Joh 15:18-21 | KingComments | STEP | While believers love one another, they find themselves in a world that hates them. Their love among themselves arouses the hate of the world. The world rejects the love of God wherever it appears. To love one another as Christians exposes us to the hate of the world that is governed by satan. The love of the disciples among each other is in sharp contrast to the hate of the world. Love inside, hate outside, that is the position resulting from the rejection and death of the Lord Jesus. Yet we are able to turn that around. We can become cold and indifferent toward our brothers and sisters, while doing our best to assure ourselves of the love of the world. Just like mutual love, hate is ignited from outside because we abide in the love of the Lord Jesus. This should not surprise us since this has also been Christ’s part during His life on earth. The world hates us because of Him. What happens to us has first been His part. In its own way, the world loves those who belong to the world. At the same time, the world hates those who belong to Christ because they are no longer of the world. It is not our faults that are the true cause of the world’s hatred, but what the world recognizes in us of the grace and excellence of Christ. Grace reduces man to nothing and makes God and Christ everything. Grace does not spare sin but saves the sinner. These things are unbearable to the flesh, which is enmity against God ( ). The hatred of the world is our part, and not only because we no longer belong to the world, but because He has chosen us. The fact that we could only become partakers of Him through His election clearly reveals the character of the world. The world would never let us go if the Lord Jesus had not chosen us and called us by His power. That this evokes the hatred of the world is foreseen by the Lord. In this context, He reminds His disciples that He said that a slave is not greater than his Lord ( ). This applies to serving the fellow believers, to which the Lord applies it in John 13 ( ), but it also applies to the hatred and enmity they will experience in the world. The slave should not expect to remain free from what has happened to his Lord. The connection of the disciples with Christ arouses hatred which manifests itself in persecution. The world experiences that connection when it hears the word that the disciples speak. If that is the word of Christ, it will reveal what is in the heart of the hearer. Whoever has accepted His word will also accept the word of the disciples. However, if His word is rejected the slave may not count on any other treatment. Christ is despised and rejected and likewise that will be the part of the slave. Both slaves and their word will be treated with contempt because it will bring God, His Person and His Word, too close to them.

‏ John 15:18-21

The Disciples Hated by the World

While believers love one another, they find themselves in a world that hates them. Their love among themselves arouses the hate of the world. The world rejects the love of God wherever it appears. To love one another as Christians exposes us to the hate of the world that is governed by satan.

The love of the disciples among each other is in sharp contrast to the hate of the world. Love inside, hate outside, that is the position resulting from the rejection and death of the Lord Jesus. Yet we are able to turn that around. We can become cold and indifferent toward our brothers and sisters, while doing our best to assure ourselves of the love of the world.

Just like mutual love, hate is ignited from outside because we abide in the love of the Lord Jesus. This should not surprise us since this has also been Christ’s part during His life on earth. The world hates us because of Him. What happens to us has first been His part. In its own way, the world loves those who belong to the world. At the same time, the world hates those who belong to Christ because they are no longer of the world.

It is not our faults that are the true cause of the world’s hatred, but what the world recognizes in us of the grace and excellence of Christ. Grace reduces man to nothing and makes God and Christ everything. Grace does not spare sin but saves the sinner. These things are unbearable to the flesh, which is enmity against God (Rom 8:7). The hatred of the world is our part, and not only because we no longer belong to the world, but because He has chosen us.

The fact that we could only become partakers of Him through His election clearly reveals the character of the world. The world would never let us go if the Lord Jesus had not chosen us and called us by His power. That this evokes the hatred of the world is foreseen by the Lord. In this context, He reminds His disciples that He said that a slave is not greater than his Lord (Jn 13:16). This applies to serving the fellow believers, to which the Lord applies it in John 13 (Jn 13:15), but it also applies to the hatred and enmity they will experience in the world. The slave should not expect to remain free from what has happened to his Lord.

The connection of the disciples with Christ arouses hatred which manifests itself in persecution. The world experiences that connection when it hears the word that the disciples speak. If that is the word of Christ, it will reveal what is in the heart of the hearer. Whoever has accepted His word will also accept the word of the disciples. However, if His word is rejected the slave may not count on any other treatment. Christ is despised and rejected and likewise that will be the part of the slave. Both slaves and their word will be treated with contempt because it will bring God, His Person and His Word, too close to them.

The Son Hated by the World

The expression of hatred by the world against the disciples finds its cause in the Name of Christ. They do not know what His Name means in all its glory in both blessing and judgment. This is due to their unfamiliarity with the Father as the One Who sent Him. They moderate that they honor the Father; but when Christ, the Son of the Father, declares Him, they reject Him. Thus they show that they do not know Him Who sent the Son. If the world only knew the least about Him, it would not reveal itself in this way. It demonstrates the total blindness concerning the Father. The world cannot but reveal itself in hostility.

The revelation of the Father in the Son has brought their sin to light. The words the Lord Jesus spoke to the world as the Son are the words of the Father. That is undeniable and yet they do so. The same goes for the works He has done. These too cannot be denied as works of the Father, but still they do. If He had not done all these things, they would not have been accused of the sin of rejection. However, now that it has become so obvious that the Son of the Father is among them as Man and they reject Him in spite of that, there is no excuse for their sin.

Never has any man and never has God spoken as in Christ (Heb 1:1). Prophets have spoken on behalf of God, but they were fallible men. After their testimony, weakness returned and they could even forget God. Now the Father has sent the Son, Who did not hold out the law to them, but spoke to them in love. He who rejects the law could do so with the excuse that he cannot keep it anyway. He who rejects love does so because he does not want it. The convincing proof of the world’s sin is found in the rejection of Him Who is God in grace.

The deliberate rejection of Christ by the world, and especially by the religious leaders, is strikingly expressed in the parable of the unjust vine-growers. There we hear them say when the lord of the vineyard finally sends his beloved son: “This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours” (Mk 12:6-7).

After this premeditated murder, the world as a whole is rejected. Therefore, we have nothing more to expect from the world as such. What someone does with the Son, he does with the Father. The fact that they do not bow down before the Son, but rebel against Him precisely because He is the Son, is proof of their hatred of the Father. They hate the Father as they hate the Son and that makes their sin inexcusable. The words and works of the Son are the words and works of the Father. To reject the Son is to reject the Father at the same time. Perfect balance between words and works is found in the Lord Jesus.

The Jews believe that they are connected with God while rejecting His Son in hatred. They appeal to the law for their behavior. But precisely the law to which they appeal and in which they boast, clearly speaks of the rejection of the Messiah. In fact, the law is fulfilled in the word that is written about Him and of which His lips now declare the fulfillment (Psa 69:4).

The fulfillment of this word is proof of the conscious rejection of Christ. There is no reason to hate Him. After all, He has always been among them in love and grace and goodness. Yet they have hated Him. It proves the evil of man’s heart as well as the truth of God’s Word.