Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of John 15:21
But all these things will they do unto you for my name’s sake, because they know not him that sent me.
21. for my name’s sake ] This thought is to turn their suffering into joy. Comp. Act 5:41; Act 21:13; 2Co 12:10; Gal 6:14; Php 2:17-18; 1Pe 4:14.
they know not him that sent me ] Comp. Joh 7:28, Joh 16:3, Joh 17:25. They not merely did not know that God had sent Jesus; they did not know God Himself, for their idea of Him was radically wrong.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
My names sake – On my account. Because you are my followers and possess my spirit. See the notes at Joh 14:13.
Because they know not him that sent me – They will not believe that God has sent me. They do not so understand his character, his justice, or his law, as to see that it was fit that he should send his Son to die. They are so opposed to it, so filled with pride and opposition to a plan of salvation that is so humbling to people, as to be resolved not to believe it, and thus they persecute me, and will also you.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Joh 15:21-25
But all these things will they do unto you
The worlds hatred, as Christ saw it
I.
THE WORLDS IGNORANCE (Joh 15:21). The world, in Christs language, is the aggregate of Godless men. There is no mincing of the matter in the antithesis which Christ here draws; no hesitation, as if there were a great central mass, too bad for a blessing perhaps, but too good for a curse. No I however it may be with the masses beyond the reach of the truth, the men that come into contact with Him, like a heap of metal filings brought into contact with a magnet mass themselves into two bunches, the one, those that yield to the attraction, and the other those that do not. The one is My disciples, and the other is the world. And now, says Jesus Christ, all that mass that stands apart from Him, have, as the underlying motive of their conduct and their feelings, a real ignorance of God.
2. Our Lord assumes that He is so completely the revealer of the Divine nature as that any man that looks upon Him has had the opportunity of becoming acquainted with God, and that any man who turns away from Him has lost that opportunity. Out of Him God is not known, and they that turn away from His beneficent manifestation turn their faces to the black North, from which no light can shine.
3. But there is a deeper meaning than simply the possession of true thoughts concerning the Divine nature. We know God as we know one another; because God is a Person, as we are persons. And the only way to know persons is through familiar acquaintance and sympathy. And so the world which turns away from Christ has no acquaintance with God. This is the surface fact. Our Lord goes on to show what lies below it.
II. THE WORLDS IGNORANCE IN THE FACE OF CHRISTS LIGHT IS WORSE THAN IGNORANCE: IT IS SIN.
1. Mark how He speaks (verses 22, 24). He puts before us two forms of His manifestation of the Divine nature by His words and His works. And of these two He puts His words foremost, as being a deeper and more precious and brilliant revelation. Miracles are subordinate, they come as a second source of illumination. The miracle to the word is but like the picture in the childs book to the text, fit for feeble eyes and infantile judgments, but containing far less of the revelation of God than the sacred words.
2. But notice, too, how decisively, and yet sorrowfully, our Lord here makes a claim which, on the lips of any but Himself, would have been mere madness of presumption. Think of any of us saying that our words made all the difference between innocence, ignorance, and criminality! Think of any of us pointing to our actions and saying, in these God is so manifest that not to see Him augurs wickedness, and is condemnation! And yet Jesus Christ says all this. And what is more wonderful, nobody wonders that He says it, and the world believes that He is saying the truth when He says it. How does that come? There is only one answer. He Himself was Divine.
3. But, notice how our Lord here declares that in comparison with the sin of not listening to His words, and being taught by His manifestation, all other sins dwindle into nothing. If I had not spoken, they had not had sin. That does not mean, of course, that these men would have been clear of all moral delinquency. There were men committing all the ordinary forms of human transgression amongst them. And yet, says Christ, black as these natures are, they are white in comparison with the blackness of the man that, looking into His face, sees nothing there that he should desire.
4. As light grows responsibility grows. The truth that the measure of light is the measure of guilt turns a face of alleviation to the dark place of the earth; but adds weight to the condemnation of you, who are bathed in the light of Christianity. No shadows are so black as those which the intersest sunshine at the tropics casts.
III. THE IGNORANCE WHICH IS SIN IS THE MANIFESTATION OF HATRED.
1. Observe our Lords indentification of Himself with the Father, so that the feelings with which men regard Him are, ipso facto, the feelings with which they regard God.
