John 15:18-27
18 “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. 19 If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. 20 Remember the words I spoke to you: ‘No servant is greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also. 21 They will treat you this way because of my name, for they do not know the One who sent me. 22 If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin. Now, however, they have no excuse for their sin. 23 He who hates me hates my Father as well. 24 If I had not done among them what no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin. But now they have seen these miracles, and yet they have hated both me and my Father. 25 But this is to fulfill what is written in their Law: ‘They hated me without reason.’
26 “When the Counselor comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father, he will testify about me. 27 And you also must testify, for you have been with me from the beginning.
Jesus told His Disciples that if the world hates them, remember that it hated Him first...If they belonged and loved all things earthly, then other would love them as it loves its own...But Jesus has chosen these Disciples out of the world...So they know Him and now they do not belong to this world, because of what they have seen in Him and know of Him...That is why the world will hate them...They were to remember what He told them: A servant is not greater than His Master...If people did wrong to Him, they would do wrong to them also...And if they obey His teachings, followers will obey the Disciples, too...Followers will do all this to you because of Jesus...Others and non-believers don’t know the One who sent Him...They do not know God...If Jesus had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin...But now they have no excuse for their sin...The One who is sinless had spoken to them...He who hates Jesus also hates God...Jesus did His miracles and works among them and in public...He did somethings that no one else has ever done....If He had not done those miracles, His works and His teachings, they would not be guilty of sin...But now they have seen what He has done, and yet they have hated both Jesus and His Father...All this happened so that what is written in Scripture would come true: They hated Jesus, the Messiah for no reason...
Jesus was a True Rebel and a True Independent Thinker...Many people today want to think they are quite independent and also quite revolutionary...In some parts of the earthly world, there is this rebellion against Jesus, because of what He said and what He taught...There are people and groups who do not want to follow Him...Two thousand years ago Jesus was crucified, and in some form or another, to this day, there are some who do not believe in the resurrection and some who hate Jesus for no reason at all...Some of the world hate Jesus and His followers, and according to what He said, it seems still true today...But the true follower of Jesus, must also be this true rebel; and for us followers to be free we must love Jesus more than we love this world...