John 15:18-25

       Up to this point in the Upper Room Discourse Jesus has limited His teaching to the disciples and their relationship to each other and to God.  He set an example of humble service.  He commanded them to love each other.  He has offered them an intimate relationship with Him.  He has called them to an abiding relationship with Him.

            He now speaks to them of a third great relationship:  the relationship with the world.  The world refers to the non-disciples, or those who are rejecting Christ.

            The you in Me, Me in you relationship will result in a growing likeness to the Master; this is the natural outcome for a disciple (v20).  But in this there is made clear the difficulty His disciples have with the world: the more you look like Christ the more the people of the world will treat you in the same way they treated Christ.  How did they treat Him?  They hated Him!  They persecuted Him!  So the faithful follower of Christ will be hated by those who reject Christ.

            Jesus gives 3 reasons for this hatred.  He does not say that the disciples will need to try to incur the world’s anger by being critical or judgmental or obnoxious.  Rather…

·        The disciples will be hated because they are not of the world (v19).  By Christ’s willful choice He has chosen us out of this world.  The world is directed by the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life (1 John 2:16).  The disciples are born again from above (John 3:1-21).  They live in fellowship with the Heavenly One.  They bear fruit of holiness.  Faith, hope and love are the marks of the new life.

·        The disciples will be hated because they are Christ-ians (v20-21).  Their goal is Christlikeness.  And as we have noted, the more one progresses towards that goal the more the world treats them as they did Christ.  Remember that Paul not only desired to know the power of Christ’s resurrection; he desired to know the fellowship of His suffering (Phil. 3:10).

·        The disciples will be hated because they are living reproof to the world (v22).  Christ was a living reproof through His words (v22) and works (v24).  What He did pricked the consciences of those around Him (e.g. John 9:39-41).  The world in sin hates the light of righteousness because it exposes their rottenness (John 3:20).  Now the disciples, by their likeness to Christ, would be the same kind of a problem for the world (Eph. 5:11). 

            Note that these reasons do not justify the world.  In fact, Christ says, they have no excuse for their sin (v22).  As the disciple abides in Christ the life of Christ is developed in Him.  And that life is the life of the Son of God, a life that will be hated by those who reject Him.

            There is a valuable method of evaluation provided here for the disciple.  Am I being treated by the world as was Christ?  Am I being hated without cause (v25)?  What is my goal in life?  Is it to fit in, to be accepted and loved by people?  Or is it my goal to glorify God by likeness to Christ?