I came
across a headline a while back introducing a new book by yet another “Christian
leader.” The headline quoted the author in part when it read: “Stunning
Revelations About Bible-Believers Should Send ‘Shock Waves’ Through Christian
Leadership.” Ok I’ll admit, the headline got my attention and I had to read the
article. I’m not a “Christian leader” by any definition but it sounded like a
pretty big deal and maybe something I should know about. I won’t go through all
the details of the article but I’ll give you a quick summary: Unbelievers hate
Christians because they focus too much of their time at war with the sinful
world and not enough time being accepting, loving, and compassionate of the
sinful world. Wait! I was so disappointed! Where was the shock wave? I kept
waiting for the shock wave! Are Christian leaders supposed to be shocked that
unbelievers hate Christians for being salt and light in a sinful world? If you
want a shock wave, I’ve got my own headline: “Stunning Revelation About
Christian Leaders Who Are Shocked That Unbelievers Hate Christians—They Haven’t
Actually Read The Bible!” Here are a few things that are supposed to send
“shock waves” through Christian leadership: ‘Christians devote too much time
opposing abortion.’ Really? We’re closing in on 60,000,000 babies that have
been murdered in America since 1973 when abortion was legalized! Where,
exactly, is the opposition? ‘Christians spend too much time engaged in
politics.’ Let’s see, did Jesus ever engage the leadership of his day? There
was hardly a day that went by during Jesus’ earthly ministry when Jesus didn’t criticize
or manage to pick a fight with the Jewish leaders. ‘Christians spend too much time
talking about sin.’ Is sin a big deal? Since Christians know the wages
of sin is death, is it possible to talk too much about sin? And since
Christians believe that Jesus died for those sins, it seems like a really
important topic of conversation. ‘Christians spend too much time fighting
against homosexuality and not being more welcoming and compassionate toward
sinners.’ Forty years ago when I was in elementary school, there was
never even a consideration that homosexuality was an acceptable alternative
lifestyle. In the four decades since, the percentage of Americans who have
self-identified as Christians has remained right around 80%. In comparison,
homosexuals, bi-sexuals, and transgenders represent a little less than 3% of
the population. Even given that population context, men are now permitted to
use public restrooms and dressing rooms designated for women if they happen to
feel like a woman. Same-sex marriages are now legal in more than half the
states in America. Some Christian businesses have been forced out of business
because they refuse to cater same-sex marriage ceremonies. Christian pastors
face fines and imprisonment for refusing to perform same-sex weddings. So if
there really is a battle going on between Christians and homosexuals and others
with abhorrent sexual behavior, Christians appear to be losing the fight. My
guess is that it is more likely the 3% don’t like the light that faithful
Christians shine on their sinful behavior and have gone to war with Christians,
not the other way around. ‘Christians are too obsessed with judgment
and condemnation and don’t spend enough time focusing on the love and grace of
Jesus.’ That always seems to be the trump card doesn’t it? Don’t judge!
We’re all sinners so we’re not allowed to judge even though we make judgments
of right and wrong every day. We would never ignore a man who abuses his wife
or children—we judge that it is wrong. We would never say that cheating on an
exam is acceptable. We make judgments about the behavior of people all the
time. This accusation only arises when Christians manage to condemn some
cherished sin that people don’t want to give up. What unbelievers don’t seem to
understand is that warning them about the dangers of sin is an act of love not
an act of judgment. As a parent, I warned my girls with the most earnestness I
could muster about the dangers of running out into the street without looking
or the dangers of wandering away from me in a crowded place. I told them
stories about children who were killed when they ran into the street without
looking or stories about children who were stolen away forever from their
parents when they wandered out of sight even briefly. When I warned them about
these things, I did so because I loved them deeply. Some Christians may issue
their warning about sin for less than noble reasons but that makes the danger
of sin no less dire.
