John 15:18-19 ESV
“If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. 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.”
Followers of Jesus
This is Jesus speaking to his followers – to those who are
believing in him to be their Lord and Savior, who have repented of their sins, who
by God’s Spirit have turned from darkness to light and from the power of Satan
to God, and who are walking in obedience to his commands, showing their
repentance by their deeds done in the Spirit (Ac 26:18-21; 1 Jn 2:3-6).
These are his followers who deny self and who are daily
dying to sin and who are following Jesus according to his will for their lives.
They are remaining and abiding in Christ and in his word, and they are bearing
fruit in keeping with repentance and for God’s eternal kingdom. Thus, they are
showing themselves to be the Lord’s true disciples (Lu 9:23-26; Jn 15:1-8).
They are also those who are keeping, as a matter of
practice, the commands of God (under the New Covenant), and thus they are
loving God. They are also those who are loving their brothers and sisters in
Christ and the people of the world. And they are also willingly laying their
lives down by sharing the truth of the gospel so that others can be delivered
from slavery to sin and have eternal life with God (Jn 15:9-17; 1 Jn 2:3-6).
Hated by the World
These followers of Jesus Christ are the hated by the world,
but not just by the world, but by the worldly and fleshly church, too, who have
become one with the world. And who hated Jesus the most? It was the rulers in
the temple of God. And they are the ones who had him put to death.
So, it should not surprise us at all if some of our fiercest
opposition and persecution comes, not from the people outside the church (or
state church), but from people who claim faith in Jesus Christ and who
participate in the fellowship of the church (or state church).
And why do they hate, reject, ostracize, ignore, exclude,
and push us away? It is because we don’t belong to the world, because Jesus
chose us out of the world. For, if we belonged to the world, it would love us
as its own.
So, what does this look like to be chosen out of the world
so that we no longer belong to the world? We should no longer think from a
worldly point of view. We should not take on the character or the attitudes of
the ungodly. And we should not be taking the garbage of the world into our eyes
and minds or behaving in ways which are immoral and wicked.
But we should have the mind of Christ and we should think
from a heavenly point of view, with our eyes fixed on Jesus and on doing his
will. Thus, not only will we not be consuming the junk of the world, but we
will be feeding our minds on the word of God and living to please our Lord.
John 15:20-21 ESV
“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. They will treat you this way because of my name, for they do not know the one who sent me.”
Many people who claim faith in Jesus Christ have this idea
that Christians shouldn’t have to suffer for the sake of their faith, but
Christians all throughout history since Jesus died for us on that cross have
been persecuted and even put to death for their faith in Christ Jesus, our
Lord.
As Americans, we have known little of the severe persecution
that Christians throughout the world have had to suffer, and thus, many have
gotten this idea that they will not be called upon to suffer persecution for
their faith. But that is not biblical.
For Jesus said that if they persecuted him, that they will
persecute us also. But so many who profess faith in Jesus are one with the
world and so the world is not persecuting them, but the world is loving them as
its own. The ones who are being persecuted, though, are those who are truly
following Jesus with their lives, doing and saying the kinds of things he did.
Thus, we are also being persecuted in some of the same ways
in which Jesus was, for we are being verbally attacked as he was, and we are
being called names, and we are being falsely accused of what we did not do just
because we are different and just because we don’t follow religious traditions,
but we follow Jesus in doing and saying what he says to do and say.
John 15:22-25 ESV
“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. Whoever hates me hates my Father as well. 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. But this is to fulfill what is written in their Law: ‘They hated me without reason.’”
Now, Jesus was not saying that if he had not come and spoken
to them that they would not be guilty of all sin, for we are all born with sin
natures, and in our sin natures we are guilty, and we are separate from God,
and we are not acceptable to God nor do we have the promise of eternal life.
But the meaning here is that because he did come to them,
and he did speak to them, that they were responsible for what they witnessed
and for what they heard. Thus, if they refused him, and if they hated him, which
many of them did, then they were guilty of sin. They were without excuse
because he told them the truth.
Again, all of us are born with sin natures and separate from
God, and Romans 1 states that we all have been shown God and his divine character
and will through his creation, so if we reject him, and we do what our evil
hearts desire, we are without excuse (Rom 1:18-32).
But it is also true that if we are given the truth of the
gospel which teaches that we must die with Christ to sin and live to him and to
his righteousness, but we refuse it, because we want to go our own way instead,
we are also without excuse, and we will be judged by our refusal to believe in
Jesus Christ to be Lord (owner-master) and Savior of our lives.
And it is true, as well, that if we teach the things that
Jesus taught and that his New Testament apostles taught, that we will be hated
and persecuted as they were, and even by the religious and those who profess
the name of Jesus but who by their actions deny him. So, we need to be ready,
for the severe persecution is coming.
Fully
Ready!
An
Original Work / June 19, 2013
Based
off Acts 20-22, 26; Mt. 28:18-20; Ac. 1:8
Why are you weeping and breaking my heart?
I’m fully ready to suffer for Christ.
If I must die for the sake of His name,
I am convinced it will not be in vain.
Glory to God and to His Son Jesus,
Who has redeemed us; bought with His blood.
May I speak to you? Jesus came to me;
Asked of me, “Why do you persecute me?”
He said, “Now get up and stand on your feet.
Go, and you’ll be told all I have for you.
I have appointed you as a servant,
And as a witness; you have been sent.”
“Go into the world and preach the gospel.
Open the blind eyes. They will receive sight.
Turn them from darkness to the light of Christ;
From power of the evil one to God,
So they may receive forgiveness of sins,
And a place among those who’re in heav’n.”
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