The World Hates You

[Read John 15:18-16:4]

I remember the first time I ever experienced some form of persecution for my faith. I don’t want to overplay it. In the grand scheme of things it was very  miniscule. However, at the time it had a massive impact on me. 

I was in middle school and I wasn’t actually living out my faith very faithfully. In most areas of my life, I was actually living like everyone else in my middle school, maybe even worse. The only thing different was that I went to church every Sunday and I went to youth group every week. Eventually, I noticed that people were starting to treat me differently. Some of my closest friends were lying to me and refusing to hang out with me. They would intentionally avoid me at recess and lie to me about what they were doing after school. Eventually, I confronted them about the lies and asked what was going on. What had I done to them? Nothing. They just found out I was “churchy” and they didn’t wanna hang out with a “churchy” person. I remember being really confused about it all. Nothing had changed, really. They just found out that I went to church and youth group and that’s the reason they no longer wanted to hang out with me. 

This is something we need to talk about more and more because we don’t really understand it, yet. The Christian faith is naturally divisive. It divides. This isn’t a bible verse that you’ll find on anything at Hobby Lobby, but these words did come out of Jesus’ mouth: “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a person’s enemies will be those of his own household.” (Matthew 10:34–36, ESV). The Christian faith is naturally divisive. 

In our passage this morning, Jesus is preparing his disciples for that reality. At the end of this morning’s passage Jesus says, “I have said all these things to you to keep you from falling away…I have said these things to you, that when their hour comes you may remember that I told them to you. I did not say these things to you from the beginning, because I was with you.” (John 16:1–4, ESV). Things are about to change in the lives of the disciples and Jesus is preparing them for that reality. Not only is he going to be taken away from them, but once he’s taken away from them, their entire situation is going to change. Things are going to get really difficult. Things are going to get so difficult that the disciples are going to be tempted to fall away. So, Jesus is preparing them for this. 

Pay attention to that sentence in the middle: “But I have said these things to you, that when their hour comes you may remember that I told them to you.” (John 16:4, ESV). Why is Jesus saying this to them? Is it because he wants to prove that he was right once again? No. This is his way of preparing the disciples for what they are about to suffer. So that when they do suffer, they remember that Jesus has told them about these things. They will be prepared for the suffering. 

We know this is actually an important part of preparing for something difficult. There’s always a temptation to downplay the difficulty of things, however, that often sets us up for failure. If you are preparing for a three mile run and you’re repeatedly telling yourself, “This is going to be easy. It’s going to be a walk in the park. I’m just gonna coast my way through it,” guess what’s going to happen the moment things get hard? You’re going to start saying different things in your head: “What’s wrong? This isn’t how this is supposed to be? Maybe I should quit!” However, if you prepare yourself at the beginning of the run and tell yourself, “This is gonna be tough. There are going to be points when I want to quit and points when I don’t think I’ll be able to finish, but I can finish this run.” Then what happens when you hit those points? You remember what you were told. You expect them to come and then you push through them. You’ve been prepared to make it through the difficult points of the run. 

That’s what Jesus is doing with his disciples. He’s preparing them to endure the hatred of the world. He says, “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you.” (John 15:18, ESV). Based on the context of the passage, that “if” could better be translated “When.” When the world hates you, know that it hated Jesus before it hated you. In the very next verse he says it very clearly: “the world hates you.” (John 15:19, ESV). So, when the world hates you, one of the first things to remember is that it hated Jesus first. 

Here’s the question that Jesus answers: Why does the world hate him? Here’s what he says, “If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have been guilty of sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin…If I had not done among them the works that no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin, but now they have seen and hated both me and my Father.” (John 15:22–24, ESV). Why does the world hate Jesus? They hate Jesus because he revealed their sin and showed that they were guilty. Not only that, but notice that Jesus says he removed their excuses for their sin as well.

The picture being painted here is of a world that is engulfed in sin, but repeatedly trying to cover it up and make excuses for it, constantly trying to explain it away, or pretend like it’s not sin at all. Then Jesus comes and uncovers the entire thing. He reveals sin to be sin and He removes any of the excuses and cover-ups they’ve devised to pretend like they’re not sinners. And because of that, they hate him. 

