While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name: those that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition; that the scripture might be fulfilled.
And now come I to thee; and these things I speak in the world, that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves.
I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.
I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil.
They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.
Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth. Joh 17:12-17
And now come I to thee; and these things I speak in the world, that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves.
I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.
I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil.
They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.
Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth. Joh 17:12-17
Christian separation from the world means being kept from the world’s evil.--
1. As Christ’s disciples, as members of God’s spiritual family, and therefore “strangers and pilgrims” on earth, although we are forbidden to seclude ourselves from the society of men and the pursuits of life, we are also bidden to keep ourselves free from that sin and evil which make the world inimical to God and God’s people.
2. Our daily prayer should be this petition in that prayer which Jesus taught His disciples—“Deliver us from evil.” And when it is remembered that evil inheres as it were in a centre, comes from one dark source, then the petition should also run—“Deliver us from the evil one.” It was for this that Jesus prayed His Father just before the cross, that He would keep the disciples from the evil one.
3. It is not then the world in itself that is evil. The earth indeed is full of the divine goodness. “The heavens declare the divine glory,” etc. “Earth with her thousand voices praises God” (Coleridge). Reverent intercourse with nature to the spiritually minded leads them nearer to God. And nature in itself has no sympathy with evil (Rev_3:22). It is from the world of evil men, inspired by the spirit of evil, that the believer is to be kept free.
4. And this is the difficulty. Hic labor, hoc opus. How can men escape that which touches their lives at every point! In what enticing guises and disguises does evil solicit even in a Christian land! Under the guise of sociability and good fellowship it offers the intoxicating cup. With the specious promise of pleasure it tempts with those “fleshly lusts that war against the soul.” With the tempting bait of easy gain, and the excitement of chance, it entices its victims into worshipping at those shrines (of gambling, etc.) dedicated to Mammon. Great need for prayer that we should be kept from the world’s evil—that the high-priestly prayer of our Lord should be answered in our case also.
How then shall believers be kept from the evil in the world?--
1. Not by their own strength. They must be inspired by a higher power. Another spirit must reign within them than that which dominates this evil world. As in malarias districts, those who have to go through them prepare themselves by prophylactics to resist the poisoned air, so that the deadly swamp fever may not lay its burning hand upon them—so the Christian who must come in contact with the evil world must have a spiritual prophylactic. “Sanctify them through Thy truth.”
2. The men who are spiritually healthy, holy, will be best fitted to resist spiritual disease, and be able to go about as spiritual healers among men. 3. And this we may attain to through union with the Saviour; for then we shall be kept by the Father from evil and the evil one. In this struggle we do not stand unaided and alone. A heavenly panoply is provided for us (Eph_6:11-18); a heavenly weapon—the divine word—is put into our hands; a divine Spirit inspires the Christian pilgrim and soldier with strength to endure; a divine Friend is ever near to aid and help in time of need.
The purposes for which the Christian disciple is to remain in the world.--
1. There is a personal, spiritual gain in wrestling with and overcoming evil. Our faith is strengthened by the conflict with unbelief. Every temptation overcome is a step upward on the heavenly stairway, every victorious struggle with evil thoughts from within and incitements from without is a gain to the moral nature. Every firm refusal to yield to the blandishments of the world, the flesh, the devil, every time the indignant word, “Get thee behind me, Satan,” is spoken, the struggle will be less painful, and the victory in Christ’s strength more sure.
2. And as the divine Son was “perfected through sufferings,” so will it be with His disciples. In our present condition we must either overcome the world or be overcome by it. But Jesus has shown us the way in which we may be more than conquerors, through His grace. And the promise is to those who overcome (2Ti_4:7-8; Rev_21:7).
3. There was also a purpose regarding the world served by the disciples of Christ remaining in it. They were to be witnesses for Christ. Inspired by the Spirit, they were to make known His saving power. “Having their conversation honest among the Gentiles,” “shining as lights in the world,” they would lead men to see the sinfulness of sin, the need of Christ’s salvation, and thus bring glory to God (1Pe_2:12).
