Thursday within the Octave of the Feast of the Holy Trinity
Posted on June 8, 2023 by under
Scripture: St. John 15:18-26 (NKJV)
15:18 “If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. 19 If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. 20 Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. If they kept My word, they will keep yours also. 21 But all these things they will do to you for My name’s sake, because they do not know Him who sent Me. 22 If I had not come and spoken to them, they would have no sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin. 23 He who hates Me hates My Father also. 24 If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would have no sin; but now they have seen and also hated both Me and My Father. 25 But this happened that the word might be fulfilled which is written in their law, ‘They hated Me without a cause.’
26 “But when the Helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of Me.”
Devotion
Here, Jesus lets us know that we should expect to be hated by the world, because the world hated Him first. “A servant is not greater than his master,” so we should expect the world to treat us as it treated Jesus. How did the world treat Jesus? It ignored Him, mocked Him, convicted Him falsely of a crime that He did not commit, and executed Him for it.
But Jesus also wants us to know that this hatred really has nothing to do with us. The world hates us because it hated Him first, because He revealed the will of God the Father to them, and that will was not what they wanted it to be. They wanted God the Father to promise them a comfortable earthly life, free of physical wants and hunger, and free from the influence and rule of Rome.
What God the Father and Christ truly offer is so much better! Rather than a temporary peace and joy, our God offers eternal peace and joy, free from the sin and death that we cannot escape while still in this world. Our Savior Jesus Christ has already accomplished that which needed to be done to earn this for us. May we fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, and not concern ourselves with what the world thinks.
Prayer: Almighty and Everlasting God, Who hast given unto us, Thy servants, grace, by the confession of a true faith, to acknowledge the glory of the eternal Trinity, and in the power of the Divine Majesty to worship the Unity: We beseech Thee, that Thou wouldest keep us steadfast in this faith, and evermore defend us from all adversities; Who livest and reignest, One God, world without end. Amen.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
