Church Fathers Commentary John 15:17-21

"These things I command you, that ye may love one another. If the world hateth you, ye know that it hath hated me before [it hated] you. If ye were of the world, the world would love its own: but because ye are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. Remember the word that I said unto you, A servant is not greater than his lord. If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they kept my word, they will keep yours also. But all these things will they do unto you for my name`s sake, because they know not him that sent me." — John 15:17-21 (ASV)

St. Augustine of Hippo: Our Lord had said, I have ordained you that you should go and bring forth fruit. Love is this fruit. Therefore, He continues, These things I command you, that you love one another. This is why the Apostle said, The fruit of the Spirit is love (Galatians 5:22), and lists all other graces as springing from this source. Our Lord, then, rightly commends love as if it were the only thing commanded, since without it, nothing can be of benefit, and with it, nothing is lacking by which a person is made good.

St. John Chrysostom: Or, to put it another way: I have said that I lay down My life for you and that I chose you first. I have said this not as a reproach, but to persuade you to love one another. Then, as they were about to suffer persecution and reproach, He tells them not to grieve but to rejoice on that account: If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. It is as if He were saying: I know it is a hard trial, but you will endure it for My sake.

St. Augustine of Hippo: For why should the members exalt themselves above the head? You refuse to be in the body if you are not willing to endure the world’s hatred along with the head. For the sake of love, let us be patient. The world must hate us, since it sees that we hate whatever it loves. If you were of the world, the world would love his own.

St. John Chrysostom: As if Christ’s suffering were not enough consolation, He consoles them further by telling them that the world’s hatred would be a proof of their goodness. Therefore, they should grieve instead if they were loved by the world, as that would be a proof of their wickedness.

St. Augustine of Hippo: He said this to the whole Church, which is often called “the world,” as in the passage, God was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself (2 Corinthians 5:19). The whole world, then, is the Church, and the whole world hates the Church. The world that is hostile hates the world that has been reconciled; the defiled world hates the cleansed world.

Here it may be asked: If the wicked can be said to persecute the wicked—for example, if impious kings and judges who persecute the righteous also punish murderers and adulterers—how are we to understand our Lord’s words, If you were of the world, the world would love his own? The answer is this: The “world” is in those who punish these offenses, and the “world” is also in those who love them. The world, then, hates its own insofar as it punishes the wicked, but loves its own insofar as it favors them.

Again, if it is asked how the world can love itself when it hates the means of its own redemption, the answer is that it loves itself with a false love, not a true one. It loves what harms it; it hates its own nature but loves its vice. Therefore, we are forbidden to love what the world loves in itself, and we are commanded to love what it hates in itself. We are forbidden to love the vice in it, but we are commanded to love the human nature in it.

And to separate us from this lost world, we are chosen out of it—not by our own merit, for we had no merits to begin with, nor by our nature, which was radically corrupt, but by grace: But because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.

St. Gregory the Great: For the criticism of the wicked is a credit to us. There is nothing wrong with not pleasing those who do not please God. For no one can, by the very same act, please both God and the enemies of God. A person who pleases God’s enemy proves himself to be no friend of God, and whoever’s soul is subject to the Truth will have to contend with the enemies of that Truth.

St. Augustine of Hippo: In exhorting His servants to bear the world’s hatred patiently, our Lord offers them the highest and best possible example: Himself. Remember the word that I said to you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept My saying, they will keep yours also.

Glossa Ordinaria: They paid attention to His word only to slander it, as we read in the Psalms, The ungodly sees the righteous.

Theophylact of Ohrid: Or, to put it another way: He is saying that if they persecuted your Lord, they will much more certainly persecute you. If, on the other hand, they had persecuted Him but still kept His commandments, then they would keep yours also.

St. John Chrysostom: It is as if He said, “You must not be troubled at having to share My sufferings, for you are not better than I am.”

St. Augustine of Hippo: The servant is not greater than his lord. Here, the servant is the one who has the purified fear, which endures forever.

St. John Chrysostom: Then another consolation follows, namely, that the Father is despised and wronged along with them: But all these things will they do unto you for My name’s sake, because they know not Him that sent Me.

St. Augustine of Hippo: “All these things” refers to what He had just mentioned: that the world would hate them, persecute them, and despise their word. “For My Name’s sake” means that in hating you, they will hate Me; in persecuting you, they will persecute Me; and they will not keep your word because it is Mine. Those who do these things are as miserable as those who suffer them are blessed—except when these things are done to the wicked, for then both those who inflict and those who suffer are miserable.

But how can persecutors be said to do these things “for His name’s sake,” when they are not acting for Christ’s name—that is, for the sake of justice? We can resolve this difficulty if we understand the phrase as applying to the righteous who suffer, as if Christ had said, “All these things you will suffer from them for My name’s sake.” In this case, “for My name’s sake” means for the sake of My name which they hate in you, and for the sake of justice which they hate in you.

By this same logic, when the good persecute the wicked, it can be said that they do so both for the sake of the righteousness they love (which is their motive) and for the sake of the unrighteousness they hate (which is the object of their action). Finally, the reason the world does this is, Because they know not Him that sent Me. This means they do not know God according to that knowledge of which it is said, To know you is perfect righteousness (Wisdom 15:3).