4. And as they were so are we in the world. If we are truly Christ’s disciples, He gives us a work to do for Him whilst we are here which we alone can do. He calls us to witness for Him by our lives, by word and deed, in the world, showing by our walk that we are not of the world, but seek a better country, even a heavenly. Thus men will be led also to seek for and rejoice in this salvation, and in the end glorify our heavenly Father (Mat_5:16).
Joh_17:15. “I pray not that Thou shouldest take them out of the world.”—Some reasons why our Lord asks for His friends that they should not be taken out of the world.
He asks it for the benefit of the world.—If Christ were to remove men to His immediate presence so soon as they become His followers, He would be taking away from the world those who were meant to be its greatest blessings. True Christians are the salt of the earth. Distributed over its surface, they help to preserve it from the utter corruption to which it would otherwise sink. They are more—they are its light. If ever the world is brought to the knowledge of God, it must be through their instrumentality. If they were removed, there would be no Church on earth to witness for God.
It would be the darkness of Egypt, without light in any dwelling—the corruption of Sodom, without a Lot to be grieved for it; and if the earth were still preserved, it would only be for the sake of those who, in time coming, might be drawn from it to God. This world would then be a quarry from which stones were taken, as from heathen Tyre, and transported, so soon as cut, to form the house of God in another land. But it would not be a site on which a temple shall rise to God’s glory, growing from age to age, until it fill the extent of the wide earth, and have the “headstone brought forth with shoutings, Grace, grace, unto it!”
He asks it for the honor of His own name.—There is glory that accrues to the name of Christ and there is joy among the angels when a sinner drops the weapons of rebellion, and becomes, through Him, the child of God. There is glory also that comes to Him when His redeemed are brought home, and when, arrayed in the beauties of holiness, they cast their crowns before the throne with the ascription, “Worthy is the Lamb that was slain!” But it is for His honor also that there should be an interval between—a pathway of struggle, where the power of His grace may be seen in preserving His friends in every extremity. The more threatening the rocks and eddies, the fiercer the winds and waves, so much the more honor to Him, who sometimes asleep in the ship (as men deem it), sometimes absent, can keep it from wreck, and carry it in safety to the desired haven. What an emphatic challenge there is to every enemy in His own words, “I give unto My sheep eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any pluck them out of My hand”! (Preacher's Homiletical)
1. As Christ’s disciples, as members of God’s spiritual family, and therefore “strangers and pilgrims” on earth, although we are forbidden to seclude ourselves from the society of men and the pursuits of life, we are also bidden to keep ourselves free from that sin and evil which make the world inimical to God and God’s people.
2. Our daily prayer should be this petition in that prayer which Jesus taught His disciples—“Deliver us from evil.” And when it is remembered that evil inheres as it were in a centre, comes from one dark source, then the petition should also run—“Deliver us from the evil one.” It was for this that Jesus prayed His Father just before the cross, that He would keep the disciples from the evil one.
3. It is not then the world in itself that is evil. The earth indeed is full of the divine goodness. “The heavens declare the divine glory,” etc. “Earth with her thousand voices praises God” (Coleridge). Reverent intercourse with nature to the spiritually minded leads them nearer to God. And nature in itself has no sympathy with evil (Rev_3:22). It is from the world of evil men, inspired by the spirit of evil, that the believer is to be kept free.
4. And this is the difficulty. Hic labor, hoc opus. How can men escape that which touches their lives at every point! In what enticing guises and disguises does evil solicit even in a Christian land! Under the guise of sociability and good fellowship it offers the intoxicating cup. With the specious promise of pleasure it tempts with those “fleshly lusts that war against the soul.” With the tempting bait of easy gain, and the excitement of chance, it entices its victims into worshipping at those shrines (of gambling, etc.) dedicated to Mammon. Great need for prayer that we should be kept from the world’s evil—that the high-priestly prayer of our Lord should be answered in our case also.
