<p>15:22 <em>If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin</em>- We see here that hearing the word is the basis for responsibility to judgment. The 'coming' of the Lord was not a reference to some descent from Heaven to Palestine on planet earth; His coming to the Jewish world was in His words spoken to them. And as He was sent into the world, so He was sending His disciples. The fact they were without excuse issued in a hatred for the preachers who had spoken to them- for that is the context here in :23 and :21. All the synoptics use the word translated &quot;excuse&quot; about the Jewish leadership making a &quot;pretence&quot; of spirituality (Mt. 23:14; Mk. 12:40; Lk. 20:47). And this is John's version of that. He states specifically what the synoptic writers do not- that the &quot;pretence&quot; of external religion was in fact to cloak AV or hide their sin. The synoptics state that for a &quot;pretence&quot; the Jews made long prayers, but they do not specifically state what was being cloaked or covered over. And here, the Lord states it was &quot;sin&quot;. So often, religious behaviour is used in order to cover our sin from our own eyes. We must remember that we are all prone to the psychology of religious behaviour. The Lord 'spoke to them' about this; and they no longer had that cloak, for He had removed it and demonstrated that He saw through it. Their works were evil (7:7) and He had urged them to address their internal issues instead of covering their evil thoughts with external acts of obedience. And their response was to hate Him.</p>