A World Full of Hate

So it’s been quite a while since I have written last, so I felt it was time to do something about that.  I was looking through my bible trying to find a good passage to write about, and I just couldn’t find anything.  The first page I looked at was John 14, which is a lovely chapter, but I just wasn’t feeling anything there.  I was looking around again, but couldn’t find anything.  I had to go somewhere, so I just flicked some pages and my bible opened back up to the page John 14 was on, so I took another look around and discovered a great passage in John 15.  So I pretty much ended up where I started, but that’s alright cuz reading God’s word is fun.  But anyway, I would like to share my thoughts on the passage of John 15: 18-27 if you would like to join me.

Starting at verse 18, it reads, “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first.”  This is Jesus talking to his disciples.  Back in that time, Jesus did all sorts of miracles and preached a new way of living.  These miracles and such were against the norm though.  It’s not every day that people get raised from the dead and are healed from diseases.  People in this time were resistant to these radical things Jesus was doing, and so hated him for it.  But this isn’t very far from how things are today.  If some new person comes in and starts changing things around, usually they are not welcome at first.  People don’t usually react well to big changes, and Jesus was a big change.

Verse 19 reads, “If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you.”  This is pretty simple.  If you do what everyone else in the world is doing, the world will like you and accept you.  But if you go against what the world is doing, the world will hate you and be against you.

Verse 20 follows: “Remember what I told you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’  If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also.”  Concerning the first part of this verse, the way I look at it is to picture myself as the servant and Jesus as the master.  We are in no way greater than Jesus, for we sin and he does not; therefore the servant is not greater than his master.  In the second part of the verse, we see a connection between the servant and the master though.  The servant comes in the name of the master.  So the servant is associated with his master, and so people will treat the master and the servant the same.  If they did not like the master, they are not going to like the servant, and vice versa.  Verse 21 is a follow up to verse 20.  It reads, “They will treat you this way because of my name, for they do not know the one who sent me.”  This one is a little tricky, but the way I see it, the people of the world see Jesus just as Jesus.  They don’t involve God in their thinking.  If they really knew God they would look at the big picture, the trinity, instead of just looking at Jesus and his ways.

Verse 22 reads, “If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin.”  Jesus tells us that we sin, heck he came to save us from our sins.  But in order to be saved from our sins, we must first realize that we have sinned.  I mean everyone sins, but when we sin, we should feel guilty about it.  The only excuse for sinning that I see is the fact that we’re human, and way back when Adam and Eve sinned.  But really though, that’s not a good enough excuse.  We should be ever trying to stay away from sin, but when we do sin, we must realize that Jesus was right in telling us that we sinned, and we must ask him to forgive us.

Verse 23 is pretty short, saying “Whoever hates me hates my Father as well.”  This is going back to the trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  You can’t love one and not another.  They are all three connected and must all be loved and accepted.  If you are against God, then there’s no way you will be for Jesus.  It just doesn’t work that way, you’ve got to love all three.

Verse 24 ties in verses 22 and 23.  It reads, “If I had not done among them the works no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin. As it is, they have seen, and yet they have hated both me and my Father.”  Jesus is the ultimate righteous man.  And because he is righteous and good, he shows us the righteous and good ways of doing things.  He came into the world and performed miracles and showed compassion to everyone around him.  Referencing verse 22, Jesus came and told the world that they were sinning.  If he didn’t do that, then the world wouldn’t know and then wouldn’t feel guilty about sinning.  Going to the second part of the verse, the way I see it, is that people still hate Jesus because he’s telling them that they’re sinning.  He’s doing all these things that are against what the world has done, so even though we as Christians think the miracles of Jesus and everything he had to say was absolutely wonderful, the world hates this radicalness. Verse 25  follows reading, “But this is to fulfill what is written in their Law: ‘They hated me without reason.'”  It has been written before in a few places in the Bible that the world will hate without any reason.  People usually just need something or someone to hate, and even though what Jesus was doing was the greatest thing to happen to the world, the world doesn’t see it and just chooses to hate him.

Jesus then goes on in verse 26 to say, “When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father—the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father—he will testify about me.”  I see this just as the Holy Spirit of God which is in us.  It helps us to see the truth in Jesus and to help us better understand about him and what he has to offer, which is eternal life.  Verse 27 follows saying “And you also must testify, for you have been with me from the beginning.”  Though Jesus is talking to his disciples, this verse is really important and applies to us in our every day lives.  What Jesus is doing is issuing a challenge to us to go out and testify to the world about him.

This is no easy task though.  The world hates us for being servants of Christ, because the world is of Satan.  So what do we do when the world hates us?  Well first of all, we must put our faith and trust in God.  God is with us always, and will help us with this arduous task.  Once we put our lives in God’s hands, we can then start communicating to the world.  Communicating begins with our actions.  We will never reach the world unless we act like Jesus did.  Be happy, and show lots of love and compassion towards people.  When we copy the actions of Jesus, the world will notice and then ask us questions.  Once they start doing that, then we must tell them that Jesus is the reason.

Like I said, this is no simple task.  I found a great verse of encouragement that can help us though.  “But I thank God, who always leads us in victory because of Christ. Wherever we go, God uses us to make clear what it means to know Christ. It’s like a fragrance that fills the air.”  -2 Corinthians 2:14 (God’s Word Translation)  We are to make it known to the world what Jesus has to offer.  The best part in this verse I think is the word victory.  For through Christ, there is always victory.

So let us embark on this journey of a task together.  Let us show this world full of hate what Jesus has to offer, by acting like Jesus and testifying his wondrous ways.  🙂