Thomas Aquinas Commentary John 15:18-21

"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 15:18-21 (ASV)

1. After presenting the image of the vine and the branches and explaining how the branches are united to the vine, our Lord now explains the pruning or cleansing the disciples will receive from their trials. He consoles them against the tribulations they were going to endure.

He does this in three parts:

1. First, he mentions a few considerations that will console them.
2. Second, he explains these, beginning with, remember my word that I spoke to you.
3. Third, he rejects the excuses of those who will persecute them: if I had not come, and spoken to them, they would not have sin (John 15:22).

He mentions two reasons why they should be consoled:

• The first uses himself as an example.
• The second is based on the reason for their being hated: because you are not of the world.

2. Our Lord consoles them by using himself as an example of one who has suffered persecution from oppressors, saying, if the world hates you, know that it hated me before you. Note that just as the source of all benefits is love, so the source of all persecutions is hatred. And so our Lord foretells that they will be hated: you will be hated by all nations (Matthew 24:9); blessed are you when men hate you (Luke 6:22).

He says, if the world hates you—that is, it will come to pass that the world will hate you and show its hatred by persecuting you—know that it hated me before you. As he said previously, the world cannot hate you, but it hates me (John 7:7). This thought is a great consolation for the just, enabling them to courageously endure persecutions: consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted (Hebrews 12:3); Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps (1 Peter 2:21).

According to Augustine, the members should not consider themselves greater than the Head, nor refuse to be part of his body by being unwilling to endure with their Head the hatred of the world.

3. The world can have two meanings. First, it can have a good meaning, for those who lead a good life in the world: God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself (2 Corinthians 5:19). Second, it can have an evil sense, meaning those who love the world: the whole world is in the power of the evil one (1 John 5:19). And so the whole world hates the whole world, because those who love the world—and they are spread throughout the whole world—hate the whole world, that is, the Church of the good, which has been established throughout the whole world.

4. If you had been of the world. Now he mentions a second point for their consolation, which is based on the reason for their being hated. When a person endures another’s hatred because of his own sins, there is reason for regret and sorrow; but when he is hated because of his virtue, he should rejoice.

First, our Lord gives the reason why some are loved by the world. Second, he gives the reason why the apostles are hated by the world: because you are not of the world . . . therefore the world hates you.

5. The reason some are loved by the world is that they are like the world: if you had been of the world, the world would love its own. Like loves like: every creature loves its like . And thus the world—that is, those who love the world—loves those who love the world. Accordingly, our Lord says, if you had been of the world, that is, followers of the world, the world would love its own, because you would be its own and like it: the world cannot hate you, but it hates me (John 7:7). They are of the world, therefore what they say is of the world, and the world listens to them (1 John 4:5).

6. One might object that our Lord meant by “the world” the authorities of the world, who would persecute the apostles. Yet these same authorities persecute other worldly people, like murderers and thieves. Therefore, the world does not love its own any more than it loves the apostles.

I reply that it is possible to find something purely good, but not something purely evil, since the subject of evil is something good. Consequently, the evil of guilt is located in some good of nature. Therefore, no person can be a sinner and evil without having some good. So it is because of the evil of these authorities—the evil of their unbelief—that they belong to the world and hate the apostles and those who are not of the world. But because of the good they possess, they are not of the world and hate those who are of the world, such as thieves and robbers.

7. But now a greater difficulty seems to arise. Every sin pertains to the world, and so a person is “of the world” by reason of any sin. Yet we observe that people who commit the same sin hate each other. For example, the proud: among the proud there is always strife (Proverbs 13:10). One greedy person hates another who is also greedy. As the Philosopher says, “potters quarrel with one another.” Thus, the world hates the world, and what our Lord says here—the world would love its own—does not seem to be true.

I reply that there are two kinds of love: the love of friendship and the love of concupiscence. These are quite different. With the love of concupiscence, we draw external things or people to ourselves, loving them insofar as they are useful or pleasurable to us. In the love of friendship, however, the opposite occurs: we draw ourselves to what is external, treating those we love as we treat ourselves and sharing ourselves with them in some way.

Therefore, likeness is a cause of love when we are speaking of the love of friendship, for we do not love a person in this way unless we are one with them, and likeness is a certain way of being one. But with the love of concupiscence—whether for what is useful or what gives pleasure—likeness is a cause of division and hatred. Since with this love I love a person or thing insofar as it is useful or pleasurable to me, I hate whatever hinders that usefulness or pleasure as something opposed to me. This is why the proud feud among themselves, for one takes for himself the glory that another loves and takes pleasure in. Likewise, potters quarrel because one takes for himself a profit that another wants.

Notice that the love of concupiscence is not a love for the thing desired but a love for the person desiring. In this kind of love, one loves another because the other is useful, as was said. Therefore, one is loving himself rather than the other. For example, a person who loves wine because it gives him pleasure loves himself rather than the wine. The love of friendship, however, is concerned more with the one loved than with the one loving, because here one loves another for the sake of the one loved, not for the sake of the one loving.

