The recent display at the Paris Olympics stirred up a lot of controversy. Conservative sites are outraged (see here and here), liberal sites are bemused and the event’s creator is defensive. At least some on the Paris organizing committee are feeling the heat, since they offered a “non-apology apology.”

The event reminded me of 1 Jn 3.13: “Do not be surprised, brethren, if the world hates you.”

Daniel Akin, in his commentary on the verse points out that the conditional statement in the verse is a first-class condition in Greek, which assumes the truth of its premise. Sometimes we translate that as “since” — “do not be surprised, since the world hates you.”

The hatred of the world for Christ and Christians is “an historical fact” says David Martyn Lloyd Jones. ((David Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Children of God: Studies in 1 John, vol. 3, Life in Christ, 101.)) He goes on, “This is one of the great principles which we find in the Bible from the beginning. …

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