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Welcome to Day 2166 of Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me.\nThis is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom\nThe Gospel of John \u2013 32 \u2013 The Promise of Persecution\xa0\u2013 Daily Wisdom\nThe Gospel of John -\xa0 Part 4 Confirmation of the Word - The Promise of Persecution\nToday we continue our Good News series according to John the Apostle. Last week, Jesus taught us to keep his command to love one another, and in doing so, we would be elevated to the status of being His friend, \u201cMy command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one's life for one's friends. You are my friends if you do what I command.\u201d\n\nAs Jesus's friend, and with the Holy Spirit, the Advocate, taking up residence in us, we will have the strength to endure, even when the world hates us, and we may suffer persecution for our faith. Our scripture for today is John 15:18 -16:4.\n\n"If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. 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. Remember what I told you: 'A servant is not greater than his master.' If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also. They will treat you this way because of my name, for they do not know the one who sent me. I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin. Whoever hates me hates my Father as well. If I had not done among them the works no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin. As it is, they have seen, and yet they have hated both me and my Father. But this is to fulfill what is written in their Law: 'They hated me without reason.\u201d\n\nThe Work of the Holy Spirit\n\n"When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father-the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father-he will testify about me. And you also must testify, for you have been with me from the beginning.\n\n"All this I have told you so that you will not fall away. They will put you out of the synagogue; in fact, the time is coming when anyone who kills you will think they are offering a service to God. They will do such things because they have not known the Father or me. I have told you this, so that when their time comes you will remember that I warned you about them. I did not tell you this from the beginning because I was with you.\u201d\n\nAs I prepared this message, I had to reflect on how best to apply it to today's church. Most commentaries want to frame it in the light of persecution in the end times, but that stretches the context of this passage, which focuses on the persecution the disciples would soon face. I think the best lesson this passage for us today is that in times of peace or persecution, as citizens of God's kingdom, our lives should reflect the Holy Spirit who dwells within us.\n\nThat being said, without a doubt, the constitution of the United States of America was crafted based on Judeo-Christian principles, and although the founding members of our nation had many flaws, many were also of the same mindset.\n\nBecause of this, many Christians felt that we were, or