Will Kynes, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Biblical Studies, Samford University
A Life of Persecution
John 15:18–25, 16:1–4a
Jesus presses the implications of association. Whose love do you want? What are you willing to sacrifice for that love? Experiencing the Father’s love will mean forsaking the world’s love, but pursuing the world’s love will mean losing the love of the Father.
The passage flips Jesus’ previous emphasis on love on its head. How will you respond to hate? Will you endure the world’s hatred to persevere in loving Jesus?
The world opposes us when we live like Jesus. (18–21)
Jesus continues His final instructions for the disciples before His crucifixion with a jarring transition from love in the previous section to hate in this one. Earlier He had connected the Father’s love for Him with His love for the disciples and the love He expected them to have for each other. Here, He connects the hatred the world has for Him with the hatred the disciples will experience from the world.
Jesus’ disciples would have experienced the world’s love if they belonged to it, but Jesus has chosen them out of the world. They will experience the same persecution and rejection He does, since the world does not know the Father as the disciples know Him through Jesus (see also John 14:7).
The world rejects Jesus in spite of the truth He has revealed. (22–25)
Jesus’ revelation of the Father convicts the world of its sin. Continuing the contrast from the previous verses, Jesus’ words in verse 23 are the mirror opposite of those in 15:9. There He said, “As the Father has loved Me, so have I loved you” (NIV). Here He says, “Whoever hates Me hates My Father as well.” This hatred of the One who has revealed the Father’s love in His words and deeds is illogical; it makes no sense. But it is not unprecedented. Citing either Psalm 35:19 or Psalm 69:4, Jesus claims it fulfills what is written in the law (using this term in an expansive sense), in which the righteous are frequently opposed without cause.
Anticipating persecution will help us have a steadfast faith. (16:1–4a)
Following the lead of the Spirit with whom they will be filled, Jesus’ disciples must testify about Him (John 15:26–27). Faithfully carrying out this calling will be difficult. Not only will the disciples be thrown out of the synagogue, the central gathering place for their community, they will be hunted, and their hunters will think their violence against them is righteous.
Paul is a prime example of this misapplied zeal for the Lord, as he seeks to “destroy” the early church (Acts 8:3), “breathing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples” (Acts 9:1). Paul will not see the error of his ways until he meets Jesus (Acts 9:3–6), just as Jesus says here that those who persecute the disciples will do so because they lack knowledge of the Father or Him (John 16:3). Jesus warns of this persecution to come so the disciples will be prepared to endure it.
It’s vital to read these verses with those that precede them. The persecution Jesus tells the disciples to anticipate does not result from their attempts to protect their subculture or political interests. It follows from their choice of Jesus over the world and all its trappings, expressed through their love for Him, demonstrated through their obedience to His commands, which Jesus summarizes in a simple imperative: “Love each other” (15:17).
This raises a challenging question of application: if you are facing opposition, is it a result of your love for Jesus and for others, or instead a result of your love for yourself and for the approval of the world, which can be any community not characterized by that divinely inspired love?
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