Now, there’s a little line in the middle that I think I need to explain further, but briefly. Jesus says, “If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have been guilty of sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin.” (John 15:22, ESV). Does this mean that if Jesus hadn’t come they wouldn’t be guilty of their sin? Does this mean that nobody was guilty of sin before Jesus came? Of course not. From the moment that Adam and Eve sinned in the garden all humanity has been guilty of their sin. So, what’s this all about? Herman Ridderbos explains this very well, I think. He says, “If Jesus had not come and had not spoken of God as he has, then God would not yet have spoken his final word of love to the world and the world would not yet have given God its final answer.” (Ridderbos, 524). This moment was the epitome of two things: The epitome of God’s revelation of his love AND the epitome of the world's hatred and rejection of that love. Jesus’ coming brought all of that into the light in a powerful way that actually ended up increasing the guilt because they rejected the increased revelation of God’s love.

Jesus not only says they’ve rejected this increased revelation of God’s love but says, “Whoever hates me hates my Father also.” (John 15:23, ESV). They hate the Father. That’s at the core. They hate Jesus because they hate God. That’s why they have rejected God’s increased revelation of his love to the world. They hate him. 

Now, here’s the question that may be on some of your minds because it was on my mind throughout my work on this passage. The main premise of this passage is that the world hates Jesus, but is that really true? Doesn’t the world actually love Jesus? Don’t many non-Christians say things like, “We love Jesus but we don’t love the people who follow him?” Isn’t the world attracted to Jesus?

My answer to that question is: No. The world loves their version of Jesus, not the real Jesus. The world loves a Jesus who never points out their sin and failure. The world loves a Jesus that never makes them feel guilty for their sin, a Jesus that never calls them to repentance, a Jesus that has been reshaped and molded into the image of the world—which just means that they love an idolized version of Jesus, not the real Jesus. If the real Jesus showed up again today, the world would reject him and kill him all over again. 

Because the world has created this distorted, idolized version of Jesus, it’s really easy for us to fall into the trap of thinking it’s an accurate picture of Jesus. That’s why it’s so important for us to be reading our bibles regularly. It’s actually why I’ve felt it was so important to slowly work our way through this Gospel, so that we could take our time in seeing and understanding who Jesus really is—not the version of Jesus the world has painted but the real Jesus. 

This also leads to another trap that the church often falls into. The church often thinks it's our job to make the world love Jesus. We think we need to market Jesus to the world. What’s the goal of any marketing strategy? The goal is to make people desire the thing you’re selling. So, when we try to market Jesus to the world—try to make the world love Jesus—we start painting Jesus in worldly ways. We strongly emphasize certain aspects of Jesus’ life—love, peace, comfort, gentleness—and ignore or downplay other aspects—rebuke, correction, cleansing the temple, etc. Here’s what’s really scary about all of this. In an attempt to make the world love Jesus, we actually present an idol to the world and lead them astray. We actually end up leading them away from the true Jesus Christ. 

We also need to expect that as we show the world the real Jesus Christ and as we live the life he’s called us to live, people are not going to like it. Actually, they are going to hate us for it. This is what Jesus was preparing his disciples for, and preparing us for. He says, “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you…Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you.” (John 15:18–20, ESV). We will be persecuted for telling people about the real Jesus and by living lives that are faithful to the real Jesus. Actually, we will be hated by the world. This will not be unusual. It should be expected by every Christian. 

Here’s what hit me this week. The world will hate us because of something Jesus did for us, and this wasn’t something Jesus did accidentally. No, he did this on purpose, knowing that it would cause the world to hate us. He says, “If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.” (John 15:19, ESV). Why does the world hate us? Because Jesus chose us out of the world. That’s why. Jesus saved us from the world and set us apart from the rest of the world. That’s why they hate us. 

That’s what was going on with my friends in Middle School. When they were calling me “churchy,” they were really saying that I was set apart—something was different, was off about me. So, they hated me for it. That “something different” and “set apartness” was something that Jesus did for me—a beautiful thing that Jesus did for me, that I should be excited about and rejoice in—but something that will necessarily cause the world to hate me. 

Here’s one of the hard truths that comes out of this passage. It should be a question that is sitting heavy on every one of our hearts: What if the world doesn’t hate me? What if the world loves me as its own? That’s a hard question, isn’t it? According to this passage, Jesus says that the world may love you as it’s own because you belong to the world, or maybe your life looks too much like the world. That’s a hard truth that every single one of us needs to ask ourselves this morning. We need to wrestle with that a lot throughout the next week. Does the world love me because my life looks too much like the rest of the world?

