Preacher of Hate

​18“If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. 19If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. 20Remember what I told you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’b If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also. 21They will treat you this way because of my name, for they do not know the one who sent me. 22If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin. 23Whoever hates me hates my Father as well. 24If I had not done among them the works no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin. As it is, they have seen, and yet they have hated both me and my Father. 25But this is to fulfill what is written in their Law: ‘They hated me without reason.’ John 15:18-25 (NLT)
If anybody ever tries to tell you that Jesus never preached hate - point them to this teaching. Jesus is teaching about the unique relationship that we have with him and by extension, the relationship that we - and the church universal - has with the world. He is making a point about how the follower of Christ is, in fact, VERY different from the world around him or her. In fact, as we read, He uses the very strong language of HATING the world and expecting the world, in turn, to hate you back. We learn elsewhere in scripture that you cannot love the world and follow Jesus - the two, as they say, are mutually exclusive. We either love Jesus and hate the world - or love the world and hate our Savior. So where do you stand? 'Cause as you can see, there is NO room to stand on the fence.