which this Spirit is necessary is the “glorification” of Christ. Without Him the manifestation of Christ will be lost. He is needed to secure that the world be brought into contact with Christ, and that men recognise and use Him. This is the most general and comprehensive aspect of the Spirit’s work: “He shall glorify Me” (Joh 16:14). In making this announcement our Lord assumes that position of commanding importance with which this Gospel has made us familiar. The Divine Spirit is to be sent forth, and the direct object of His mission is the glorifying of Christ. The meaning of Christ’s manifestation is the essential thing for men to understand. In manifesting Himself He has revealed the Father. He has in His own person shown what a Divine nature is; and therefore in order to His glorification all that is required is that light be shed upon what He has done and been, and that the eyes of men be opened to see Him and His work. The recognition of Christ and of God in Him is the blessedness of the human race; and to bring this about is the function of the Spirit. As Jesus Himself had constantly presented Himself as the revealer of the Father and as speaking His words, so, in “a rivalry of Divine humility,” the Spirit glorifies the Son and speaks “what He shall hear.”
To discharge this function a twofold ministry is undertaken by the Spirit: He must enlighten the Apostles, and He must convince the world.
He must enlighten the Apostles. From the nature of the case much had to be left unsaid by Christ. But this would not prevent the Apostles from understanding what Christ had done, and what applications His work had to themselves and their fellow-men. “I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. Howbeit when He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into all the truth.” A great untravelled country lay before them. Their Master had led them across its border, and set their faces in the right direction; but who was to find a way for them through all its intricacies and perplexities? The Spirit of truth, He who is Himself perfect knowledge and absolute light, “will guide you”; He will go before you and show you your way.[18] There may be no sudden impartation of truth, no lifting of the mist that hangs on the horizon, no consciousness that now you have mastered all difficulties and can see your way to the end; there may be no violation of the natural and difficult processes by which men arrive at truth; the road may be slow, and sometimes there may even be an appearance of ignominious defeat by those who use swifter but more precarious means of advance; much will depend on your own patience and wakefulness and docility; but if you admit the Spirit, He will guide you into all the truth.
This promise does not involve that the Apostles, and through them all disciples, should know everything. “All the truth” is relative to the subject taught. All that they need to know regarding Christ and His work for them they will learn. All that is needed to glorify Christ, to enable men to recognise Him as the manifestation of God, will be imparted. To the truth which the Apostles learn, therefore, nothing need be added. Nothing essential has been added. Time has now been given to test this promise, and what time has shown is this–that while libraries have been written on what the Apostles thought and taught, their teaching remains as the sufficient guide into all the truth regarding Christ. Even in non-essentials it is marvellous how little has been added. Many corrections of misapprehensions of their meaning have been required, much laborious inquiry to ascertain precisely what they meant, much elaborate inference and many buildings upon their foundations; but in their teaching there remain a freshness and a living force which survive all else that has been written upon Christ and His religion.
This instruction of the Apostles by the Spirit was to recall to their minds what Christ Himself had said, and was also to show them things to come. The changed point of view introduced by the dispensation of the Spirit and the abolition of earthly hopes would cause many of the sayings of Jesus which they had disregarded and considered unintelligible to spring into high relief and ray out significance, while the future also would shape itself quite differently in their conception. And the Teacher who should superintend and inspire this altered attitude of mind is the Spirit.[19]
Not only must the Spirit enlighten the Apostles; He must also convince the world. “He shall bear witness of Me,” and by His witness-bearing the testimony of the Apostles would become efficacious. They had a natural fitness to witness about Christ, “because they had been with Him from the beginning.” No more trustworthy witnesses regarding what Christ had said or done or been could be called than those men with whom He had lived on terms of intimacy. No men could more certainly testify to the identity of the risen Lord. But the significance of the facts they spoke of could best be taught by the Spirit. The very fact of the Spirit’s presence was the greatest evidence that the Lord had risen and was using “all power in heaven” in behalf of men. And possibly it was to this Peter referred when he said: “We are His witnesses of these things; and so is also the Holy Ghost, whom God hath given to them that obey Him.” Certainly the gifts of the Holy Ghost, the power to speak with tongues or to work miracles of healing, were accepted by the primitive Church as a seal of the Apostolic word and as the appropriate evidence of the power of the risen Christ.
