John 7:7
The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify that what it does is evil.
Jesus tells us the reason why the world hates Him and the reason why we will be hated as well in the above scripture. We are hated because we "testify that what it does is evil."
SIDE NOTE: When Jesus says the "world cannot hate you" he was responding to his brothers who were themselves of the world. In other scriptures as He refers to us being hated by the world he is speaking of His followers who are no longer of the world.
John 17:14
I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world.
John 15:18-19
18"If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. 19If 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.
We are the light in this dark world. And darkness and light directly contrast one another! The words we speak are to be His words. The lives we live are to be righteous lives. This makes the darkness all the more black in comparison! The world hates us when we choose to follow Jesus because we become brighter and brighter with the light of Christ in our lives and they are not liking the conviction it brings to their own lives. They want to continue in their sins and they want to turn off the light.
John 3:19-20 19This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. 20Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed.
1 John 3:12-14
12 Do not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own actions were evil and his brother's were righteous 13 Do not be surprised, my brothers, if the world hates you. 14 We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers. Anyone who does not love remains in death.
We however must continue to shine the light of Christ brightly into the darkness! We are to LOVE our enemies! Let them hate you and continue to love them absorbing the cost of it all. There are those who will never come to the light that you shine forth. However there are those who will come. We are like a lighthouse for those looking to find the shore.
John 12:46
I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness.
Matthew 5:14-16
14"You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden.15Neither do people
