“Remember the word that I spoke to you, ‘A servant is not greater than his lord' (John 13:16). If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will keep yours as well. But all these things they will do to you for my name's sake, because they do not know him who sent me.”
The world is consistent. Where it hates the Master, it hates those who are like the Master. The more Christ-like the disciples are, the more they must expect the treatment meted out to Jesus. For those who would respond in hatred to Jesus will respond to them in the same way. Those who would hate and persecute Him, will hate and persecute them. But in the end this is because they do not know ‘Him Who sent Me'. It is because they do not really know God the Father. If they had they would have recognised the Father in the Son, and then the whole world would have been changed.
We must of course ensure that that hatred is not caused because we are awkward, or deliberately difficult, or unwilling to consider other people's point of view. Jesus was guilty of none of these, although no doubt He was told that He was. (People who tell you that you have an attitude problem are regularly those who do have an attitude problem). But where we stand for what is right, and for right teaching and right behaviour, in a firm but loving way, we will be hated for His sake.