But it is apparent from our Lord’s description of the subject-matter of the Spirit’s witness that here He has especially in view the function of the Spirit as an inward teacher and strengthener of the moral powers. He is the fellow-witness of the Apostles, mainly and permanently, by enlightening men in the significance of the facts reported by them, and by opening the heart and conscience to their influence.
The subject-matter of the Spirit’s testimony is threefold: “He will convict the world in respect of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment.”
I. He should convict the world of sin. No conviction cuts so deeply and produces results of such magnitude as the conviction of sin. It is like subsoil ploughing: it turns up soil that nothing else has got down to. It alters entirely a man’s attitude towards life. He cannot know himself a sinner and be satisfied with that condition. This awakening is like the waking of one who has been buried in a trance, who wakes to find himself bound round with grave-clothes, hemmed in with all the insignia of corruption, terror and revulsion distracting and overwhelming his soul. In spirit he has been far away, weaving perhaps a paradise out of his fancies, peopling it with choice and happy society, and living through scenes of gorgeous beauty and comfort in fulness of interest and life and felicity; but suddenly comes the waking, a few brief moments of painful struggle and the dream gives place to the reality, and then comes the certain accumulation of misery till the spirit breaks beneath its fear. So does the strongest heart groan and break when it wakes to the full reality of sin, when the Spirit of Christ takes the veil from a man’s eyes and gives him to see what this world is and what he has been in it, when the shadows that have occupied him flee away and the naked inevitable reality confronts him.
Nothing is more overwhelming than this conviction, but nothing is more hopeful. Given a man who is alive to the evil of sin and who begins to understand his errors, and you know some good will come of that. Given a man who sees the importance of being in accord with perfect goodness and who feels the degradation of sin, and you have the germ of all good in that man. But how were the Apostles to produce this? how were they to dispel those mists which blurred the clear outline of good and evil, to bring to the self-righteous Pharisee and the indifferent and worldly Sadducee a sense of their own sin? What instrument is there which can introduce to every human heart, howsoever armoured and fenced round, this healthy revolution? Looking at men as they actually are, and considering how many forces are banded together to exclude the knowledge of sin, how worldly interest demands that no brand shall be affixed to this and that action, how the customs we are brought up in require us to take a lenient view of this and that immorality, how we deceive ourselves by sacrificing sins we do not care for in order to retain sins that are in our blood, how the resistance of certain sins makes us a prey to self-righteousness and delusion–considering what we have learnt of the placidity with which men content themselves with a life they know is not the highest, does there seem to be any instrument by which a true and humbling sense of sin can be introduced to the mind?
Christ, knowing that men were about to put Him to death because He had tried to convict them of sin, confidently predicts that His servants would by His Spirit’s aid convince the world of sin and of this in particular–that they had not believed in Him. That very death which chiefly exhibits human sin has, in fact, become the chief instrument in making men understand and hate sin. There is no consideration from which the deceitfulness of sin will not escape, nor any fear which the recklessness of sin will not brave, nor any authority which self-will cannot override but only this: Christ has died for me, to save me from my sin, and I am sinning still, not regarding His blood, not meeting His purpose. It was when the greatness and the goodness of Christ were together let in to Peter’s mind that he fell on his face before Him, saying, “Depart from me, O Lord, for I am a sinful man.” And the experience of thousands is recorded in that more recent confession:
“In evil long I took delight, unawed by shame or fear, Till a new object struck my sight and stopped my wild career: I saw One hanging on a tree in agonies and blood. Who fixed His languid eyes on me as near His cross I stood. Sure never till my latest breath can I forget that look; It seemed to charge me with His death, though not a word He spoke.”
Of other convictions we may get rid; the consequences of sin we may brave, or we may disbelieve that in our case sin will produce any very disastrous fruits; but in the death of Christ we see, not what sin may possibly do in the future, but what it actually has done in the past. In presence of the death of Christ we cannot any longer make a mock of sin or think lightly of it, as if it were on our own responsibility and at our own risk we sinned.
