JOHN 15: 18-27
SUFFERING FOR FOLLOWING JESUS
This section centers on the topic of persecution and hostility in the world. Jesus foresaw that His disciples would not have life easy. He says that discipleship will be a costly endeavor and whoever chooses to follow Him must be ready to experience and endure the sort of conflict He has experienced. [Jesus will send the Spirit, who will provide a vital function in these conflicts.]
Jesus explains this hatred of the world (15:18–21) as a continuation of the hatred He personally experienced throughout His public ministry. Jesus has been hated because as the Light, He exposes the world’s deeds (3:20) and unmasks them as evil (7:7). Because Jesus’ disciples are distinctly different than the world as a result of their faith in Jesus, they qualify for similar treatment. For the faithful Christian opposition is inevitable (CIT).
I. HATED BY THE WORLD, 18–19.
II. THE ROOT CAUSE OF THE HATRED, 20-21.
III. THE WORLD HELD GUILTY, 22–25.
The world has a sharp antagonistic disposition toward Jesus and His disciples as verse18 expresses. “If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you.
Friendship with God results in enduring the world’s hatred. Conversely, being friends with the world is to be God’s enemy (James 4:4). Jesus alerted His disciples to the fact of the world’s hatred. The world here is mankind in rebellious hostility to God, because it is under Satan’s influence (Jn. 14:30). This undeserved hostility can be shocking (1 Pet. 4:12-13), but believers should remember that Jesus was hated from His birth (when Herod the Great sought to kill Him) to His death on the cross.
Note the significant contrast. Jesus’ Disciples are to noted by their love for each other. The world by it’s hatred of them.
Verse 19 proclaims that it is the choice of God that sets us apart from the world. “If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you.
God’s chose us to remove us from the way of the world (used five times in this verse) and the love of the world. The consequences of being chosen by God is that we are no longer like the world (1 Peter 4:4; Rom. 12:2). A believer, having left the kingdom of darkness and having been transferred into the kingdom of God’s Son (Col. 1:13), has a different joy, a different purpose, a different hope, and a different love. He now has direction, truth, and a standard for life. We now belong to Christ and we are becoming like Christ. Since we do not belong to the world . . . the world hates us.
II. THE ROOT CAUSE OF THE HATRED, 20-21.
In verse 20 Jesus requests His disciples to remember His earlier Word to them. “Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A slave is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; if they kept My word, they will keep yours also.
The disciples are forewarned of the persecution which they will endure on account of Jesus and His word. Jesus had previously told His disciples that “No servant is greater than his master” (13:16; Mt. 10:24). He was referring to their need to imitate His humble service. But the principle has other applications. Christians are to identify so closely with Jesus that they share in His sufferings (they will persecute you also). Jesus bears God’s word and experiences hostility. His disciples who bear His word also will experience hostility. How one treatments the Master determines the treatment of His servants.
On the positive side, some people followed and obeyed Jesus’ teaching, so they also responded to the apostles’ message. Those who appreciate Jesus’ teaching will appreciate the teaching of those commissioned to teach by the Master [F. F. Bruce. The Gospel & Epistles of John, 313]. They will keep the “word” of Jesus’ followers only to the extent they kept Jesus’ Word [Morris, NIC, John, 679]. [In Matthew 10:40 he said, “He who receives you receives Me, and he who receives Me receives the One who sent Me.”]
Verse 21 gives the root cause of the persecution of the faithful is because the world does not know God. “But all these things they will do to you for My name’s sake, because they do not know the One who sent Me.
The source of the world’s hatred against the disciples is their identification with Jesus. They hate Jesus because they are ignorant of God, the One who sent Him.
The world rejects the Father who is made know in Jesus Christ. They show this by rejecting Jesus. The world continues to show their rejection of the Father and the Son by rejecting those who represent Him.
III. THE WORLD HELD GUILTY, 22–25.
Jesus discusses the guilt of the world in 15:22–25 by explaining that it is accountable before the revelation of God. Jesus’ ministry provided both words (15:22) and works (15:24) that pointed to God. Now that they have seen, heard, and rejected Him, their guilt is settled (15:24).
