If ye were of the world, the world would love its own; but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, on account of this the world hates you.
The Lord warns His disciples that the hatred aimed at Him will now fall on them. The cause is not their behaviour but His own choice to take them out of the world — so what is "the world," and why does its hatred follow?
Here "the world" does not mean the planet, or people in general. One writer gives a definition, and notes what "chosen you out" points to:
John 15:19 — "The world." This, in the words of Westcott, stands for "the organisation of society alien from, and opposed to, God" (compare 1 John 2:15). "Chosen you out": here is the idea of the Church.
Another writer shows how wide that system is, and what never changes in it:
The world is a vast system taking in every race and class, and false religion, all sharing a hatred of God. The world right around the disciples was the world of corrupt Judaism. Today the world believers mainly meet is the world of corrupt Christendom. Its outward form may change from age to age; at heart it is always marked by alienation from God and hatred of Christ.
It is easy to assume opposition means we have behaved badly. The verse says otherwise:
It is important to notice that in these verses the Lord traces the world's hatred of His disciples to the fact that they belonged to Him. They were His servants, and the servant is not greater than his Lord. "If they have persecuted Me," He said, "they will also persecute you." The world would not hate them because they were law-breakers, or because of objectionable features in their moral character, but because the Lord had chosen them out of the world to be His own.
There is real comfort in that direction of travel. The hatred begins with Him and reaches us second-hand:
The Lord would have us know this: the world hates us no more surely than it hated Him before us. Is it not sweet and comforting to be so sure about the world, dreadful as that truth is? For it hates us because of Him, not Him because of us. It is not our faults, then, that are the true cause, but His grace and moral excellence, His divine nature and glory. The world hates the Father shown in the Son. So it hates the children who were the Father's and were then given to the Son. Christ was hated first, they next, and for His sake.
One writer sets the world's own kind of love beside the grace it cannot bear:
The world does love those who belong to it, in its own way. That stands in sharp contrast with the grace that goes out to the stranger, the wretched and the lost. Grace is of all things the most offensive to the world, which can love nature in its fallen state. Even righteousness offends less, though righteousness must condemn the sinner. Grace rises above the sins it condemns. It has compassion on the sinner, to save him by Christ and in Christ. Grace offends because it treats man as nothing and gives the entire glory to God... So the world also hates us who confess Christ. It hates us not only because we are not of the world, but because Christ has chosen us out of it. That choice shows the world to be utterly worthless and condemned. Divine love is as hateful to it as divine light.
The verse names its own cause. The believer's position is not self-made:
Here we get the source of the world's hatred. The world dislikes us not only for how we walk, but for the place Christ has chosen us for. It is a distinct place, "out of the world," so that we may be a distinct people. It is because they are Christ's that the world cannot like them. We should let our light shine out. Our confession of Christ should be so clear that the world knows who deserves the credit for the good works — that we belong to Christ.
Christ does not only take us out. He puts us somewhere new:
The Lord has chosen us out of this world system. In saving our souls He "delivered us from the domain of darkness," from Satan's kingdom of this evil world, and "transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son" (Colossians 1:13). Our citizenship and our associations in life are in heaven (Philippians 3:20).
Being chosen out of the world does not mean leaving it. There is a purpose in staying:
This "out of the world" character of the Christian company is so little valued, and the result is a very feeble testimony to the world. I wish we understood its meaning better. We are in the world but not of it. We are to be kept from the evil in it, while we bear witness of Christ to it and try by the gospel to gather souls out of it for Him.
- Out of the world — the cause. Christ's choice, not the disciples' conduct or character, draws the world's hatred.
- Out of the world — the offence. The world can love what belongs to it; grace, which treats man as nothing and gives God the glory, it cannot bear.
- Out of the world — the comfort. It hated Him first; so the hostility reaches us because of Him, not Him because of us.
- Out of the world — the new address. Christ takes us out of the domain of darkness into the kingdom of God's Son, and our citizenship is in heaven.
- Out of the world — the errand. We stay in it without being of it, so that the gospel can gather others out of it too.
Remember the word which I said unto you, The bondman is not greater than his master. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my word, they will keep also yours.
The Lord has just told His followers that the world hates them because He chose them out of it. Now He tells them why that hatred should not surprise them. A servant can expect what his Master received.
The verse opens with a call to recall something the Lord had already said.
Here we need that word, "remember." Do we feel resentful or discouraged because of the world's attitude? Then how vital it is that we keep in mind what our Lord went through among men. He Himself had stressed this to them in His words.
The saying about rank settles what the disciples may expect. One writer draws out both halves of the verse and the Lord's purpose in saying it.
The Lord then recalls to their mind His word that no servant is greater than his lord. Instead they must expect His position, the position of the One whom men despised and rejected. They and their teaching would be hated just as much, and for His sake. If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. If they kept My word, they will also keep yours… Here the Lord kindly warned them in advance, so that no sorrow would take them by surprise.
It would be easy for a persecuted person to assume the fault lies somewhere in himself. The Lord's wording rules that out.
Notice what the Lord does in these verses. He traces the world's hatred of His disciples back to one thing: they belonged to Him. They were His servants, and the servant is not greater than his Lord. "If they persecuted Me," He said, "they will also persecute you." The world would not hate them for breaking the law, or for some fault in their character. It would hate them because the Lord had chosen them out of the world to be His own.