How then shall believers be kept from the evil in the world?--
1. Not by their own strength. They must be inspired by a higher power. Another spirit must reign within them than that which dominates this evil world. As in malarias districts, those who have to go through them prepare themselves by prophylactics to resist the poisoned air, so that the deadly swamp fever may not lay its burning hand upon them—so the Christian who must come in contact with the evil world must have a spiritual prophylactic. “Sanctify them through Thy truth.”
2. The men who are spiritually healthy, holy, will be best fitted to resist spiritual disease, and be able to go about as spiritual healers among men. 3. And this we may attain to through union with the Saviour; for then we shall be kept by the Father from evil and the evil one. In this struggle we do not stand unaided and alone. A heavenly panoply is provided for us (Eph_6:11-18); a heavenly weapon—the divine word—is put into our hands; a divine Spirit inspires the Christian pilgrim and soldier with strength to endure; a divine Friend is ever near to aid and help in time of need.
The purposes for which the Christian disciple is to remain in the world.--
1. There is a personal, spiritual gain in wrestling with and overcoming evil. Our faith is strengthened by the conflict with unbelief. Every temptation overcome is a step upward on the heavenly stairway, every victorious struggle with evil thoughts from within and incitements from without is a gain to the moral nature. Every firm refusal to yield to the blandishments of the world, the flesh, the devil, every time the indignant word, “Get thee behind me, Satan,” is spoken, the struggle will be less painful, and the victory in Christ’s strength more sure.
2. And as the divine Son was “perfected through sufferings,” so will it be with His disciples. In our present condition we must either overcome the world or be overcome by it. But Jesus has shown us the way in which we may be more than conquerors, through His grace. And the promise is to those who overcome (2Ti_4:7-8; Rev_21:7).
3. There was also a purpose regarding the world served by the disciples of Christ remaining in it. They were to be witnesses for Christ. Inspired by the Spirit, they were to make known His saving power. “Having their conversation honest among the Gentiles,” “shining as lights in the world,” they would lead men to see the sinfulness of sin, the need of Christ’s salvation, and thus bring glory to God (1Pe_2:12).
4. And as they were so are we in the world. If we are truly Christ’s disciples, He gives us a work to do for Him whilst we are here which we alone can do. He calls us to witness for Him by our lives, by word and deed, in the world, showing by our walk that we are not of the world, but seek a better country, even a heavenly. Thus men will be led also to seek for and rejoice in this salvation, and in the end glorify our heavenly Father (Mat_5:16).
Joh_17:15. “I pray not that Thou shouldest take them out of the world.”—Some reasons why our Lord asks for His friends that they should not be taken out of the world.
He asks it for the benefit of the world.—If Christ were to remove men to His immediate presence so soon as they become His followers, He would be taking away from the world those who were meant to be its greatest blessings. True Christians are the salt of the earth. Distributed over its surface, they help to preserve it from the utter corruption to which it would otherwise sink. They are more—they are its light. If ever the world is brought to the knowledge of God, it must be through their instrumentality. If they were removed, there would be no Church on earth to witness for God.
It would be the darkness of Egypt, without light in any dwelling—the corruption of Sodom, without a Lot to be grieved for it; and if the earth were still preserved, it would only be for the sake of those who, in time coming, might be drawn from it to God. This world would then be a quarry from which stones were taken, as from heathen Tyre, and transported, so soon as cut, to form the house of God in another land. But it would not be a site on which a temple shall rise to God’s glory, growing from age to age, until it fill the extent of the wide earth, and have the “headstone brought forth with shoutings, Grace, grace, unto it!”
