John 15:18-19 | If the World Hates You

Formation to Transformation | A Worship Devotional · May 4, 2026 · 4m

"If the world hates you, you know that it has hated me before it hated you." After 17 verses on love, joy, and friendship, Jesus introduces a word that has not appeared yet in this chapter: hatred. He does not say it might happen. He says it as a given. Know it. Expect it.

The reason for the friction is not that you did something offensive. It is that you no longer belong to the system Jesus pulled you out of. And sometimes the world is not just secular culture. Sometimes the world is church culture that has adopted the world's metrics without realizing it.

For worship leaders, this section…