…the world was not worthy of them. 

When the world is most true to itself it values the valueless. It idolises the trivial and superficial. It regularly pours its honours on the unimportant. In the main, people of faith are not valued. But when the people of faith are most true to themselves (i.e.to their new natures in Christ) they are not bothered. They know what matters most, and it is not the praise of men. It is, rather, to know the smile of God. It is to hear His, ”Well done”. They are a living rebuke to the world, and the world responds by rejecting them. But as they are ‘living for an Audience of one’ it doesn’t make so much as a tiny dent on their souls. but look where loving ”human praise” too much can take you (John 12:42,43).