The English
author, George Orwell, not a theologian or stalwart of Christianity by any
means, had a very lucid understanding of the culture around him and its
long-term trajectory. Orwell once wrote, “The further a society drifts from the
Truth, the more it will hate those that speak it.” I am convinced more than
ever that Christians are becoming more and more hated every day as society
continues to drift farther from the Truth. Salt’s influence becomes all the
more pronounced when applied to something that is tasteless and light seems brightest
when it is introduced into an environment of profound darkness. This principle
has been clearly understood throughout the history of Christianity but seems to
be lost on some “Christian leaders” today. Consequently, for some, the
revelation that Christians are hated for their Christian witness is now
supposed to send “shock waves” throughout Christian leadership. Clearly it’s
time for a refresher course on why Christians are Hated For Christ.
Subject Text
John 15:18-25
18“If
the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. 19If
you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not
belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world.
That is why the world hates you. 20Remember the words
I spoke to you: ‘No servant is greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also.
If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also. 21They will
treat you this way because of my name, for they do not know the
One who sent me. 22If I had not come and spoken to
them, they would not be guilty of sin. Now, however, they have
no excuse for their sin. 23He who hates me hates my
Father as well. 24If I had not done among them what no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin. But now they have
seen these miracles, and yet they have hated both me and my Father. 25But
this is to fulfill what is written in their Law: ‘They hated me
without reason.’”
Context
By this
point, Jesus is closer to the end of His earthly ministry than He is to the beginning.
In fact, in Chapter 14, Jesus promised the disciples that He would send the
Holy Spirit because He would soon be leaving them. Jesus spent three years
trying to tell the people that He was the One who would rescue them; the One
who would set them free from their bondage to sin; save them from the
condemnation resulting from their sin. Many came to Jesus because they believed
His offer of salvation even if they didn’t fully understand it. Many came to
Jesus because they had some need and heard that He could fill that need
somehow. Many others, maybe even most others, refused to believe in Him and
hated Him. Some hated Him because of who He claimed to be and others hated Him
because He exposed their sins. At its pinnacle, hatred would lead to His death.
In our Subject Text, Jesus warns His
disciples that they will be hated in the same way that He was hated, not
because of who they claimed to be but who they claimed Jesus was and because
they exposed peoples’ sins and need for forgiveness—forgiveness that was
available only through faith and belief in Jesus.
Text Analysis
18“If the
world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first.
When Jesus
makes reference to the ”world” in v. 18,
He is referring to the sinful culture that refuses to believe in Him. It is
important to remember that the use of the word “world” is intended to be
pejorative in this case not referring to all unbelievers but specifically to
those who have been given the opportunity to believe and have fervently
rejected that opportunity. The “world” are those who have picked a side in the
war between good and evil; right and wrong; sin and salvation, and stand in
opposition to Christ and all those who follow Him. Let’s not forget that sin
has caused us to be enemies of God. And enemies of God naturally hate Him. It
is therefore inevitable that those who hate God will also hate those who have
aligned themselves with God; friends of God. Jesus no longer considered His
disciples to be His servants but instead considered them to be friends because
they were faithful in doing what He commanded (Jn 15:15). Like the first disciples,
Christians are friends of God when we do what is commanded of us. Consequently,
we will be hated in the same way that Jesus was hated because He was faithful
in carrying out His task of becoming the means to atone for humanity’s sins.
“‘The world’ (kosmos) in John’s
gospel is described as actively hostile to God, which illustrates sin as
enmity. Jesus explained that the reason the world hated him was that he
testified to its essentially evil nature (Jn 7:7). The hatred of the world is
therefore assumed by Jesus, who warned the disciples to expect it. ‘The ruler
of this world’ [Satan], who is judged and cast out at the ‘hour’ of Christ, has
clearly usurped the place of God and has brought men into a similar
alienation.’ Since the disciples of Jesus are distinguished from the world even
though they live in the world, it is evident that Jesus himself is the key to
the division. Man’s attitude to him profoundly affects his position in the
world, i.e. whether or not he becomes
a target for hate.”[1]
19If you belonged to
the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the
world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you.
