Wesley Corpus

Both the persons who are hated, and the persons who hate them, and the cause of their hating them, are here clearly determined. The hated are all that are not of this world, that are born again in the knowledge and love of God: the haters are all that are of this world, that know not God so as to love Him with all their strength; the cause of their hatred is, the entire irreconcilable differences between their desires, judgments, and affections; --- because these know not God, and those are determined to know and pursue nothing besides Him; because these esteem and love the world, and those count it dung and dross, and singly desire that love of Christ. 23. My next position is this: Until he be thus contemned, no man is in a state of salvation. And this is no more than a plain inference from the former; for if all that are not of the world are therefore contemned by those that are, then till a man is so contemned he is of the world -- i.e. out of a state of salvation. Nor is it possible for all the trimmers between God and the world, for all the dodgers in religion, to elude this consequence, which God has established, and not man, unless they could prove that a man may be of the world -- i.e. void both of the knowledge and love of God--and yet be in a state of salvation. I must therefore, with or without leave of these, keep close to my Savior's judgment, and maintain that contempt is a part of that cross which every man must bear if he will follow Him; that it is the badge of his discipleship, the stamp of his profession, the constant seal of his calling; insomuch that, though a man may be despised without being saved, yet he cannot be saved without being despised.