John 15:19

15:18-25 How little do many persons think, that in opposing the doctrine of Christ as our Prophet, Priest, and King, they prove themselves ignorant of the one living and true God, whom they profess to worship! The name into which Christ's disciples were baptized, is that which they will live and die by. It is a comfort to the greatest sufferers, if they suffer for Christ's name's sake. The world's ignorance is the true cause of its hatred to the disciples of Jesus. The clearer and fuller the discoveries of the grace and truth of Christ, the greater is our sin if we do not love him and believe in him.

John 15:19 . εἰ ἐκ … ἐφίλει , “If ye were of the world, the world would love [that which is] its own”; not always the case, but generally. ὅτι δὲ … ὁ κόσμος , “but because ye are not of the world,” do not belong to it, and are not morally identified with it, “but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hates you”. So that the hatred of the world, instead of being depressing, should be exhilarating, as being an evidence and guarantee that they have been chosen by Christ.

Men and women may be in the world, yet not of the world. Of the world here signifies carnal men, such as are like to the men of the world in their studies, designs, counsels, affections; as of the devil, and of God, signifies, John 8:44,47 . If you had affections, lusts, and dispositions like them, and drove no other designs than they drive, you might expect, that as it is of the nature of all men to love such as are like to them in manners and studies; so they would love you, take a delight in you, be kind to you, and do you all offices of love: but because you are not of such tempers, dispositions, and inclinations; but that I, having chosen you out of the world, have given you new hearts, new frames and dispositions, quite contrary to theirs; therefore the world, disliking you, and seeing that your principles are quite opposite to theirs, abhor and hate you, and will be ready to do you all that evil and mischief, which is the product of a rooted hatred and malice in the heart. This is a second argument by which our Lord comforts them. It is drawn from the cause and root of that hatred which they would meet with: it was not for their faults or sins, but because they were the objects of Christ’s love, which being also shed abroad in their hearts by the Holy Ghost, produced again in them holy affections and dispositions, making them wholly unlike to men in the world.

John 15:19 . Ἐκ τοῦ κόσμου ) of the world and on its side, of its party.— τὸ ἴδιον , its own ) It would love you for its own sake, not for yours. Its own is said instead of you , and so the fact of it being the interest of the world to do so is marked.— ἐζελεξάμην ὑμᾶς , I have chosen you ) as ἰδίους , My own , ch. John 13:1 , “Jesus having loved His own which were in the world, He loved them unto the end.” Believers are no better than the world, as considered in themselves, but are so only by election. This it is which makes the great distinction.

19 . the world would love his own ] In John 7:7 He told His brethren, who did not believe on Him, that the world could not hate them. This shews why: in their unbelief it still found something of its own (comp. 1 John 4:5 ). ‘His own,’ or its own , is neuter singular not masculine plural. The selfishness of the world’s love is thus indicated: it loves not so much them, as that in them which is to its own advantage; and hence the lower word for ‘love’ is used ( philein ), not the higher one ( agapân ) as in John 15:17 . It is mere natural liking. Note the solemn repetition of ‘world’ in this verse. For the construction comp. John 5:46 , John 8:19 ; John 8:42 , John 9:41 , John 18:36 and contrast John 4:10 , John 11:21 , John 14:28 . I have chosen ] I chose : see on John 15:16 . therefore the world hateth you ] Or, for this cause (see on John 8:47 and John 12:39 ) &c. Comp. 1 John 3:13 .

(19) If ye were of the world, the world would love his own. —The force of the expression indicates the utter selfishness of the world’s love. It would love not them, but that in them which was its own. (Comp. Note on John 7:7 .) I have chosen you out of the world.—Comp. John 15:16, and Note on John 7:7. There He had told them that the world could not hate them. The very fact of its hatred would prove a moral change in them, by which they had ceased to belong to the world, and had become the children of God. Both thoughts are repeated in 1John 3:13; 1John 4:5.

If ye were of the world - If you were actuated by the principles of the world. If, like them, you were vain, earthly, sensual, given to pleasure, wealth, ambition, they would not oppose you. Because ye are not of the world - Because you are influenced by different principles from men of the world. You are actuated by the love of God and holiness; they by the love of sin. I have chosen you out of the world - I have, by choosing you to be my followers, separated you from their society, and placed you under the government of my holy laws. Therefore ... - A Christian may esteem it as one evidence of his piety that he is hated by wicked men. Often most decided evidence is given that a man is the friend of God by the opposition excited against him by the profane, by Sabbath-breakers, and by the dissolute, 1 John 3:13; John 7:7.

Verse 19. - If ye were of the world - i.e. still a part of it, deriving your life, maxims, and pleasures from it; if you could sympathize with its vulgar passion, and its temporary fleeting excitements, partisanships, and bigotries - the world would be loving ( ἐφιλεὶ , notice the form of the conditional sentence, a supposition contrary to fact, therefore anticipating the negative clause that follows, "but ye are not of the world;" notice also that φίλεω , the love of affection, not ἀγαπάω , the love of reverence and profound regard, which you are to show to one another and to me) - would be loving its own . The world loves its priests and mouthpieces, its own organization ("Caiaphas, Pilate, Herod, and Judas, and all devils," Luther); the world loves its own offspring. But because ye are not of the world, but I chose you, withdrawing you for my service, out of the world (the two meanings of ἐκ here differ; the first ἐκ denotes origin, the second corresponds with the compound ἐκ in ἐκλέγομαι ), therefore the world hateth you. I have caused you to break with it, and you are no longer "its own." Just in proportion as you are one with me, you draw upon yourself its hatred of me. "The offence of the cross" is not ceased. Thoma comments on the harmony between this statement and that of the Acts, Epistles, and Apocalypse, whose colors and features are here, as he thinks, drawn upon.