A few words about hate

 

Those who hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of my head; They are mighty who would destroy me, being my enemies wrongfully; Though I have stolen nothing, I still must restore it. --Psalm 69:4 

 I follow a number of Christian apologists online. If you are not familiar with the term apologist, I will try to explain it to you. No, it does not mean someone who goes around saying he's sorry for being a Christian, or apologizing for past atrocities carried out in the name of Christianity. Merriam-Webster defines the term apologist as "someone who speaks or writes in defense of someone or something that is typically controversial, unpopular, or subject to criticism."

People like Cliff Knechtle and Charlie Kirk who go to college campuses and engage in debate are known as Christian apologists (although Kirk also brought in politics--it is not known whether he was killed for his politics or his religion as his killer, who is still on trial as of this writing, has not been clear about his motivation.) There are others who engage people on social media, such as David Cipriano, or those who go by pseudonyms like Taco-Talks or Dinx the Puppet. Why do they go by pseudonyms? Because they don't want to get hate mail, or angry people showing up at their door or their place of business to harass them. They get enough harassment online for standing up for their beliefs.

It was just this kind of harassment and persecution that Jesus spoke of in His final discourse to His disciples. We see it in John 15:18-27.

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 this 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." If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. If they kept My word, they will keep yours also. But all these things they will do to you for My name's sake, because they do not know Him who sent Me. If I had not come and spoken to them, they would have no sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin. He who hates Me hates My Father also. If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would have no sin; but now they have seen and also hated both Me and My Father. But this happened that the word might be fulfilled which is written in their law, "They hated Me without a cause." But when the Helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of Me. And you also will bear witness, because you have been with Me from the beginning.

 The Bible uses the phrase the world in three distinct ways. It can mean the world that God created (Genesis 1:1; John 1:10). It can also mean the world of humanity or people in the world (John 3:16). In this sense, however, Jesus is talking about a world system comprised of a society apart from and opposed to God.

"The world" from a Christian point of view involves all the people, plans, organizations, philosophies, values, etc. that belong to a society without God. Some of these things may be very cultural; others may be very corrupt; but all of them have their origins in the heart and mind of sinful man and promote what sinful man wants to enjoy and accomplish. As Christians, we must be careful not to love the world (1John 2:15-17) or be conformed to the world (Romans 12:1-2). --Warren Wiersbe, The Bible Exposition Commentary.

Scottish evangelist and biblical scholar and theologian said, “It is an odd fact that the world soon justified its hostility to them by imputing to them the initiative in hatred. The earliest extant reference to Christians in pagan literature charges them with ‘hatred of the human race’.” (Tacitus, Annals, 15.44.5). Australian theologian Leon Morris said, “It is not without significance that the disciples are to be known by their love, the world by its hatred.” Part of that hatred involves a turning the message of Christ on its head and assigning Christians with the hate that they themselves feel for us, all the while calling themselves "loving" and "accepting" and "inclusive."

Nobody wants to be known as a hater.

The World Will Absolutely Hate Us

There are four reasons the world hates us, as we can see in this passage.

1. We are identified with Christ (verses 18, 20).

Faithful followers of Jesus have this in common with the Savior: the world hates them both. Jesus reminds us in verse 20 that "the servant is not greater than his master"; therefore, if the world hated Christ, they will also hate Christians.

Jesus knew that He would be arrested and crucified, even if (at this point) the disciples did not. Afterward, though, Simon Peter wrote:

Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you; but rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ's sufferings, that when His glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy. If you are reproached for the name of Christ, blessed are you, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. On their part He is blasphemed, but on your part He is glorified (1 Peter 4:12-14).

 "Anything that the enemy can do to us has already been done to Jesus Christ, and He is 'with us' as we suffer" (Wiersbe).

2. We do not belong to the world (verse 19).

The disciple John, who was also present when Jesus spoke these words, wrote in 1 John 4:4-6, "You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. They are of the world. Therefore they speak as of the world, and the world hears them. We are of God. He who knows God hears us; he who is not of God does not hear us."

Hebrews 3:1 says that we are "partakers of the heavenly calling." Wiersbe writes:

The world system functions on the basis of conformity. As long as a person follows the fads and fashions and accepts the values of the world, he or she will "get along." But the Christian refuses to be "conformed to the world" (Romans 12:2). The believer is a "new creation" (2 Corinthians 5:17) and no longer wants to live the "old life" (1 Peter 4:1-4). We are the light of the world and the salt of the earth (Matthew 5:13-16), but a dark world does not want light and a decaying world does not want salt! In other words, the believer is not just "out of step"; he is out of place. (See John 17:14, 16; 1 John 4:5).

3. The world is spiritually ignorant and blind (verse 21).

"The world" in question, from Jesus' perspective, was not the pagan world, the world of Greek and Roman culture, Caesar's world. It was "the world" in which He was born and lived: the world of Galilee and Jerusalem, of the Galileans and Judeans. It was the world of Abraham's children, people who were studying the law of Moses. It was the world which thought of itself as God's people. This was the world that looked at Jesus, at what He was doing, that listened to what He was saying, and that said, "No, thank you." This was the world that saw the blind man healed and remained blind itself. This was the world that saw Lazarus raised to life, and decided it would be safer to kill him off properly because otherwise people might believe in Jesus. (NT Wright, John for Everyone).

Sadly, the world we live in today is not that different. If you ask them, they say that they believe in God, but they are offended at His teachings. If presented with the claims of Christ, they counter with teachings from Buddha or Mohammed, believing themselves to be both "religious" and "cosmopolitan".

Wiersbe writes, "The religious world today claims to know God, but it does not want to bow the knee to Jesus Christ as the Son of God, and the only Savior of the world. Satan has blinded their eyes (2 Corinthians 4:3-4), and sin has blinded their hearts (Ephesians 4:17-19)."

4. The world will not be honest about its own sin (verses 22-24).

In his New Cambridge Bible Commentary, Jerome Neyrey writes, "Twice Jesus mounts a forensic argument about His enemies: If Jesus had not come, they would have no sin (verse 22), and if He did not work His works in their midst, they would have no sin (verse 24). But Jesus did come and did His works, which they reject. They hate not just Jesus but His Father as well (verse 23). Worst of all, they hated without cause (verse 25); that is, without provocation. They are radically evil people." Jesus contrasts this attitude of the world with that of the disciples, who are known by their love.

This statement is parallel to what Jeus told the Pharisees after He had healed the blind man (John 9:39-41). They had to admit that Jesus had healed the man born blind, but they would not follow the evidence to its logical conclusion and put their trust in Him. Jesus told them that they were the ones who were blind. But since they admitted that they had seen a miracle, this made their sin even worse. They were not sinning in ignorance; they were sinning against a flood of light. Why? Because that light revealed their own sin and they did not want to face their sin honestly. Their attitude was similar to that described in 1 Peter 3:5--"For this they willingly were ignorant." (Weirsbe)

The Holy Spirit will be Our Help 

Thankfully, we have the Holy Spirit to guide and comfort us.

In the face of such evil, Jesus speaks further about the Advocate. The disciples need Someone to aid them in responding to "hate" and "persecution." The Advocate's function in John 15:26, however, differs from that in 14:26, where He brought to remembrance all that Jesus said. Here He "witnesses" on Jesus' behalf, which some have thought suggested a forensic or conflict situation (see Matthew 10:19-20). Hence, the Advocate will function as the risposte (or answer) to the challenges raining down on Jesus and the disciples. (Neyrey)

In other words, the Spirit will give us the words we need to say to the glory of God when we find ourselves persecuted for His sake. Wiersbe writes, "Times of persecution have always been times of proclamation and witness for the church. We must be 'ready always to give an answer' when unsaved people attack us (1 Peter 3:15). The Spirit witnesses to us so that we can witness to the world (Mark 13:11). Apart from the power of the Spirit of God, we cannot give a clear witness for Christ (Acts 1:28)." 

Matthew 10:28 says, "Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul." Jesus told us in the Sermon on the Plain (Luke 6:27-28) to love those who hate you and pray for those who spitefully use you. It is all for His glory.

 

 

Believe, Love, and Abide

 

I have declared to them Your name, and will declare it, that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them.  --John 17:26

We as Christians often misuse the word abide. We are told to abide by rules and customs, to abide by laws and principles, especially those found in the Bible. 

This misinterpretation of Jesus' words is based in stoicism and legalism. The thought is that if we suffer here on this earth, we may attain or enjoy paradise in heaven.

Adherents to this blasphemy use the word abide more like the verb bide, as in, "I'm just biding my time here on earth waiting for my reward in the sweet by and by."  Friends, this is not how Jesus taught us to live!

Let's look at the beginning of our passage today in John 15.

As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love.  If you keep my commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Fther's commandments and abide in His love. These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full (John 15:9-11).

Commentator David Guzik writes:

Jesus deliberately loved His disciples according to the way God the Father loved Him. We know that Jesus loved His disciples by teaching them, protecting them, guiding them, sacrificially serving them, and using His power and authority to do these things. In some way, the Father also did all those things for Jesus and Jesus did them for the disciples after that pattern.

The love of Jesus for His people is so remarkable, that this is the analogy or illustration that He must make. He didn’t say, “I love you as a mother loves her baby” or “I love you the way a husband loves his wife” or “I love you the way the soldier loves his buddy” or even “I love you the way an addict loves his dope.” The only way He could paint the picture was to use the love of the Father for the Son.

Warren Wiersbe puts it this way:

Several times in John's gospel you will find Jesus speaking about the Father's love for Him. We so emphasize God's love for the world and the church that we forget that the Father loves the Son. Because the Father does love the Son, He has put all things into the Son's hand (John 3:35) and has revealed all things to the Son (John 5:20). The Father loved the Son before the foundation of the world (John 17:24); He loved the Son when the Son died on the cross (John 10:17). The amazing thing is believers today can experience personally that same love! Jesus prayed "that the love with which You have loved Me may be in them [the disciples and believers today]" (John 17:26).

This is the love in which we abide. This love is the basis of our everlasting joy, both now and forever. It is also the reason we keep His commands, not out of a sense of obligation, but as a manifestation of our joyful love for the Father and the Son. Abide here does not mean to endure, nor does it mean to co-exist with (as in, you do your thing, I'll do mine, and we'll all get together just fine). It means to live in, to dwell in securely. 

Psalm 91:1 says, "He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty." He is our Rock and our shelter.  Isaiah 25:4 says, "For You have been a strength to the poor, a strength to the needy in his distress, a refuge from the storm, a shade from the heat; for the blast of the terrible ones is as a storm against the wall."

The second thing we see in this passage is a commandment to love.

This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, then to lay down one's life for his friends. You are My friends if you do whatever I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you (John 15:12-15).

Yes, He gives us commands, but our obedience is not out of a sense of duty but rather is rooted in love; both our love for Him and His love for us, as well as our love for one another.  Bible Scholar Adam Clark says that, according to St. Jerome, when the Apostle John was old, he used to be carried to the public assembly of believers. As he went, he would repeat the phrase, "Little children, love one another." They would often ask him why he would constantly repeat the same thing over and over again. "Because," he said, "it is the commandment of the Lord, and the observation of it alone is sufficient."

In this passage we see the shadow of the cross, for Jesus foretells of His own death, for in calling them "friends" He promises to die for them.  Not only that, but also to include them (and us) in His holy work. Wiersbe writes:

Our friendship with Christ involves love and obedience. But it also involved knowledge: He "lets us in on" His plans. Indeed, He is our Master (John 13:13, 16), but He does not treat us as servants.  He treats us as friends, if we do what He commands. Abraham was God's friend because he obeyed God (Gen. 18:19). If we have friendship with the world, we then experience enmity with God (James 4:1-4). Lot in Sodom was not called God's friend, even though Lot was a saved man (2 Peter 2:7). God told Abraham what He planned to do to the cities of the plain, and Abraham was able to intercede for Lot and his family. 

 It is interesting to note that, in John's gospel, it was the servants who knew what was going on! The servants at the wedding feast in Cana knew where the wine came from (John 2:9), and the nobleman's servants knew when the son was healed (John 4:51-53).

Charles Spurgeon said, "It must be active obedience, notice that. 'Ye are My friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you.' Some think it is quite sufficient if they avoid what He forbids. Abstinence from evil is a great part of righteousness, but it is not enough for friendship."

Finally, Jesus commands us to bear fruit worthy of our calling.

You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name he may give you (John 15:16-17).

God chose us first. The reason He chose us is first by His grace, and second because He has work for us to accomplish. In The New Cambridge Bible Commentary, Jerome Neyrey writes:

No branch can bear fruit apart from the vine (John 15:4). Bearing fruit can refer to one's deeds (Matt. 7:16) or the success of one's labors (John 4:36). But we have an immediate echo in the metaphor of grains of wheat, which die, fall into the ground, and "bear fruit" (John 12:25; see also 1 Cor. 15:37-38), suggesting that death produces life. Thus, we are inclined to consider it as the good result of being "pruned" or "laying down one's life." Either new members will be added when disciples endure hostility, or the lift that the group enjoys will be exponentially increased.

We are chosen by God to accomplish His will.  Even if it is His will that we die for Him, He is no less our friend. He promised that whatever you ask in His name, the Father will give it to you. Many take this promise to heart and ignore the first part of the sentence. In order for us to have our own requests heard and fulfilled, we must first be bearing fruit.  If "bearing fruit" sometimes means laying down our own lives for Him, then it is His will that we should be praying for, not our own. In other words, we should not pray for prosperity or long life; only that He would use us as He wills.

Abide in Him. Love one another as He loved us. Bear fruit.

Three simple commands that take a lifetime of loyal pursuit to fulfill. 

 

Be fruitful, be pruned

 

That Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height--to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.  --Ephesians 3:17-19

One of the first commands that God gave was to "be fruitful and multiply" (Genesis 1:28). In context, it was a command to reproduce, so that the world would be filled with God's most glorious creation.

One of the last commands given by Jesus before ascending to heaven was to "go and make disciples." The purpose was that the world would be full of growing Christians. In essence it mirror's God's first command, to be fruitful and to multiply so that the earth would be filled with His glory.

Several different kinds of spiritual fruit are named in the Bible. We bear fruit when we win others to Christ (Rom. 1:13). We are a part of the harvest (John 4:35-38). As we grow in holiness and obedience, we are bearing fruit (Rom. 6:22). Paul considered Christian giving to be fruit from a dedicated life (Rom. 15:28). "The fruit of the Spirit" (Gal. 5:22-23) is the kind of Christian character that glorifies God and makes Christ real to others. Even our good works, our service, grow out of our abiding life (Col. 1:10). The praise that comes from our hearts and lips is actually fruit to the glory of God (Heb. 13:15). (Warren Wiersbe, The Bible Exposition Commentary).

As we continue our study of John, we see Jesus begin to speak of fruit and fruitfulness. You'll remember in the last vers of John 14, they were just leaving the Upper Room, the place where Jesus celebrated the Passover meal with His disciples and washed their feet. As they were going, they must have passed by a grapevine near the home as they made their way to the Garden of Gethsemene.  Jesus, who was a master of the object lesson, may have pointed to one of the vines.

I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit. You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.

I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them in the fire, and they are burned. If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples. --John 15:1-8.

 A branch that is separated from the vine cannot bear fruit. It is fit only to be thrown into the fire. Our connection to Jesus, who is the "true vine", is essential. "It makes horticultural sense to state that branches are 'in' the vine and the vine 'in' the branches, but Jesus' remark is not spatial but relational. Even if the future of disciples includes being expelled from some place (16:1-2), their benefaction lies in being securely in another 'place,' namely the vine." (Jerome Neyrey, The New Cambridge Bible Commentary).

God the Father acts as husbandman, a divine caregiver of the vine. He prunes as necessary, so that the branch may be more fruitful. NT Wright, in his book John for Everyone, writes of his own experience in pruning a roses.

A rose bush, left to itself, will get straggly and tangled, and grow in on itself. It will produce quite a lot of not-so-good roses rather than a smaller number of splendid ones. It will, quite literally, get in its own light. It needs help to grow in the right directions and to the right ends. So you prune it to stop it wasting its energy and being unproductive. You cut out, particularly, the parts of the plant that are growing inwards and getting tangled up. You encourage the shoots that are growing outwards, toward the light. You prune the rose, in other words, to help it to be its true self. As far as I understand it more or less the same thing works with vines.

Taking that practical experience and making a spiritual point, Jesus is the Light. We are pruned by the Father so that we will not get tangled and grow in on ourselves; so that we will not produce a bunch of rotten fruit, but rather fewer bigger and more healthy fruit; and so that we will continue to grow toward the Light of Christ.

Bible commentator Merrill Tenney wrote, "The means by which pruning or cleaning is done is by the Word of God. It condemns sin; it inspires holiness; it promotes growth. As Jesus applied the words God gave him to the lives of the disciples, they underwent a pruning process that removed evil from them and conditioned them for further service.” 

That, I think, is what Jesus meant when He said in verse three, "You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you." Taken by itself, the verse makes no sense. The word for "clean" is the same word Jesus used in chapter 13 when Peter objected to Jesus washing his feet.  Jesus said to him, "If I don't wash you, you are not a part of Me." Peter responded, "Well, then, wash not just my feet by my head and hands, too."  Jesus then said, "Those who are bathed need only to wash their feet, but is already clean; and you are clean, but not all of you," referring to Judas.

We are cleansed by the word.  Ephesians 5:26 and 27 says, "That He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish." So we see that John 15:3, when Jesus said, "You are clean," He meant that they were already pruned and fruitful because of the words that they had heard from Jesus and applied to their lives.

What, then, is the purpose of our cleansing, of our being pruned? It is for the glory of God.  Many people take verse 7 out of context, as well. "If you abide in Me and My words abide in you, you may ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you." This is not, as some might teach, encouragement for us to "name it and claim it" so that we can selfishly realize God's blessing by allowing us to possess wealth. Not at all.

The purpose of our pruning is to cut away anything that keeps us from growing toward the light. "By this My Father is glorified," Jesus said, "that you bear much fruit." This is true discipleship, not that we, by some divine right, can amass great wealth. Rather it is so that we can grow in holiness and obedience. It is to give to the poor. It is to exhibit the character qualities of love, joy, and peace; patience, kindness, and goodness; gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control. All of this, so that we may see other people come to Christ.

This, says Jesus, is how to be His disciple.