Thoughts on the Gospel of John (148) - All The Good Seed Daily Devotionals for 2024

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.
John 15:18–20

Thoughts on the Gospel of John (148)
Jesus promised His disciples wonderful things for the time when He would no longer be with them. For them, in a sense, it was no loss that Jesus was no longer with them on earth, because the Holy Spirit came. He now dwells in believers and they are therefore exceedingly blessed. The Holy Spirit unites believers with the glorified Lord in heaven and gives them fulness of joy – just as their Lord had when He lived here on earth in fellowship with His heavenly Father.

But there would not only be joy for the disciples; they would also feel the hatred of the world. The Lord prepares the disciples for this and tells them that it was no different for Himself. Although God was with Him and He always acted out of love, and although He went about doing good, He was still hated.

On one occasion the Lord answered His accusers: “The world hates me, because I testify of it that its works are evil” (John 7:7). As the light of the world He exposed everything.

It’s not the misconduct of believers that causes the real enmity of the world, but their likeness to Jesus their Lord. Disciples of Jesus are strangers in this world; they don’t belong to it. And this arouses the hatred of the world. But the Lord wants them to know that the world does not hate them any more than it already hated Him. This comforts them.

Today’s reading: 2 Samuel 22:33-51 · John 1:29-42