Gospel of St. John
Fortifying the Disciples – 15:17-27
Christ has been comforting his disciples and had declared them his friends. Now He starts to identify and describe their common enemies. He declared proofs of his love for them and will now warn them of the world’s hatred.
“These things I command you, that ye love one another. If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.” The disciples have already been commanded to love one another as an example of his love for them. Now they are warned to love one another and maintain their bonds of brotherly affection against the world which will hate them. To induce love into the world is a noble effort. To receive hatred in its place is a hard and bitter lot. They are being warned to prepare them for that unavoidable disappointment. There is no record of the apostles being subjected to persecution before Jesus’ death. The scribes and Pharisees were offended when the disciples transgressed the tradition of the elders. But instead of assailing them directly, the complaint was laid before Jesus.
This warning is also very appropriate today. Many inexperienced Christians believe that if only they were kinder, more gentle, more humble, and more Christ-like, the enmity of unbelievers would be overcome. That is a mistake. Actually the opposite is true. The more Christ-like we are, the more we will be antagonized and shunned. Look at the animosity borne by the “social reformers.” Incredibly hateful things are being said of those who oppose abortion and those who oppose any alternate life styles. For proof, review how Jesus was treated. Who was kinder, more gentle, more humble and considerate than Christ?
“Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.” (James 4:4) In like manner, the professing Christian – one who claims to love Christ – but seeks delight in the world, in the company of the ungodly, is guilty of spiritual adultery. “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” (1 John 2:15) The world will not hate those who are conformed to the world, who take part in its politics, who share its pleasures, who act according to its principles, even though they claim the name of Christ. “Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad, for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.” (Matthew 5:10,12)
“Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also. But all these things will they do unto you for my name’s sake, because they know not him that sent me.” The apostles are reminded that they must show the love of God as did Jesus. He reminds them that they must repeat his words as he repeated the words of His Father. They must also expect to be persecuted as He was persecuted. If they persecuted Jesus for His words, they will persecute the apostles for repeating them. Even more will they hate them if they love one another by Christ’s example.
We are not accustomed to being persecuted for the unadulterated truth. Yet that was all the Christ taught. Some people will keep Jesus’ saying and they will keep the saying of the apostles as well. Others will not only reject the message but will persecute the messenger. Assuming that the message is delivered in a kind, gentle, humble manner, why would people hate someone for telling the truth? The answer lies in their own guilty conscience. Speaking the truth, even gently, indicts those whose lives are not centered on God and his will. Truth condemns those who turn from God’s will to follow their own.
“If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin: but now they have no cloak for their sin. He that hateth me hateth my Father also. If I had not done among them the works which none other man did, they had not had sin: but now have they both seen and hated both me and my Father. But this cometh to pass, that the word might be fulfilled that is written in their law, They hated me without a cause.” Here is a phrase that should not be taken literally. Jesus is not saying that people would be sinless if He had not come. There had been sin all along, and God clearly took account of it. When God became incarnate and came to earth to speak directly to mankind and give them an irrefutable example, their sins took on a new degree. The people were given the ultimate revelation of God and rejected it. Not only did they reject it, they killed the messenger.
Prior to Christ, people might have cloaked their sin with claims of ignorance. When Christ’s word was rejected, He did works among the people that could only be from God. Rejecting Christ even after works from God showed they also hated the Father. The Jews tried to claim they love the Father, but rejected His Son and His works of God. The Jews professed that they loved God, and that on the ground of that love they hated Christ; the God however, whom they loved was not the true God, but a phantom which they named God. Hating God Incarnate – Jesus Christ – can only result in hating the truth of God’s creation.
Christ was hated for his oneness with God. The apostles will be hated for their oneness with Christ. Christ revealed the Father. In Him dwelt all the fullness of the God-head bodily. He that saw Him, saw the Father also. His doctrine was the truth of God. His life revealed the perfections of God. His laws expressed the will of God. To dislike Him, then, was proof positive that they hated God.
Romans states in the first chapter, that men in their natural state are “haters of God.” The natural self-absorption of their minds creates an enmity with God. They are to give up their free will lovingly and that requires turning their back on the pleasures and rewards of this world. There was nothing in Christ to provoke hatred in any but morally disordered, depraved minds. Nothing in His character, it was faultless; nothing in His doctrines, they were all true; nothing in His laws, they were holy, just and good. He never did any harm to the world. He spent His life bestowing favors on men. Why, then, did they hate Him, why did they persecute Him, why did they put Him to death? They hated him because they hated his Father.
“But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me; And ye also shall bear witness, because ye have been with me from the beginning.” At this point the apostles have to be pretty depressed and feeling mighty helpless. They had been warned of the opposition they would meet from those of this world. Jesus again reverts to His original promise that the Divine Comforter would come to their relief. They know they are to be His witnesses. They know they will be hated and persecuted. They know Christ will not be with them. What could possibly support them under these conditions?
In John 14:26, Jesus said the Comforter would be sent in Christ’s name. Here the Comforter proceeds from the Father. Taking this last statement alone is what you will read in the Nicene Creed in the Orthodox Church. Putting the two statements together justifies the “filioque” clause, “and the Son.” You will note that the Spirit is not exclusively subordinate to Christ. “He shall testify of me,” amplifies His former word that they should expect “another” Comforter. The Spirit would further Christ’s interest, and be unto the disciples (only in another way) all that Christ would have been unto them had He remained on earth.
The apostles are assured that they will bear witness of Christ because they have been with him from the beginning. The Spirit will testify of Christ in a different manner. He would not make any corporeal manifestation of himself as had the Son. He would bear witness in and through the disciples. He would testify that which they had already seen in Him, and that which they had already heard from him. There would be no new or different testimonies. Christ’s mercy remains in spite of the way he was received by the world. He has not given up on us.
Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane
“Not as I will but as thou wilt”
Here we see Jesus kneeling barefoot on a hill in the garden, confronting a winged angel who bears a cross. Three of Jesus’s apostles slumber in the garden, including Peter. Peter holds a sword, is possibly wearing sandals (the others are all barefoot) and his head is being cradled by another apostle. Like most of the illustrations in this book, an attempt has been made to use Middle Eastern settings, but the people depicted all appear to be white and beardless, and not at all like Palestinian Jews.