Day 1152: No excuse - John 15 vs 18 - 27

18-19 “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. 20-21 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 also keep yours. But all these things they will do to you on account of my name, because they do not know him who sent me.

22-25 If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have been guilty of sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin. Whoever hates me hates my Father also. 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 the word that is written in their Law must be fulfilled: ‘They hated me without a cause.’ 26-27 “But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me. And you also will bear witness, because you have been with me from the beginning. John 15:18-27 English Standard Version

Jesus was gently preparing His disciples for the enormous task He had planned for them. He was going to send them into all the world with the message of His gospel. He'd already told them that He had chosen them, and appointed that they should 'bear fruit'. And He promised that, if they remained in Him, their fruit would remain too. But there was a problem. What sort of world were they going into? (vs 18-19)

It was a hostile world! A world which tended to love people who followed it's pattern and did what everyone were doing, and despised those who were different. Many years later, John wrote to believers to warn against loving what the world loved. “Don't love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world - the desires of the flesh, the desires of the eyes, and pride of life - is not from the Father, but is from the world.” (1 John 2:15-16) So what encouragement did Jesus give to the disciples for when they encountered the world’s hostilit?. (vs 20-21)

“A servant is not greater than his master. If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you.” Jesus drew from His own experience of the world's hatred. He would soon taste the ultimate hate when they would nail Him to a cross. He wasn't calling His disciples to endure anything that He had not been through Himself! What a comfort this should be to Christians facing persecution, and who are tempted to give in. Our high priest is able to sympathize with our weaknesses, for He has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. (Hebrews 4:15)

But the world's hatred is deeper. Jesus said “whoever hates me hates my Father also.” At this time He was speaking of the Jews rather than other nations. King David had written: “More in number than the hairs of my head are those who hate me without cause.” Psalm 69:4. What was true of him, was true of the Messiah. Matthew Henry said: “How little do many people realize that, in opposing the doctrine of Christ, they prove themselves ignorant of the one living and true God, whom they profess to worship!”

But it was not just the Jews. The apostle Paul would later write of the gentiles that: “Since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood from His workmanship, so that men are without excuse. Although they knew God, they neither glorified Him as God, nor gave thanks to Him, but they became futile in their thinking and darkened in their foolish hearts.” Romans 1:20-21. Like the Jews of Jesus' day, Gentiles have no excuse for rejecting the truth about God.

The disciples, however, were promised a helper whom the Father Himself would send, even the Spirit of Truth, and He would speak the truth about Jesus. And they who had been witnesses to His words and miracles, would give their testimony too. There would not be any excuse for the unbelief and hostility they encountered as they went about their mission. This should encourage our hearts as well when we meet up with opposition in the world to God's word.