But not only does the death of Christ exhibit the intricate connections of our sin with other persons and the grievous consequence of sin in general, but also it exhibits the enormity of this particular sin of rejecting Christ. “He will convince the world of sin, because they believe not on Me.” It was this sin in point of fact which cut to the heart the crowd at Jerusalem first addressed by Peter. Peter had nothing to say of their looseness of life, of their worldliness, of their covetousness: he did not go into particulars of conduct calculated to bring a blush to their cheeks; he took up but one point, and by a few convincing remarks showed them the enormity of crucifying the Lord of glory. The lips which a few days before had cried out “Crucify Him, crucify Him!” now cried, Men and brethren, what shall we do, how escape from the crushing condemnation of mistaking God’s image for a criminal? In that hour Christ’s words were fulfilled; they were convinced of sin because they believed not on Him.
This is ever the damning sin–to be in presence of goodness and not to love it, to see Christ and to see Him with unmoved and unloving hearts, to hear His call without response, to recognise the beauty of holiness and yet turn away to lust and self and the world. This is the condemnation–that light is come into the world and we have loved darkness rather than the light. “If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin: but now they have no cloke for their sin. He that hateth Me, hateth My Father also.” To turn away from Christ is to turn away from absolute goodness. It is to show that however much we may relish certain virtues and approve particular forms of goodness, goodness absolute and complete does not attract us.
II. The conviction of righteousness is the complement, the other half, of the conviction of sin. In the shame of guilt there is the germ of the conviction of righteousness. The sense of guilt is but the acknowledgment that we ought to be righteous. No guilt attaches to the incapable. The sting of guilt is poisoned with the knowledge that we were capable of better things. Conscience exclaims against all excuses that would lull us into the idea that sin is insuperable, and that there is nothing better for us than a moderately sinful life. When conscience ceases to condemn, hope dies. A mist rises from sin that obscures the clear outline between its own domain and that of righteousness, like the mist that rises from the sea and mingles shore and water in one undefined cloud. But let it rise off the one and the other is at once distinctly marked out; and so in the conviction of sin there is already involved the conviction of righteousness. The blush of shame that suffuses the face of the sinner as the mist-dispelling Sun of righteousness arises upon him is the morning flush and promise of an everlasting day of righteous living.
For each of us it is of the utmost importance to have a fixed and intelligent persuasion that righteousness is what we are made for. The righteous Lord loveth righteousness and made us in His image to widen the joy of rational creatures. He waits for righteousness and cannot accept sin as an equally grateful fruit of men’s lives. And though in the main perhaps our faces are turned towards righteousness, and we are on the whole dissatisfied and ashamed of sin, yet the conviction of righteousness has much to struggle against in us all. Sin, we unconsciously plead, is so finely interwoven with all the ways of the world that it is impossible to live wholly free from it. As well cast a sponge into the water and command that it absorb none nor sink as put me in the world and command that I do not admit its influences or sink to its level. It presses in on me through all my instincts and appetites and hopes and fears; it washes ceaselessly at the gateways of my senses, so that one unguarded moment and the torrent bursts in on me and pours over my wasted bulwarks, resolves, high aims, and whatever else. It is surely not now and here that I am expected to do more than learn the rudiments of righteous living and make small experiments in it; endeavours will surely stand for accomplishment, and pious purposes in place of heroic action and positive righteousness. Men take sin for granted and lay their account for it. Will not God also, who remembers our frailty, consider the circumstances and count sin a matter of course? Such thoughts haunt and weaken us; but every man whose heart is touched by the Spirit of God clings to this as his hopeful prayer: “Teach me to do Thy will, for Thou art my God: Thy Spirit is good; lead me into the land of uprightness.”
But, after all, it is by fact men are convinced; and were there no facts to appeal to in this matter conviction could not be attained. It does seem that we are made for righteousness, but sin is in this world so universal that there must surely be some way of accounting for it which shall also excuse it. Had righteousness been to be our life, surely some few would have attained it. There must be some necessity of sin, some impossibility of attaining perfect righteousness, and therefore we need not seek it. Here comes in the proof our Lord speaks of: “The Spirit will convince of righteousness, because I go to the Father.” Righteousness has been attained. There has lived One, bone of our bone, and flesh of our flesh, tempted in all points like as we are, open to the same ambitious views of life, growing up with the same appetites and as sensitive to bodily pleasure and bodily pain, feeling as keenly the neglect and hatred of men, and from the very size of His nature and width of His sympathy tempted in a thousand ways we are safe from, and yet in no instance confounding right and wrong, in no instance falling from perfect harmony with the Divine will to self-will and self-seeking; never deferring the commandments of God to some other sphere or waiting for holier times; never forgetting and never renouncing the purpose of God in His life; but at all times, in weariness and lassitude, in personal danger and in domestic comfort, putting Himself as a perfect instrument into God’s hand, ready at all cost to Himself to do the Father’s will. Here was One who not only recognised that men are made to work together with God, but who actually did so work; who not only approved, as we all approve, of a life of holiness and sacrifice, but actually lived it; who did not think the trial too great, the privation and risk too dreadful, the self-effacement too humbling; but who met life with all it brings to all of us–its conflict, its interests, its opportunities, its allurements, its snares, its hazards. But while out of this material we fail to make a perfect life, He by His integrity of purpose and devotedness and love of good fashioned a perfect life. Thus He simply by living accomplished what the law with its commands and threats had not accomplished: He condemned sin in the flesh.
