Lecture 4 — The world’s hatred

^15:18^ If the world hates you, know that it hated me before you. [n. 2031]

^15:19^ If you had been of the world, the world would love its own: but because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. [n. 2033]

^15:20^ Remember my word that I spoke to you: the servant is not greater than his master. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you: if they have kept my word, they will keep yours also. [n. 2040]

^15:21^ But all these things they will do to you for my name’s sake: because they know not him who sent me. [n. 2043]

2030. After presenting the image of the vine and the branches and explaining the part about the branches being united to the vine, he now explains it in regard to the pruning or cleansing they will receive from their trials. So our Lord now consoles them against the tribulations they were going to endure.

First, he mentions a few considerations which will console them;

second, he explains these: remember my word that I spoke to you.

third, he rejects the excuses of those who will persecute them: if I had not come, and spoken to them, they would not have sin (John 15:22).

He mentions two reasons why they should be consoled:

the first uses himself as an example;

the second is based on the reason for their being hated, because you are not of the world.

2031. Our Lord consoles them by using himself as an example of one who has suffered the persecution of oppressors, saying, if the world hates you, know that it hated me before you. Note that just as the source of all benefits is love, so the source of all persecutions is hatred. And so our Lord foretells that they will be hated: you will be hated by all nations (Matt 24:9); blessed are you when men hate you (Luke 6:22).

He says, if the world hates you, that is, it will come to pass that the world will hate you, and show its hatred by persecuting you, know that it hated me before you: above, the world cannot hate you, but it hates me (John 7:7). This thought is a great consolation for the just so that they can courageously endure persecutions: consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted (Heb 12:3); Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps (1 Pet 2:21). According to Augustine, the members should not consider themselves greater than the Head, nor refuse to be part of his body by being unwilling to endure with their Head the hatred of the world.

2032. The world can have two meanings. First a good meaning, for those who lead a good life in the world: God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself (2 Cor 5:19). Second, it can have an evil sense, meaning those who love the world: the whole world is in the power of the evil one (1 John 5:19). And so the whole world hates the whole world, because those who love the world, and they are spread throughout the whole world, hate the whole world, that is, the Church of the good, which has been established throughout the whole world.

2033. If you had been of the world, now he mentions a second point for their consolation, and this is based on the reason for their being hated. When a person endures another’s hatred because of his own sins, there is reason for regret and sorrow; but when he is hated because of his virtue he should rejoice.

First, our Lord gives the reason why some are loved by the world;

second, why the apostles are hated by the world: because you are not of the world . . . therefore the world hates you.

2034. The reason why some are loved by the world is that they are like the world; if you had been of the world, the world would love its own. Like loves like: every creature loves its like (Sir 13:15). And thus the world, that is, those who love the world, love those who love the world. Accordingly, our Lord says, if you had been of the world, that is, followers of the world, the world would love its own, because you would be its own and like to it: the world cannot hate you, but it hates me (John 7:7). They are of the world, therefore what they say is of the world, and the world listens to them (1 John 4:5).

2035. One might object that our Lord meant by the world the authorities of the world, who would persecute the apostles. Yet these very same authorities persecute other worldly people, like murderers and thieves. Therefore, the world does not love its own any more than it loves the apostles.

I reply that it is possible to find something purely good, but not something purely evil, since the subject of evil is something good. Consequently, the evil of guilt is located in some good of nature. Therefore, no person can be a sinner and evil without having some good. So it is because of the evil of these authorities, the evil of their unbelief, that they belong to the world and hate the apostles and those who are not of the world. But because of the good they possess, they are not of the world and hate those who are of the world, as thieves and robbers, and such. Still, there were some who were living well in the world yet loved the apostles and approved of their actions.

2036. But now there seems to be a greater difficulty. For every sin pertains to the world, and so a person is of the world by reason of any sin. Yet we observe that people who commit the same sin hate each other, for example, the proud: among the proud there is always strife (Prov 13:10). And one greedy person hates another who is also greedy. As the Philosopher says, potters quarrel with one another. Thus, the world is hating the world, and what our Lord says here does not seem to be true, that is, the world would love its own.

I reply that there are two kinds of love: the love of friendship and the love of concupiscence. These are quite different. With the love of concupiscence we draw external things or persons to ourselves, and we love these others insofar as they are useful to us or give us pleasure. But in the love of friendship we have the opposite, for we draw ourselves to what is external to us, because those we love in this way we treat the same as ourselves, sharing ourselves with them in some way. Thus, likeness is a cause of love, when we are speaking of the love of friendship, for we do not love a person in this way unless we are one with that person: and likeness is a certain way of being one. But with the love of concupiscence, whether it is for what is useful or gives pleasure, likeness is a cause of division and hated. For since with this love I love some person or thing insofar as it is useful to me or gives me pleasure, I hate as opposed to me whatever hinders this usefulness or pleasure. So it is that the proud feud among themselves, for one takes for himself the glory that another loves and in which he takes pleasure. As for the potters, they quarrel because one takes for himself some profit which another wants for himself.

Notice that the love of concupiscence is not a love for the thing desired but a love for the person desiring: for in this kind of love, one loves another because the other is useful, as was said. Therefore, in this kind of love, one is rather loving himself than the other. For example, a person who loves wine because it gives him pleasure loves himself rather than the wine. But the love of friendship is concerned rather with the thing loved than with the one loving, because here one loves another for the sake of the one loved, and not for the sake of the one loving. And so because in the love of friendship likeness is a cause of love, and unlikeness a cause of hatred, the world hates what is not its own and is unlike it; but it loves, with the love of friendship, what is its own. It is the reverse with the love of concupiscence. Thus he says, if you had been of the world, the world would love its own, with the love of friendship.

