JOHN 15:18-27 (ESV)

¹⁸ “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. ¹⁹ 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.²⁰ 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. ²¹ But all these things they will do to you on account of my name, because they do not know him who sent me. ²² If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have been guilty of sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin. ²³ Whoever hates me hates my Father also. ²⁴ If I had not done among them the works that no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin, but now they have seen and hated both me and my Father. ²⁵ But the word that is written in their Law must be fulfilled: ‘They hated me without a cause.’

²⁶ “But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me. ²⁷ And you also will bear witness, because you have been with me from the beginning.

Reflection Questions

John 15:18-21

• Why does the world hate Christians? How does this match my view of Christian life?
• What is my relationship with the world? What does this reveal about my Christian identity and my value system?
• What values do I hold that are “of the world”? What values do I hold that are not of the world?

John 15:22-27

• What made those who rejected Jesus “guilty of sin”?
• In what ways does the world hate Jesus “without a cause”?
• What responsibility do I have towards the word of God I have heard and the works of God I have witnessed?
• What is revealed about Jesus’ heart for the world from the fact that he commanded his disciples to “bear witness” about him right after he told them that the world “will persecute” them?