Recap
of 2/3/13 (John 15:18-25):
1. Starting in
John 15:18 the topic of Jesus’ teaching changing dramatically. He had commanded them to love each other, the
reason this love was so necessary was because believers would be hated by the
world. The words “hate” or “hatred” replaces the word “love” as the topic of
this section.
2. “One thing is
certain—no Christian who was involved in persecution could say that he had not
been warned. Persecution came to the
Christians because they put Christ first.
Persecution always comes to the man who does that.” (Barclay) Friendship with Jesus brings the hatred of
the world. The world treats us as it
treated Jesus. The reason for this hatred is clear: the more we are like Jesus
the more the world will hate us.
3. Believers are
different once coming to Christ. We are
being transformed by the Word of God (Romans 12:2), we no longer think like the
world (1 Peter 4:4). People hate those
who are different, whose lives are a rebuke to their own lives.
4. Believers must
be careful not to compromise in order to be popular with the world. James warns against friendship with the world
which he says makes us an enemy of God (James 4:4).
5. The world in ignorance hates Jesus and rejects His words, life, works, and miracles which clearly mark Him out
as from God, God incarnate, the God-man.
“…-the revelation of the Father that Christ had given to the
world—rendered the world inexcusable (vs. 22).
Christ’s life and words revealed the righteousness of God and provided a
pattern of the kind of life that a man must live in order to be acceptable to
God. Before Christ came, the world might
have pleaded ignorance of God’s demands as an excuse for their sins; but now
that Christ had come and spoken, the world had no excuse for their sin.”
(Pentecost)
