It may be thought that this clause, at all events, has reference to special epochs only, and especially to the first founding of Christianity. Such a reference, of course, there is. And very remarkable is it how clearly and honestly Christ always warned would-be disciples of what they would earn in this world by following Him.
But He seems to take especial pains to show that He here proclaims a principle of equal generality with the others, by separating the application of it to His immediate hearers which follows in the next verse, from the universal statement in the text. Their individual experience was but to illustrate the general rule, not to exhaust it. And you remember how frequently the same thought is set forth in Scripture in the most perfectly general terms.
1. Notice that antagonism is inevitable between a true Christian and the world.
Take the character as it is sketched in verses preceding. Point by point it is alien from the sympathies and habits of irreligious men. The principles are different, the practices are different.
A true Christian ought to be a standing rebuke to the world, an incarnate conscience.
There are but two ways of ending that antagonism: either by bringing the world up to Christian character, or letting Christian character down to the world.
2. The certain and uniform result is opposition and dislike—persecution in its reality.
Darkness hateth light.
Some will, no doubt, be touched; there is that in all men which acknowledges how awful goodness is. But the loftier character is not loved by the lower which if loves.
Aristides 'the Just.' Christ Himself.