Passage
They shall excommunicate you: yea, the time shall come, that whosoeuer killeth you, will thinke that he doeth God seruice.
John 16:2 (GNV)
Nearby Context
John 16:1 These thinges haue I saide vnto you, that ye should not be offended.
John 16:2 They shall excommunicate you: yea, the time shall come, that whosoeuer killeth you, will thinke that he doeth God seruice.
John 16:3 And these things will they doe vnto you, because they haue not knowen ye Father, nor me.
John 16:4 But these things haue I tolde you, that when the houre shall come, ye might remember, that I tolde you them. And these things said I not vnto you from ye beginning, because I was with you.
Study Lenses
The verse centers on "shall", "excommunicate", "time", "come", "whosoeuer", "killeth", and "thinke". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "shall" and "excommunicate", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.
The nearby context moves from verse 1's "These thinges haue I saide vnto you..." into verse 3's "And these things will they doe vnto...", so "shall" and "excommunicate" belong inside that flow. In John context, the local focus is the identity of Jesus, new birth, eternal life, and belief and unbelief.
A plain takeaway is to answer the verse's own emphasis on "shall" and "excommunicate" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.