But it was open to those whom the Apostles addressed to deny that Jesus had thus lived; and therefore the conviction of righteousness is completed by the evidence of the resurrection and ascension of Christ. “Of righteousness, because I go to My Father, and ye see Me no more.” Without holiness no man shall see God. It was this that the Apostles appealed to when first moved to address their fellow-men and proclaim Christ as the Saviour. It was to His resurrection they confidently appealed as evidence of the truth of His claim to have been sent of God. The Jews had put Him to death as a deceiver; but God proclaimed His righteousness by raising Him from the dead. “Ye denied the Holy One and the Just, and desired a murderer to be granted unto you, and killed the Prince of life whom God hath raised from the dead, whereof we are witnesses.”
Probably, however, another idea underlies the words “because I go to My Father, and ye see Me no more.” So long as Christ was on earth the Jews believed that Jesus and His followers were plotting a revolution: when He was removed beyond sight such a suspicion became ludicrous. But when His disciples could no longer see Him, they continued to serve Him and to strive with greater zeal than ever to promote His cause. Slowly then it dawned on men’s minds that righteousness was what Christ and His Apostles alone desired and sought to establish on earth. This new spectacle of men devoting their lives to the advancement of righteousness, and confident they could establish a kingdom of righteousness and actually establishing it–this spectacle penetrated men’s minds, and gave them a new sense of the value of righteousness, and quite a new conviction of the possibility of attaining it.
III. The third conviction by which the Apostles were to prevail in their preaching of Christ was the conviction “of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged.” Men were to be persuaded that a distinction is made between sin and righteousness, that in no case can sin pass for righteousness and righteousness for sin. The world that has worldly ends in view and works towards them by appropriate means, disregarding moral distinctions, will be convicted of enormous error. The Spirit of truth will work in men’s minds the conviction that all and every sin is mistake and productive of nothing good, and can in no instance accomplish what righteousness would have accomplished. Men will find, when truth shines in their spirit, that they have not to await a great day of judgment in the end, when the good results of sin shall be reversed and reward allotted to those who have done righteously, but that judgment is a constant and universal element in God’s government and to be found everywhere throughout it, distinguishing between sin and righteousness in every present instance, and never for one moment allowing to sin the value or the results which only righteousness has. In the minds of men who have been using the world’s unrighteous methods and living for the world’s selfish ends, the conviction is to be wrought that no good can come of all that–that sin is sin and not valid for any good purpose. Men are to recognise that a distinction is made between human actions, and that condemnation is pronounced on all that are sinful.
And this conviction is to be wrought in the light of the fact that in Christ’s victory the prince of this world is judged. The powers by which the world is actually led are seen to be productive of evil, and not the powers by which men can permanently be led or should at any time have been led. The prince of this world was judged by Christ’s refusal throughout His life to be in anything guided by him. The motives by which the world is led were not Christ’s motives.
But it is in the death of Christ the prince of this world was especially judged. That death was brought about by the world’s opposition to unworldliness. Had the world been seeking spiritual beauty and prosperity, Christ would not have been crucified. He was crucified because the world was seeking material gain and worldly glory, and was thereby blinded to the highest form of goodness. And unquestionably the very fact that worldliness led to this treatment of Christ is its most decided condemnation. We cannot think highly of principles and dispositions which so blind men to the highest form of human goodness and lead them to actions so unreasonable and wicked. As an individual will often commit one action which illustrates his whole character, and flashes sudden light into the hidden parts of it, and discloses its capabilities and possible results, so the world has in this one act shown what worldliness essentially is and at all times is capable of. No stronger condemnation of the influences which move worldly men can be found than the crucifixion of Christ.
