“I
command these things to you, that you may love one another. If the world hates you, you know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own. But because you are not of the world, since 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 lord.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will keep yours also. But all these things will they do to you for my name’s sake, because they don’t know him who sent me.
John 15:17-21
John 15 [12.] “This is my commandment, that you love one another, even as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends, if you do whatever I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant doesn’t know what his lord does. But I have called you friends, for everything that I heard from my Father, I have made known to you. You didn’t choose me, but I chose you, and appointed you, that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain; that whatever you will ask of the Father in my name, he may give it to you.
John 15 [17.] “I command these things to you, that you may love one another. If the world hates you, you know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own. But because you are not of the world, since 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 lord.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will keep yours also. But all these things will they do to you for my name’s sake, because they don’t know him who sent me. If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have had sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin. He who hates me, hates my Father also. If I hadn’t done among them the works which no one else did, they wouldn’t have had sin. But now have they seen and also hated both me and my Father. But this happened so that the word may be fulfilled which was written in their law, ‘They hated me without a cause.’
John 15 [26.] “When the Counselor has come, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will testify about me. You will also testify, because you have been with me from the beginning.
Meaning:
Jesus had spoken of the love that binds him to his disciples and the disciples to one another (John 15:12-13). Now he turns to a hard reality. Those who are loved by Jesus and love one another will face the hatred of the world. These verses prepare the disciples for opposition and explain why it comes.
- “I command these things to you, that you may love one another”
This sentence sums up the teaching before it and leads into what follows. Love within the community of disciples is the strength they will need when the world turns against them. A church divided by quarrels is weak in persecution; a church that loves is able to stand.
- “If the world hates you... it has hated me before it hated you”
“The world” here means human society organised apart from God and opposed to him. Jesus does not want his followers to be surprised by its hostility. He himself was rejected first. When believers suffer for him, they share in what he suffered. Jesus had taught, “You will be hated by all men for my name’s sake, but he who endures to the end will be saved” (Matthew 10:22).
- “Because you are not of the world, since I chose you out of the world”
The disciples still lived in the world, but they no longer belonged to it. Jesus had chosen them (John 15:16), and his choice gave them a new identity, new values and a new loyalty. The world loves what is like itself and resents what is different. Jesus would pray that night, “The world hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world” (John 17:14).
- “A servant is not greater than his lord”
Jesus quotes his own words from earlier that evening, when he washed their feet (John 13:16). There it was a call to humble service; here it is a warning about suffering. If the Master was persecuted, his servants can expect the same. Yet the saying also contains hope: “If they kept my word, they will keep yours also.” Some would reject the disciples’ message, but others would receive it, just as some had received Jesus.
- “For my name’s sake, because they don’t know him who sent me”
The root cause of the world’s hostility is ignorance of God. The persecutors may even think they are serving God, as Jesus would soon warn (John 16:2). Saul of Tarsus was such a man, until the risen Jesus met him on the road to Damascus. Believers who suffer “for my name’s sake” are identified with Jesus himself. Peter wrote, “If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed; because the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you” (1 Peter 4:14).
The Significance of John 15:17-21
- Expect opposition, but do not fear it
Jesus told his disciples the truth so that hostility would not shake their faith. Christians in many parts of the world still face persecution, and all believers meet some resistance to their faith. Jesus has walked this road before us.
- Love one another
The answer to the world’s hatred is not hatred in return but love within the family of believers and goodwill toward all, even persecutors.
- Hope for the message
Not everyone will reject the gospel. As some kept Jesus’ word, some will keep the word of his witnesses.
Cross-References:
Matthew 10:22: "You will be hated by all men for my name’s sake, but he who endures to the end will be saved." Jesus' earlier warning.
Matthew 5:11: "Blessed are you when people reproach you, persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely, for my sake." Blessing in persecution.
1 Peter 4:14: "If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed;" Suffering for Christ's name.
John 13:16: "a servant is not greater than his lord," The saying Jesus recalls.
Conclusion: Jesus commanded his disciples to love one another and warned them that the world would hate them as it had hated him first. Because he had chosen them out of the world, they would share his rejection, but also see some receive their message. The world’s hostility comes from not knowing the God who sent Jesus.
PIB Scriptures are derived from the World English Bible