DYNAMIS!
A publication of St. George Orthodox Christian Cathedral
Wichita, KS
Saint John 15:17-16:2
(10/26-11/8)
Great-Martyr Demetrios the Myrrh-Streaming
Love and Hate: Saint John 15:17-16:2, especially vs. 19:
“If you were of the world,
the world would love its own. Yet
because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore
the world hates you.” In this passage the Lord Jesus contrasts love and hate for
His first Disciples and for all who will embrace His teachings. Concerning the word ‘love,’
read carefully, for it appears explicitly in the text only once meaning
‘love’ in the sense that the Lord Jesus means (vs. 17). In another verse, Christ speaks of a
different ‘love,’ one the world has for “...its own”
(vs. 19). Even in the original, the
actual word translated ‘love’ is an altogether different word from
the ‘love’ that Christ teaches. He also speaks of hate a great deal -
eight times in the passage - yet, speaking as Love Himself, His message is
clear: Love prevails over hate. His
love prevails despite hate’s persecution of love, ignorance of love, sin
against love, despising of love and irrational opposition to the love that the
Lord Jesus reveals.
Hate originates from the world (vss. 18,19,23,25),
for, in its sinful condition, the world hates God Who is Love (1 Jn. 4:8). God commands us to “...love one
another” (Jn. 15:17), because His nature is love. He wants us, His beloved ones, to be as He is - truly loving.
Love chooses His own (vs. 19), the faithful, out of
‘the world’ (vss. 18-19), out of the godless, social order of men
that collects hate and produces its works of persecution (vs. 20), of ignorance
of God (vs. 21), and of violent reaction against the Lord Jesus (vss. 21,22,24).
Hate persecutes the servants of Love (vs. 20) who struggle
to hold fast to Christ, for we have been delivered by Him out of the world that
does not know God, and that especially hates Him because His light exposes its
sinfulness (vs. 24).
Love consistently manifests in the person who, in some
manner, ‘knows’ God as He is revealed in Christ Jesus. As a result, when a person keeps the
words of the Apostles (vs. 20), he is responding to God whether he is aware of
the Source of his actions or not (Rom. 2:14-16).
The Lord Jesus is quite clear: His own are ‘in’
the world but not partakers ‘of’ the world (Jn. 15:19); and His
Apostles teach the same
(e.g. 1 Cor 5:9-10). Still, the Lord does not leave us to the
world, but sends the Holy Spirit from the Father to help us (Jn. 15:26).
The Holy Martyrs stand up to death,
and the Holy Confessors remain faithful against all kinds of assaults and
temptations, bearing the hate of the world. How can this be done? The disciple
begins and continues in the Lord and does so “...from the beginning”
(vs. 27).
By sharing in the Mystery of Christ, the followers of the
Lord Jesus receive power not “...to stumble” (vs. 16:1). This is what Jesus means when He refers
to being with Him “...from the beginning” (vs. 15:27). Those united to Christ today are with
Him through all time.
In contrasting His love, ‘agape’ (vs. 17), with
the world’s love, ‘phileo’(vs.
19), the Lord reveals how deformed the world is. His command to love and His love (vs.17)
are life.
Thus Saint Clement of Rome says, “You see, Brethren,
how great and wondrous a thing love is, and that its perfection is beyond
description. Who is able to be
found in it except those whom God considers worthy? Let us then beg and beseech His mercy
that we may be found blameless in love, without human partiality. All the generations from Adam to our own
day have passed away, but those made perfect in love according to the grace of
God have a place among the godly who will be made
manifest when Christ’s kingdom comes.”
O Lord, Who hast taught us that all our doings without love
are worth nothing; send Thy Holy Spirit, and pour into our hearts that most
excellent gift of love, the very bond of peace and of all virtues, without
which whosoever liveth is counted dead before Thee.
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