Like Master, Like Servant
Opening Prayer
Jesus, I am Yours, in the good and the bad. Teach me to be faithful always.
Read John 15:18–25
18 “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. 19 If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. 20 Remember what I told you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also. 21 They will treat you this way because of my name, for they do not know the one who sent me. 22 If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin. 23 Whoever hates me hates my Father as well. 24 If I had not done among them the works no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin. As it is, they have seen, and yet they have hated both me and my Father. 25 But this is to fulfill what is written in their Law: ‘They hated me without reason.’
New International Version (NIV)
Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Reflect
How do people treat you for being a Christian? How does that make you feel? How do you respond?Jesus gives some hard-to-swallow truths here. The world hates him, and therefore it will hate us too (18). Like Master, like servant (20). Why does the world hate Jesus?
Children’s bedrooms often look calm and peaceful, until you switch the light on and see the mess. It’s not that they weren’t messy in the dark, but just that the light makes the mess plain (22). In a similar way, people hate Jesus because he shows them the Father (21,23; 16:3). He shows them what true holiness and goodness look like, and they hate him because he exposes them (22,24). That hatred may be irrational (25), but it will drive them to kill him.
If you belong to Jesus and want to walk closely with him, your life will do the same. As he reveals the Father, so you start to reflect him. And so people will hate you. In a way, it’s nothing personal. It’s like wearing the wrong football jersey and standing with the wrong fans.
Those supporters aren’t against you personally, but they resent who you stand for. If you’d been like them, they would have loved you as their own (19).
Apply
Allow your Christ-life to direct how you respond to people, even hateful ones. Remember that they treated Jesus the same way.
Closing prayer
Christ, I need You. May Your love overflow from me as I follow in Your footsteps.
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