If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.
Ver. 19. If ye were of the world, &c.] They jangle among themselves, and intertear one another as dogs fighting. For though there be not a disagreement in hell (being but the place of retribution, not of action), yet on earth there is no sound peace among the wicked. Howbeit let Ephraim be against Manasseh, and Manasseh against Ephraim, they will be soon against Judah; as if a hare ran by dogs that are fighting, they will agree to pursue the hare.
Therefore the world hateth you] As inhospitable savages do those that land on their coasts; as the Cyprians, for an old grudge, slay all Jews they meet with, though but cast upon their coasts by contrary winds. Odio humani generis, et per flagitia invisi, saith Tacitus of Christians. (xv.) Tanti non est bonum, quanti est odium Christianorum. Of such it is not good, how much is the hatred of Christians. David's adversaries sought not only his life, but his soul, his damnation too; as that monster of Milan, mentioned by Bodinus. Now we commit thy soul to the devil, said the persecutors to John Huss. And Jerome of Prague could hardly obtain a confessor, being, it seems, conscientious that way.