Hated Without a Cause
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Hated Without a Cause
Hated Without a Cause
17 This is what I command you: Love one another.
18 “If the world hates you, understand that it hated Me before it hated you.
19 If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own. However, because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of it, the world hates you.
20 Remember the word I spoke 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 also keep yours.
21 But they will do all these things to you on account of My name, because they don’t know the One who sent Me.
22 If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have sin. Now they have no excuse for their sin.
23 The one who hates Me also hates My Father.
24 If I had not done the works among them that no one else has done, they would not have sin. Now they have seen and hated both Me and My Father.
25 But this happened so that the statement written in their scripture might be fulfilled: They hated Me for no reason.
John
We have a bit of a casual attitude toward persecution. But persecution becomes a much more sobering experience when it comes close to home.
On that night in the Upper Room before His death, His purpose was primarily to comfort and encourage His disciples.
— He demonstrated His love as He washed their feet.
— He gave them a series of beautiful promises: He was preparing a place for them, He would return for them. They would do greater works than He had done. They could ask anything in His Name and He would do it. He promised them the Holy Spirit would live in them and be their Helper. He reinsured His and the Father’s intense love for them. He promised divine life and knowledge. He promised them His peace.
— He told them they would bear the fruit of God. He promised they would abide in Him, they would have His joy, and His life would flow from them. He called them friends.
17 This is what I command you: Love one another.
Verse 17 is a transition from His love for them to the world’s hatred of them. The verb here “Love one another.” indicates a continuous action — “Keep on loving each other. Devote yourselves to one another, sacrifice for one another. Love each other the way I love you.”
And then the whole tone and topic changes.
It’s important to love one another because the world hates you. In a hostile world, they desperately needed love from each other — and we do to. The problem is for us, we have relative ease in our society and so we have little issues that we get in a huff and instead of loving one another and talking with one another, instead of getting our feelings hurt, forgiving one another, we walk away. That doesn’t work when the church is under persecution and it doesn’t work in this verse.
Notice there are no exceptions in loving one another.
The disciples were persecuted severely.
James was first martyred.
Andrew was tied to a cross and crucified.
Peter was crucified upside down according to tradition.
All of the disciples were martyred, except John who was exiled to Patmos.
The first 3 centuries the church was under severe persecution.
The world is hostile to God because it follows it’s leader, Satan. We can expect persecution in this world.
12 In fact, all those who want to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.
Why is that?
Our Lord gives 3 reasons why suffering and persecution is unavoidable.
I. Christians are not of this world.
I. Christians are not of this world.
19 If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own. However, because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of it, the world hates you.
The word world, κόσμος, is a word that often appears in John’s writings. It has a wide range of meanings and the meaning always has to be determined by the context.
κόσμος,is a word that often appears in John’s writings. It has a wide range of meanings and the meaning always has to be determined by the context.
Here it refers to the evil system of twisted values, unrighteous ambitions, and hostile powers that dominate this earthly realm — all influenced by the Devil.
Ephesians
1 And you were dead in your trespasses and sins
2 in which you previously walked according to the ways of this world, according to the ruler who exercises authority over the lower heavens, the spirit now working in the disobedient.
3 We too all previously lived among them in our fleshly desires, carrying out the inclinations of our flesh and thoughts, and we were by nature children under wrath as the others were also.
It’s the people, institutions, laws, customs, power structures, cultural drivers and influences, social constructs — it’s the profane and materialistic embraced. It is the satanic wickedness and human deprivation that is set against God, against Christ, against the Bible, against the Church, against God’s rule, people, and kingdom. It’s what Satan and his minions control.
This evil system called the world has a different king, a different kingdom, a different rule, and different subjects.
And look at the phrase in verses 19: “the world would love you as its own.” This is not a masculine plural, which would indicate a love toward other people. It’s a neuter plural, meaning the people are caught up in the love of their own things. And we see this. The worldly individual loves himself and his own things. He loves only if it is an advantage for himself, benefits himself.
This κόσμος is therefore against those who love and follow Jesus, and declare their faith to Him. Those of this world live in a system that is antiGod, antiChrist, antiChristian — Satanic. It’s against God and His righteous principles and opposed to all that is godly and Christlike.
And we need to understand this: We cannot persuade those of this world to admire Jesus as revealed in Scripture.
John
19 “This, then, is the judgment: The light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than the light because their deeds were evil.