He asks it for the honor of His own name.—There is glory that accrues to the name of Christ and there is joy among the angels when a sinner drops the weapons of rebellion, and becomes, through Him, the child of God. There is glory also that comes to Him when His redeemed are brought home, and when, arrayed in the beauties of holiness, they cast their crowns before the throne with the ascription, “Worthy is the Lamb that was slain!” But it is for His honor also that there should be an interval between—a pathway of struggle, where the power of His grace may be seen in preserving His friends in every extremity. The more threatening the rocks and eddies, the fiercer the winds and waves, so much the more honor to Him, who sometimes asleep in the ship (as men deem it), sometimes absent, can keep it from wreck, and carry it in safety to the desired haven. What an emphatic challenge there is to every enemy in His own words, “I give unto My sheep eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any pluck them out of My hand”! (Preacher's Homiletical)
I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Joh 17:14
+++++++
They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Joh 17:16
+++++++
They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Joh 17:16
The world had hated the Master and was about to slay him, because he was not of the world. So it would hate the apostles, who were not of the world, and seek to slay them; he does not pray that they should be taken out of the world, for they have a work to do, but that the Father would keep them from the power of the evil one.
If ye were of the world - If you were actuated by the principles of the world. If, like them, you were vain, earthly, sensual, given to pleasure, wealth, ambition, they would not oppose you.
Because ye are not of the world - Because you are influenced by different principles from men of the world. You are actuated by the love of God and holiness; they by the love of sin.
I have chosen you out of the world - I have, by choosing you to be my followers, separated you from their society, and placed you under the government of my holy laws.
Therefore ... - A Christian may esteem it as one evidence of his piety that he is hated by wicked men. Often most decided evidence is given that a man is the friend of God by the opposition excited against him by the profane, by Sabbath-breakers, and by the dissolute, 1Jn_3:13; Joh_7:7.
(B.W. Johnson)
If ye were of the world - If you were actuated by the principles of the world. If, like them, you were vain, earthly, sensual, given to pleasure, wealth, ambition, they would not oppose you.
Because ye are not of the world - Because you are influenced by different principles from men of the world. You are actuated by the love of God and holiness; they by the love of sin.
I have chosen you out of the world - I have, by choosing you to be my followers, separated you from their society, and placed you under the government of my holy laws.
Therefore ... - A Christian may esteem it as one evidence of his piety that he is hated by wicked men. Often most decided evidence is given that a man is the friend of God by the opposition excited against him by the profane, by Sabbath-breakers, and by the dissolute, 1Jn_3:13; Joh_7:7.
(B.W. Johnson)
IN THE WORLD BUT NOT OF THE WORLD
What is the world? The inspired definition is given in 1Jn_2:16.
1Jn 2:16 For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.
Enumerating her three offsprings, the Apostle goes on to say, “All that is in the world… is not of the Father,” that is, does not originate or proceed from Him. We might reverse the proposition and say, “All that does not emanate from the Father, and which is inconsistent with perfect love and purity and truth, is of the world.”
The spirit of the world permeates society. All its plans, aims, and activities belong to the present passing show. “Under the sun” is the suggestion of Ecclesiastes. The world has always been in collision with Christ, because His teaching reverses everything that the world prizes. In its beatitudes, its methods of pleasure and acquisition, its view and use of power, and its attitude toward God, the difference is wide as the poles. But its hatred is welcome to the followers of Christ, as proving that they are on the Master’s track, and in His fellowship they are abundantly compensated. (F.B. Meyer)
1Jn 2:16 For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.
Enumerating her three offsprings, the Apostle goes on to say, “All that is in the world… is not of the Father,” that is, does not originate or proceed from Him. We might reverse the proposition and say, “All that does not emanate from the Father, and which is inconsistent with perfect love and purity and truth, is of the world.”
The spirit of the world permeates society. All its plans, aims, and activities belong to the present passing show. “Under the sun” is the suggestion of Ecclesiastes. The world has always been in collision with Christ, because His teaching reverses everything that the world prizes. In its beatitudes, its methods of pleasure and acquisition, its view and use of power, and its attitude toward God, the difference is wide as the poles. But its hatred is welcome to the followers of Christ, as proving that they are on the Master’s track, and in His fellowship they are abundantly compensated. (F.B. Meyer)
