Context No. 2880 of 4322 · John

John 15:17-27: in context

17“I command these things to you, that you may love one another. 18If the world hates you, you know that it has hated me before it hated you. 19If you were of the world, the world would love its own. But because you are not of the world, since I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. 20Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his lord.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours. 21But they will do all these things to you for my name’s sake, because they don’t know him who sent me. 22If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have had sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin. 23He who hates me, hates my Father also. 24If I hadn’t done among them the works which no one else did, they wouldn’t have had sin. But now they have seen and also hated both me and my Father. 25But this happened so that the word may be fulfilled which was written in their law, ‘They hated me without a cause.’ 26“When the Counselor has come, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will testify about me. 27You will also testify, because you have been with me from the beginning.

Jesus prepares his friends for hostility. If the world hates you, he says, know that it hated me before it hated you. Because you do not belong to the world, since I chose you out of it, the world hates you. A servant is not greater than his master; if they persecuted me, they will persecute you. They will do all this because they do not know the One who sent me.

Jesus does not promise his followers the world's approval; he warns them of its hatred, and he roots that hatred in their belonging to him, not in any fault of their own. But he does not leave them exposed and alone. When the Counselor comes, the Spirit of truth, he will bear witness about Jesus, and you also will testify. The very world that hates them will hear, through them, a testimony they could never produce on their own. Being disowned by the world turns out to be bound up with being chosen by Christ.

When following Christ costs me the world's approval, do I take it as evidence of belonging to him, and lean on the Spirit to bear witness through me?

Sources

John 15:18: "If the world hates you, you know that it has hated me before it hated you."
John 15:26: "When the Counselor has come... the Spirit of truth... he will testify about me."
1 Peter 4:14: "If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed; because the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you."