2. You say, I do not pretend to be a Christian, but I do not hate God. Take the ordinary run of people round about us in the world; if you say God is not in all their thoughts I agree with you, but if you say that they hate God, I do not believe it. Well, do you think it would be possible for a man that loved God to go on for a twelvemonth and never think of the object that he loved? And inasmuch as, deep down in our moral being, there is no such thing as indifference in reference to God, it is clear, that although the word must not be pressed as if it meant conscious and active antagonism–where there is no love there is hate. If a man does not love God, he does not care to please Him. And if obedience is the very life breath of love, disobedience or non-obedience are the manifestation of antagonism, and antagonism is the same thing as hate. There is no neutrality in a mans relation to God. It is one thing or other. Ye cannot serve God and Mammon. The friendship of the world is enmity against God.
IV. THIS IGNORANCE, WHICH IS SIN AND HATRED, IS UTTERLY IRRATIONAL. (verse 25). One hears sighing through these words the Masters meek wonder that His love should be so met. The most mysterious and irrational thing in mens whole history and experience is the way in which they recompense God in Christ for what He has done for them. Think of that Cross! Do we not stand ashamed at the absurdity as well as at the criminality of our requital? Causeless love on the one side, and causeless indifference on the other, are the two powers that meet in this mystery–mens rejection of the infinite love of God. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)
Persecution for Christs names sake
Among all the malefactors you condemn there is not a Christian to be found chargeable with any crime but His name. So much is the hatred of our name above all the advantages of virtue flowing from it. Setting aside all inquiry into the principle of our religion and its Founder, and all knowledge of them, the mere name is laid hold of; the name is attacked; and a word alone prejudges a sect unknown, and its Author also unknown, because they have a name, not because they are convicted. (Tertullian.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 21. Because they know not him that sent me.] This is the foundation of all religious persecution: those who are guilty of it, whether in Church or state, know nothing about God. If God tolerates a worship which professes to have him for its object, and which does not disturb the quiet or peace of society, no man has the smallest right to meddle with it; and he that does fights against God. His letting it pass is at least a tacit command that all should treat it as he has done.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
For my names sake here signifies no more than for my sake, as Mat 10:22; for your preaching, owning, and professing me and my gospel. And this they would not do, if they had any true knowledge of faith in or love for him that sent me: for knowing, (as hath been often said), in holy writ, and particularly in this Gospel, signifieth not the bare comprehension of the object by our understanding, but such a comprehension of it as is operative and efficacious to the bringing forth of all such effects as are proper to such a knowledge and comprehension. So as this text containeth two arguments more to arm them against the hatred of the world: the first, from the honourableness of the cause, for Christs names sake; the second, from the ignorance and blindness of the persons.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
But all these things will they do unto you,…. Christ here signifies, that all the hatred and persecutions raised against his people by the world, would not be on their own account, for any evil actions done by them; they would not suffer as thieves, murderers, and evildoers, but as Christians; or as he says,
for my name’s sake: because they were called by his name, and called upon his name; because they professed his name, and confessed him to be the Messiah and Redeemer; because they loved his name Jesus, a Saviour, believed in his name, and hoped in him for eternal life; and also preached him, and in his name salvation, and encouraged others to believe in him; and therefore they had no reason to be ashamed, but rather to rejoice; as they afterwards did, that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name: besides, this malice and hatred of theirs arose from ignorance of the Father of Christ:
because they know not him that sent me; they did not know that Jesus was the Christ, and sent of God; they did not acknowledge him to be so, or the Father to be the sender of him; and because Christ and his disciples asserted this, therefore they were the objects of their hatred.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Unto you ( ). Like the dative (Textus Receptus) as in the papyri and modern Greek (Robertson, Grammar, p. 594).
For my name’s sake ( ). See verse 20. See this same warning and language in Matt 10:22; Mark 13:13; Matt 24:9; Luke 21:17). There is little difference in meaning from (Mark 13:9; Luke 21:12). Loyalty to the name of Christ will bring persecution as they will soon know (Acts 5:41; Phil 1:29; 1Pet 4:14). About the world’s ignorance of God see Luke 23:34; Acts 3:17; John 16:3.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
For my name’s sake [ ] . Literally, on account of my name. The name of Christ represented the faith, the attitude, the claims, and the aim of the disciples. His name was their confession. Luther says : “The name of Christ from your mouth will be to them nothing but poison and death.”
