The world hating the servants of Jesus.
Jesus speaks here of love and hate, and of no third thing lying between them, and being neither one thing nor another. What looks like indifference is only sleeping love or sleeping hate. There are those who only need sufficient stirring up in order to become devoted lovers of Jesus and his cause. And so with the stirring up of hatred to Jesus. Character and disposition must in due season come out to the full light of day. The sleeping tiger is none the less a tiger for being asleep.
I. THOSE WHO POSSIBLY MAY BE HATED. Christians may be hated because of their Christianity. Private malice is not at all in the question. Some of these disciples may have had enemies already; if not, they were very likely to have them in abundance soon. Observe how Jesus puts the thing hypothetically. Much depends on ourselves. If we are consistent, resolute, lively, energetic, perfectly uncompromising and open in our attachment to Jesus, we must make ready for hatred; but if, professing to love Jesus, we do not love him with all our heart, and soul, and strength, and mind, the world will not trouble to hate us. It may despise us and laugh at us, but it will not hate. Why should the world hate us, if we do nothing to inconvenience it, nothing to peril its aims, its possessions, and its pleasures? This is a very astonishing thing, that the world should hate us the better we are. If our hearts are filled with the spirit of love, if we desire only the good of everybody, why should we be hated? The truth is, Jesus understands human nature far better than the shrewdest of us. He, the best that ever trod the earth, was treated as if the worst. And similar experience, in a less conspicuous way, happened to his servants, e.g. Paul at Philippi and at Ephesus. And, underlying all these illustrations, there lies one common cause for the hostility in this—that Jesus must, by the very nature of his light-bringing work, interfere with the vested interests of men in darkness.
II. THE PECULIAR DESCRIPTION OF THE HATERS. They are described compendiously as the world. They are not to be singled out in their individual capacity. Individuals are constantly passing over from the world to the side of Jesus, but the spirit of the world remains unchanged, unchangeable. And this spirit is to be dealt with indirectly for the most part. Argument, expostulation, and entreaty are not the main weapons of success. The victory that overcometh the world is mainly to be gained in our own character. Jesus wants opposition to be swallowed up in reconciliation to him and to his truth. What we want to bear up against the world's hatred is:
1. Faith. We live amidst an unbelieving world, as it were amidst east winds and north winds, and all sorts of unfavorable climatic conditions. The colder the weather is, the more must we look after everything that will keep up vital heat. When earth is dull and stubborn to us, we must refresh ourselves from heaven.
2. Courage. We must go on. So we shall find out what a poor, foundationless thing the opposition of the world is. Its first appearance is its best appearance. It may hurt the outer skin, but cannot touch the heart and citadel of life. We must needs know the worst of the world in order that we may know the best of Jesus.
3. Meekness. Faith and courage, bathed and penetrated with gentleness—this is to win the world. The world has no gentleness, unless fair-spoken craftiness be so called. Our main spirit must be that of Jesus on the cross: "Father, forgive them; they know not what they do."—Y.
The joint witnessing.
Christianity is not a religion to be propagated by force or by sedulous tradition. Nothing but the force of truth planted Christianity; and only the force of truth preserves it, extends it, and ensures the prospect of its universality. Not without significance is this constant reference to witnessing found in the New Testament. Jesus submits his gospel to the keenest examination. He comes before the world as a well-equipped suitor goes into a court of justice, sure that he has witnesses ample for the success of his cause. Christianity presents phenomena that shirk no scrutiny. It has no weak and treacherous places to be kept as much as possible from view. A witness, to be all a witness ought to be, must have nothing to conceal, nothing to avoid.
I. THERE MUST BE THE RIGHT SPIRIT IN THOSE WHO LISTEN TO THE TESTIMONY. The minds of men may be set against truth and the search for truth, and then where will the witnesses be? The gospel presumes on the part of man an awakening to the need of reality, stability, and continuance in all that he may rightly aim to make his own. Men have believed the world and believed their own hearts, and they have been disappointed; and now, if they seek Jesus, it is with the assurance meeting them that they shall not be disappointed again. If men fail to be attracted by Jesus or profess to be disappointed with him, it is because they are disinclined to take the trouble of seeking deep enough.
II. EACH WITNESS HAS HIS OWN TESTIMONY. There is a witnessing by the Spirit of Jesus which cannot be effected by any multiplication of human witnesses. And similarly a testimony comes by reading the evangelists and Epistles, which is felt to be something independent of the force which comes on us by the operation of the Spirit. How many, reading the New Testament just with thoughtful earnestness, have said to themselves, "Here is something to be searched into. Here is a part of some great possibility, and I must seek for the other part "! Careful and repeated reading of what apostles have written is very likely to drive a man to his knees, seeking to have the full body of testimony completed, by what the Holy Spirit will impress on his heart. We should ever be on the outlook for testimony to Jesus and his truth. The more we expect it the more it will come, fortifying us against our own doubts, cheering us with hopes of coming certainties, and making us more ardent in persuading others to like precious faith.
III. THE RESPONSIBILITY THUS LAID ON US. Unbelief deludes itself with the plea that there is lack of evidence. Nay, in its more arrogant forms it will even maintain that the evidence is the other way. What if we be in the position of those who clamor for more, and will not use what they have? If we are not to be persuaded by the joint witnessing of the Spirit and the apostles, neither shall we be persuaded though one rose from the dead.
IV. OUR OWN WITNESS-BEARING. We may and ought to be joined to the cloud of witnesses. If Jesus told the first company of disciples that they were to be witnesses, then assuredly there must be something of the witness-bearing faculty in us.—Y.
John 14
John
John 16
John 15 - john-15 - worlddic.com