15:18
I have said several times that we need to beware of taking love in the sentimental/romantic way that society usually thinks of the word. This section makes clear the seriousness of the situation. “If the world hates you...” We live in a time when society is increasingly anti-Christian, violently so in some parts of the word. We should not be surprised. The world hated Jesus. This does not mean that every single person hated Him, but the religious authorities wanted to kill Him, the Roman authorities were happy to go along with this for the sake of a quiet life, and the general populace acquiesced to it. The notion that society will think we are all nice Christians and will want to love us and join us is without foundation.
15:19
Jesus is different from every other human being. He lived life in a completely different way to every other human being. The focus of this is that He did only what His Father commanded, whereas the world lives in constant rebellion to the Father. We need to realise the that the world and God are fundamentally at enmity with each other. So the question the world tacitly asks is “whose side are you on?”. We do not belong to the world, we belong to Jesus. And we belong to Him because He has chosen us. Belonging to Jesus means we have ended the rebellion against God, and we now live to the beat of a different drum.
15:20
Jesus had previously told the disciples that a servant was not greater than his master (John 13:16). Note that all this comes in the context of Jesus telling them they are His friends and of love. Servanthood, friendship and love all work together, and we need to beware of interpreting things purely in current ideas of friendship and “love”. So we are servants of Christ, He is our Master. As such we must expect similar things to happen to us as happened to Jesus. This has two sides to it, persecution and obedience. The world persecuted Christ, so it will persecute us. Now does this mean we are wrong to seek to defend religious freedom? No. It is generally good for society for their to be religious and political freedom. Moreover, this is actually beneficial to the spread of the gospel (1 Tim 2:2-4). However, we need to keep things in perspective. Religious freedom is not an absolute, and there will be times when society rejects this. In these times Jesus is still Lord, and the gospel will still triumph, it will just be much more difficult for us in the midst of this!
See also that the persecution and obedience go together. There will be those who reject and those who respond. Both will happen at the same time, and the balance between the two will vary. But when people respond to the gospel we need to remember that it is Jesus they are responding to, not us.
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