JOHN 15:18-16:4 CHRISTIAN LIGHT

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.

16:1 “All this I have told you so that you will not go astray. 2 They will put you out of the synagogue; in fact, a time is coming when anyone who kills you will think he is offering a service to God. 3 They will do such things because they have not known the Father or me. 4 I have told you this, so that when the time comes you will remember that I warned you. I did not tell you this at first because I was with you.“

Jesus is not the excuse for our being persecuted or mistreated. Rather, obeying Jesus will results in living a life that challenges the ways of the world. We can be attacked and picked on by others for any number of different reasons, many of which we bring on ourselves. What Jesus is articulating is a hatred that is directed more at who we are than what we do. If we are in close obedience to Jesus, then our actions and attitudes are not formed as a response to the world, or to please the world, but to please God. As our faith grows, we come to depend less and less on worldly measures of success and begin to act as if those measures are not important because our confidence does not come from this world. The effect on the world is that it has no control over those who have a strong faith. That is the greatest threat to the powers and principalities of this world, so they will naturally set out to isolate and destroy the challenge.

Our witness to the world of the power of Jesus in our lives is measured by the demonstrable difference he makes in how we live. There are plenty of people in this world who say all the right words and belong to the right groups, but you can discern the followers of Jesus by the way they live their lives. St. Paul refers to these as the fruits of the Spirit; love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23). These are like a bright light shining in a sin-darkened world. Like a light shining in the darkness it can serve as a target for an enemy, as well as attract and guide a loved one home. As Jesus’ disciples, we are to concentrate on shining the light and not the response to his light. The only response we need to be worried about is no response. For where there is no response, there is probably no light.

Jesus, shine on me and help me to reflect your light through my life. Transform me from within so that I might live in such a manner that God is glorified and that the light of truth is revealed. May I ever be focused on walking in obedience to your will and not how others will respond. Only you are the audience for my life. Amen.