Hope: Our Testimony in the World 4 (John 15:18-27)
Our response, a witness. vv26,27
Here we have the third (of 5) teachings about the Holy Spirit. He is to be Helper, Interpreter, Witness, Prosecutor, and Revealer. Here we hear how He is a witness to Jesus. We are with Him in this task. This explains, too, how our persecution will be as a result of the world’s hatred of Jesus. Jesus is gone and such persecution should have subsided. But we are now the witnesses of Him and His work in the world. And we are empowered to do so by the very Spirit of God.
If we are not facing any persecution, it is likely too that we are not doing our job. We instead try to water down our story. We only tell the non-offensive stuff. We talk about love and how much help God is, but we avoid unpleasant stuff like sin and how God wants us to do things His way.
This world is already a difficult place with suffering, death and evil. We are fools if we think we can avoid that. So why do we fear what people will say and do if we share our source of hope? Do we even really have the hope that Jesus teaches us? If we do, we will recognize that this is the very hope that the world around us needs. We will be compelled to share it with others. Because many of them also see that the world is a tough place, and some of them may be aware of their own part it making it so. They need to know the hope and love that faith can bring.
Here we have the third (of 5) teachings about the Holy Spirit. He is to be Helper, Interpreter, Witness, Prosecutor, and Revealer. Here we hear how He is a witness to Jesus. We are with Him in this task. This explains, too, how our persecution will be as a result of the world’s hatred of Jesus. Jesus is gone and such persecution should have subsided. But we are now the witnesses of Him and His work in the world. And we are empowered to do so by the very Spirit of God.
If we are not facing any persecution, it is likely too that we are not doing our job. We instead try to water down our story. We only tell the non-offensive stuff. We talk about love and how much help God is, but we avoid unpleasant stuff like sin and how God wants us to do things His way.
This world is already a difficult place with suffering, death and evil. We are fools if we think we can avoid that. So why do we fear what people will say and do if we share our source of hope? Do we even really have the hope that Jesus teaches us? If we do, we will recognize that this is the very hope that the world around us needs. We will be compelled to share it with others. Because many of them also see that the world is a tough place, and some of them may be aware of their own part it making it so. They need to know the hope and love that faith can bring.
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