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Commentaries
English
John
  
21"But all this they will do to you on my account, because they do not know him who sent me.22If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin.23He who hates me hates my Father also."


Jesus informed his disciples beforehand that after his ascension painful persecution would attack them for his name’s sake. The Jews were not expecting a Messiah meek as a lamb, but a political hero to rescue them from the colonial yoke. This delusion concerning the hope of political salvation arose from their ignorance of God’s true majesty. They were unable to distinguish between religion and the state; they had a military god. They did not know the Father of our Lord Jesus, who is the God of all comfort and peace. Yes, He does permit the aggression of wars – as a punishment, but such wars and sanctions do not build the Kingdom. It is his Spirit that builds it in truth and purity.
Christ came representing his Father’s principles clearly, but the Jews rejected the Spirit of love and reconciliation. They pursued violence and war. All nations who do not accept Christ the Peacemaker, fall into the selfsame sin as the Jews. Our sin is not to be equated with moral shortcomings, but are the enmity we show God and our rejection of His Spirit of Peace.
The basic reason for men’s rejection of Jesus, his Kingdom and peace is their agnosticism of the true God. People imagine their gods according to their whims. But Jesus revealed a God of love to us. He who rejects that love, pursues the path of violence and corruption, and he who rejects Christ, rejects the true God.