The World Will Hate

John 15:18 If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you.

The world refers to the created moral order, in active rebellion against God. The world is a society of rebels, and therefore finds it hard to tolerate those who are in joyful allegiance to the creator king they rebel against.

The Christian is not hated as a human individual who is repulsive to the one who hates him on account of his personal being and action. Instead, he or she is hated and/or resented as the bearer and representative of a specific claim and cause—Jesus and the gospel.

Several enemies warred against Christianity on various fronts. The older pagan mythologies of Greece and Rome covered the world during the time of Paul and John. Rome’s overwhelming rise led to belief that the emperor was connected to the gods or even a god incarnated. This led to the imperial cult of Caesar worship.

You Can Escape

John 15:19 If you were of the world, the world would love his own: but because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.

Christians are former rebels who have by the grace of God been won back to loving allegiance to their rightful king. This is not likely to prove popular with those who persist in rebellion against God.

However, Christians cannot think of themselves as intrinsically superior. It is Christ in us, not us. Still, we should always be conscious that to a rebellious world, we are now objects of wrath.

If you desire for the world to like you, then you will have to break your allegiance to God. Just follow the world, go along to get along and they will love you. You will not be seen as a threat to them; just live like you don’t know Jesus.

1 John 2:15b If any one loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

The Reason the World Hates Jesus & His Followers

John 15:20a 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.

The ultimate reason for the world’s hatred of Jesus is that He testifies that its deeds are evil (John 7:7). Christ followers will be hated by the same world, partly because they are associated with the One who is supreme-ly hated. It is also because as believers increase in the intimacy, love, obedience and fruitfulness in Christ, they will have the same effect on the world as their Master.

Every individual in the world loves his own things. The world does not really love each other; it is that each individual in the world loves himself and the things that are his. They only love others when it will bring an advantage to them. In the world, there’s no pure love for the sake of love, as God’s love is rejected. This world system loves only to pacify its conscience, or to gain an advantage.

Therefore, the world will not naturally love Christians because we are to the world’s disadvantage. We discredit the world; we confront it, we condemn it, we rebuke the world by a pure life and by the Word of God and so the world does not, and will not love us.

The world loves its own: this is not a sociological remark about inborn suspicion of strangers, but a moral condemnation.

Christians no longer belong to the world. Their allegiance has changed from the world to Jesus.

The world hates Christians because they hated Jesus Christ and we represent Him. Hate isn’t something you can store up very long; hate has to be vented. And the world has always hated Jesus Christ, and needs to unleash that hatred on those of us who represent Jesus Christ.

Does following Jesus in our personal lives ever initiate hate?

They Hate Because They Don’t Know God

John 15:21 But all these things will they do unto you for My name’s sake, because they know not Him that sent Me.

The world doesn’t know God, and this is naturally the hardest thing for the world to swallow, especially those in false religions. The Jews always prided themselves on their knowledge of God and Jesus repeatedly told them “you don’t know God.” That is what infuriated them more than anything else.

Man is born into the world in enmity with God. By nature he is rebellious and is full of hate toward God.

“What about religious people?” False religion is demonic. Liberalism, modernism, those who call themselves Christian but deny the virgin birth, deny the deity of Christ, and deny the verbal inspiration of Scripture, they are under Satan’s control, whether it is acknowledged or not.

Whether it’s blatant atheism or whether it’s a more superficial kind of liberal modern Christianity, they hate and oppose God.

2 Timothy 3:12 All who will live a godly life in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.

But take heart, He has overcome the world.

Love the Lord your God and Be faithful.