18.q. “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you.”

John 15:18  “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but 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 also keep yours. But all these things they will do to you on account of my name, because they do not know him who sent me.

The earliest Christians would know the hatred of the world. “Tacitus spoke of the people ‘hated for their crimes, whom the mob call Christians.’ Suetonius had spoken of ‘a race of men who belong to a new and evil superstition.’” (Barclay)

“It is an odd fact that the world soon justified its hostility to them by imputing to them the initiative in hatred. The earliest extant reference to Christians in pagan literature charges them with ‘hatred of the human race’.” (Tacitus, Annals, 15.44.5) (Bruce)

“It is not without significance that the disciples are to be known by their love, the world by its hatred.” (Morris)

“The perfect tense of the verb ‘hate’ (memiseken) implies that the world’s hatred is a fixed attitude toward him — an attitude that carries over to his disciples as well.” (Tenney)

 If people do not know God as He really is, they often attack and persecute those who represent God in some way. “Men may prefer to evolve an idea of their universal Father, but that idea of theirs will take their own color and the color of their Age. The only true idea of Him is to be got from The Son.” (Trench)

It would seem there is nothing new under the sun.  Mankind is void of love when God is displaced and rejected.  I took special note of what was recorded (written) by pagan historian Cornelius Tacitus and how Christians were hated for their crimes of hatred against mankind with their superstitions.  Calling good bad and bad good.  Hatred of Christians was good.  Works of peace and love of Christians was called bad.  Mankind void of God will hate the things of God and the people who honor, glorify, obey, follow, trust, and worship Him.  If you speak out against abortion you are labeled a woman hater.  If you speak out against LGBTQ you are a labeled a bigot.  If you speak out that Jesus Christ is the only way to heaven you are labeled ignorant.  If you speak out about injustice you are labeled intolerant.  

Mankind will call our love and devotion to Jesus Christ a hatred of mankind.

If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but 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 also keep yours. But all these things they will do to you on account of my name, because they do not know him who sent me.

The earliest Christians would know the hatred of the world. “Tacitus spoke of the people ‘hated for their crimes, whom the mob call Christians.’ Suetonius had spoken of ‘a race of men who belong to a new and evil superstition.’” (Barclay)

“It is an odd fact that the world soon justified its hostility to them by imputing to them the initiative in hatred. The earliest extant reference to Christians in pagan literature charges them with ‘hatred of the human race’.” (Tacitus, Annals, 15.44.5) (Bruce)

“It is not without significance that the disciples are to be known by their love, the world by its hatred.” (Morris)

“The perfect tense of the verb ‘hate’ (memiseken) implies that the world’s hatred is a fixed attitude toward him — an attitude that carries over to his disciples as well.” (Tenney)

 If people do not know God as He really is, they often attack and persecute those who represent God in some way. “Men may prefer to evolve an idea of their universal Father, but that idea of theirs will take their own color and the color of their Age. The only true idea of Him is to be got from The Son.” (Trench)

It would seem there is nothing new under the sun.  Mankind is void of love when God is displaced and rejected.  I took special note of what was recorded (written) by pagan historian Cornelius Tacitus and how Christians were hated for their crimes of hatred against mankind with their superstitions.  Calling good bad and bad good.  Hatred of Christians was good.  Works of peace and love of Christians was called bad.  Mankind void of God will hate the things of God and the people who honor, glorify, obey, follow, trust, and worship Him.  If you speak out against abortion you are labeled a woman hater.  If you speak out against LGBTQ you are a labeled a bigot.  If you speak out that Jesus Christ is the only way to heaven you are labeled ignorant.  If you speak out about injustice you are labeled intolerant.  

Mankind will call our love and devotion to Jesus Christ a hatred of mankind.

In that Day of Trouble/Trial

“And he said, “Abba, Father, all things are possible for you. Remove this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.”

“During those many days the king of Egypt died, and the people of Israel groaned because of their slavery and cried out for help. Their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God.”

Psalms 18:6
In my distress I called upon the LORD; to my God I cried for help. From his temple he heard my voice, and my cry to him reached his ears.

Psalms 50:15
and call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me.

Psalms 130:1-2
Out of the depths I cry to you, O LORD! O Lord, hear my voice! Let your ears be attentive to the voice of my pleas for mercy!

Mark 14:36
And he said, “Abba, Father, all things are possible for you. Remove this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.”

Psalms 27:4-5
One thing have I asked of the LORD, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to inquire in his temple.  For he will hide me in his shelter in the day of trouble; he will conceal me under the cover of his tent; he will lift me high upon a rock.

2 Samuel 22:7
“In my distress I called upon the LORD; to my God I called. From his temple he heard my voice, and my cry came to his ears.

Exodus 2:23
During those many days the king of Egypt died, and the people of Israel groaned because of their slavery and cried out for help. Their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God.

Psalms 18:17
He rescued me from my strong enemy and from those who hated me, for they were too mighty for me. They confronted me in the day of my calamity, but the LORD was my support.

Keeping our hope and trust in God seems to be hard at times, especially when it seems we have been calling out to Him with what seems like no reply.  Think about the Israelites who suffered year after year as slaves and how long they called out to God for relief.  We can be sure our timing is not always God’s.  Does the length of time diminish God’s ability, love, or plan at all?  No it does not.  Each of us needs to be mindful of how easy it is to give up or lose trust in what God can do?  In Ephesians it says “God can do more than we ask and much more than we can imagine.”  In Psalms 46:10 it says ““Be still, and know that I am God;” It is good for us, through trials and troubles, to trust God and be still know that He alone is our refuge and rock.  He loves us and He will surely care for us.  Remember what is says in Jeremiah 29:11 “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you, declares the Lord,”  One of the Hymns said it like this Trust and obey for there is not other way to be happy in Jesus, trust and obey.  God is able – trust Him.