Tuesday 15 July 2014

hatred of theirs arose from ignorance of the Father of Christ:


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John 15:21  "They are going to do all these things to you because of the way they treated me, because they don't know the One who sent me. 


But all these things will they do unto you,.... Christ here signifies, that all the hatred and persecutions raised against His people by the world, would not be on their own account, for any evil actions done by them; they would not suffer as thieves, murderers, and evildoers, but as Christians; or as He says, 

for my name's sake: because they were called by His name, and called upon His name; because they professed His name, and confessed Him to be the Messiah and Redeemer; because they loved His name Jesus, a Saviour, believed in His name, and hoped in Him for eternal life; and also preached Him, and in His name salvation, and encouraged others to believe in Him; and therefore they had no reason to be ashamed, but rather to rejoice; as they afterwards did, that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for His name: besides, this malice and hatred of theirs arose from ignorance of the Father of Christ: 


because they know not Him that sent me; they did not know that Jesus was the Christ, and sent of God; they did not acknowledge Him to be so, or the Father to be the sender of Him; and because Christ and His disciples asserted this, therefore they were the objects of their hatred.

John 15:22  If I hadn't come and told them all this in plain language, it wouldn't be so bad. As it is, they have no excuse. 

John 15:23  Hate me, hate my Father--it's all the same. 


John 15:22
If I had not come and spoken unto them,.... The ignorance of the Jews is represented as inexcusable, since Christ was come, and had preached unto them; if he had not come and told them that He was the Messiah, they might have pleaded an excuse for their ignorance of Him, and His mission, and of the Father that sent Him: but inasmuch as He was come in the flesh, and came to them His own; and came also a light into the world, carrying along with Him evidence, conviction, and demonstration, of His being the Messiah; speaking such words as never man did; preaching with such authority as the Scribes and Pharisees did not; declaring in plain terms He was the Christ of God, and that if they did not believe Him to be so, they would die in their sins; they could have no pretext to make for their ignorance and disbelief: if all this had not been done, 

they had not had sin; or been guilty of the sin of unbelief, in the rejection of the Messiah; not that they would have been without sin in any sense, or without any kind of sin, but without this particular sin; at least they would have excused and wiped themselves clean, and would have looked like innocent and sinless persons, under all their ignorance and unbelief: 

but now they have no cloak for their sin; they could not say, had He come to us, and told us that He was the Messiah, and given evidence of His being sent by the Father, we would have believed Him, and received Him as the Messiah; for He did do this, and so cut off all excuses and pretence's from them.


John 15:23
He that hate me, hates my Father also. The hatred the world bears to the followers of Christ, is interpretively hatred to Christ Himself; and hatred to Christ Himself, is no other than hatred to His Father; and indeed, all the hatred that is shown by the men of the world to Christ, to His Gospel, and to His faithful ministers and followers, originally arises from that enmity, that is naturally in the heart of every unregenerate man against God: now since not only Christ, but the Father also, is hated by the world, the children of God and disciples of Christ may sit easier under all the resentment, frowns, and malice of the world.


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