The Kosmos of Empire (John 15:18-16:4)
John 15:18-19 (NIV)
“If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. 19 If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you.
This is a passage many of us grew up hearing in church, usually framed as a kind of rallying cry—a reminder that “the world”, meaning secular culture, was out to get us. But Jesus was talking about something deeper and more dangerous than non-religious society. In this scene in John 15, Jesus is talking about the entire system of power and allegiance that operates through dominance, exclusion, and violence. What Jesus meant when He said “the world” wasn’t about popular culture. It was about the logic of empire.
The Versions of “The World” We’ve Built
If you’ve spent any time in American Church culture, you’ve probably noticed how the church has tried to navigate its relationship with “the world”. Throughout history, the church has taken several postures:
Replication - this is when the Church tries to out-create the world. We build our own versions of the music industry, our own media companies, our own sources of entertainment, education, fashion, — parallel worlds of the dominant society. The idea was that if we sanitize and rebrand what’s popular “out there”, it’s redeemed and safe.
Withdrawal - Some of the earliest Christians saw how easily the faith became co-opted by the dominant powers, so they decided to flee to the Egyptian desert as a way of preserving the faith. But even they discovered what every human eventually does…you can leave the world behind, but the world follows you into your own hearts. The temptation to fully withdraw from the big, bad world is as old as the Church itself. But time and again, those who sought refuge from the world found that separation from it was futile.
Assimilation - This is the most seductive of the three postures because it often feels like the most responsible and relevant. So, we gradually embed ourselves in a political or cultural movement until we become indistinguishable from the world. We even use similar labels to describe ourselves—conservative, progressive, democrat, republican—failing to see that each one has its own idols to defend and the same impulse for control and exclusion.
But all of these postures fail to embody the approach that Jesus had towards “the world”.
What Jesus Meant by “The World”
In the first century, kosmos —world—could mean a few things.
It could mean all of creation, the physical world. It what also used when referring to the moral realm, the inner life of humans. But when Jesus says “the world will hate you,” He was naming something specific: the social and political order of the Roman Empire, the “world” of Caesar and everything that it encompassed including the Jewish religious establishment.
This is “the world” that Jesus stood against. This is the world that Jesus warns his disciples will hate them. And it’s the same one that tempts the church today.
The Counter Order of Love
To counter this kosmos of empire, Jesus offers his disciples an entirely new ethic to live by—the ethic of indiscriminate, other-oriented, self-emptying love.
“Love one another as I have loved you.”
This is the sort of love that Jesus says would lead them to be hated by the empire. Why? Because this love doesn’t fight for dominance. It refuses to hate enemies. And it crosses ideological lines to make friends that make no sense apart from Jesus.
And yes, that kind of love is despised and will make no sense to “the world”. But this is where the presence of Jesus is most present. That’s where the kingdom breaks through.
Discussion Questions
1. Where do you see/feel/sense the pull of the “kosmos of empire” in your own life—whether in politics, culture, family, or even church?
2. What would it look like for you to love in a way that can’t be easily categorized or co-opted by a side?
3. Knowing that Jesus gave his disciples a new ethic to live by —the ethic of indiscriminate, self-emptying, enemy-loving, love—who might God be inviting you to love and draw near to in this season?