For as long as it takes we are going to study the gospel of
John chapters fourteen to seventeen. Some of it will be what I have already
written and some will be new. Therefore it may sometimes appear that I leave
off in the middle of a topic to be continued, since I have reached my daily
word count limit.
To pick up the topic, you may need to read the one or two
postings preceding this one.
“This is my command: Love each other. If the world hates you, keep in
mind that it hated me first. If 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,” (John 15:17-19).
Once the disciples understood the principle of
love, Jesus went on in verse 18: “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated
me first.” Jesus used the word ‘if’.
This indicates a great possibility but not necessarily a definite. We can,
however, go and look for trouble if we want to. 2 Timothy 3:12: “In fact, everyone who wants
to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.” What do we
have to do to get persecuted? Just live godly lives. The Afrikaans translation
puts it nicely. It calls it a life full of godly fruit. In terms of simple
mathematics – if we do not live godly lives, what reason would the devil and
the world have to persecute us – we are no danger to them? A conclusion we get
to is that if we do not get persecuted, either by humans or by evil spirits
(who attack our circumstances), we probably do not live as godly as we could. 
But Jesus comforted His disciples by stating that He was hated first, so we are not alone - He understands. Was He not the ultimate bearer of godly fruit and therefore the ultimately persecuted? In fact, it is not really us that the world will hate, but actually Jesus in us. Why did the world hate Jesus and still do? The world hates Jesus because they actually desire to be what He could not allow them to be - exalted and proud for instance. Sinful man resents God’s holiness. Secondly we have the devil who is raging mad at Jesus for conquering him at the cross of Calvary and for constantly interfering with his evil plans when the saints pray. What will he therefore do? Will he not instigate his followers, the world, to hate the ones that Jesus loves?
In our passage under discussion Jesus also gave the reason why the world would hate His disciples: “I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you,”(V19). Satan, the ruler of this world, loves to drag souls with him into “the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels,” (Matthew 25:41). He is actually a bad loser, which is why he gets boiling mad every time he loses a soul. Why do you think do the families and religious leaders so violently persecute new Christians that get saved out of foreign religions? Most of the reports we receive is of rejection by the family and violent pressure to give up their faith in Jesus. Why is Christianity so much resisted in countries dominated by foreign religions? The answer is simple. Whoever does not serve Jesus serves the devil, usually in some false religion, and Satan hates anything related to Jesus.
Have you ever observed people involved with sins such as drugs, drinking, sexual activities and so on and noticed that they never want to sin alone? At night clubs, sex clubs, with pornography on the web, gang activities and so on they always actively recruit people to share in their activities, even if it has no financial value to them. Why would that be? Essentially it is an act of hatred towards Jesus. ‘We hate you Jesus and therefore we will do our utmost to prevent people from finding out what they could have in you.’ They do not always realise that this is actually their motivation, but it is definitely the plan of the devil who motivates them.
The
remedy for this is to actively preach the gospel, to love the lost and pray for
them. If we are out to continuously influence the world, we will make all this
persecution and hatred worth the while. We then give the devil a hard time!
Lord,
give me grace to persevere under hardship for the sake of obedience.
Have
a look at this video link: http://skitguys.com/videos/item/gods-chisel
Thank you Lord that your Word went out from your mouth,
via your servant’s pen, and it will not return to you empty, but will
accomplish what you desire and achieve the purpose for which you sent it.
Please pass this on if you
think others may benefit by it.
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