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1 ) “But all these things will they do unto you,” (alla tauta panta poiesousin eis humas) “But all these things they will do to you all,” So do not be dismayed, become despondent, lose courage, or fall out of my service, Gal 6:9; Heb 12:1-2; 1Co 15:58.
2) “For my name’s sake.” (dia to onoma mou) “On account of my name,” Mat 10:22; Mat 24:9; Joh 16:3, your identity, individually and as a chosen church body, with my name, what I have commanded should be done and directed you all to do, Joh 13:34; Joh 14:13-15; Joh 15:14; Joh 20:21.
3) “Because they know not,” (hoti ouk oidamen) “Because they do not know,” personally or experimentally perceive, Joh 8:19; Joh 8:55. The name of Jesus was hateful to the world, because it did not recognize the sender of Him, Joh 3:17; Gal 4:4-5.
4) “Him that sent me.” (ton pempsanta me) “The one who has sent me.” They did not know God, His Father, in a spiritual experience of regeneration, Mat 5:20; Joh 5:43; Joh 8:21; Joh 8:24; Joh 8:44; Joh 8:47.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
21. But all these things they will do to you. As the fury of the world is monstrous, when it is so enraged against the doctrine of its own salvation, Christ assigns the reason to be, that it is hurried on by blind ignorance to its own destruction; for no man would deliberately engage in battle against God. It is blindness and ignorance of God, therefore, that hurries on the world, so that it does not hesitate to make war with Christ. We ought, then, always to observe the cause of this conduct, and the true consolation consists in nothing else than the testimony of a good conscience. It should also excite gratitude in our minds, that, while the world perishes in its blindness, God hath given to us his light. Yet let it be understood that hatred of Christ arises from stupidity of mind, when God is not known; for, as I have often said, unbelief is blind; not that wicked men do not understand or know anything, but because all the knowledge that they have is confused, and quickly vanishes away. On this subject I have elsewhere treated more largely.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(21) But all these things will they do unto you.These words are themselves an interpretation of the previous verse. They suppose the persecution and hatred to take place, and find the true consolation in the fact that this would be done to them as representing their Lord. The Acts of the Apostles and the Epistles are a commentary on this text. (Comp., among numerous passages, Act. 4:17; Act. 9:14; Gal. 6:17.)
Because they know not him that sent me.The hatred is here traced to its true cause, which is ignorance of God. The Apostles were those sent by Christ. He Himself was the Apostle of the Father. They would hate His messenger, and hate Him, the messenger of God, because they knew not God.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
21. Because they know not him that sent me This persecution against you travels up against me, and, through me, mounts up against God.
They know not Not that they are passively and necessarily ignorant; but actively, voluntarily, freely, with full means and power to know and to do otherwise, they ignore Him that sent me.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Joh 15:21. But all these things will they do, &c “None of the evils which you shall suffer on my account, or the gospel’s, will flow from any deficiency in the evidences of my divine mission, or from any fault that can justly be found with the gospel. They will allflow from your persecutors being wilfully ignorant of the nature and perfections of my heavenly Father who has sent me into the world, of my eternal union with him, and of the doctrines published to them under former dispensations.”
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Joh 15:21 . ] antithesis to the consolation against this state of persecution: . ., however, presupposes that the second of the cases supposed in Joh 15:20 is not the actual one. The consolation lies in : because my name is your confession . “The name of Christ from your mouth will be to them nothing but poison and death,” Luther. Comp. Act 4:17 ; Act 9:14 ; Act 27:9 . This thought: it is for the sake of Christ’s name that I suffer (Act 9:16 ), ought to exalt the persecuted ( , Ammonius), and did exalt them (Act 5:41 ; Act 21:13 , et al. ), and they boasted of these sufferings (Rom 5:3 ; 2Co 11:23 ff; 2Co 12:10-11 ; 1Pe 4:12 ff.), which constituted their holy pride (Gal 6:17 ) and their joy (Phi 2:17-18 ). Comp. Mat 10:22 ; Mat 24:9 ; Mat 5:11 . According to others (including Lcke, De Wette, Hengstenberg), , . . ., has the emphasis. But in that case the moment is arbitrarily set back, and rendered unnecessary, although throughout the whole of the following discussion the reference of the persecutions to Christ is the prominent and dominant point (see especially Joh 15:25-27 ). Hence , . . ., is to be taken as subordinated to , as giving, that is, the explanation thereof. Had they possessed the true acquaintance with God, they would, because God has sent Christ, have also known Christ (comp. Luk 23:34 ), and would not for His name’s sake have persecuted His disciples.
