Set in Stone

“He that hateth Me hateth My Father also.  If I had not done among them the works which none other man did, they had not had sin: but now have they both seen and hated both Me and My Father.  But this cometh to pass, that the word might be fulfilled that is written in their law, They hated Me without a cause.”  John 15:23-25

The commentator, Matthew Henry, wrote that “hatred…is the character and genius of the devil’s kingdom, as love is the kingdom of Christ.”  Nothing brings people together like a common enemy.  The world, that is, all unbelievers, viewed and still view Jesus as their enemy.  Mr. Henry also wrote, “I fear, that if we should put it to the vote between Christ and Satan, Satan would out-poll us quite.”  The world is malicious, spiteful, envious, arrogant, prideful, boastful, selfish, and haughty.  Jesus warned the disciples that the world would hate them because they followed Him.  Cain hated Abel because Abel’s works were righteous.  Saul hated David because the LORD was with David.

In our world today, Christians are despised, ridiculed, and many missionaries have suffered death from those to whom they attempted to minister and bring the gospel.  In Matthew 10:16, Jesus told His disciples that He was sending them forth as sheep among wolves.  Did you ever feel like you were a “sheep among wolves”?  Consider driving your car out on the highway.  Likely the majority of people in the cars ahead, behind, and beside you are driven by people who do not know the Lord.  There are even some who do know Him, but you would never know it by the way they drive!  It can be an intense world being one of the few (Matthew 7:13-14) who do walk the narrow way against all those who have allowed Satan to be their lord and master.

Those who do not love the Lord and do not reverence Him are not capable of truly loving others.  Sure, they love their families and friends, but they do not have that agape love for all others, that sacrificial love that puts God and then others first.  People are basically selfish.  Look at the divorce rate and the many broken homes.  If people do not respect the Bible and heed its warnings and commands, they are not going to listen to you or me either.  The chief reason people hated the disciples and hate Christians is because we bear His name.  All throughout the media, celebrities, journalists, and politicians are not so much against saying the name of God, but they become defensive at the name of Jesus.  Those who claim to believe in God but do not accept His Son have created a god of their own making.  There is power in the name of Jesus, and unbelievers cannot stand even the mention of His name.  One cannot be reconciled to God apart from Jesus Christ.  One cannot know God without knowing His Son.

Since Jesus is perfect and the world hates Him, how can we, as imperfect people, expect any different treatment by the world?  When believers are attacked by the unbelieving world, it is Jesus who is being attacked through us.  In this passage in John 15, Jesus was speaking about Himself and His Father as being inseparable, but these folks chose not to believe Him which made them guilty of the sin of unbelief, the unforgiveable sin.  They could not have been charged with this sin if Jesus had not come and spoken to them.  How could they believe on Someone in whom they have not heard?  However, they are not “off the hook” for Paul wrote in Romans 1:19-20 that God makes Himself known to mankind through nature and through one’s own conscience.  Folks are responsible for what they know.  No one has an excuse to ignore God.

Those who hear the gospel must make a choice.  Those who choose to reject Him and hate Him are without reason.  He never did anything but kind deeds to all with whom He came in contact.  Jesus is the express image of His Father.  To hate Him is to hate the Father.  In Psalm 69:4, David prophesied that Jesus would be hated without a cause.  Jesus went on to tell His disciples that the Holy Spirit, the third Person of the trinity, would eventually come and testify of Him, and that they, the disciples, would also be His witnesses.  Mr. Henry wrote that the “blessed Spirit is the emanation of divine light, and the energy of divine power”.  He gave the example of the sun.  The rays of the sun give light and heat which proceed from the sun, but yet the rays are still one with the sun.  The Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father, yet He is one with the Father and one with Christ.  God, the Father, Jesus, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, three in one.  There is no separation or division, for all Three work together seeking to save those which are lost, a fact that is “set in stone”.