No unbeliever will ever truly embrace Christ apart from the Holy Spirit’s conviction and regenerating work. The church is to preach God’s Word and proclaim the Gospel — even in the face of this worldly hostility.
Our lives are to be an open rebuke of a sinful world.
11 Don’t participate in the fruitless works of darkness, but instead expose them.
And this brings up a point of interest to us.
Are you experiencing any friction from those around you?
It’s probably because we are not living our lives in such a way that it really exposes their sin. There is no contrast of holiness and righteousness.
We were meant to stand a part from the world, to stand in contrast to them.
Jesus tells His disciples: “I have chosen you out of it (the world).”
Jesus chose us to be different.
And he added — “the world hates you.”
Why would the world hate me?
II. The world hated Jesus first.
II. The world hated Jesus first.
20 Remember the word I spoke 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 also keep yours.
Because the world hated God first, the world hates you, because you are His.
Any tolerance of you is only because there is not a clear knowledge of Jesus as revealed in Scripture. But when they find out — when they begin to understand the Lord of your life, the reason you live as you do, and who you are living for — then the fangs will come out.
When the Church is not what she should be, when she is weakened theologically or becomes less biblical, then persecution wanes.
The church in the 4th Century, went from persecuted to the dominant religion under Emperor Constantine. But what truly happened is at the same time as Constantine is the arch-heretic, Arius unleashed his famous attack on the deity of Christ, and within a few decades of the infancy of Christianity, the visible church became a monstrosity of institutionalized blasphemy. But one man — Athanasius, stood for the Word of God and defended the deity of Christ.
That should tell us something about our climate over the last 100 years.
When the church began becoming a political wing — the Falwell and the Moral Majority — everything became about the party and about defeating Roe vs. Wade.
This is not the call of the Church.
10 My goal is to know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death,
Many Christians do not know the unique joy of the fellowship of Christ’s sufferings.
21 For you were called to this, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you should follow in His steps.
Sharing in the sufferings of Christ gives us a unique sharing in His joy.
III. The world does not know God.
III. The world does not know God.
21 But they will do all these things to you on account of My name, because they don’t know the One who sent Me.
Religion is the greatest hinderance to the knowledge of the true God.
Like the Jewish leaders of Jesus’ day who prided themselves in the religious system they led — they had no knowledge of the God they claimed to worship.
You say well how is that?
They rejected God’s Messiah. They rejected Christ.
And the problem is not that men and women have no access to the truth of God. They reject and suppress that truth.
19 since what can be known about God is evident among them, because God has shown it to them.
Romans 1:
God has given all mankind a basic and irrefutable knowledge of Himself. People willfully reject the truth of God.
Why?
Not because of ignorance, but because they love their sin!
We just read it — people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil.
18 For God’s wrath is revealed from heaven against all godlessness and unrighteousness of people who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth,
Romans 1:
19 “This, then, is the judgment: The light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than the light because their deeds were evil.
I want you to look at with me.
25 But this happened so that the statement written in their scripture might be fulfilled: They hated Me for no reason.
19 Do not let my deceitful enemies rejoice over me; do not let those who hate me without cause look at me maliciously.
4 Those who hate me without cause are more numerous than the hairs of my head; my deceitful enemies, who would destroy me, are powerful. Though I did not steal, I must repay.
Psalm
3 They surround me with hateful words and attack me without cause.
There was absolutely no reason the Jews should hate their own Messiah, except for their love of their sin.
Their contempt for Jesus was completely without any legitimate cause.
They hated Jesus because He exposed their sin. His divine holiness shone in a dark world of sin. He revealed fallen humanity’s love of darkness. And the world is no different today. The world still hates Christ. And if you are going to follow Christ, you will have suffering because the world will hate you like they hate God.
But realize that
You’re not of this world, and so the world hates you.
The world first hated Jesus, so they will hate you.
The world doesn’t know God, so they will hate you.
You were called to suffer by your King, but this is not for nought. This is so we have true fellowship with Christ, so that even when we are persecuted, we are participating in the very promises Christ left with His disciples: hope of heaven, permanent indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit, truth, peace, fruitfulness, joy, spiritual power all belong to us along with the suffering.
Philippians
Every true believer has the gracious words of our Lord:
18 I will not leave you as orphans; I am coming to you.
19 “In a little while the world will see Me no longer, but you will see Me. Because I live, you will live too.
20 In that day you will know that I am in My Father, you are in Me, and I am in you.
John 14: