Hatred?

During that last evening of teaching that we have been looking at, Jesus has talked to His friends about preparing a place in heaven for them, their relationship as vine and branches, and love and friendship. Jesus now turns to a new topic. Before I mention what it is I think that it would be good to tell you why He is talking about it. This is what He said.

I have said all these things to you to keep you from falling away.

Now, remember that He is talking to His apostles. Falling away?!? But, then again, there was Judas.

There are many possible causes of turning away from Jesus. But here, He points to just one.

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. 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. 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.’ 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. I have said all these things to you to keep you from falling away.  They will put you out of the synagogues. Indeed, the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he is offering service to God. And they will do these things because they have not known the Father, nor me. But I have said these things to you, that when their hour comes you may remember that I told them to you. (John 15.18-16.4)

Jesus warns these men about the hatred of world and the possibility of their turning away from Him because of that hatred. As we look at these words of Jesus we need to be careful. He is not talking to us. He is talking to those eleven men, and much of what He says in this long conversation is limited to them. Here, think about His comment about being put out of the synagogue and being murdered by those who are thinking they are worshiping God in doing so. These eleven were His first audience. We need to remember that. But there are things here that also speak to us.

Let's start by looking at one of the key words: world. John uses this word in several different ways in his writings. It can mean nothing more than a synonym for 'everyone'. But that's not what it means here. In this context, 'world' means something more sinister. Here, it refers to an evil humanity that is in rebellion against the God who created them. Jesus told His brothers,

The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify about it that its works are evil.

This makes sense if you remember the big picture. 'World' here is just another way of talking about the offspring of the serpent from Genesis 3. The 'world' is all those who side with Satan against God. The Church, on the other hand, is just another way of talking about the offspring of the woman, those who side with Jesus. So, we are back to the theme of warfare. The world hates the Church. The world is working to conquer the Church. That's what Jesus is talking about here. That is what He is warning His friends about.

Let's take a closer look at this other word: hate. It's important that you understand that hatred can take different forms. There is direct confrontation. Jesus' crucifixion was motivated by and an expression of hatred. But the hatred of the world can be subtle too. Consider these words.

[Do not be] tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.

The hatred of the world is not limited to the rage of some person who wants to murder you. It is also the pleasant words of a nice person who is being used to quietly tempt you away from Jesus. So, for you C. S. Lewis fans, what can be wrong with a little Turkish delight? That also was motivated by and an expression of hatred.

So, here we are. This is our situation. We are hated by a world that is in rebellion against the God we love. They do this, mostly unwittingly, as tools of Satan who wants the Church to fail and disappear. It’s one of Satan's strategies to get Christians to turn away from Jesus. He will either lure you away by being nice or he will threaten you with harm. Both are expressions of his hatred.

That's the explanation. Now, we're ready for the application. What do we do with this? I think that the first thing is to believe Jesus. He has described our situation. We live in a world that is out to destroy us. It will use means that are sometimes obvious and sometimes subtle. These folk don't realize that they are serving Satan, the god of this world, but they are. And that makes life dangerous. This needs to affect our expectations and plans. It also needs to motivate us to be diligent in preparing for the various battles that we will certainly face. And by that I mean things like prayer and the knowledge of the Scriptures. We cannot fight the world depending on the resources that we have at hand. It will take more than that. It will take the power of God. That's why we need to pray. But we also need to think through the details. What are some of the ways that we will be attacked? What are some good ways to respond? We will be able to answer these questions by carefully thinking about what the Bible has to say. So, believing Jesus, we give ourselves to prayer and the Word.

But there is something more for us to do. We need to hate them back. Where did I get that idea from? This is a result of careful thinking about what the Bible has to say. Consider this from David.

Oh that you would slay the wicked, O God! O men of blood, depart from me! They speak against you with malicious intent; your enemies take your name in vain. ​Do I not hate those who hate you, O Lord? And do I not loathe those who rise up against you? I hate them with complete hatred; I count them my enemies.

What is David doing? He is imitating his God. This is from another Psalm.

For you are not a God who delights in wickedness; evil may not dwell with you. The boastful shall not stand before your eyes; you hate all evildoers.

And if you are still unsure, what do you think hell will be like?

And yet, as you all know, there is the other side of the coin.

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

So, what do we do with all of this? We imitate Jesus. There are times when we are to hate. You remember Jesus' rage in the Temple. He was overturning tables, making a huge mess, and hitting people with a whip. (That must have hurt.) Wasn't that an act of hatred? I was taught to be polite and gracious even toward those with whom I disagree. I have not always followed those instructions, but when I didn't my conscience told me that I had done something wrong. I am now coming to see that I need to re-train my conscience. There are times when I should not be polite and gracious. There are times when it is wrong to be nice. Read the Gospels. Think about some of what Jesus said and did. Such blunt words. Such damning actions. Jesus wasn't always nice. Sometimes He hated. We need to learn how to hate in the way that Jesus hated. 

But then, again, there is that other side. There are times when we need to love.

You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.

Jesus also loved His enemies. And let's face it. Doing that is awfully hard. And yet, Jesus did it. So, we also need to learn to love in the way that Jesus loved.

We are to love, and we are to hate. And knowing when to do which gets us back to prayer and pondering the Bible.

It used to be that a person's religion was pretty much off limits to any criticism. Whether that was good or bad, that's the way it was. But that is no longer the case. The culture is changing its mind when it comes to what is allowed, what is tolerated. Living out what it means that Jesus is Lord is less and less allowed. So, what are we going to do about that? How shall we respond? The old thinking that a Christian is always to be nice no longer works, if it ever did. We are going to have to be more sophisticated in our interactions with the people around us. There will be times when we will need to respond to them in love, deeply felt and sacrificial love. And then, there will be times when we will need to respond to them in hatred. And we're going to need to figure out rather quickly which is when so that Satan's attempts to get us to turn away from Jesus never get any traction either in our own lives or the lives of the saints around us. We are at war, and we need to understand that.