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

"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 is uncomfortably relevant. When you choose depth over visibility, formation over production, the world does not always applaud. Abiding has a cost outside the vine.

Formation to Transformation is a worship devotional for people who want worship to be more than a song set. New episodes through John 15.

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