The first
disciples, like all those who have come after them, are no longer part of the
world in the way that John identifies “the world.” Specifically, everything the
world is; what the world believes; what the world values; the world’s
priorities, no longer defines the disciple. And, according to v. 19, this is precisely why the world
hates Christians—because Christians no longer belong to the world and its way. “Former
rebels who have by the grace of the king been won back to loving allegiance to
their rightful monarch are not likely to prove popular with those who persist
in rebellion. Christians cannot think of themselves as intrinsically
superior…But having been chosen out of the world, having been drawn to the
Messiah’s love into the group referred to as the Messiah’s ‘own’ who are still
in the world, their newly found alien status makes them pariahs in that world,
the world of rebels.”[2]
20Remember the words I
spoke to you: ‘No servant is greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me,
they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours
also.
Back in Chapter
13, Jesus teaches the disciples an important lesson during a foot-washing ceremony
where Jesus washes the feet of all the disciples. In doing so, He teaches them
that no service to humanity, no matter how menial or degrading, should be
beneath them as servants because nothing was beneath Him, the Master. Even
though He was by His nature God, He didn’t come to us heralding His divinity.
Instead, He made Himself nothing and took on the very nature of a servant; a
man. Jesus was fully obedient to His redemptive purpose and in ultimate
humility, allowed Himself to be put to death on a cross (Phil 2:6-8). Jesus
returns to this principle in v. 20.
Where previously Jesus taught that they must be willing to serve in the same
way He served, He now teaches them the principle is the same when it comes to
the way people react to them. If people hate Jesus they will hate His
disciples. If people listen to and obey Jesus they will listen to and obey the
disciples. Disciples are emissaries; ambassadors; an extension of Christ. Since
Christ was hated and put to death, His emissaries or ambassadors should expect
no less. “The sayings about bearing the cross form a part of the warning to the
disciples to count the cost [of following Jesus]…For Jesus the inevitable
implication of being the Christ is suffering, death, and the opposition of men.
Inevitably, therefore, those who associate with him as the Christ are liable to
the same fate.”[3]
21They
will treat you this way because of my name, for they do not know the One who
sent me.
What Jesus
says in v. 21a seems a bit odd when
He says that we will be mistreated because of His name. Unfortunately v. 21b just adds to the confusion. Let
me explain it this way: In our present day, parents usually give little thought
to the meaning of the names they give their children. Names or a derivation
thereof are often passed down from one generation to the next. Or perhaps a
name is chosen based on personal preference (that’s how we picked the names of
our children anyway). But in ancient Judaism, this wasn’t the case. Ideally, a
name represented a person’s personality. Names may also be prophetic in nature;
foretelling a person’s hoped-for destiny. A child’s name could also be a form
of prayer that the person bearing the name will live up to the potential
conveyed by the name. Let’s see how this works in relation to the name of Jesus
without getting too terribly deep in the weeds with the explanation.
The name “Jesus” is the English
translation of the Greek name Iesous.
The ancient Hebrew translation is Yehoshua
which is translated back to English as “Joshua” (I know it’s weird that it
doesn’t translate back to “Jesus,” but that’s not really unusual. In fact, the
Greek Iesous is translated as
“Joshua” in Heb 4:8 so clearly the names are interchangeable at times). The
Hebrew translation, Yehoshua, is
derived from the same Hebrew root as the word signifying “Jehovah is
salvation.” Therefore, the name “Jesus” is significant because it means “God
our Savior.” In this sense, the name of Jesus represents his personality;
“Savior.” When the angel appeared to Joseph, while Mary was pregnant with
Jesus, the angel said that Mary was to name the child Jesus because He would
save his people from their sins (Matt 1:21). In this respect, Jesus’ name is
prophetic as it foretells His divine destiny. Let’s string the words and ideas
from above together: Yehoshua=Jehovah
+ Savior=God our Savior. Jesus=Yehoshua;
Jesus = God our Savior. The fullness of God in “Jesus” (Col 1:19)! The writer
of the Book of Hebrews as well as Paul, in his letter to the Colossians, say
that Jesus is the exact representation of God in His nature and essence. To
know Jesus is to know God. It should therefore follow that to know God is to
know Jesus. And that’s Jesus’ point in v.
