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 15:22-25
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 warned his disciples that the world would hate and persecute them as it had hated him, “because they don’t know him who sent me” (John 15:21). In these verses he explains the seriousness of the world’s rejection of him. Those who heard his words and saw his works were left without excuse, and in hating him they hated the Father.
- “If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have had sin”
Jesus does not mean that his hearers would have been sinless if he had never come. All people are sinners. He means that they would not have been guilty of this particular sin: rejecting the clearest revelation of God ever given. Greater light brings greater responsibility. Jesus had said to the Pharisees after healing the man born blind, “If you were blind, you would have no sin; but now you say, ‘We see.’ Therefore your sin remains” (John 9:41). He taught the same principle in Luke: “To whomever much is given, of him will much be required” (Luke 12:48).
- “But now they have no excuse for their sin”
Jesus’ words left his hearers without an excuse. They could not claim that God had never spoken to them clearly. Paul argues that even creation leaves people “without excuse” (Romans 1:20); how much more those who heard the Son of God himself.
- “He who hates me, hates my Father also”
Because Jesus and the Father are one, attitudes toward Jesus are attitudes toward God. Many of Jesus’ opponents were deeply religious and believed they were defending God. Yet in rejecting Jesus they rejected the very God they claimed to serve.
- “The works which no one else did”
Jesus’ signs were unique: turning water into wine, healing a man blind from birth, raising Lazarus after four days in the tomb. These works were the Father’s testimony to the Son (John 14:11). To see them and still hate him showed that the problem was not lack of evidence but hostility of heart.
- “They hated me without a cause”
Jesus saw this hatred foretold in Scripture. The phrase comes from the psalms of David, the righteous sufferer: “Those who hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of my head” (Psalm 69:4). Jesus calls this “their law,” using the word in a broad sense for the Scriptures, as he did when he quoted a psalm earlier (John 10:34). The irony is pointed: the Scriptures the opponents treasured described their own unjust hatred. Jesus had done them no wrong. Peter later wrote that Jesus “did not sin,” and that when “he was cursed, didn’t curse back” (1 Peter 2:22-23).
The Significance of John 15:22-25
- Light brings responsibility
Those who have heard the message of Jesus clearly carry a greater responsibility to respond. Familiarity with the gospel is a privilege, not a safe place to delay.
- Undeserved hatred
Jesus suffered hatred without cause. Believers who face unfair hostility can know he understands, and they are called to respond as he did, without returning evil for evil.
Cross-References:
Psalm 69:4: "Those who hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of my head." The Scripture Jesus quotes.
John 9:41: "If you were blind, you would have no sin; but now you say, ‘We see.’ Therefore your sin remains." Greater light, greater guilt.
Luke 12:48: "To whomever much is given, of him will much be required;" Responsibility according to privilege.
Romans 1:20: "that they may be without excuse." No excuse before God.
Conclusion: Jesus taught that those who heard his words and saw his unique works had no excuse for rejecting him, and that hating him meant hating the Father as well. Their hostility fulfilled the Scripture that says, “They hated me without a cause.” The greater the revelation people receive, the greater their responsibility to believe.
PIB Scriptures are derived from the World English Bible