John 15:19

15:19 If you belonged to the world, ¹  the world would love you as its own. ²  However, because you do not belong to the world, ³  but I chose you out of the world, for this reason ⁴  the world hates you. ⁵ 

John 17:14-16

17:14 I have given them your word, ⁶  and the world has hated them, because they do not belong to the world, ⁷  just as I do not belong to the world. ⁸  17:15 I am not asking you to take them out of the world, but that you keep them safe ⁹  from the evil one. ¹⁰  17:16 They do not belong to the world ¹¹  just as I do not belong to the world. ¹² 

John 17:2

17:2 just as you have given him authority over all humanity, ¹³  so that he may give eternal life to everyone you have given him. ¹⁴ 

Colossians 1:3

Paul’s Thanksgiving and Prayer for the Church

1:3 We always ¹⁵  give thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you,

James 4:4

4:4 Adulterers, do you not know that friendship with the world means hostility toward God? ¹⁶  So whoever decides to be the world’s friend makes himself God’s enemy.

James 4:1

Passions and Pride

4:1 Where do the conflicts and where ¹⁷  do the quarrels among you come from? Is it not from this, ¹⁸  from your passions that battle inside you? ¹⁹ 

James 5:19

5:19 My brothers and sisters, ²⁰  if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone turns him back,

[15:19]  ¹ tn Grk “if you were of the world.”

[15:19]  ² tn The words “you as” are not in the original but are supplied for clarity.

[15:19]  ³ tn Grk “because you are not of the world.”

[15:19]  ⁴ tn Or “world, therefore.”

[15:19]  ⁵ 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.

[17:14]  ⁶ tn Or “your message.”

[17:14]  ⁷ tn Grk “because they are not of the world.”

[17:14]  ⁸ tn Grk “just as I am not of the world.”

[17:15]  ⁹ tn Or “that you protect them”; Grk “that you keep them.”

[17:15]  ¹⁰ tn The phrase “the evil one” is a reference to Satan. The genitive noun τοῦ πονηροῦ (tou ponhrou) is ambiguous with regard to gender: It may represent the neuter τὸ πονηρόν (to ponhron), “that which is evil,” or the masculine ὁ πονηρός (Jo ponhro"), “the evil one,” i.e., Satan. In view of the frequent use of the masculine in 1 John 2:13-14, 3:12, and 5:18-19 it seems much more probable that the masculine is to be understood here, and that Jesus is praying for his disciples to be protected from Satan. Cf. BDAG 851 s.v. πονηρός 1.b.β and 1.b.γ.

[17:16]  ¹¹ tn Grk “they are not of the world.” This is a repetition of the second half of v. 14. The only difference is in word order: Verse 14 has οὐκ εἰσὶν ἐκ τοῦ κόσμου (ouk eisin ek tou kosmou), while here the prepositional phrase is stated first: ἐκ τοῦ κόσμου οὐκ εἰσίν (ek tou kosmou ouk eisin). This gives additional emphasis to the idea of the prepositional phrase, i.e., origin, source, or affiliation.

[17:16]  ¹² tn Grk “just as I am not of the world.”

[17:2]  ¹³ tn Or “all people”; Grk “all flesh.”

[17:2]  ¹⁴ tn Grk “so that to everyone whom you have given to him, he may give to them eternal life.”

[1:3]  ¹⁵ tn The adverb πάντοτε (pantote) is understood to modify the indicative εὐχαριστοῦμεν (eucaristoumen) because it precedes περὶ ὑμῶν (peri Jumwn) which probably modifies the indicative and not the participle προσευχόμενοι (proseucomenoi). But see 1:9 where the same expression occurs and περὶ ὑμῶν modifies the participle “praying” (προσευχόμενοι).

[4:4]  ¹⁶ tn Grk “is hostility toward God.”

[4:1]  ¹⁷ tn The word “where” is repeated in Greek for emphasis.

[4:1]  ¹⁸ tn Grk “from here.”

[4:1]  ¹⁹ tn Grk “in your members [i.e., parts of the body].”

[5:19]  ²⁰ tn Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 1:2.