John 15:18-19  “If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you.

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.”

John 16:20  “Verily, verily, I say unto you, That ye shall weep and lament, but the world shall rejoice: and ye shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy.”

Nothing has changed. The world still hates Jesus. They rejoiced when He was crucified and they would still cry, “Crucify Him ! Crucify Him” in our day.

Jesus told His disciples that they should expect to be hated.

It is believed that all of His disciples met violent deaths save one.

As J. C. Ryle stated, “The world does not want Christ back again, and thinks that it does very well without Him.”

Again, Jesus tells us, “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 world can never be friends with the true Christian nor should the faithful Christian expect to get on with the world.

“Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.” James 4:4

Matthew Henry said concerning this verse, “…He who sets his heart upon the world, who places his happiness in it, and will conform himself to it, and do any thing rather than lose its friendship, he is an enemy to God.”

Christians have been chosen out of this world and that is why the world hates Christians.

Believers shouldn’t be surprised if the world hates us.

“Marvel not, my brethren, if the world hate you.”  I John 3:13

Note the Apostle Paul’s words to Timothy, “Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier.”  II Timothy 2:3-4

As believers we too have been chosen out of this world.

We also should desire to please “Him who hath chosen [us] to be a soldier”

“…Men respect a thoroughbred Christian, but nobody has a good word for a mongrel. Be one thing or the other, either hot or cold, or Christ will reject you, and the world too. If a thing be right, do it; if you resolve to serve the Lord, do it, offend or please; and if, on the other hand, you prefer the service of Satan, do at least be honest enough not to pretend to be on the Lord’s side.” – C.H. Spurgeon

May the Lord give us courage to stand.

Illustration: Vanity Fair John Bunyan’s depiction of the world.

Public Domain Images from the Henry Altemus edition of John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress (Illustrations by Frederick Barnard, J.D. Linton, W. Small, etc. Engraved by Dalziel Brothers)