Jesus points out in verse 22 that after He came and spoke the Word of God to mankind there is no excuse left for man’s unbelief. “If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin.
The seriousness of rejecting Jesus is proclaimed here. Jesus came as the Revelation of God. If Jesus had not come, their sin would not be so great. [The statement, they would not be guilty of sin, must not be taken absolutely as 16:9 shows (3:19; 9:41).] Before Jesus’ coming people might have pleaded ignorance as an excuse for sin (Acts 17:30). But now that the Light has come, those who willfully reject it have no excuse.
There is no way to justify their defiance of God. For He has disclosed their inner corruption and hypocrisy.
The greater the privilege the greater the responsibility. No greater privilege could be given enjoyed than that of hearing Jesus’ teachings and seeing His works [Bruce. The Gospel & Epistles of John, 314].
In verse 23 Jesus lays down a general principle. “He who hates Me hates My Father also.
Jesus wants there to be no doubt as to the seriousness of the conduct of men in His day and our day. Jesus and the Father have the closest possible connection. The revelation in Jesus and by Jesus is so tied to the Father that to hate Jesus is to hate God (15:24b).
The reverse is also true. Their hatred of Jesus can be traced back to their hatred of the God they claimed to serve. [Bruce, 314].
Verses 24-25 amplify the truth in verses 22-23. In verse 24 Jesus points out the significance of His works. “If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would not have sin; but now they have both seen and hated Me and My Father as well.
Jesus’ works, His whole life including His miracles, were so distinctive that their import is unmistakable. The Jewish nation should have honestly confessed with Nicodemus, “No one could perform the miraculous signs You are doing if God were not with Him” (3:2). But the nation as a whole rejected both Jesus and the Father. Why? Because in their sins they loved darkness rather than light (3:19). Thus by their own choice they passed judgment on themselves. When you reject the Giver of eternal light and life you shut yourself up in the only other alternative, eternal darkness and death. [Both seen and hated are in the perfect tense indicating a fixed attitude.]
In verse 25 Jesus points to even more revelation that judges their unwarranted anger. “But they have done this to fulfill the word that is written in their Law, ‘They hated Me without a cause.’
The nation thought it was serving God in rejecting Jesus (16:2-3) but in reality it was serving Satan (8:44). [Those who championed the law were unwilling to listen to the Law Giver.] Sin is basically irrational. Their hatred of Jesus was without any rational cause. Thus He undermines the justification of the world’s hostility against Him. They hated Him without a reasonable foundation for doing so.
Jesus cites the Old Testament (“They hated me without a cause,” 15:25; Ps. 35:19; 69:4) to acknowledge man’s falleness. Irrational hatred of righteous people fits the pattern of hatred as seen in those who hated David also (Pss. 35:19; 69:4; 109:3). [Burge, Gary. NIV Application Commentary, John: 421. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, © 2000. ]
IV. OUR AWESOME ALLY, 26-27.
CONCLUSION / RESPONSE
The great masses of the world are hostile toward the One True God. Those who follow the teachings of the True Light, the teachings of Jesus will experience the hostility of the world also. The world hates what it can not control and conform to its lifestyle. That lifestyle may be religious as it was with Jesus’ opponents or it be irreligious, but it will refuse to heed the Word of God, though it may well pay lip service to it.
Though Jesus guarantees His followers lives of purpose and eternal value, He does not guarantee us immunity from attack. This attack may be irrational also, for Jesus promises us nothing more than He Himself had received.
Because they do not know God and resent Jesus’ claims and standards, they will resent those who live by them. This hostility is a sobering fact, but it will be more than balanced out by the work of the Spirit [as we will see next time]. For it is the Spirit who strengths and empowers us to give witness in and to this hostile world.
So meet the antagonism of the world with the love and power of Christ. Fully find that His friendship is sufficient. Do not let the world pull you down to its level. Do not compromise with it. Do not try to blend your Christianity with the way of the world. Let your love shine and you will find hearts that warm up to Christ and embrace His light and join His ranks.