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
21 But all these things will they do unto you for my name’s sake, because they know not him that sent me.
Ver. 21. Because they know not him, &c. ] For had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. St Paul thanks his ignorance for all his cruelties to Christians. Ignorance is a breeder, and great bellied. Aristotle makes it the mother of all misrule and mischief. (Ethic. iii.)
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
21. ] nay, so far is this from being so, that it is on this very account, because ye belong to Me, that they will thus treat you.
all that is implied in and .
. ., ‘these things, all of them:’ not . ., ‘all, every one of, these things:’ the former order gives the in the gross, ‘all this treatment,’ the latter in the particular, so that not one is excepted from the category.
It was on account of bearing the Name of Christ that the Christians were subjected to persecution in the early ages, and that they are even now hated by those who know Him not: but this is to them comfort and joy, see Act 5:41 ; 2Co 12:10 ; Gal 6:17 ; 1Pe 4:14 .
, not, ‘ They know Him not as having sent Me ’ but they know not (absolutely) Him who has sent Me. Ignorance of God (not desiring the knowledge of His ways) is the great cause of hostility to Christ and His servants.
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Joh 15:21 . . “But” be not dismayed at persecution, for “all these things they will do to you for my name’s sake ”. seems to involve that details had been given ( cf. Mat 10:16 ff.) which were omitted by the reporter; or that Joh 16:2 had been already uttered; or that John, writing when the persecutions of the Christians were well known, uses “all these things” from his own point of view. . The efficacy of this consolation appears everywhere in the Apostolic age; Act 5:41 ; Phi 1:29 , and cf. Ramsay’s Church in the Roman Empire . The “name” of Christ was hateful to the world, . They did not believe He was sent, because they did not know the sender. Had they known God, they would have recognised Christ as sent by Him. Cf. Joh 7:28 , Joh 5:38 , .
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
John
THE WORLD’S HATRED, AS CHRIST SAW IT
Joh 15:21 – Joh 15:25
Our Lord has been speaking of the world’s hostility to His followers, and tracing that to its hostility to Himself. In these solemn words of our text He goes still deeper, and parallels the relation which His disciples bear to Him and the consequent hostility that falls on them, with the relation which He bears to the Father and the consequent hostility that falls on Him: ‘They hate you because they hate Me.’ And then His words become sadder and pierce deeper, and with a tone of wounded love and disappointed effort and almost surprise at the world’s requital to Him, He goes on to say, ‘They hate Me, because they hate the Father.’
So, then, here we have, in very pathetic and solemn words, Christ’s view of the relation of the world to Him and to God.
I. The first point that He signalises is the world’s ignorance.
‘The world,’ in Christ’s language, is the aggregate of godless men. Or, to put it a little more sharply, our Lord, in this context, gives in His full adhesion to that narrow view which divides those who have come under the influence of His truth into two portions. There is no mincing of the matter in the antithesis which Christ here draws; no hesitation, as if there were a great central mass, too bad for a blessing perhaps, but too good for a curse; which was neither black nor white, but neutral grey. No! however it may be with the masses beyond the reach of the dividing and revealing power of His truth, the men that come into contact with Him, like a heap of metal filings brought into contact with a magnet, mass themselves into two bunches, the one those who yield to the attraction, and the other those who do not. The one is ‘My disciples,’ and the other is ‘the world.’ And now, says Jesus Christ, all that mass that stands apart from Him, and, having looked upon Him with the superficial eye of those men round about Him at that day, or of the men who hear of Him now, have no real love to Him-have, as the underlying motive of their conduct and their feelings, a real ignorance of God, ‘They know not Him that sent Me.’
Our Lord assumes that He is so completely the Copy and Revealer of the divine nature as that any man that looks upon Him has had the opportunity of becoming acquainted with God, and that any man who turns away from Him has lost that opportunity. The God that the men who do not love Jesus Christ believe in, is not the Father that sent Him. It is a fragment, a distorted image tinted by the lens. The world has its conception of God; but outside of Jesus Christ and His manifestation of the whole divine nature, the world’s God is but a syllable, a fragment, a broken part of the perfect completeness. ‘The Father of an infinite majesty,’ and of as infinite a tenderness, the stooping God, the pitying God, the forgiving God, the loving God is known only where Christ is accepted. In other hearts He may be dimly hoped for, in other hearts He may be half believed in, in other hearts He may be thought possible; but hopes and anticipations and fears and doubts are not knowledge, and they who see not the light in Christ see but the darkness. Out of Him God is not known, and they that turn away from His beneficent manifestation turn their faces to the black north, from which no sun can shine. Brother, do you know God in Christ? Unless you do, you do not know the God who is.