Because likeness is a cause of love in friendship, and unlikeness a cause of hatred, the world hates what is not its own and is unlike it. But it loves what is its own with the love of friendship. The reverse is true with the love of concupiscence. Thus, our Lord says, if you had been of the world, the world would love its own—that is, with the love of friendship.

8. Now he gives the reason why the world hates the apostles: because they are unlike the world. He says, because you are not of the world—because your spirit has been lifted above it, although you are of the world by your origin: you are from below, I am from above (John 8:23). You are lifted above it not by yourselves but by my grace, because I have chosen you out of the world. Therefore, because you are not of the world, the world hates you. That is, those who love the world and who are unlike you, hate you: an unjust man is an abomination to the righteous, but he whose way is straight is an abomination to the wicked (Proverbs 29:27); and in the same chapter, bloodthirsty men hate one who is blameless (Proverbs 29:10).

9. Three reasons can be given why the world hates those who are holy.

1. There is a difference of condition: the world is in a state of death, but those who are holy are in a state of life. Do not wonder, brothers, that the world hates you. We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brethren (1 John 3:13). And so we read: the very sight of him is a burden to us .
2. The world does not like to be corrected, for the words and actions of the holy are a rebuke to the conduct of the world. Consequently, the world hates them: they hate him who reproves in the gate (Amos 5:10); but it [the world] hates me, because I give testimony against it, that its works are evil (John 7:7).
3. The third reason is evil envy, for the evil envy the good when they see them grow and increase in goodness and holiness, just as the Egyptians hated and persecuted the children of Israel when they saw them increasing (Exodus 1:9). We also see that Joseph’s brothers hated him when they saw that he was loved more than they (Genesis 37:4).

10. Now he expands on the reasons just given for their consolation:

• The first reason, using himself as an example.
• The second reason, relating to why they are hated: but all these things they will do to you for my name’s sake.

Regarding the first reason, he does two things:

• First, he reminds them that he and they are different in status.
• Second, he shows they are alike in what will be done to them: if they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you.

11. Their different statuses were that Christ was the Lord and the apostles were servants: the servant is not greater than his master (John 13:16). He reminds them of this difference when he says, remember my word that I spoke to you, namely, as said above, the servant is not greater than his master (John 13:16). Therefore, it is not inappropriate for you to undergo the same sufferings as your Lord; rather, you should regard this as a great glory. Thus Christ said to the disciples who were asking to sit on his right and left, are you able to drink the cup that I am to drink? (Matthew 20:22). It is a great honor to follow God ; it is enough for the disciple to be like his teacher (Matthew 10:25).

12. On the contrary, he said above, I will not now call you servants (John 15:15), while he says here, the servant is not greater than his master (John 13:16).

I answer that there are two kinds of servitude. One comes from a slavish fear, that is, from a fear of punishment; the apostles were not servants in this way. The other comes from a chaste fear, and such servitude was in the apostles: blessed are those servants whom the master finds awake when he comes (Luke 12:37).

13. If then you are my servants and I am your Lord, you should be content to have happen to you what happens to me. Now, some have despised me, while others have accepted me: he came to his own, and his own received him not. But as many as received him, he gave them power to become the sons of God (John 1:11–12). You will be treated the same way: if some despise you, yet others will honor you.

For this reason he says, if they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you. Here we see how the saints are like Christ, for the disciples were persecuted for the same reason that Christ was: because Christ was being persecuted in the disciples. In fact, Christ said that he was being persecuted in the persecution of his disciples: Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? (Acts 9:4). And so because their reason for acting is the same in both cases, the consequence follows: if they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign those of his household (Matthew 10:25); therefore I send you prophets and wise men and scribes, some of whom you will kill and crucify, and some you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute from town to town (Matthew 23:34).

Similarly, they will be honored for the same reason that Christ was: if they kept my word, they will keep yours also, because your words are my words: you desire proof that Christ is speaking in me (2 Corinthians 13:3); for it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you (Matthew 10:20). And so Christ says, he who hears you hears me (Luke 10:16). The apostles were in truth accepted and honored by some of the people, as is clear from: when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God (1 Thessalonians 2:13).

14. Now he expands on the second consideration that would console them, which is based on the reason for their being hated. The apostles were chosen and raised above the world insofar as they had been made sharers of divinity and joined to God. This is why the world hated them. From this it follows that the world hated God in them rather than them. The reason for this hatred was that the world lacked the true knowledge of God which comes from true faith and devoted love. If they did have this knowledge and recognized that the apostles were friends of God, they would not have persecuted them.

Thus he says, all these things they will do to you for my name’s sake. And so this should be your glory: let none of you suffer as a murderer, or a thief, or a wrongdoer, or a mischief-maker; yet if one suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but under that name let him glorify God (1 Peter 4:15–16). For my name’s sake—not because they love me, but because they hate me; just as, on the contrary, you will suffer on my account because you love me. They will do these things to you because they do not know him who sent me. As was said before, if you did know me, you would perhaps know my Father also (John 8:19). For they did not know that God would be pleased by their accepting Christ.

Note that he is speaking here of a perfect knowledge, which consists in a faith that perfects the intellect and joins the affections to God. We read of this kind of knowledge: let him who glories glory in this, that he understands and knows me (Jeremiah 9:24); to know you is complete righteousness .