loved and hated

Good afternoon brothers and sisters,
It's been good to have a change of scene and it's good to be back home and back in the office. I hope all is well with you. Today's reading continues Jesus' words to his disciples on his last evening with them. He warns that as they continue in his ministry, they will face the same opposition from the world that he did. Likewise for us: if we're really doing God's work, that will sometimes lead us into conflict with the world around us.

That doesn't mean we're supposed to seek conflict, only that when you stand up for what's right in a society that is most interested in money and success, you're likely to be unpopular. No matter whether people love the message or hate the message, we are called to be faithful to Jesus. In that faithfulness we find freedom.

God bless,
Sam

John 15:18-27

¹⁸”If the world hates you, be aware that it hated me before it hated you. ¹⁹If you belonged to the world, the world would love you as its own. Because you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world—therefore the world hates you.

²⁰Remember the word that I said to you, ‘Servants are not greater than their master.’ If they persecuted me, they will persecute you; if they kept my word, they will keep yours also. ²¹But they will do all these things to you on account of my name, because they do not know him who sent me.

²²If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin. ²³Whoever hates me hates my Father also. ²⁴If I had not done among them the works that no one else did, they would not have sin. But now they have seen and hated both me and my Father. ²⁵It was to fulfill the word that is written in their law, ‘They hated me without a cause.’

²⁶”When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who comes from the Father, he will testify on my behalf. ²⁷You also are to testify because you have been with me from the beginning.