John 16:1-3

“These things have I spoken to you that you should not be made to stumble. They will put you out of synagogues. Yes, the hour comes that whoever kills you will think that he offers service to God. And these things will they do because they have not known the Father, nor me.”

‘These things have I spoken to you'. That is, the warnings of the hatred they will experience and the promise of the Spirit they will receive, especially the former (John 15:18). The natural thought of the preacher of the Gospel is that his message is so wonderful that none can refuse it, and it can initially come as a shock when that is not so. But what they had yet to recognise was the evil in men's hearts which comes to the fore when they are faced with the truth, an evil which is often wrapped up in fine words. It was a necessary warning. In view of what was to happen in the future they might well, without this warning, have begun at times to wonder whether God's hand was at work after all.

‘They will put you out of synagogues.' They will be rejected and excluded constantly in many places where they might have expected acceptance, and this will be because their message conflicts with that of the Pharisees and of tradition. This would especially be true in Palestine, but, as the church became established and less Jewish, it would also become true on a wider scale. Their very success would result in the hatred that arises from jealousy and from clinging to the old ways. Yet in those same places, prior to their rejection and exclusion, they will find men whose hearts have been prepared by the Holy Spirit for the words they bring. Rejection would also come from the Gentiles because they hit at their profits and were seen as insulting their gods (Acts 16:19; Acts 19:23).

‘The hour comes.' Note that the disciples too will have their hour, although here it is also the hour of the fulfilment of the things Jesus warned them about. It will be a time when men will actually think they are serving God by ill-treating and killing the disciples of Christ, whom they will see as blasphemers and enemies of their faith. No persecution is worse than that of fellow-religionists, for it arises from the passion of a heart that thinks itself to be totally right and can brook no opposition. Paul himself describes how it was his zeal as a Pharisee that caused him to persecute the church with a fierce intensity (Acts 22:4; Galatians 1:13; Philippians 3:5).

‘They will do these things because they have not known the Father.' But the real reason behind this persecution will be the failure of these people to have truly known the Father. They may claim to follow God, but they do not know Him as He really is. They follow an image built up in their own hearts. No one is more dangerous than the one who is certain he is right because of his own religious instincts and feelings, and will not consider the fact that he might be wrong. However, had these people really known the Father they would have been aware of what true righteousness is, and would have known the way of mercy and forgiveness. They would have been humble and receptive. Above all they would have recognised the One Who came from the Father Who in true humility revealed that righteousness and mercy and forgiveness. That they did not do so clearly indicated that they did not have the mind of the Father.

‘Nor me.' It thus follows that they will not know the Son. Again we have here a clear separation of Jesus from all others as He parallels Himself with the Father and puts Himself on the divine side of reality.