world's hatred of you, as John's words imply, is not
strange. The contrast between you and the world is exceedingly great.
Through its own evil works, unbelief, pride, contempt for the Word
and grace of God, and the persecution of the godly, the world has
become by this time the victim of Satan and eternal death. It spurns
all counsel and aid directed toward its rescue. Stiff-necked and
hardened, under evident condemnation by its own conscience, it has
chosen to persist in its doom. But we believers in Christ, God be
praised! are different people. We have come forth from death; we have
passed through death and entered into life through the knowledge and
faith of the Son of God, who has loved us and given himself for us.

24. Such grace and goodness of God, says the apostle, should prompt
you not to be offended and vanquished by the world's ingratitude,
hate and malice, and thus to cease from holy endeavor and become
likewise, evil, which course will result in the loss of your
treasure. It is yours, not by your own effort, but by grace alone;
for at one time you as well as they languished in the kingdom and
power of death, in evil works, far from faith and love.

Remember to comfort yourselves, therefore, with the thought of this
great blessing, an advantage you enjoy above the others. What if the
world, abiding in death, does hate and persecute you who abide in
life? Whom can its hatred injure? It cannot take from you the life
which it lacks while you possess it, nor deliver you to death, from
which you have passed, through Christ. When it does its worst it may
perhaps falsely slander you, or deprive you of your property, or
destroy your corrupt body--the final home of maggots and in any event
doomed to corruption--and thus through the death of the body help you
gain true life. Thus vengeance will be yours rather than its own.
Yours will be the joy of being transplanted from death into life,
whereas the world must abide in death. While they of the world think
to deny you both the kingdom of heaven and the kingdom of earth, they
themselves lose body and soul. What more terrible retribution could
their hatred and envy receive? For the sake of denying gratification
to the devil and the world, and much more for your own welfare, you
must not allow your persecutions to rob you of your peace and
salvation, nor to lead you to lose your faith through impatience and
desire for revenge. Rather, pity their wretchedness and doom.