But there is a deeper meaning in that word than simply the possession of true thoughts concerning the divine nature. We know God as we know one another; because God is a Person, as we are persons, and the only way to know persons is through familiar acquaintance and sympathy. So the world which turns away from Christ has no acquaintance with God.
This is a surface fact. Our Lord goes on to show what lies below it.
II. His second thought here is-the world’s ignorance in the face of Christ’s light is worse than ignorance; it is sin.
But notice, too, how decisively, and yet simply and humbly and sorrowfully, our Lord here makes a claim which, on the lips of any but Himself, would have been mere madness of presumption. Think of any of us saying that our words made all the difference between innocent ignorance and criminality! Think of any of us saying that to listen to us, and not be persuaded, was the sin of sins! Think of any of us pointing to our actions and saying, In these God is so manifest that not to see Him augurs wickedness, and is condemnation! And yet Jesus Christ says all this. And, what is more wonderful, nobody wonders that He says it, and the world believes that He is saying the truth when He says it.
How does that come? There is only one answer; only one. His words were the illuminating manifestation of God, and His deeds were the plain and unambiguous operation of the divine hand then and there, only because He Himself was divine, and in Him ‘God was manifested in the flesh.’
But passing from that, notice how our Lord here declares that in comparison with the sin of not listening to His words, and being taught by His manifestation, all other sins dwindle into nothing. ‘If I had not spoken, they had not had sin.’ That does not mean, of course, that these men would have been clear of all moral delinquency; it does not mean that there would not have been amongst them crimes against their own consciences, crimes against the law written on their own hearts, crimes against the law of revelation. There were liars, impure men, selfish men, and men committing all the ordinary forms of human transgression amongst them. And yet, says Christ, black and bespattered as these natures are, they are white in comparison with the blackness of the man who, looking into His face, sees nothing there that he should desire. Beside the mountain belching out its sulphurous flame the little pimple of a molehill is nought. And so, says Christ, heaven heads the count of sins with this-unbelief in Me.
Ah, brother, as light grows responsibility grows, and this is the misery of all illumination that comes through Jesus Christ, that where it does not draw a man into His sweet love, and fill him with the knowledge of God which is eternal life, it darkens his nature and aggravates his condemnation, and lays a heavier burden upon his soul. The truth that the measure of light is the measure of guilt has many aspects. It turns a face of alleviation to the dark places of the earth; but just in the measure that it lightens the condemnation of the heathen, it adds weight to the condemnation of you men and women who are bathed in the light of Christianity, and all your days have had it streaming in upon you. The measure of the guilt is the brightness of the light. No shadows are so black as those which the intense sunshine of the tropics casts. And you and I live in the very tropical regions of divine revelation, and ‘if we turn away from Him that spoke on earth and speaketh from heaven, of how much sorer punishment, think you, shall we be thought worthy’ than those who live away out in the glimmering twilight of an unevangelised paganism, or who stood by the side of Jesus Christ when they had only His earthly life to teach them?
III. The ignorance which is sin is the manifestation of hatred.
Observe our Lord’s identification of Himself with the Father, so as that the feelings with which men regard Him are, ipso facto , the feelings with which they regard the Father God. ‘He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father.’ ‘He that hath loved Me hath loved the Father.’ ‘He that hath hated Me hath hated the Father.’ An ugly word-a word that a great many of us think far too severe and harsh to be applied to men who simply are indifferent to the divine love. Some say, ‘I am conscious of no hatred. I do not pretend to be a Christian, but I do not hate God. Take the ordinary run of people round about us in the world; if you say God is not in all their thoughts, I agree with you; but if you say that they hate God, I do not believe it.’