2037. Now he gives the reason why the world hates the apostles, which is because they are unlike the world. He says, because you are not of the world, because your spirit has been lifted above it, although you are of the world by your origin: you are from below, and I am from above (John 8:23), lifted above it not by yourselves but by my grace, because I have chosen you out of the world, therefore, because you are not of the world, the world hates you, that is, those who love the world and who are unlike you, hate you: an unjust man is an abomination to the righteous, but he whose way is straight is an abomination to the wicked (Prov 29:27); and in the same chapter bloodthirsty men hate one who is blameless (Prov 29:10).

2038. Three reasons can be given why the world hates those who are holy. First, there is a difference of condition: the world is in a state of death, but those who are holy are in a state of life: do not wonder, brethren, that the world hates you. We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brethren (1 John 3:13). And so we read: the very sight of him is a burden to us (Wis 2:15). The second reason is that the world does not like to be corrected: for those who are holy are, by their words and actions, a rebuke to the conduct of the world. Consequently the world hates them: they hate him who reproves in the gate (Amos 5:10); but it, the world, hates me, because I give testimony against it, that its works are evil (John 7:7). The third reason is because of evil envy, for those who are evil envy the good when they see them grow and increase in goodness and holiness, just like the Egyptians hated and persecuted the children of Israel when they saw them increasing (Exod 1:9). And we also see that Joseph’s brothers hated him when they saw that he was loved more than they (Gen 37:4).

2039. Now he amplifies on the reasons just given for their consolation:

first, the one using himself as an example;

second, the one relating to the reason why they are hated: but all these things they will do to you for my name’s sake.

He does two things with the first:

first, he reminds them that he and they are different in condition;

second, he shows they are alike in what will be done to them, if they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you.

2040. Their different conditions were that Christ was the Lord and the apostles were servants: the servant is not greater than his master (John 13:16). He reminds them of this difference when he says, remember my word that I spoke to you, namely, as said above, the servant is not greater than his master (John 13:16). Therefore, it is not unfitting for you to undergo the same sufferings as your Lord; rather, you should regard this as a great glory. Thus Christ said to the disciples who were asking to sit on his right and left, are you able to drink the cup that I am to drink? (Matt 20:22). It is a great honor to follow God (Sir 23:28); it is enough for the disciple to be like his teacher (Matt 10:25).

2041. On the contrary. He said above, **I will not now call you servants **(John 15:15), while he says here, **the servant is not greater than his master **(John 13:16).

I answer that there are two kinds of servitude. One comes from a slavish fear, that is, from a fear of punishment; and the apostles were not servants in this way. The other comes from a chaste fear, and such servitude was in the apostles: blessed are those servants whom the master finds awake when he comes (Luke 12:37).

2042. If then you are my servants and I am your Lord, you should be content to have happen to you what happens to me. Now some have despised me, while others have accepted me: he came unto his own, and his own received him not. But as many as received him, he gave them power to be made the sons of God (John 1:11–12). You will be treated the same way: if some despise you, yet others will honor you.

For this reason he says, if they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you. Here we see how the saints are like Christ: for the disciples were persecuted for the same reason that Christ was, because Christ was being persecuted in the disciples. In fact, Christ said that he was being persecuted in the persecution of his disciples: Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? (Acts 9:4). And so because their reason for acting is the same in the two cases, the consequence follows: if they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you: if they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign those of his household (Matt 10:25); therefore I send you prophets and wise men and scribes, some of whom you will kill and crucify, and some you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute from town to town (Matt 23:34).

Similarly, they will be honored for the same reason that Christ was: if they kept my word, they will keep yours also, because your words are my words: you desire proof that Christ is speaking in me (2 Cor 13:3); for it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you (Matt 10:20). And so Christ says, he who hears you hears me (Luke 10:16). The apostles were in truth accepted and honored by some of the people, as is clear from when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God (1 Thess 2:13).

2043. Now he amplifies on the second consideration that would console them, which is based on the reason for their being hated. The apostles were chosen and raised above the world insofar as they had been made sharers of divinity and joined to God. This is why the world hated them. From this it follows that the world rather hated God in them than hated them. The reason for this hatred was that the world lacked the true knowledge of God which comes from the true faith and devoted love. If they did have this knowledge and recognized that the apostles were friends of God, they would not have persecuted them.

Thus he says, all these things they will do to you, that is, hate and persecute you, for my name’s sake. And so this should be your glory: let none of you suffer as a murderer, or a thief, or a wrongdoer, or a mischief-maker; yet if one suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but under that name let him glorify God (1 Pet 4:14). For my name’s sake, not because they love me, but because they hate me; just as, on the contrary, you will suffer on my account because you love me. They will do these things to you because they do not know him who sent me: as said above, if you did know me, you would perhaps know my Father also (John 8:19). For they did not know that God would be pleased by their accepting Christ.

Note that he is speaking here of a perfect knowledge, which consists in a faith which perfects the intellect and joins the affections to God. We read of this kind of knowledge: let him who glories glory in this, that he understands and knows me (Jer 9:24); to know you is complete righteousness (Wis 15:3).