¹⁸ “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. ¹⁹ 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. ²⁰ 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. ²¹ They will treat you this way because of my name, for they do not know the one who sent me. ²² 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. ²³ Whoever hates me hates my Father as well. ²⁴ 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. ²⁵ But this is to fulfill what is written in their Law: ‘They hated me without reason.’ ²⁶ “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. ²⁷ And you also must testify, for you have been with me from the beginning.
His company is our comfort.
Thoughts
- Hated Because He Was Hated First (18-20) Jesus tells them it hated him first (18). Last week he said he had chosen the Eleven (16), and that same choosing explains why the world rejects them (19). If they belonged to the world, the world would love them as its own. Elisabeth Elliot said the world spends its life asking who am I? The question Jesus has answered is whose am I. He chose them out of the world. On the night he washed their feet he said a servant is not greater than his master, meaning they were not above the lowly work he had just done (13:16), and here the same saying covers the hatred: if the world persecuted him, it will persecute his friends (20). We get a cool response when we share our faith and make it a verdict on how we said it, too sharp, too much, the wrong moment, and we soften what we were saying. Jesus has already given the Eleven a different account. ➤ When the world says ‘no’ to you, it is saying ‘no’ to Jesus. He was rejected first. And the ‘no’ comes to you because he chose you.
- They Do Not Know the Father (21-25) Jesus is readying the Eleven for people who already claim the God of Israel. The world will treat them this way because of his name, because it does not know the one who sent him (21). If he had not spoken, and had not done the works no one else did, the world would not be guilty of this, but now it has seen and hated both him and the Father, as Psalms 35 & 69 said, without a reason (25). Those people will think they can refuse Jesus and remain loyal to the Father. He tells the Eleven that whoever hates him hates his Father as well (23), having told Philip that to see him is to see the Father (14:9). The disciples need not be shaken when people who claim God reject them. The pressure on the Eleven is to hide Jesus so those people will accept them. ➤ You cannot have the Father without the Son he sent to rescue us.
- The Spirit Will Bear Witness (26-27) The Advocate Jesus will send is a person who stands with the Eleven (26), sent by the Son from the Father, already speaking about Jesus, and the Eleven speak too because they have been with him from the beginning (27). We assume the conversation is now ours to rescue, or that we should stop, but Christ does not send his friends into the hatred, and then stand back to see how they do. Daniel's friends were thrown into the furnace, and a fourth walked in the fire with them (Dan 3:25). ➤ The one called alongside comforts us through our crisis. He does not leave us to face that hatred alone.
Reflection
- How does it change things that when you face opposition to the Good News, his company can be your comfort?
GoJ 16:1-