Well, what do you think the fact that men go through their days and weeks and months and years, and have not God in all their thoughts, indicates as to the central feeling of their hearts towards God? Granted that there is not actual antagonism, because there is no thought at all, do you think it would be possible for a man who loved God to go on for a twelvemonth and never think of, or care to please, or desire to be near, the object that he loved? And inasmuch as, deep down at the bottom of our moral being, there is no such thing possible as indifference and a perfect equipoise in reference to God, it is clear enough, I think, that-although the word must not be pressed as if it meant conscious and active antagonism,-where there is no love there is hate.
If a man does not love God as He is revealed to him in Jesus Christ, he neither cares to please Him nor to think about Him, nor does he order his life in obedience to His commands. And if it be true that obedience is the very life-breath of love, disobedience or non-obedience is the manifestation of antagonism, and antagonism towards God is the same thing as hate.
Dear friends, I want some of my hearers to-day who have never honestly asked themselves the question of what their relation to God is, to go down into the deep places of their hearts and test themselves by this simple inquiry: ‘Do I do anything to please Him? Do I try to serve Him? Is it a joy to me to be near Him? Is the thought of Him a delight, like a fountain in the desert or the cool shadow of a great rock in the blazing wilderness? Do I turn to Him as my Home, my Friend, my All? If I do not, am I not deceiving myself by fancying that I stand neutral?’ There is no neutrality in a man’s relation to God. It is one thing or other. ‘Ye cannot serve God and Mammon.’ ‘The friendship of the world is enmity against God.’
IV. And now, lastly, note how our Lord here touches the deep thought that this ignorance, which is sin, and is more properly named hatred, is utterly irrational and causeless.
‘Without a cause’; yes! that suggests the deep thought that the most mysterious and irrational thing in men’s whole history and experience is the way in which they recompense God in Christ for what He has done for them. ‘Be astonished, O ye heavens! and wonder, O ye earth!’ said one of the old prophets; the mystery of mysteries, which can give no account of itself to satisfy reason, which has no apology, excuse, or vindication, is just that when God loves me I do not love Him back again; and that when Christ pours out the whole fullness of His heart upon me, nay dull and obstinate heart gives back so little to Him who has given me so much.
‘Without a cause.’ Think of that Cross; think, as every poor creature on earth has a right to think, that he and she individually were in the mind and heart of the Saviour when He suffered and died, and then think of what we have brought Him for it. Do we not stand ashamed at-if I might use so trivial a word,-the absurdity as well as at the criminality of our requital? Causeless love on the one side, occasioned by nothing but itself, and causeless indifference on the other, occasioned by nothing but itself, are the two powers that meet in this mystery-men’s rejection of the infinite love of God.
My friend, come away from the unreasonable people, come away from the men who can give no account of their attitude. Come away from those who pay benefits by carelessness, and a Love that died by an indifference that will not cast an eye upon that miracle of mercy, and let His love kindle the answering flame in your hearts. Then you will know God as only they who love Christ know Him, and in the sweetness of a mutual bond will lose the misery of self, and escape the deepening condemnation of those who see Christ on the Cross and do not care for the sight, nor learn by it to know the infinite tenderness and holiness of the Father that sent Him.
Fuente: Expositions Of Holy Scripture by Alexander MacLaren
unto. The received text has the dative, but all the texts read eis (App-104.)
for My name’s sake = on account of (Greek. dia. App-104. Joh 15:2) My name. See Act 4:7, Act 4:17, Act 4:18; Act 5:40, Act 5:41; Act 9:14, Act 9:16, Act 9:21; 1Pe 4:14, 1Pe 4:16, where all the texts read “name” instead of “behalf”.
Him That sent Me. See on Joh 14:24.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
21.] -nay, so far is this from being so, that it is on this very account, because ye belong to Me, that they will thus treat you.
-all that is implied in and .
. ., these things, all of them: not . ., all, every one of, these things: the former order gives the in the gross,-all this treatment,-the latter in the particular, so that not one is excepted from the category.
It was on account of bearing the Name of Christ that the Christians were subjected to persecution in the early ages, and that they are even now hated by those who know Him not: but this is to them comfort and joy, see Act 5:41; 2Co 12:10; Gal 6:17; 1Pe 4:14.
