t love would they find joy. Christ had been to them
an exemplar of righteous love from the day of their first meeting; and
He was about to give the supreme proof of His affection, as foreshadowed
in His words, "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down
his life for his friends." And that those men were the Lord's friends
was thus graciously affirmed; "Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I
command you. Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth
not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things
that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you." This
intimate relationship in no sense modified the position of Christ as
their Lord and Master, for by Him they had been chosen and ordained; and
it was His will that they should so live that whatever they asked in the
name of the holy friendship which He acknowledged should be granted them
of the Father.

They were again told of the persecutions that awaited them, and of their
apostolic calling as special and individual witnesses of the Lord.[1220]
That the world then did, and would yet more intensely hate them was a
fact they had to face; but they were to remember that the world had
hated their Master before them, and that they had been chosen and by
ordination had been set apart from the world; therefore they must not
hope to escape the world's hatred. The servant was not greater than his
master, nor the apostle than his Lord, as on general principles they
knew, and as they had been specifically told. They that hated them hated
the Christ; and they that hated the Son hated the Father; great shall be
the condemnation of such. Had the wicked Jews not closed their eyes and
stopped their ears to the mighty works and gracious words of the
Messiah, they would have been convinced of the truth, and the truth
would have saved them; but they were left without cloak or excuse for
their sin; and Christ affirmed that in their evil course had the
scriptures been fulfilled in that they had hated Him without a
cause.[1221] Then, reverting to the great and cheering promise of
support through the coming of the Holy Ghost, the Lord said: "But when
the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even
the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify
of me: and ye also shall bear witness, because ye have been with me from
the beginning."

These things had Jesus declared unto them that they might