John 15:18-25 “If
the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it
hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own.
Yet 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 keep yours
also. But all these things they will do to you for My name’s sake,
because they do not know Him who sent Me. If I had not come and spoken to
them, they would have no sin, but now they have no excuse for their
sin. He who hates Me hates My Father also. If I had not done among
them the works which no one else did, they would have no sin; but now they
have seen and also hated both Me and My Father. But this
happened that the word might be fulfilled which is written in their
law, ‘They hated Me without a cause.’”
This last Sunday, Pastor
Obie continued in our church’s sermon series through the gospel of John. He
pointed out that, prior to his conversion on the road to Damascus via a
personal encounter with the resurrected Lord Jesus, the Apostle Paul was a
leader in the persecution of Christian in Israel. The secular humanist and
false religions of the world meet conversion to Christianity with hatred and
criticism. It is not a surprise, but to be expected, as Jesus himself
forewarned that this would be the
reaction when people aligned themselves with the Lord of lords in true belief
and their total trust. His words are as true today as when he first spoke them.
The God-rejecting world will hate Jesus (the Christ) and His followers. But,
what do we mean exactly by the “world”?
John 1:10-14 “He
was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did
not know Him. He came to His own, and His own did not receive
Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to
become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born,
not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of
God. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld
His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace
and truth.”
The Greek word for “world”
is “Kosmos” and carries three meanings: (1) the created physical world around
us. (a) The universe; the whole system of created globes or vast bodies of
matter. (b) The earth; the terraqueous globe; sometimes called the lower world.
(c) The heavens. (2) the arena for human affairs – the systems of beings and
the present state of existence. The customs and manners of mankind and the
coarse of life; all the world contains. By the world we sometimes understand
the things of this world, its pleasures and interests. A great part of mankind
are more anxious to enjoy the world to than secure divine favor. (3) the system
of ungodliness and worldview that opposes Almighty Sovereign God and the Savior
of the world – the carnal state or corruption of the earth due to sin; as the
present evil world; the course of this fallen world. This is the ungodly part
of the world. And history provides the evidence that proves the hatred by the
persecution of Christians. More Christians have been martyred in the Twentieth
century than in all the previous centuries combined. This third meaning is the context of the
world that Jesus is speaking about in John 15.
Pastor Obie proposed us
three reasons “the God-rejecting world system hates Christians. Three ways that "the world" tempts Christians and the love of God. Let’s take a
look at them in the next post.
In Christ, Brian
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