But, besides, the death of Christ exhibits in so touching a form the largeness and power of spiritual beauty, and brings so vividly home to the heart the charm of holiness and love, that here more than anywhere else do men learn to esteem beauty of character and holiness and love more than all the world can yield them. We feel that to be wholly out of sympathy with the qualities and ideas manifested in the Cross would be a pitiable condition. We adopt as our ideal the kind of glory there revealed, and in our hearts condemn the opposed style of conduct that the world leads to. As we open our understanding and conscience to the meaning of Christ’s love and sacrifice and devotedness to God’s will, the prince of this world is judged and condemned within us. We feel that to yield to the powers that move and guide the world is impossible for us, and that we must give ourselves to this Prince of holiness and spiritual glory.
In point of fact the world is judged. To adhere to worldly motives and ways and ambitions is to cling to a sinking ship, to throw ourselves away on a justly doomed cause. The world may trick itself out in what delusive splendours it may; it is judged all the same, and men who are deluded by it and still in one way or other acknowledge the prince of this world destroy themselves and lose the future.
Such was the promise of Christ to His disciples. Is it fulfilled in us? We may have witnessed in others the entrance and operation of convictions which to all appearance correspond with those here described. We may even have been instrumental in producing these convictions. But a lens of ice will act as a burning-glass, and itself unmelted will fire the tinder to which it transmits the rays. And perhaps we may be able to say with much greater confidence that we have done good than that we are good. Convinced of sin we may be, and convinced of righteousness we may be–so far at least as to feel most keenly that the distinction between sin and righteousness is real, wide, and of eternal consequence–but is the prince of this world judged? has the power that claims us as the servants of sin and mocks our strivings after righteousness been, so far as we can judge from our own experience, defeated? For this is the final test of religion, of our faith in Christ, of the truth of His words and the efficacy of His work. Does He accomplish in me what He promised?
Now, when we begin to doubt the efficacy of the Christian method on account of its apparent failure in our own case, when we see quite clearly how it ought to work and as clearly that it has not worked, when this and that turns up in our life and proves beyond controversy that we are ruled by much the same motives and desires as the world at large, two subjects of reflection present themselves. First, have we remembered the word of Christ, “The servant is not greater than his Lord”? Are we so anxious to be His servants that we would willingly sacrifice whatever stood in the way of our serving Him? Are we content to be as He was in the world? There are always many in the Christian Church who are, first, men of the world, and, secondly, varnished with Christianity; who do not seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness; who do not yet understand that the whole of life must be consecrated to Christ and spring from His will, and who therefore without compunction do make themselves greater in every worldly respect than their professed Lord. There are also many in the Christian Church at all times who decline to make more of this world than Christ Himself did, and whose constant study it is to put all they have at His disposal. Now, we cannot too seriously inquire to which of these classes we belong. Are we making a bon-fide thing of our attachment to Christ? Do we feel it in every part of our life? Do we strive, not to minimise our service and His claims, but to be wholly His? Have His words, “The servant is not greater than his Lord,” any meaning to us at all? Is His service truly the main thing we seek in life? I say we should seriously inquire if this is so; for not hereafter, but now, are we finally determining our relation to all things by our relation to Christ.
But, secondly, we must beware of disheartening ourselves by hastily concluding that in our case Christ’s grace has failed. If we may accept the Book of Revelation as a true picture, not merely of the conflict of the Church, but also of the conflict of the individual, then only in the end can we look for quiet and achieved victory–only in the closing chapters does conflict cease and victory seem no more doubtful. If it is to be so with us, the fact of our losing some of the battles must not discourage us from continuing the campaign. Nothing is more painful and humbling than to find ourselves falling into unmistakable sin after much concernment with Christ and His grace; but the very resentment we feel and the deep and bitter humiliation must be used as incentive to further effort, and must not be allowed to sound permanent defeat and surrender to sin.
FOOTNOTES:
[18] hodgsei.
[19] Godet says: “The saying Joh 14:26 gives the formula of the inspiration of our Gospels; Joh 14:13 gives that of the inspiration of the Epistles and the Apocalypse.”
Fuente: Expositors Bible Commentary

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