One writer traces the hostility to grace itself, and to what grace says about man.
Of all things, grace offends the world most, for the world can love human nature in its fallen state. Righteousness must condemn the sinner, yet even righteousness does not offend as much as grace does. Grace rises above the sins it condemns, in compassion toward the sinner, to save him by and in Christ. Grace offends because it treats man as nothing and gives the entire glory to God… Divine love is hated as much as divine light.
The second half of the verse points to a parallel that runs both ways.
His disciples are identified with their Lord. They are now to be His representatives on earth. The world itself would identify them. The world had followed Him with hatred, and it would now show that same hatred to His people… His persecutors would of course be theirs, and those who kept His word would keep theirs also.
Another writer records what the world in fact did with His word.
The world persecuted Him. It refused His Word. It stayed ignorant of the Father who sent Him. It hated the light and preferred the darkness.
One writer frames it as one package: blessing before the Father, reproach before the world. It still stands today.
"You share My position before the Father, with all the favour and blessing that belongs to it. But you also share My position of reproach and rejection before the world. If you have all the assets that go with My place before the Father, do not be surprised to find you also carry My liabilities with the world."… We have grown so used to a quiet, peaceful life in this land… that we easily forget the truth about the position we hold. It is a position of the greatest possible blessing before God. But in this world it is also a position of persecution and reproach, if we are true to our Master.
That leaves one question: where should the sufferer look?
In such times, how good it is to look away from the persecutors and mockers. Look instead to Him for whose sake we go through these things… When we too have to suffer for righteousness, let us remember whose rights and honour are under attack. Then disappointment and discouragement will not fill us.
- Remember — the Lord tells them to look back. How He was treated steadies a discouraged heart.
- Rank — no servant outranks his Lord. A disciple should expect the place men gave Him, not a better one.
- Reason — no fault of the disciple brings this hostility. It falls on him because he belongs to Christ, and the world cannot bear grace.
- Reach — the parallel runs both ways. Those who persecuted Christ persecute His people; those who kept His word will keep theirs.
- Response — look past the mockers to the One whose honour is under attack. Then reproach no longer brings discouragement.
But they will do all these things to you on account of my name, because they have not known him that sent me.
On the night before the cross, Jesus tells His followers that the world will treat them as it treated Him. Here He names the reason: they carry His name, and the world does not know the Father who sent Him.
Hatred turns into action here. What draws it out is the name the disciples confess.
Jesus further warns the disciples that this hatred will show itself in persecution: "If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you." This active hatred is tied more directly to confessing the name of Christ. The Lord can say, "All these things they will do to you on account of My name." The persecution, whether of Christ or of His disciples, proved they had no knowledge of the One who sent Christ — the Father.
Jesus gives one cause for it all: the world does not know the Father who sent Him. This also puts religion itself to the test.
He gives His own the comfort of knowing this in such hours of bitter suffering, and beforehand too: all the contempt and suffering they might endure from the world was for His sake. It came from the world's ignorance of Him who sent Him — ignorance of the Father. How deeply true this is! It would be impossible for a professing religion to persecute if it really knew Him who sent Christ.
Not knowing the Father does not mean having no religion. Zeal can stay strong and still point the wrong way.
This was hatred indeed — hatred "without a cause," hatred returned for love. The cross of Christ was soon to display man's fullest hatred meeting God's fullest love. Ignorant of the Father, the world might still be zealous for God, and think it was serving God by killing the children of the Father.
Jesus gives this warning before any of it happens. The timing is part of the kindness.
He tells them these things before they happen, so that they will not be caught unawares. The truth about these matters would put them on their guard. Their own countrymen would disown them, treating them as law-breakers. Blind in heart and mind, and without the truth, they would be zealous for their religion, and would treat His own as hateful to God. In this way the world would prove that it does not know the Father or the Son... As these things came true, they would trust the One who had told them beforehand even more.
The same truth encourages the believer who suffers today.
What encouragement there is in verse 21 for the suffering believer! He may accept whatever persecution comes as being for Christ's name's sake, remembering that the world is ignorant of the Father who sent the Son, and therefore does not understand the significance of the evil it is doing.
Trouble that comes because of the name also carries the honour of that name. The world reproaches the Christian as Christ's representative.
We are declared to be happy or blessed if the reproach is "for" the name, or "in" the name of Christ; which means that the world sees in us His representatives... To be reproached in the name of Christ is an honour to us. Men may blaspheme Him and reproach us, but we glorify Him, and the Spirit who lives in us rests upon us as the Spirit of glory and of God.
This is not a phase the church outgrows.
The church knows from God's word that the world's character will stay the same to the end of this age. In fact, at its very close the world will take an even more open and daring attitude of defiance and revolt than ever.
- Cause — The world's treatment of believers traces back to one root: it does not know the Father who sent Christ.
- Proof — Persecution says more about the persecutor than about the persecuted. Anyone who truly knew the One who sent Christ could not do it.
- Zeal — Someone can be sincerely religious and still not know the Father. Sincerity is no proof of knowing God.
- Comfort — Jesus warned them first, so nothing catches the disciple by surprise. Trust in Christ grows as the warning comes true.
- Honour — What the world does on account of His name lands on Him. Reproach carried in that name is dignity, not disgrace, until He comes.