Misunderstood Bible Verse: "The World Hated Me First . . ."

          The Church, groups of churches, and/or an individual church gets criticized regularly, to a variety of degrees, for a variety of reasons, and from a variety of people (including its own members). What is arguably the most biblical response to a certain criticism depends on those factors. There’s no cure-all response, especially not John 15:18-19.

          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.”

          These prophetic words of Jesus are some of his last nuggets of wisdom, truth and prophecy before he was arrested. Some scholars connect it, in particular, to the Pharisees’ plot to kill Jesus (11:45-57), which was about to unfold. He goes on to speak about why he is and will be hated: said “haters” are unwilling to accept Jesus’s deity (23), the humility and submission that follows (20a) and the absolutism and self-sacrifice of his teachings (22). And all those subsequent who accept Jesus’s deity and teachings will be hated by association. Sadly, this prophecy came true, as many Christians were martyred in the next few centuries.

          So, we’re assured we’ll continue to be hated for believing in and living according to the deity and teachings of Christ and other God-breathed words. But sometimes a church or a Christ-follower is criticized or “hated” for something(s) they really ought to fix/change, but they’ll use John 15:18-19 as a defense.

          This verse, though, is not a license to be, for example, anti-intellectual, poorly communicative, ungracious, impatient, hypocritical and/or other unbiblical values. We’re called to submit to the law (Rom. 13:1), not complain and be “blameless and pure” (Philippians 2:14-15). The wrongful implausibility of Jesus' teachings can subside because of living out biblical values (1 Pet. 2:12).

          We can be hated because we love Jesus and believe in (and live our lives by) his teachings and work. (Keep reading the Bible and let its truth flow through every aspect of your life, more so than any tradition or cultural influence). But we can’t necessarily justify ourselves being hated for poorly communicating the gospel, elevating kitsch, being downright unloving.

          As Christ-followers, let’s be hated for the right reasons.