This also leads to another important point about witnessing to the world. There has been a major push throughout the church to witness to the world around us and to do that through the way we live our lives. That’s really good, and obviously this is something I talk about every single Sunday. However, this idea has often been hijacked. When a Christian does something that causes the world to hate them, people will often say something like, “You’re hurting your/our witness in the world.” When people speak clearly and powerfully about issues the world hates right now, and the world gets angry about Christians talking about those issues, we’re told that we’re hurting our witness. That’s not true. Actually, if we are never doing and saying things that make the world hate us, we are not imaging Jesus Christ well, we're actually imaging the world or an idol (an image of Jesus made by the world). The Christian faith is naturally divisive, which means it will naturally cause the world to hate us. This is something we should expect. 

Now, with that said, it’s also important to point something else out. Jesus says, “But the word that is written in their Law must be fulfilled: ‘They hated me without a cause.’” (John 15:25, ESV). The world had no reason to hate Jesus. It was the height of foolishness for the world to hate Jesus. They had no cause. 

I make this point to remind us that we shouldn’t give the world a “cause” to hate us. Here’s what I mean by that. There are some people who are jerks and are hated by the world. They have given the world a cause to hate them. There are people who don’t know how to watch their tongue and have no social awareness. They have given the world “cause” to hate them. And if they give the world cause to hate them, and then cry “Persecution! Persecution!” we need to rebuke them for these things. 

There’s a fine line in all of this that we need to remember. It is foolishness for the world to hate the truth. So, we can never shy away from speaking the truth clearly and boldly. Speaking the truth clearly and boldly is not giving the world “cause” to hate us but they will hate you for this. Living lives that refuse to take part in the foolishness and wickedness of the world is not giving the world “cause” to hate you, but they will hate you for this anyway. We must be willing to be hated for our faithfulness and not our foolishness. 

Thankfully, Jesus also reminds us that we have some help in the midst of these difficulties. He says, “But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me. And you also will bear witness, because you have been with me from the beginning.” (John 15:26–27, ESV). The Holy Spirit has been given to us to lead and guide us through the minefields of this life. The Holy Spirit is with us when we are hated and attacked by the world, giving us strength, endurance, perseverance, and hope in the midst of the suffering. The Holy Spirit is there to give us wisdom and insight on when to speak and when to keep our mouths shut. The Holy Spirit is there to give us guidance when we open our mouths to guide the words that come out. The Holy Spirit is with us to guide us into the truth so that we don’t get lost and caught up in lies. As Jesus tells us here, the Holy Spirit will bear witness about who Jesus truly is AND will work in us so that we can tell the world who Jesus truly is. John Calvin has a beautiful quote on this point: “And, indeed, when the world rages on all sides, our only protection is, that the truth of God, sealed by the Holy Spirit on our hearts, despises and defies all that is in the world; for, if it were subject to the opinions of men, our faith would be overwhelmed a hundred times in a day.” (Calvin, 130). 

There is a glimmer of hope in the midst of these hard and difficult words. Jesus also says this: “If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours.” (John 15:20, ESV). This is a glimmer of hope in some ways. As has often been said throughout the Gospel of John, the world hated Jesus—but not all of them. Some believed. Some heard his word, believed his word, kept his word and received eternal life. The same will be true for us. Many will hate us. Many will reject us. Many will refuse to hear anything we have to say. But not all of them. Some will hear what we have to say and some will believe what we have to say. Some will repent and believe in Jesus Christ, they will turn from their sins, be forgiven and set free, and receive eternal life. This will happen because we have been faithfully following Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit and faithfully sharing the gospel by the power of the Holy Spirit.

And remember, that if someone does believe in the gospel and put their faith and trust in Jesus Christ, they didn’t do it because you put together the right marketing plan. They didn’t believe in Jesus because you created the right sales pitch or because you did everything right. No, they put their faith and trust in Jesus Christ for the same reason you did, the Holy Spirit worked in their heart, changed their heart, drew them to Christ and showed them how beautiful and wonderful he is, and showed them the salvation and freedom that comes from putting our faith and trust in him. It’s only by the power of the Holy Spirit that anyone believes.