Hated or Hater?

Saturday of the 6^th Week of Eastertide

John 15:18-25

“They hated me without a cause.”

That takes work.  It demands energy.  My guess is most of us know this:  Sin 101. 

Jesus is preparing his crew for his departure.  The warnings are real.  It will be a trying time to be on Jesus’ side.  But “spirit-directedness” is coming.  The Paraclete (the one along-side, the “lawyer for the defense”) will be their guide.

All that “abiding” talk precedes these warnings.  Abiding is the armor.

How about this from John Chrysostom in the 4^th Century:

Although I am human

I must aim my blows at demons;

Although clad in flesh,

My struggle is with incorporeal powers.

On this account

God has made my breastplate

Not from metal but from justice;

God has prepared for me a shield

Which is made not of bronze

But of faith.

I have, too, a sharp sword,

The Word of the Spirit.

Sounds like protection against the consequences of being “hated without a cause.”

More pertinent to my un-persecuted life, is the reversal of this. 

All that armor of the Spirit, for me, is given for my protection against becoming the “hater without a cause.”

Russian Icon of St. John Chrysostom