Why Did The World First Hate Jesus?

Why Did the World First Hate Jesus?

John 15:18

Sin is what drives people away from God or it is what has kept them from knowing the Lord.

Christians will get a lot of contempt and hatred from the world. As Christians, we need to love and support one another. Do we permit little issues to impede cherishing and loving the other believers around us? Jesus tells us that we are to love them, and He will give us what we stand in need of to do it.

John 7:7, The world cannot hate you; but me it hateth, because I testify of it, that the works thereof are evil.

John 15:17-27 predicts that the individuals who follow Christ steadfastly and faithfully will encounter scorn, they will encounter hatred, they will encounter oppression, and they will encounter persecution from this world. The force of this experience has changed by timeframe and culture, yet the unbelieving world is for the most part antagonistic to those of real faith. Jesus reminds His believers this is because of sin and transgression and the rejection of God by those unbelievers. Christians should never be too good to serve as Christ has served, likewise Christians should never be too good to endure suffering as Christ has suffered for us. In this passage of Scripture, Jesus stresses that this admonition is intended to reinforce faith when those difficult situations come.

1 John 3:1, Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not.

1 John 3:13, Marvel not, my brethren, if the world hate you.

Reassurance is what Jesus had been trying to teach the disciples during these final lessons. The disciples are soon to see Jesus get arrested and executed (John 18:1-3; 19:18). Thereafter, they will encounter the enormous resistance that tormented the early church (Acts 8:1-3). Throughout history, Christians have been persecuted mercilessly. During this upcoming discourse, Jesus demonstrated that He was advising the disciples something that they needed to know and understand, so that they would be prepared for what was to come (John 13:9; 14:25, 29). Realizing what is going to occur and that Christ had already anticipated it, this is intended to make the suffering of those impending tribulations easier to deal with (1 Peter 4:12-13).

Matthew 10:22, And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake: but he that endureth to the end shall be saved.

Matthew 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.

John 17:14, I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.

1 John 4:5-6, They are of the world: therefore speak they of the world, and the world heareth them. We are of God: he that knoweth God heareth us; he that is not of God heareth not us. Hereby know we the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error.

Jesus reminds the disciples that “the servant is not greater than his lord” (John 15:20). He originally referenced this while telling His disciples to imitate His illustration of humble servanthood (John 13:14-16). For this situation, Jesus gives an admonition: if Christ endured suffering on account of the unbelievers, Christians cannot anticipate being safe from any affliction or persecution from unbelievers either.

John 17:25, O righteous Father, the world hath not known thee: but I have known thee, and these have known that thou hast sent me.

During Jesus’ earthly ministry, the disciples and Jesus met a man who had been blind since birth. The disciples had repeated the basic suspicion from their cultural way of life: that the man must have deserved the suffering that he had been enduring, in some way or another. Jesus discredited that, expressing obviously that the man's visual impairment was not a cause for discipline due to some transgression (John 9:1-3). There is a comparable consolation in this section: disdain or hatred from the world is not necessarily something a Christian has acquired or earned somehow or another. The world of unbelievers despised Christ, so we can anticipate that the world would detest the people who follow Christ’s example.

This should not imply that all battles experienced by Christians are because of faith. Those who are harsh, unkind, unreasonable, unfair, improper, or immoral should expect to endure ordinary consequential suffering (1 Peter 4:14-15). Nor does it mean that only the individuals who experience brutal oppression are genuine believers, a few cultural societies honor God more than others. In any case, when an individual dependably and faithfully follows Christ, and unbelievers lash out in resentment or contempt, that is not the Christian’s fault. Christ even stated that the world hated Him without a cause.