The World Hates You

John 15:18-25

"If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you.
If you were of the world, the world would love its own.
Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates 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. If they kept My word, they will keep yours also.
But all these things they will do to you for My name's sake, because they do not know Him who sent Me.
If I had not come and spoken to them, they would have no sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin.
He who hates Me hates My Father also.
If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would have no sin; but now they have seen and also hated both Me and My Father.
But this happened that the word might be fulfilled which is written in their law, They hated Me without a cause.'

What Jesus meant by ‘the world’ has generated much discussion and not a little confusion over the years. However, it is clear that Jesus saw His people as ‘not of the world’, because His people were like Him and the world hated (persecuted) Him.

‘The world’ translates literally as ‘orderly arrangement’, but also suggests a variety of other interpretations, from ‘the earth’, ‘the people of the earth’ to ‘the ungodly multitude’, but remembering John 3:16 ‘ For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son...’ The concluding statement in verse 17, makes it plain that Jesus’ purpose was the saving of the world — a change of the ‘orderly arrangement’ — showing that God’s desire is that all should turn to Him.

For those of us who believe, it is a matter of who is our inspiration; the source of who we are and are to be — ‘abiding in Jesus Christ’ or ‘of the world’. Scripture tells us that the prevailing spirit in the world is not The Lord, and we read in 1 Corinthians 2:10-11 ‘For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God.’

We also know that the spirit of the world has been defeated in the heavenly realms — ‘So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.’ [Revelation 12:9] — although that spirit tries to deceive us into believing otherwise.

Jesus’ purpose here is — as ever — to bring reality to bear, simply because He is the way, the truth and the life, and it cannot be otherwise with Him. He said, “If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. If they kept My word, they will keep yours also.” Know that ‘You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.’ [1 John 4:4]

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‘Meditate on these things…’

JOHN 16:8-11
And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgement:
- of sin, because they do not believe in Me;
- of righteousness, because I go to My Father and you see Me no more;
- of judgement, because the ruler of this world is judged.

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‘This is My Father’s World’ (instrumental) — Taryn Harbridge

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A HOLY WALK: Oswald Chambers on FAITH
— What God says about THE WORLD --

In the face of problems as they are, we see in Jesus Christ an exhibition of where our faith is to be placed — in a God whose ways we do not understand.
[from ‘Disciples Indeed’]

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Listen to this meditation by clicking below …

22-02-28_the_world_hates_you.m4a
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