21b that they mistreat Jesus because they don’t know Him because they don’t
know God. “The guilt of the world consists in its rejection of the revelation
brought by Jesus, and since that revelation is from God it entails the
rejection of God himself, which is direst sin. Moreover the works of Jesus are
God’s works in and through him; hence it can be said that the world has ‘seen’
God, i.e., seen him in action in the person of his Son, but its response has
been to hate both the Son and the Father in him.”[4]
22If I had not come
and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin. Now, however, they have no
excuse for their sin.
It’s hard
to understand v. 22 in light of the
nature of sin that began with Adam in Genesis. Based on what Jesus says in this
verse, it seems to imply that sin didn’t exist before Jesus revealed Himself to
the world. But now that Jesus has revealed Himself and given the world the
opportunity to believe in Him, if they refuse to believe then they own their
sin. So what is Jesus saying about the guilt of the world’s sin before His revelation?
What Jesus is saying is not that sin didn’t exist before He came. What Jesus is
saying is that there was nothing the people could do about their sin. They
could sacrifice animals year after year after year and meticulously keep the
Law but the effect of their sins would remain—separation from God.
Consequently, God provided another way; a way to deal with their sins once and
for all and that way would be Jesus. Jesus was the answer to dealing with their
sins and now that He had presented Himself to them as the Way, the Truth, and
the Life; the means of dealing with their sins, if they refuse to accept Him
then they have no excuse for being separated from God because of their sins
because God has given them a way out—Jesus. “Although sin was obviously present
long before Jesus came into the world…The contrary-to-fact condition also
recalls what Jesus said to the Pharisees after he healed the man born blind:
‘If you were blind, you would not have sin. But now you say that “we see.” Your
sin remains. This too he said against the background of an announcement that ‘I
came into the world’ for a dual purpose—not only ‘that those who do not see
might see,’ but ‘so that those who see might go blind’ (Jn 9:39). In this sense
the ‘coming’ of Jesus creates not only ‘friends,’ but ‘sinners’ as well. In
both passages, the phrase ‘but now,’ or ‘as it is,’ brings us back to reality,
and the reality is that ‘Your sin remains,’ or, here more specifically, ‘they
have no excuse for their sin.’ That is, they are now fully accountable. They
cannot claim innocence on the basis that they have not been warned, or have not
heard the word of God! They have heard it from the lips of Jesus, but have not
recognized his words as words from God. In hating him and persecuting him they
have (unwittingly) hated as well the One they worship as God.”[5]
23He
who hates me hates my Father as well.
Jesus
issues quite an indictment in v. 23
against those who oppose Him. At this point Jesus has made it pretty clear who He
is so when the people hated and rejected Him they hated and rejected the
Father. We take this for granted today because at least most Christians have a
rudimentary knowledge of the Trinity—God the Son, God the Father, and God the
Spirit. But for those to whom Jesus first revealed Himself, there wasn’t even a
rudimentary understanding of the Trinity. It is important to understand that
this is precisely why Jesus performed the many miracles He did. It wasn’t
specifically for the purpose of healing just some people or raising just some
people from the dead. No, the purpose of Jesus’ miracles was to validate who He
was. Jesus’ miracles weren’t a show, they were a sign; they bore the signature
of God. “Jesus is the uniquely commissioned agent of God who, in his task of
bringing the salvation of God to the world, exercises a unique, mediating
function between God and human beings. Because Jesus is the designated agent of
God, he also represents God to human beings in such a way that the Gospel can
say that to encounter Jesus is to encounter God, to have seen him is to have seen
the Father, or to know and receive him is to have known and received the
Father. As God’s agent Jesus carries out a mission which mediates God’s
salvation to the world, as is manifested in the signs which he does.”[6]
24If
I had not done among them what no one else did, they would not be guilty of
sin. But now they have seen these miracles, and yet they have hated both me and
my Father.
