{"id":316,"date":"2024-02-14T03:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-02-14T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/reflectivebiblestudy.com\/gospeladventure\/?p=316&2024"},"modified":"2024-02-12T17:00:14","modified_gmt":"2024-02-13T00:00:14","slug":"focus-on-the-father-john-15-18-16-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/reflectivebiblestudy.com\/gospeladventure\/focus-on-the-father-john-15-18-16-4\/","title":{"rendered":"Focus on the Father: John 15:18-16:4"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"spoiler spoiler-style-2\"><div class=\"spoiler-title\">Focus Passage: John 15:18-16:4 (NASB)<\/div><div class=\"spoiler-content\" style=\"display: none;\"><p><sup>18<\/sup>\u00a0<span class=\"red-letter\">&#8220;If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before <em>it hated<\/em> you.<\/span> <sup>19<\/sup>\u00a0<span class=\"red-letter\">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.<\/span> <sup>20<\/sup>\u00a0<span class=\"red-letter\">Remember the word that I said to you, &#8216;A slave is not greater than his master.&#8217; If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; if they kept My word, they will keep yours also.<\/span> <sup>21<\/sup>\u00a0<span class=\"red-letter\">But all these things they will do to you for My name&#8217;s sake, because they do not know the One who sent Me.<\/span> <sup>22<\/sup>\u00a0<span class=\"red-letter\">If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin.<\/span> <sup>23<\/sup>\u00a0<span class=\"red-letter\">He who hates Me hates My Father also.<\/span> <sup>24<\/sup>\u00a0<span class=\"red-letter\">If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would not have sin; but now they have both seen and hated Me and My Father as well.<\/span> <sup>25<\/sup>\u00a0<span class=\"red-letter\">But <em>they have done this<\/em> to fulfill the word that is written in their Law, &#8216;T<span class=\"small-caps\">HEY HATED<\/span> M<span class=\"small-caps\">E WITHOUT A CAUSE<\/span>.&#8217;<\/span> <\/p><p><sup>26<\/sup>\u00a0<span class=\"red-letter\">&#8220;When the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, <em>that is<\/em> the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify about Me,<\/span> <sup>27<\/sup>\u00a0<span class=\"red-letter\">and you <em>will<\/em> testify also, because you have been with Me from the beginning.<\/span> <\/p><p> <sup>16:<\/sup><sup>1<\/sup>\u00a0<span class=\"red-letter\">&#8220;These things I have spoken to you so that you may be kept from stumbling.<\/span> <sup>2<\/sup>\u00a0<span class=\"red-letter\">They will make you outcasts from the synagogue, but an hour is coming for everyone who kills you to think that he is offering service to God.<\/span> <sup>3<\/sup>\u00a0<span class=\"red-letter\">These things they will do because they have not known the Father or Me.<\/span> <sup>4<\/sup>\u00a0<span class=\"red-letter\">But these things I have spoken to you, so that when their hour comes, you may remember that I told you of them. These things I did not say to you at the beginning, because I was with you.<\/span><\/p><p class=\"passage-read-more\">Read <a href=\"http:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?search=john 15:18-16:4&amp;version=NASB\" title=\"Read the passage on BibleGateway.com\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"hyperlink-underlined\">John 15:18-16:4<\/a> in context and\/or in other translations on BibleGateway.com!<\/p><\/div><\/div>\r\n<p>Whenever I read this passage, I am struck by the words that Jesus says right at the beginning, \u201cIf the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before <em>it hated<\/em> you.\u201d (v. 18)<\/p>\r\n<p>Jesus then goes on to share the truth that servants are not greater than their masters, and that the person who hates Jesus also hates the Father as well.<\/p>\r\n<p>In the New Testament time period, religious people were the ones that seemed the most opposed to Jesus. The world outside Judea largely ignored what was going on in that region. With that said, was Jesus just talking about church people hating His true followers or is there more to this teaching?<\/p>\r\n<p>As is often the case, I believe there is more to this teaching \u2013 a subtle hidden layer beneath the surface. We can find a clue to one of these subtle truths in John 15:21 and it is restated a second time in a different way in John 16:3. \u00a0This subtle truth is that the world does not know the Father.<\/p>\r\n<p>We could expand this truth to say that the world might include everyone \u2013 both sacred \u201cChristians\u201d as well as secular atheists \u2013 who do not know the Father. Those who do not know the Father will never understand who Jesus was and why He came. These people will minimize Jesus\u2019 role and His significance to being someone who had some good things to say but who probably should have kept better company since one of those in His inner circle of twelve betrayed Him. <\/p>\r\n<p>This leads me into a big theme\/idea that I see in this passage: <strong>I should be more focused on growing closer to Jesus and the Father than on caring what others think about me. My focus should not be on getting others to like me, but on modeling the Father\u2019s love for humanity as demonstrated in Jesus\u2019 life and ministry.<\/strong><\/p>\r\n<p>I will never be greater than Jesus, but I can be an example of who He is to today\u2019s world \u2013 specifically to the little corner of the world that I live in!<\/p>\r\n<div id=\"aj-wrap-up--316\" class=\"aj-wrap-up\"><p><em>This thought was inspired by studying the <strong>Walking With Jesus<\/strong> \u201cReflective Bible Study\u201d package. To discover insights like this in your own study time, <a class=\"underline\" href=\"https:\/\/reflectivebiblestudy.com\/\" title=\"Check out Reflective Bible Study!\">click here<\/a> and give Reflective Bible Study a try today!<\/em><\/p><p><em><a class=\"underline\" href=\"javascript:void(0);\" onClick=\"rbs_aj_inline_subscribe(this, '316');\">Subscribe<\/a> to this blog and never miss an insight.<\/em><\/p><\/div>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Whenever I read this passage, I am struck by the words that Jesus says right at the beginning, \u201cIf the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you.\u201d (v. 18) Jesus then goes on to share the truth that servants are not greater than their masters, and that the [&hellip;]","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-316","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-text"],"nelio_content":{"autoShareEndMode":"never","automationSources":{"useCustomSentences":false,"customSentences":[]},"efiAlt":"","efiUrl":"","followers":[2],"highlights":[],"isAutoShareEnabled":false,"networkImageIds":[],"permalinkQueryArgs":[],"series":[],"suggestedReferences":[]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - 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