By M.F. Bergeron | Learn-Christ.org

Scripture is clear that love for God is expressed through trust and obedience. To reject His word is to reject Him. As John later wrote, “Loving God means keeping His commandments” (1 John 5:3). In that sense, Adam’s sin was a form of hatred—choosing self and sin over the God who walked with him in the cool of the day.

“If the world hates you, remember that it hated Me first.”
— John 15:18, NLT

When Jesus spoke these words to His disciples on the night before His crucifixion, He wasn’t only preparing them for persecution. He was unveiling something far deeper: that the world’s hatred for Him was not a new phenomenon. Its roots run all the way back to Eden.

To grasp the weight of Jesus’ words, we must first understand the nature of Adam’s disobedience. We often speak of it as a mistake or a fall—but it was more than that. It was a relational rejection of the Creator, the first instance of humanity turning away from the God who lovingly made them. Adam chose rebellion over trust, autonomy over dependence, the serpent’s word over God’s. In that act, Adam did not simply disobey—he displayed that he did not love his Maker.

From Eden to Golgotha

Throughout history, humanity has consistently repeated the pattern: suppressing the truth, resisting God’s light, and resenting His authority (Romans 1:18–32). When Jesus, the true Light, entered the world, He didn’t come to an indifferent audience. He came to a world already bent in rebellion. “He came into the very world He created, but the world didn’t recognize Him. He came to His own people, and even they rejected Him” (John 1:10–11, NLT).

Jesus is the second Adam, the one who perfectly loved and obeyed the Father. Where Adam failed, Jesus triumphed. But that triumph brought confrontation—light exposing darkness, holiness confronting sin. And the result? “The world hates Me because I accuse it of doing evil,” Jesus said (John 7:7, NLT).

The cross was not just the result of misunderstanding or political pressure. It was the climax of a long hatred—the culmination of humanity’s rebellion. What Adam began with a bite, the world finished with a cross. The world didn’t want a holy God; it wanted God gone. And so the world crucified Him.

But here’s the wonder of the gospel: Jesus died not only because of our hatred—but for it. In love, He bore the weight of our rebellion to make peace. “For since our friendship with God was restored by the death of His Son while we were still His enemies, we will certainly be saved through the life of His Son” (Romans 5:10, NLT).

If you belong to Christ, you are no longer part of the world that hated Him. You are part of the new creation—the people who love because He first loved us (1 John 4:19). Yes, the world may still hate, but you are no longer ruled by it. You now belong to the One who conquered hatred with love.

So when Jesus says, “If the world hates you, remember that it hated Me first,” hear it not just as a warning, but as a comfort. The path of the disciple is not new. It is the path of Christ. And it leads not to defeat—but to resurrection.

“So now we can rejoice in our wonderful new relationship with God because our Lord Jesus Christ has made us friends of God.”
— Romans 5:11, NLT

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