The World Hates the Disciples

¹⁸ “If the world hates you,^(A) keep in mind that it hated me first. ¹⁹ If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you^(B) out of the world. That is why the world hates you.^{(C) 20} Remember what I told you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’^[a](D) If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also.^(E) If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also. ²¹ They will treat you this way because of my name,^(F) for they do not know the one who sent me.^{(G) 22} If I had not come and spoken to them,^(H) they would not be guilty of sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin.^{(I) 23} Whoever hates me hates my Father as well. ²⁴ If I had not done among them the works no one else did,^(J) they would not be guilty of sin.^(K) As it is, they have seen, and yet they have hated both me and my Father. ²⁵ But this is to fulfill what is written in their Law:^(L) ‘They hated me without reason.’^[b](M)

³² And what more shall I say? I do not have time to tell about Gideon,^(A) Barak,^(B) Samson^(C) and Jephthah,^(D) about David^(E) and Samuel^(F) and the prophets, ³³ who through faith conquered kingdoms,^(G) administered justice, and gained what was promised; who shut the mouths of lions,^{(H) 34} quenched the fury of the flames,^(I) and escaped the edge of the sword;^(J) whose weakness was turned to strength;^(K) and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies.^{(L) 35} Women received back their dead, raised to life again.^(M) There were others who were tortured, refusing to be released so that they might gain an even better resurrection. ³⁶ Some faced jeers and flogging,^(N) and even chains and imprisonment.^{(O) 37} They were put to death by stoning;^[a](P) they were sawed in two; they were killed by the sword.^(Q) They went about in sheepskins and goatskins,^(R) destitute, persecuted and mistreated— ³⁸ the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, living in caves^(S) and in holes in the ground.

³⁹ These were all commended^(T) for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised,^{(U) 40} since God had planned something better for us so that only together with us^(V) would they be made perfect.^(W)