In v. 24 we find out from Jesus Himself
the purpose behind the miracles He performed among His followers and others who
didn’t yet believe in Him. People, usually unbelievers, tend to get twisted in
knots about Jesus’ miracles. Many use the absence of miracles today as proof
that God doesn’t exist. I suspect that this attitude is generally prevalent in
the West or in more modern cultures. But I know that some of you are first-hand
witnesses of miracles in your own lives or in the lives of someone you know. You
know God’s power and it makes it difficult to deny His existence. However, many
of the people who witnessed Jesus’ miracles nevertheless refused to believe in
Him. Many continued to call for miracles so Jesus could prove who He said He
was. But Jesus said they didn’t believe Him in the face of the miracles He had
already performed. The people just used the demand for miracles as an excuse to
not believe. In fact, after Jesus’ greatest miracle of all, rising from the
dead, people then and now still refuse to believe. They witnessed Jesus’ many
miracles and eventually they knew the tomb was empty so they had all the evidence
they needed to believe yet they persisted in their unbelief. “He had not only
come and spoken, but had done works which none other had done. The miracles
wrought by Christ were themselves of a kind fitted to produce faith. In them
men were meant to see God. So that He could say…This is their guilt, that they
have both seen and hated both me and my Father.”[7]
25But this is to
fulfill what is written in their Law: ‘They hated me without reason.’”
Jesus said
that He did not come to abolish the Law but to fulfill the Law (Mt 5:17). And,
according to v. 25, the fact that
the people hated Him was just another fulfillment found in Psalms 35:19 and
69:4 that those anointed by God are often hated for no reason. In the case of
these two Psalms it is the anointed king David who is hated for no reason while
in our Subject Text it is the Messiah (Heb. ‘anointed’) who is hated for no
reason. Think about it, what did Jesus do that warranted the peoples’ hatred?
Was it giving sight to the blind? Was it healing the sick? Was it turning water
into wine at a wedding ceremony? Was it feeding thousands of men, women, and
children? Was it raising a son or daughter or brother from the dead? It would
be foolish to think that Jesus was hated for any of these reasons although I
suppose in some strange way it’s possible. A pretty good argument could be made
that He was hated because He claimed to be equal with God. Although I’m sure
there were probably some sincere and pious Jews who were offended by this, most
of the religious leaders hated Jesus because the people began to follow Him
instead of them. In truth, I think that Jesus was hated for another reason
unrelated to any of these things and I think it explains why His followers
since then have also been hated for what seems like no reason. Jesus convicted
them of their sins and their need for forgiveness that was available through
Him. “God’s own action and demands are represented in him, Jesus. The world,
however, like everyone who does evil, hates the light. It hates the Revealer
without cause, because he bears witness that its works are evil. This hatred is
directed also against Jesus’ disciples. They are counted blessed when men hated
them for the Revealer’s sake. Those, on the other hand, who do no reckon
themselves separated from the world are not hated.”
Application
It happens
to be an occupational hazard that I experience the reality of this lesson every
week. For example, this week I had a conversation with a young man who was
lamenting the poor choices we have for presidential candidates that made it
difficult for him to choose which was best. I told him that I couldn’t really
help him make that choice. He said it all left him afraid for his future. I
told him that I could help him with that.
I proceeded to tell him about the peace that is available through faith in
Jesus and trusting the future to Him. He laughed at me and implied that he
wasn’t about to believe the words of a “simple-minded man.” It doesn’t surprise
me and it shouldn’t surprise you when your witness invites insults and hatred.
