John 15 · a question people ask
"If the world hates you" (15:18). Who is "the world" in this chapter?
Here is what the chapter says. "If you were of the world, the world would love its own. But because you are not of the world, since I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you" (15:19). Then Jesus speaks of "they": "If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you" (15:20), "because they don’t know him who sent me" (15:21), and "now they have seen and also hated both me and my Father" (15:24). The chapter names them no more closely than that. Favor quotes these words as the World English Bible has them and applies them to no people, group or nation today.
The verses
“If the world hates you, you know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own. But because you are not of the world, since I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his lord.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours. But they will do all these things to you for my name’s sake, because they don’t know him who sent me.”
“If I hadn’t done among them the works which no one else did, they wouldn’t have had sin. But now they have seen and also hated both me and my Father.”