John 15:16-27
If our prayers have fruit for God as their objective, they will always be granted (v. 16). But what does this fruit consist of? It is basically the love of the redeemed one for another and the many ways in which it is demonstrated. "These things I command you," the Lord adds as if to suggest all the service which flows out of this love. This is the third time that He has mentioned this "new commandment" to which He attaches such importance (v. 17; see v. 12; John 13:34). It is a sad and abnormal state of affairs when affection is lacking between members of a family but it is even more so when this occurs in God’s family. By contrast, the hatred of the world towards believers (whose conduct condemns their own) is entirely normal and is to be expected; so much so that if the world finds something of itself to love in us, that is a very bad sign. "The servant is not greater than his lord" (v. 20), the Lord says here once again. In John 13:16 it was in relation to service; here it is a question of suffering.
Thus the name of the Lord Jesus is at one and the same time a reason for the world to hate us (v. 21) and also for the Father to answer our prayers (end of v. 16).