17. Some take the meaning to be: these things, namely, the greatness and gratuitousness of My love for you I insist upon, to the end that you may love one another. Others as Mald. and Patriz. take the meaning to be the same as in verse 11: this is what I command you, namely, that you love one another. The use of ταῦτα (haec) and not τοῦτο (hoc) is rather against the latter view, but it is replied that the plural demonstrative followed by the single precept is intended to signify that charity is the fulfilment of the whole law.
| 18. Si mundus vos odit, scitote quia me priorem vobis odio habuit. | 18. If the world hate you, know you that it hath hated me before you. |
18. Having exhorted them to mutual love, He now fortifies them against the hatred of the world and the persecutions that awaited them. The world, as is plain, is the wicked world, and in being hated by it they shall only be treading in the footsteps of their Master.
It hath hated. The Greek perfect implies not merely a passing manifestation of hatred, but an abiding and persistent feeling.
| 19. Si de mundo fuissetis, mundus quod suum erat diligeret: quia vero de mundo non estis, sed ego elegi vos de mundo propterea odit vos mundus. | 19. If you had been of the world, the world would love its own: but because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. |
19. If you had been, ought rather to be: if you were. The five-fold repetition of “the world” in this verse brings vividly before us this great antagonist of Christ.
| 20. Mementote sermonis mei, quem ego dixi vobis: Non est servus maior domino suo. Si me persecuti sunt, et vos persequentur: si sermonem meum servaverunt, et vestrum servabunt. | 20. Remember my word that I said to you: The servant is not greater than his master. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you: if they have kept my word, they will keep yours also. |
20. He now reminds them of what He had told them before ([xiii. 16]) that: “a servant is not greater than his master,” and from this He goes on to signify what they must expect to meet with from the world.
If they have kept my word. Some think there is reference to those who having been of the world came out from it to follow Christ and keep His word. But it appears more probable that He speaks of those who are still of the world, and leaves it to be supplied that since they had not kept His word, so neither would they keep that of the Apostles. By the word of the Apostles is meant the word of Christ as preached by them.
| 21. Sed haec omnia facient vobis propter nomen meum: quia nesciunt eum qui misit me. | 21. But all these things they will do to you for my name's sake: because they know not him that sent me. |