Jesus Christ · On the World
The World's Hatred
On the last night, walking toward Gethsemane, Jesus tells His disciples something no recruiter would: the world is going to hate you. But He roots the hostility somewhere that changes everything about how it lands — it hated me before it hated you. The hatred is inherited, not earned; the household’s forecast is simply the Master’s biography extended; and even the injustice of it was written down in advance, in a psalm: “they hated me without a cause.”
It Hated Me First
— John 15:18-19 — the hostility traced to its sourceThe Greek behind “if the world hate you” assumes the fact — whenit hates you. Jesus is not warning of a possibility but interpreting a certainty, and the interpretation is the comfort: the hatred was aimed at Him before any disciple existed, and reaches the disciple only as one who belongs to Him. Then He gives the reason in one clause — “because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world.” The hostility is the receipt of the choosing.
If the world hates you, understand that it hated Me first. If you were of the world, it would love you as its own. Instead, the world hates you, because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world.If the world hate you - As the followers of Christ were to be exposed to the hatred of the world, it was no small consolation to them to know that that hatred would be only in proportion to their faith and holiness; and that, consequently, instead of being troubled at the prospect of persecution, they should rejoice, because that should always be a proof to them that they were in the very path in which Jesus himself had trod.
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1832), on John 15:18
Because ye are not of the world, therefore the world hateth you - Because your maxims, tempers, actions, are quite opposite to theirs. For the very same reason must the world in all ages hate those who are not of the world.
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755), on John 15:19
If ye were of the world - If you were actuated by the principles of the world. If, like them, you were vain, earthly, sensual, given to pleasure, wealth, ambition, they would not oppose you. Because ye are not of the world - Because you are influenced by different principles from men of the world. You are actuated by the love of God and holiness; they by the love of sin.
Albert Barnes· Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869), on John 15:19
He lightens by His art even that which was most grievous, and gives them unexpected pleasure at that which it was reasonable to suppose would greatly trouble them. For to be hated by any is truly burdensome, because sly injuries and unexpected devices are the result; yet this too is sweet when it happens for the sake of God and righteousness, and it supplies a convincing proof that the man against whom some thus act is not of the world.
Cyril of Alexandria· Commentary on the Gospel of John, Book 10 (444), on John 15:19
The Inheritance
— the Master's treatment as the household's forecastTHE MASTER
THE HOUSEHOLD
the hatred you meet is inherited, not earned — it was aimed at Him first
“they will also persecute you”
“they will keep yours also” — the forecast runs both ways
“how much more shall they call them of his household?”
The disciple is not above his master - Or in plainer terms, A scholar is not above his teacher. The saying itself requires no comment, its truth and reasonableness are self-evident, but to the spirit and design we should carefully attend. Jesus is the great teacher: we profess to be his scholars. He who keeps the above saying in his heart will never complain of what he suffers.
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1832), on Matt 10:24
(Verse 25) If they called the head of the household Beelzebub, how much more his household members! Therefore, do not fear them. Beelzebub is an idol of Accaron, which is called the idol of flies in the book of Kings (2 Kings 1). Beel is the same as Baal: Zebub means fly. Thus, they called the prince of demons by the filthy name of the most impure idol, which means fly, because of the filth that destroys the sweetness of oil (Ecclesiastes 10).
Jerome· Commentary on Matthew (420), on Matt 10:25
Remember the word that I spoke to you: ‘No servant is greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will persecute you as well; if they kept My word, they will keep yours as well.A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master. It is enough for a disciple to be like his teacher, and a servant like his master. If the head of the house has been called Beelzebul, how much more the members of his household!the same axiom, sent out with the Twelve.
Sheep Among Wolves
— Matthew 10:16 — the posture commanded inside the hostilityThe image is deliberately alarming — sheep do not survive wolves — and the emphatic “I” is the whole safety in it: Isend you. The double command that follows gives the hated their operating manner: the serpent’s prudence without its venom, the dove’s innocence without its naivety. Hostility from outside never licenses harm from inside.
Behold, I am sending you out like sheep among wolves; therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves.Behold, I send you forth--The "I" here is emphatic, holding up Himself as the Fountain of the Gospel ministry, as He is also the Great Burden of it. as sheep--defenseless. in the midst of wolves--ready to make a prey of you (Joh 10:12).
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871), on Matt 10:16
They are as sheep among wolves, that is frightful; but Christ sends them forth, that is comfortable; for he that sends them forth will protect them, and bear them out.
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710), on Matt 10:16
He calls the Scribes and Pharisees who are the clergy of the Jews, wolves. Wise, that they might escape snares; simple, that they might not do evil to others. The craft of the serpent is set before them as an example, for he hides his head with all the rest of his body, that he may protect the part in which life is. So ought we to expose our whole body, that we may guard our head which is Christ; that is, that we study to keep the faith whole and uncorrupt.
Jerome· Catena Aurea by Aquinas (420), on Matt 10:16
Without a Cause
— John 15:22-25 — the psalm the hatred fulfilledJesus closes the teaching by removing the world’s last excuse and quoting its indictment from its own Scriptures. They heard words no one else spoke and saw works no one else did — the two witnesses that leave rejection without a pretext — and in doing so they enacted a line written a thousand years earlier about David’s innocent sufferings: hated without a cause. Even the injustice was on the record in advance.
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. But this is to fulfill what is written in their Law: ‘They hated Me without reason.’Those who hate me without cause outnumber the hairs of my head; many are those who would destroy me— my enemies for no reason. Though I did not steal, I must repay.the psalm He cites — 'their law' turning out to be His Father's word.
The works which none other man did - The miracles of Jesus surpassed those of Moses and the prophets: 1. In their number. He healed great multitudes, and no small part of his life was occupied in doing good by miraculous power. 2. In their nature. They involved a greater exertion of power. He healed all forms of disease. He showed that his power was superior to all kinds of pain. He raised Lazarus after he had been four days dead.
Albert Barnes· Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869), on John 15:24
If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin--comparatively none; all other sins being light compared with the rejection of the Son of God. now they have no cloak for their sin--rather, "pretext."
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871), on John 15:22-25
Where It Points
— hated, blessed, and sentThe teaching has two companions that complete it. The Beatitudes speak the blessing over the persecuted — the same hatred, seen from heaven’s ledger. And the very prayer Jesus prayed an hour later refuses the escape the hated heart wants most: not taken out of the world, but kept in it, and sent.
Closing
The world’s hatred is the one hardship Jesus promised His people by name — and then drained of its power to surprise. It hated Him first; it hates His household on His account; and it does so, by its own Scriptures’ testimony, without a cause.