Consequently,
can we stop pretending for a minute that there’s a way we can get unbelievers
to stop hating us and accept the fact that Christians are destined to be hated
because Jesus was hated? Do you want to know something that really should send “shock waves” through
Christian leaders? That there are Christian leaders who think that the key to
winning unbelievers to Christ is to get them to like us even though that is not
taught anywhere in the Bible. Here’s the thing, no one wants to be hated. But
serving others and preaching the Gospel does not require that people like us. In
fact, the objective is for our lives and our words to be a bright light that
shines in the darkness that sin has created in the world. Unbelievers don’t like
it when Christians share their biblical beliefs and speak out against
unbiblical practices, they don’t like the biblical ethics of Christian business
owners and business leaders, they don’t like Christians to influence politics
with their Christian worldview, they don’t like Christians insisting that Jesus
is the only way to be saved. For that matter, they don’t like that Christians
insist that people are sinners that need to be saved. So what must Christians
do to be liked by unbelievers? Well let’s start by taking the inverse of all
the things I just listed. Unbelievers like Christians who keep their beliefs to
themselves. Unbelievers like Christians whose business practices are influenced
by profits not Christian ethics. Unbelievers like Christians who don’t allow
their Christian worldview to influence their politics. Unbelievers like
Christians who believe that Jesus is their
personal means for salvation but don’t insist that He is the only means for salvation. Unbelievers
like Christians who don’t talk much about sin or the need for salvation. So the
best way for Christians to be liked by unbelievers—DON’T BE CHRISTIANS!
Finally, I
have a word of instruction for unbelievers and Christians. If you’re an unbeliever
and you’re waiting for all Christians to come around to your way of thinking
and acting, you’re going to have to be satisfied with the few weak-kneed
Christians who have given in to your demands for them to be more like you. For
you Christians out there who are trying to figure out how to make unbelievers
like you, stop! You’re wasting your time! You don’t belong to their world and
that’s why they hate you. The only way to get them to like you is to rejoin
them in their world. Instead, I would like to suggest that you change your
perspective. You cannot be friends with God and friends with the world at the
same time. There have been religious leaders in all ages that have tried to
figure out a way around this because they just can’t accept that the two are
mutually exclusive even though that’s exactly what the Bible teaches. Again, no
one likes or wants to be hated. It seems counter-intuitive I know but just
because we are hated doesn’t mean we’re doing something wrong. In fact, from a
biblical perspective, the exact opposite is probably true in most cases. So here’s
what you must resolve to do and be if you confess to be a Christian: Proclaim
that Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life and that salvation is found in
no one or nothing else but Jesus. Live holy lives according to God’s Word and the
example left us by Jesus. Expose the sin and evil in the world for what it is
leaving room for redemption through repentance. Hate sin but do not hate the
sinner. Count the cost that comes with your allegiance to Jesus and accept the
biblical fact that that allegiance will mean that you will be Hated For Christ.
[1] Donald
Guthrie, New Testament Theology,
(Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1981), p. 194.
[2] D. A.
Carson, The Gospel According to John—The
Pillar New Testament Commentary, (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans
Publishing Co., 1991), p. 525.
[3] Colin
Brown, gen. ed., New International
Dictionary of New Testament Theology, Vol. 1, (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan
Publishing House, 1986), p. 404.
[4] George
R. Beasley-Murray, John—Word Biblical
Commentary, (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1999), p. 276.
[5] J.
Ramsey Michaels, The Gospel of John—The
New International Commentary on the New Testament, (Grand Rapids, MI: William
B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2010), pp. 821-822.
[6] Joel B.
Green, Scot McKnight, I. Howard Marshall, eds., Dictionary of Jesus and the Gospels, (Downers Grove, IL:
InterVarsity Press, 1992), pp. 378-379.
[7] W.
Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor’s
Greek Testament, Vol. I, (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.,
1983), p. 833.
(Audio version; Music: "Grace to Grace" and "Open Heaven" by: Hillsong)
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