"If the World Hates You..."

John 14-16 is a continual feast for the soul.  John 15.18-19 stood out today...

If the world hates you, you know that it has hated me before it hated you.  If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you.

There is an enmity and antithesis with the world.  So often I can be lulled into thinking that living for Christ means everything is going to be nice and everybody is going to appreciate that and respond with kindness. Jesus here talks of a hatred that can and does come from the world.  This is a hatred because of Christ.  Our allegiance to Jesus brings us into a realm of those who hate that allegiance.  Jesus points us to his own experience.  He knows the hatred of the world.  Its hatred put him to death.  This we know and this knowledge should wake us up to the fact that we too as his followers can expect the same treatment.  As the antithesis in our culture becomes more pronounced and explicit we can expect to see more and more overt hatred for the things of Christ and those who claim him as their Lord and Savior.  As the vestiges of Christendom (or what Francis Schaeffer called the "Christian consensus") are dismantled in our country there will be less and less resistance to impede direct hatred for Christ and his people.  The words of our Lord may take on renewed significance for us in such a context.