Do not be surprised, brothers, that the world hates you.
The apostle, having intimated that one mark of the devil's children is hatred of the brethren, takes occasion thence, I. To recommend fraternal Christian love, and that from the excellence, or antiquity, or primariness of the injunction relating thereto: And this is the message (the errand or charge) which you heard from the beginning (this came among the principal parts of practical Christianity), that we...
Commenting on 1 John 3:11-13
Marvel not, my brethren, if the world hate you. By "the world" is meant the inhabitants of the world, the wicked part of them; these hate the saints, though without a cause, any just cause, and for no other reason, but because they are chosen and called out of the world, and do not live the wicked life they do: and this hatred of theirs...
Verse 13. Marvel not. Do not think it so unusual, or so little to be expected, as to excite astonishment. If the world hate you. The emphasis here is to be placed on the word you. The apostle had just adverted to the fact that Cain hated Abel, his brother, without cause, and he says that they were not to deem it strange if the...