If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you.
Parallel translations
- WEB If the world hates you, you know that it has hated me before it hated you.
- BSB If the world hates you, understand that it hated Me first.
- 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 3:13Marvel not, my brethren, if the world hate you.
- John 7:7The world cannot hate you; but me it hateth, because I testify of it, that the works thereof are evil.
- Luke 6:22Blessed are ye, when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you from their company, and shall reproach you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of man’s sake.
- Mark 13:13And ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake: but he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.
- John 3:20For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.
- Matt 10:22And ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake: but he that endureth to the end shall be saved.
- 1 Jn 3:1Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not.
- Matt 5:11Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake.
- Jas 4:4Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.
- Heb 12:2Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.
- John 15:23–25He that hateth me hateth my Father also.
- 1 Kgs 22:8And the king of Israel said unto Jehoshaphat, There is yet one man, Micaiah the son of Imlah, by whom we may enquire of the LORD: but I hate him; for he doth not prophesy good concerning me, but evil. And Jehoshaphat said, Let not the king say so.
- Isa 53:3He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
- Matt 24:9Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name’s sake.
- Isa 49:7Thus saith the LORD, the Redeemer of Israel, and his Holy One, to him whom man despiseth, to him whom the nation abhorreth, to a servant of rulers, Kings shall see and arise, princes also shall worship, because of the LORD that is faithful, and the Holy One of Israel, and he shall choose thee.
- 1 Jn 3:3And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.
- Zech 11:8Three shepherds also I cut off in one month; and my soul lothed them, and their soul also abhorred 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.
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Original language
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