If ye were of the world - If you were actuated by the principles of the world. If, like them, you were vain, earthly, sensual, given to pleasure, wealth, ambition, they would not oppose you.
Because ye are not of the world - Because you are influenced by different principles from men of the world. You are actuated by the love of God and holiness; they by the love of sin.
I have chosen you out of the world - I have, by choosing you to be my followers, separated you from their society, and placed you under the government of my holy laws.
Therefore ... - A Christian may esteem it as one evidence of his piety that he is hated by wicked men. Often most decided evidence is given that a man is the friend of God by the opposition excited against him by the profane, by Sabbath-breakers, and by the dissolute, 1 John 3:13; John 7:7.