Hated without a Reason Part 1: 5 things I have learnt about hating

Hated without a Reason

Part 1: 5 things I have learnt about hating

John 15 v18-25

“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 what I told you: ‘A servant is not 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; but now they have no excuse for their sin. ²³ Whoever hates me hates my Father as well. ²⁴ If I had not done among them the works no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin. As it is, they have seen, and yet they have hated both me and my Father. ²⁵ But this is to fulfil what is written in their Law: ‘They hated me without reason.’

The hater:

1. The hater believes they have good reason to do so even though there may be none, v18 (They believed Jesus was a blasphemer but of course there was no reason to believe so. They followed the theory that the best line of defence is attack.)

2. The hater hates because you do not fit into their world, v19. (Haters are afraid of another person’s opinion or not having everyone view them as being right, their authoritative position is threatened; in Antony and Cleopatra, Shakespeare has Charmian saying to Cleopatra, “In time we hate that which we often fear” though I prefer the modern version of this – “We come to hate that which controls us.”)

3. The hater is ignorant and unenlightened, v21 (The hater usually doesn’t know you, in fact they can often be heard saying “who does he think he is”, they are usually the person who sees you walk on water and say it is because you cannot swim.)

4. The hater is a seeker of justice, v22-24. (Jesus uses the justice term of guilt; they charged him as guilty but we reap what we sow, we can carry around a sense of injustice and long for a person to be brought down, in the end it turns to hate and it is the hater that is held guilty.)

5. The hater focuses on what you do but it is who you are they really hate, they won’t say it because they can’t put their finger on it,v21,23,24 (Look at the times Jesus refers to who is behind him, his DNA. Tribalism has created so many wars full of hatred not because of what anyone has done but who they are; people fight because generationally that’s what they have always done to that other tribe or family; not knowing the backstory leads to prejudice and hate.)