NOTES for Joh 15:8-27

Jesus builds His conversation with the disciples on a contrast: I give you the commandment to love one another, because the world hates you. In the world there is hatred; among you there is love. Here two questions arise at once. First, can the disciples' love overcome the hatred of the world, if the world is always larger and the disciples themselves do not really know how to love? And second, it is obvious that the situation is not so polar at all: in the world, which does not believe in Christ, love is always present, because people cannot live entirely without love, while among Christians love is also not the most frequent guest, to put it mildly. Regarding the first point, one can only note that the matter is not the disciples' own love, but the mercy of the Father; and who is stronger, God or the world's evil, is a question addressed to the very depth of our being, since there is no "external" answer to it. As for the polarity, the point is apparently not the division between "believers and unbelievers," for it is unclear how to divide them, but again the opposition of Christ and the "world" inside each person.