What He said!, Pt 13: You Are Hated
John 15:18-25 18“If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. 19If 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. 20Remember 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. 21They will treat you this way because of my name, for they do not know the one who sent me. 22If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin. 23Whoever hates me hates my Father as well. 24If 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. 25But this is to fulfill what is written in their Law: ‘They hated me without reason.’
It can seem sometimes that the world is out to get us. In fact it can seem that nothing ever goes right in our lives. In fact, I was at a local hospital praying for a family whose daughter was having extreme medical challenges. The litany of drama and difficulty being experienced by the extended family of these friends was too much to even hear, and I found my eyes glazing over as the story unfolded. This family is experiencing an extreme version of something common to all people: We all have struggles occasionally. But this is not the sort of hate being described here by Jesus. No, Jesus here is talking about the consequences of following after him.
I think we can all realize something has gone terribly wrong with Western culture, particularly with the United States. But it isn’t really much of a mystery. We were founded by a group of men steeped in faith, who held the Bible in high regard, were frequent readers of it, and who held to its precepts. Today, the Bible is barely mentioned, and God’s name is usually mentioned only as part of a swear word. I have a friend who once was making a joke when referring to the Book of Collusions. Of course the Bible Book is called Colossians and I remember thinking at the time that most people wouldn’t recognize he had made a joke. This lack of God-centeredness is exactly the sort of thing Satan wants to see happen and is exactly the thing Jesus is talking about.
Why was Jesus hated? It’s because he stood for values which were in opposition to the values the hypocrites and Pharisees of Jesus’ day stood for. And if we do what Jesus wants us to do, that is if we accept him as our Savior, hold to his values, and more importantly if we hold to those values in opposition to the world system then we will be hated too. 2Timothy 3:12 says,
In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted,…
This could be a fearful thing to be hated and persecuted, and that’s exactly what Satan wants a person to think. You see, he is likely to be really upset to see a member of his army defect and go over to Christ’s army. But this puts the follower of Christ in an awkward position. We are called upon to love our enemies, love the world, and seek their/its salvation. Many a monk in the 15th century responded to this tension by withdrawing from society. But we can’t do this because it abrogates our responsibility to shine the love of Jesus into the darkened world.
So the question becomes, “How do we respond to this?” And the answer is to become like Christ. We can’t become perfect like he was, and we can’t become God like he is, but we can learn. We can imitate his attitude! When Jesus came to earth, he came ready to do a job. He was prepared. He came with a certain mental preparation and so must we. When we came to Christ we left the world system and ‘signed up’ with God’s Kingdom. In so doing we have made a choice to leave our old lifestyle and adopt Jesus’. That change means we must….
· Abandon our sin. We have decided to follow Jesus, as the song says, and that means it is time to forgo our previous way of living. Leaving that lifestyle is a commitment which Paul describes very well in 2Timothy 4:1-2. Let’s be honest: leading a lifestyle of sin destroys in the end. We can’t sit in the middle anymore: We must decide, “For Christ?” or “For sin?” Many of us diet in order to control our weight. I once read a sermon, referenced below, which proposed a ‘diet of the mind’ intended to rid ourselves of certain other destructive appetites.
1Therefore, since Christ suffered in his body, arm yourselves also with the same attitude, because whoever suffers in the body is done with sin. 2As a result, they do not live the rest of their earthly lives for evil human desires, but rather for the will of God.
· Expect abuse. But the cost of abandoning our sin is the rejection and abuse given us by the friends we used to party with. They are caught up in their sin and are no friend of God. How can we expect a sinner to do anything else than sin? They will gossip and slander because they think you have abandoned them. The truth is that we can’t afford to be exposed to that lifestyle because of the temptation to return to it. It is the diet of the mind. Even though these old friends will criticize, the only thing that really matters is what Christ thinks of us. At the Day of Judgment that’s the only thing that counts.
· Anticipate approval from God. Even if we ignore such criticism, we are often faced with another reality. Human beings need to know they are doing a good job: we need approval. Often we don’t get it. But as we follow Christ we realize a new reality: God will never leave us or forsake us (Hebrews 13:5)! But lest we think this approval is at some distant time, let’s remember that God has already sent the Holy Spirit to bear witness to Jesus’ love for us. When we experience hatred and persecution, the Holy Spirit is with us in real time. We will not, and are not, on our own!
Green, C.P. (2021). Facing Hardship. Retrieved from https://www.sermoncentral.com/sermons/facing-hardship-c-philip-green-sermon-on-persecution-257452?page=1&wc=800