Testing One’s Love for God John 15:16-27

Text:  “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 (a Godly conclusion) the world hateth you.”

John 15:19.

Good morning, hated Christian!  No matter how much you go out of your way to show love to the world around you - you are utterly detested.  No matter how many good deeds you do for the unsaved world around you - you are hated by those whom you seek to help.  

Naturally, you would like the world of the unsaved in whose neighbourhood you live to like you, or at least tolerate you, and treat you with equal levels of neighbourly kindness - but, if God’s Word be truth, that will never be achieved, not as long as you and I seek to show love to the Lord God by obeying His commandments.  Fact!

“If the world (the unsaved all around us) hate you, ye know that it hated Me (Christ Jesus) before it hated you.”  (V.18)

If you and I are trying hard to live as Christ-like a life as we can - to bring glory to our Lord and Saviour - then the logical outcome for us is to incur the hatred of the world.  The natural side of us would just love the unsaved world in our neighbourhoods to ‘…speak well of…’ us, but if they do, then clearly we are not the ‘salt and light’ our Lord has called us to be!

“Woe unto you, when all men shall speak well of you!  For so did their fathers to the FALSE prophets.  But I (Christ Jesus) say unto you which hear, Love your enemies, do good to them which hate you, bless them that curse you, and pray for them which despitefully use you.”  (Luke 6:26-28)

It is a Scriptural fact that sincere and active servants of the Lord Jesus Christ are seen by the worldlings all around us as ‘Christian spoilsports’!  Our very presence tends to spoil what the world enjoys as daily ‘sport‘: binge-drinking alcohol; foul and lewd talk; taking ‘recreational drugs’; sexual promiscuity; pornographic film-watching; all night revelry and general carnal debauchery.

Definition: Revel - (verb) to feast or make merry, especially in a riotous or noisy manner; to take intense delight in revelry. (The Chambers Dictionary page 1411)

The morals of Western societies have plummeted to an all time low!  There was more morality in the behaviour of Sodom and Gomorrah than there is in many of our local neighbourhoods today!  We are living in social disgrace!

“In those days there was no king (moral authority) in Israel, but every man/woman did that which was right in his/her own eyes.”  (Judges 17:6)

Verse fifteen of our Bible reading today clearly teaches us that the Lord God, in His own wisdom and grace, has chosen us to be saved.  We have NOT chosen to make ourselves known to the Living Lord God.  He has made Himself known to us, in the incarnation of the Person of His Son, Jesus Christ.  God reveals Himself through His Word - His Word is truth!

“Sanctify (set them apart, save them, cleanse) them through Thy truth; Thy Word is truth.”  (John 17:17)

“Seeing that ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit (capital S!) unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently.  Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the Word of God, which liveth and abideth forever.”  (1 Peter 1:22-23)

God the Holy Spirit, the Third Person of the Triune Godhead (Father, Son, and Holy Ghost) empowers us to ‘…purify our souls in obeying the truth…’.

Therefore, we can test the quality of our love for the Lord God by the level of obedience we exercise in a consistent manner day by day.

We can also test our love for the Lord God by the level of love that we manifest towards other Christian believers.

“These things I command you, that ye love one another.”  (V.17)

We can further test our love for the Lord God by the level of hatred the world manifests towards us - “If the world hate you, ye know that it hated Me (Christ Jesus) before it hated you.”  (V.18)  Does the world hate you and I?

We prove the depth of our love for Christ by the level of persecution we receive from the world that hates us, because it hates our Saviour, Jesus Christ!  In this manner, what the world desires for our hurt, actually encourages us in ’…the faith once delivered unto the saints…’  Praise God!

Thought:  Do you and I love God?  Is there daily proof of this love?  If so, rejoice, dear Christian, the world’s hatred proves God’s love for us, 'His people'.