In John 15:20, Jesus says “If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you.” If we belong to Christ, we will be persecuted. What should we do, then, if we do not feel very persecuted? If we do not fear for our lives when we gather to worship, if we do not risk losing our job when we share our faith with our coworkers, or if our families do not disown us when we join a church, are we really being persecuted? Does our lack of persecution cause us to feel shame? Does it cause us to question our faith? Maybe if we were just better Christians we would be persecuted by now. If we experience little persecution, what should we do about it?
According to 1 John, the answer is very straightforward: love our brothers and sisters in Christ. Throughout his letter, John gives three main directives to the church: love God, obey his commandments, and love one another. Yet these three instructions are so intertwined they become essentially the same when put into practice. “For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments,” according to 1 John 5:3 (c.f. 2:3-5). What are his commandments? “And this is the commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother” (4:21, c.f. 3:10-11, 3:14, 4:7, 5:1). Simply put: to love God is to obey God, and to obey God is to love other Christians. Loving our fellow siblings in Christ is the visible way we demonstrate that we love God and are obeying him.
On the other hand, John makes it clear that the opposite of love is hate. The opposite of belonging to God and loving one another is belonging to the evil one and hating one another (2:9, 2:11, 3:10, 4:8, 4:20). With this in mind, consider 3:12-13, which says “We should not be like Cain, who was of the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own deeds were evil and his brother’s righteous. Do not be surprised, brothers, that the world hates you.” Why does the world hate us? Because it is like Cain: its actions are evil. We are like Abel and our actions are righteous. What is righteousness but obeying God’s commands? What has God commanded (in the context of 1 John) except that we love our fellow Christians?
To summarize what we see in First John: the world will hate us because we love one another. Christians will have a unique, intimate relationship with one another that simply is not available to any who are not Christians. Indeed, those who are not Christians are prone to hate each other rather than love each other. Since we are God’s children, we have ties to a spiritual family that are far stronger than ordinary familial ties. The world is segmented, polarized, and separated. It lacks any real way to tie humans together in meaningful communities, especially in an age that assaults the nuclear family. Yet humans were designed by God to experience deep connections to each other. And John is teaching us that, sooner or later, the world will see our love for one another, will be envious of it yet unable to achieve such a love, and hate us with murderous fury as a result.
So what should we do when we feel like we’re not being persecuted? Let us love one another. Let us seek a special relationship with our fellow Christians that the world simply cannot offer. In time, the world will hate us for it. This means that talking about church is actually a great way to start gospel conversations with those we know, especially if sharing the gospel is intimidating. When our coworkers are talking about partying all weekend, watching the game, or seeking fulfillment in any of the things the world offers, we can talk about what we did over the weekend, namely, that we spent sweet time with our brothers and sisters at church.
We should love our spiritual family so well that it naturally spills over when we talk about our lives. This means we actually need to spend time with other church members. “Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth” (3:18). As we pursue righteousness, let us start by making loving, Christian fellowship with and service to each other an intentional, regular part of our lives. This will mark us as Christians and mark us for the world’s hate. After all, Jesus said, “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (Jn. 13:35).