How in the World Do We Live?

Jesus prayed to His Father: “I have given them your word, and the world has hated them, because they do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. I am not asking you to take them out of the world, but that you keep them safe from the evil one. They do not belong to the world just as I do not belong to the world. Set them apart in the truth; your word is truth. Just as you sent me into the world, so I sent them into the world.” John 17:14-18

We can learn so much about Jesus in the way He prayed. How encouraging it is to know that Jesus prays for His Church—those who have believed in Him. In this same chapter, Jesus says He prays these things so that we might have His joy completed in us. To believe in and love Jesus is to have complete and sustainable joy.

Jesus was clear in His prayer that He does not want to take His disciples out of the world but protect them from the evil one. So we are in the world, we are not of the world, meaning that we don’t follow the pattern of this world or the ways of this world. Jesus prays that even though we may be hated by the world, He still wants us to be in the world. Now in Jesus’ prayer that we would be protected from the evil one, He is referring to Satan. It doesn’t mean that we will be protected in every way by the brokenness of this fallen world. Rather, Jesus’ prayer is that we will be protected from being tempted and sway by the evil one. Jesus desires that we are set apart from the world and are being made more and more like Him.  His truth, the truth of Jesus’ words, what He has spoken about Himself as the true Savior of the World, and the Scriptures themselves are truth. We speak and act as those who are governed by the word of God empowered by the Holy Spirit.

Jesus is praying that we, as believers, and as the Church, will be different from the world. When we stand for truth, we are both living and speaking as those who love the world as God loves the world. We love our enemies as Jesus loved His enemies. We bring hope to the hopeless.  We can be encouraged that Jesus prays and intercedes for us that we would be holy in this world and be led by truth. Jesus sends us to the world for this purpose. This gives us boldness to speak the truth in love to those in this world.

We do this in the context of the unity we have in Jesus with all believers. Jesus prays that we, the Church, may be one as He and the Father are one. The world will see Jesus when we are unified in this way. We pray for one another, seek God together, and are strengthened by the Holy Spirit to walk in Him and shine His light.

Help us, Lord to daily be set apart by You that You would make us holy. Help us to seek the truth of Your Word and share Your life and truth with others. Help us to spread the Good News of Jesus in this world. Lord, the world may hate us, but please protect us from the evil one and guard us from the temptations that the world brings. May You bring us together to shine Your light and truth through us. Amen.