John 15:17-19

The result of the Christians' calling: V. 17. These things I command you that ye love one another. V. 18. If the world hate you, ye know that it hated Me before it hated you. V. 19. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own; but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.

The Lord again summarizes all the demands of Christian life in the one command, namely, that the Christians love one another. This is not a command in the sense of the Mosaic injunctions, but a truly evangelical admonition. That must be the principal characteristic of the Christians by which they are distinguished from all men, the mutual love which they show toward one another in all their dealings.

But this behavior necessarily implies a segregation from the world, from other people among whom the Christians are living. It brings upon the believers the hatred of the world, an undying, malignant hatred, that may sometimes hide itself under the guise of toleration, but never sleeps.

Under these circumstances, the Christians should feel neither anxiety nor surprise, for it is altogether in accordance with the nature of the world to hate the believers, as they hated Christ, the Lord, before them. There is that ineradicable contrast between Christ and His disciples, on the one side, and the world, the unbelievers, on the other.

If the Christians were of the world, if they had the nature, the manner, the character of the world, the world would immediately recognize the affinity and treat them accordingly. But now Jesus, by His choosing them, has separated the believers from the world. So the natural result is this characteristic hatred of the unbelievers, expressed sometimes only in veiled insinuations, then again in open enmity.