Good morning,
John 15 is about abiding in Christ. We will learn about vines, branches, and why it is important for the branches to abide in the vine. We will also learn God loves us, calls us His friend, we will be hated by the world, and that Jesus will send us the Comforter, the Holy Spirit of God.
Christians will be hated (15:18-25)
“If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you.19 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.20 Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also.21 But all these things will they do unto you for my name’s sake, because they know not him that sent me.22 If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin: but now they have no cloak for their sin.23 He that hateth me hateth my Father also.24 If I had not done among them the works which none other man did, they had not had sin: but now have they both seen and hated both me and my Father.25 But this cometh to pass, that the word might be fulfilled that is written in their law, They hated me without a cause.”
The Christian life is not pain free. If we are abiding in Christ, doing His bidding, witnessing for the Lord, and living for Christ, then we should expect to be persecuted. The world does not believe the Bible or that Jesus existed. They put believers in Christ down and make fun of them. How we react tells a lot about who we are in Christ. Do we have a humble spirit or fight back? Do we love the unlovely or do we hate? It should be our heart attitude to follow Jesus example.
“Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:6 Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:7 But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:8 And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.” (Philippians 2:5-8)
Coming of the Holy Spirit (15:26-27)
“But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me:27 And ye also shall bear witness, because ye have been with me from the beginning.”
Soon Jesus would be gone. The disciples, although warned, did not comprehend all that was about to happen. Jesus made them a promise to send the Comforter to them. The Comforter (Holy Spirit) would bear witness to all Jesus taught them.
Abiding in Christ comes with a cost. We must be willing to suffer and be rejected. We must be humble as Jesus. We must be sensitive to the moving of the Holy Spirit, who lives within us, to lead and guide.
Tom Stearns, WASI Chaplain, 907 715-4001
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