July 31, 2014
Today’s reading from Encounter with God

Out of this World?

Please see the links to our EXTRA Bible Study notes at the bottom of the page.

Opening Prayer

Lord, as I read Your Word today, focus my mind and heart on all that is good and right.

Read John 15:18-16:4

For additional translations of the passage, use this link to Bible Gateway.

[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.’ [26] “When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father-the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father-he will testify about me. [27] And you also must testify, for you have been with me from the beginning. [1] “All this I have told you so that you will not fall away. [2] They will put you out of the synagogue; in fact, the time is coming when anyone who kills you will think they are offering a service to God. [3] They will do such things because they have not known the Father or me. [4] I have told you this, so that when their time comes you will remember that I warned you about them. I did not tell you this from the beginning because I was with you,

Scripture taken from the THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION, NIV Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Reflect

“A wide door for effective work has opened … and there are many adversaries” (1 Cor. 16:9, RSV). Opportunities for witness often lead to the privilege to suffer with Christ.

When you read of “the world” in John’s Gospel, do not think only of the earth itself or the realm of nature. Think also of the world of people, and of the relationships that link neighbor to neighbor and nation to nation. The “world” in this Gospel usually means the network of living that we humans have woven on the earth.

In John we discover that the world has two faces, two aspects to its identity. One side reflects God’s love. Ours is a world that God has shaped, loved, touched, entered and illuminated. The world was made through Jesus (2 John 1:10). God loved the world (John 3:16). Jesus came to be the Light of the world (8:12). Surely, we may think, the world is meant to be a realm of beauty and blessing.

Yet its other face is altogether harsher and uglier. Light both gathers and scatters; it draws some and drives others away (3:19-21). The light of Jesus in the world often provokes a harsh reaction. There are people who hate our Lord, and who cannot bear the thought that others love him (18,19). Pressure and persecution have always been part of the church’s story. To use the word “world” as today’s verses do is to speak of humanity turning away from its Lord and Lover. It is to tell of resistance and resentment, of a society trying to hide and hating to see Gospel light shining in its midst.

Too many Christians today know this at close hand. Burning of church buildings, unfair laws, arrest, imprisonment, even death–the incidents are many and widespread, as the words of Jesus continue to tell of the pains of his people. We live in and with a two-faced world. We need to find ways of loving it, even when it does not love in return.

Apply

Find out about a place where Christians have been persecuted recently. Investigate as to whether there is anything you can do to help them.

Closing prayer

Lord, I lift up to Your enabling power my brothers and sisters who are facing hostility for their faith. Give them courage, wisdom and hope.

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