In the King James bible, John 15 uses the word "hate" in Jesus speaking to his disciples. Noah Websters 1828 defines the word "hate" as to dislike greatly, to have an aversion to. According to their definition it is less than "abhor" or "detest". I can attest that this is certainly true with regard to some family members who are anti-gospel, and even Christians who do not want to stand for the truth but are willing to compromise for the sake of "unity".. but on to the verses in John 15.
V18-21 (Jesus speaking to his disciples) "If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you........if they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you......but all these things will they do unto you for my name's sake, because they know not him that sent me."
These are tough words. No one wants to know that the world of the unsaved will greatly dislike us, or have an aversion to us. But the bible shows us that the scribes and Pharisees hated the Lord Jesus so much that from the beginning of his ministry they sought ways to kill him. For Christians now, mostly it is that if we stand for the truth of God's word or the gospel, we are avoided and would spend a lonely life but for the presence of the Holy Spirit who is our comfort and encourager as well as being our teacher. If we were still in the world, if we were still lost in our sins, we would be accepted. But again Jesus teaches that "I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you." And may I say that many Christians do not want to accept that Christ has chosen them, they would rather believe that they chose Christ of their own "free will" and this alone makes for hard feelings towards any Christian who holds to the truth that the bible teaches, that Christ chose his own. Christians are not hated for who they are so much as what they believe. The gospel divides families, the bible divides families.
V22-27 "if I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin but now they have no cloke for their sin...if I had not done among them the works which none other man did, they had not had sin but now have they both seen and hated both me and my Father....But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me: and ye also shall bear witness, because ye have been with me from the beginning."
Those that were on this earth during Jesus ministry of teaching, preaching and healing, are now without excuse when they rejected Christ because they were witnesses of him. Now they had no covering for their sin, because even though they were witnesses of Jesus' ministry, they had an aversion to him and rejected him. Now Jesus tells his disciples that when the Holy Spirit comes, they would bear witness that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, the promised Redeemer, and they will spread the gospel and carry forth the teachings of the Lord Jesus. For Christians today who look back to the cross by faith, and believe on Jesus as their Saviour, we also testify of Jesus, and bear witness of his teachings, and of the gospel.
The next post will summarize chapter 16 and 17 before moving on to Chapter 18, the betrayal and arrest of Jesus.
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