, not, They know Him not as having sent Me-but they know not (absolutely) Him who has sent Me. Ignorance of God (not desiring the knowledge of His ways) is the great cause of hostility to Christ and His servants.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Joh 15:21. ) My name, which, to wit, they knew not. Understand, and the name of Him who sent Me.- , Him who sent Me) Supply, and [because they knew not] Me: ch. Joh 16:3.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
Joh 15:21
Joh 15:21
But all these things will they do unto you for my names sake,-All the opposition of the world and the persecution of the servants will be done because of their fidelity to the teachings of Jesus.
because they know not him that sent me.-The rejection of Jesus arose from their not knowing God who sent him. These Jews now trying to destroy Jesus claimed to know and worship God, but Jesus says they did it because they really did not know God who sent Jesus.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
all: Joh 16:3, Psa 69:7, Isa 66:5, Mat 5:11, Mat 10:18, Mat 10:22, Mat 10:39, Mat 24:9, Luk 6:22, Act 9:16, 1Pe 4:13
because: Joh 8:19, Joh 8:54, Act 17:23, Act 28:25-27, Rom 1:28, 1Co 2:8, 1Co 15:34, 2Co 4:3-6, 2Th 1:8, 1Jo 2:3, 1Jo 2:4
Reciprocal: 1Sa 8:7 – they have not 2Ch 32:16 – against Psa 44:22 – killed Eze 16:47 – thou wast Zec 2:8 – sent Mar 8:35 – for Luk 21:17 – for Joh 8:55 – ye have not Joh 17:25 – the world Act 13:27 – because Act 26:15 – I am 2Co 12:10 – for Christ’s 1Pe 2:19 – for conscience
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
1
Know not him is said in two senses. The people of the world did not have an understanding of the goodness and greatness of God. Also, they were unwilling to recognize Him for his greatness and hence would not respect his Son’s disciples.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Joh 15:21. But all these things will they do unto you because of my name, because they know not him that sent me. Their sufferings shall not only be like those of Jesus, but because of His name, because of all that is involved in His Person and workthe Person and the work which they continually hold forth to men. The latter part of the verse contains at once an explanation of the worlds folly and guilt, and a striking comment upon the fulness of meaning involved in the word name. It is because the world knows not God that it hates alike the Son and His disciples. It thinks that it knows God, it has even a zeal for His worship; but the spirituality of His nature, the love which is the essence of His being, it does not know; it turns from them and hates them when they are revealed in their true character; how can it do otherwise than hate One who is the very expression of that spirituality and love; and, hating Him, how can it fail to hate those who continue His work?
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Vv. 21-25. But they will do all this to you for my name’s sake, because they know not him who sent me. 22.If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have had sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin. 23.He who hates me, hates my Father also. 24. If I had not done among them works such as no other has done, they would not have had sin; but now they have seen, and nevertheless have hated both me and my Father. 25. But this is so, that the word may be fulfilled, which is written in their law: They hated me without a cause.
The apostles should not be disturbed because of this so general hatred, imagining that they have themselves provoked it, and believing that they see in it the proof that they are on a wrong path: But () take courage; it is because of me. Because of my name, says Jesus; that is, because of the revelation of my person which you have received, and which you will declare to them.
The reason why this revelation, which should make Israel rejoice, will exasperate that people, is that they do not truly know God. The idea of God has been perverted in the heart of this people. This is the reason why they are offended at the appearance of Jesus, and will be offended at the preaching of His apostles. The book of the Gospels is the setting forth of the first of these facts, and the book of the Acts that of the second. In consequence of their blindness, Israel will rather see in the holiest man an impostor than the one sent from God.
Fuente: Godet Commentary (Luke, John, Romans and 1 Corinthians)
15:21 {7} But all these things will they do unto you for my name’s sake, because they know not him that sent me.
(7) The hatred that the world bears against Christ proceeds from the stupidity of the mind, which nonetheless is voluntarily blind, so that those of the world cannot give any excuse to explain away their fault.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Ultimately the disciples would experience opposition because of Jesus. "My name’s sake" is the equivalent of "me." Responses to the lives and witness of Jesus’ disciples really turn on who He is, not on who the witnesses are. Obviously we can aggravate and provoke persecution by our inept or carnal conduct, but Jesus was explaining the basic theological reason for the opposition we face, not the secondary sociological reasons.
People rejected Jesus because they did not know God who had sent Him. They were ignorant of Him because they were spiritually blind (cf. Rom 1:28). Consequently they could not evaluate the Messenger whom God had sent. Jesus implied that they would reject His disciples too because they did not know God who had sent them. Again the close unity between the Father and the Son and between the Son and abiding believers comes through.