4:4 You are from God, little children, and have conquered them, 1 because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. 4:5 They are from the world; therefore they speak from the world’s perspective and the world listens to them.
15:18 “If the world hates you, be aware 2 that it hated me first. 3 15:19 If you belonged to the world, 4 the world would love you as its own. 5 However, because you do not belong to the world, 6 but I chose you out of the world, for this reason 7 the world hates you. 8
1:28 And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God, 9 God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what should not be done. 10 1:29 They are filled 11 with every kind of unrighteousness, wickedness, covetousness, malice. They are rife with 12 envy, murder, strife, deceit, hostility. They are gossips, 1:30 slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, contrivers of all sorts of evil, disobedient to parents, 1:31 senseless, covenant-breakers, 13 heartless, ruthless. 1:32 Although they fully know 14 God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, 15 they not only do them but also approve of those who practice them. 16
3:9 What then? Are we better off? Certainly not, for we have already charged that Jews and Greeks alike are all under sin, 3:10 just as it is written:
“There is no one righteous, not even one,
3:11 there is no one who understands,
there is no one who seeks God.
3:12 All have turned away,
together they have become worthless;
there is no one who shows kindness, not even one.” 17
3:13 “Their throats are open graves, 18
they deceive with their tongues,
the poison of asps is under their lips.” 19
3:14 “Their mouths are 20 full of cursing and bitterness.” 21
3:15 “Their feet are swift to shed blood,
3:16 ruin and misery are in their paths,
3:17 and the way of peace they have not known.” 22
3:18 “There is no fear of God before their eyes.” 23
4:4 Adulterers, do you not know that friendship with the world means hostility toward God? 24 So whoever decides to be the world’s friend makes himself God’s enemy.
1 sn Them refers to the secessionist opponents, called “false prophets” in 4:1 (compare 2:19).
2 tn Grk “know.”
3 tn Grk “it hated me before you.”
4 tn Grk “if you were of the world.”
5 tn The words “you as” are not in the original but are supplied for clarity.
6 tn Grk “because you are not of the world.”
7 tn Or “world, therefore.”
8 sn I chose you out of the world…the world hates you. Two themes are brought together here. In 8:23 Jesus had distinguished himself from the world in addressing his Jewish opponents: “You are from below, I am from above; you are of this world, I am not of this world.” In 15:16 Jesus told the disciples “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you.” Now Jesus has united these two ideas as he informs the disciples that he has chosen them out of the world. While the disciples will still be “in” the world after Jesus has departed, they will not belong to it, and Jesus prays later in John 17:15-16 to the Father, “I do not ask you to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.” The same theme also occurs in 1 John 4:5-6: “They are from the world; therefore they speak as from the world, and the world listens to them. We are from God; he who knows God listens to us; he who is not from God does not listen to us.” Thus the basic reason why the world hates the disciples (as it hated Jesus before them) is because they are not of the world. They are born from above, and are not of the world. For this reason the world hates them.
9 tn Grk “and just as they did not approve to have God in knowledge.”
10 tn Grk “the things that are improper.”
11 tn Grk “being filled” or “having been filled,” referring to those described in v. 28. Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation.
12 tn Grk “malice, full of,” continuing the description. Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation.
13 tn Or “promise-breakers.”
14 tn Grk “who, knowing…, not only do them but also approve…” Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation.
15 tn Grk “are worthy of death.”
16 sn “Vice lists” like vv. 28-32 can be found elsewhere in the NT in Matt 15:19; Gal 5:19-21; 1 Tim 1:9-10; and 1 Pet 4:3. An example from the intertestamental period can be found in Wis 14:25-26.
17 sn Verses 10-12 are a quotation from Ps 14:1-3.
18 tn Grk “their throat is an opened grave.”
19 sn A quotation from Pss 5:9; 140:3.
20 tn Grk “whose mouth is.” Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation.
21 sn A quotation from Ps 10:7.
22 sn Rom 3:15-17 is a quotation from Isa 59:7-8.
23 sn A quotation from Ps 36:1.
24 tn Grk “is hostility toward God.”