If the world hates you, understand that it hated Me first.
Parallel translations
- WEB If the world hates you, you know that it has hated me before it hated you.
- KJV If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you.
- NKJV “If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you.
- NASB “If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you.
- NLT “If the world hates you, remember that it hated me first.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Jesus warns that if the world hates the disciples, they should know it hated Him first. Hostility toward believers flows from hostility toward Christ.
Overview
Turning from love within the community to opposition from outside, Jesus prepares the disciples for the world's hatred. Such hatred is not surprising or a sign of failure; it follows from their identification with Him, who was hated first. Knowing that persecution traces back to the world's rejection of Christ helps believers endure it without being shaken.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 17
- 1 Jn 3:13So do not be surprised, brothers, if the world hates you.
- John 7:7The world cannot hate you, but it hates Me, because I testify that its works are evil.
- Luke 6:22Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you and insult you and reject your name as evil because of the Son of Man.
- Mark 13:13You will be hated by everyone because of My name, but the one who perseveres to the end will be saved.
- John 3:20Everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come into the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed.
- Matt 10:22You will be hated by everyone because of My name, but the one who perseveres to the end will be saved.
- 1 Jn 3:1Behold what manner of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God. And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know Him.
- Matt 5:11Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me.
- Jas 4:4You adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore, whoever chooses to be a friend of the world renders himself an enemy of God.
- Heb 12:2Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
- John 15:23–25Whoever hates Me hates My Father as well.
- 1 Kgs 22:8The king of Israel answered, “There is still one man who can ask the LORD, but I hate him because he never prophesies anything good for me, but only bad. He is Micaiah son of Imlah.” “The king should not say that!” Jehoshaphat replied.
- Isa 53:3He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief. Like one from whom men hide their faces, He was despised, and we esteemed Him not.
- Matt 24:9Then they will deliver you over to be persecuted and killed, and you will be hated by all nations because of My name.
- Isa 49:7Thus says the LORD, the Redeemer and Holy One of Israel, to Him who was despised and abhorred by the nation, to the Servant of rulers: “Kings will see You and rise, and princes will bow down, because of the LORD, who is faithful, the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen You.”
- 1 Jn 3:3And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as Christ is pure.
- Zech 11:8And in one month I dismissed three shepherds. My soul grew impatient with the flock, and their souls also detested me.
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Christ at the center
John declares him plainly: the eternal Word made flesh, the Lamb of God, the great 'I AM' — bread, light, door, shepherd, way, truth, life, resurrection — that you may believe and have life in his name.
How John 15:18 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Greek word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.