Verse 13
If we feel loving concern for one another, it should not surprise us if unrighteous people hate us for being more righteous than they are. Apparently John’s first readers could not understand why the world hated them, because he wrote, "Stop marveling." Christians are to the world what Abel was to Cain, so we should not be surprised if the world hates us. Sometimes unbelievers who become angry with us, for example, are reacting more against God in us than they are reacting against us personally.
"Of central importance for victory when a Christian is subjected to the world’s hatred is the recognition that hatred is the natural response of the sinful world toward righteousness." [Note: Hiebert, "An Expositional . . .," 146:302.]
"The author does not say that the world always hates believers. It did not always hate Jesus. But whenever the community of faith acts so as to expose the greed, the avarice, the hatred, and the wickedness of the world, it must expect rejection; and if it should go so far as to interfere with its evil practices, as Jesus did in the temple, it may expect suffering and brutal death (cf. John 15:18-19; John 15:25; John 17:14)." [Note: Barker, p. 335.]
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