John 15:18

John 15:18. If the world hateth you, know that it hath hated me before it hated you. It is the active work of the disciples that has been before us in the preceding verses, but that work always has provoked, and always will provoke the world's hatred. In such a prospect, therefore, there is need for strength; and strength is given by means of truth presented in one of the double pictures of our Gospel, the first extending to the close of chap. 15, the second to chap. John 16:15. First of all, in that hatred which they shall certainly experience, let them behold a proof that, engaged in their Master's service, they are really filling their Master's place; and let them feel that the trials that befell Him ought surely to be no ‘strange thing' to them. Their Master, their Friend, their Redeemer trod the same path as that which they must tread. What thought could be more touching or more full of comforting and ennobling influences?