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John 17:9–16
“I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one” (John 17:15).
We have seen that the goal of the Christian life is growth in righteousness, learning how to please God. But we struggle mightily to advance. Why is that? Martin Luther said that many obstacles impede our growth in righteousness, but three main “enemies” resist us—the world, the flesh, and the devil. We will look at each of these obstacles to pleasing God as we conclude this study this week.
The New Testament uses the word world in more than one way. At least two of these ways are illustrated in Jesus’ High Priestly Prayer in John 17. In verse 11 He says, “ ‘I am no longer in the world,’ ” clearly speaking of the planet earth, the world He is about to leave. But later, in verse 14, He says that the world has hated His disciples “ ‘because they are not of the world.’ ” Here He is referring to a standpoint or perspective with regard to the things of God, as well as the sphere or group of people who have no affection for the kingdom of God. Paul uses world in the same way in Romans 12:2, where he exhorts the Roman Christians, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” Paul clearly is not speaking of the world as a location, and the verbs he uses—conform and transform—provide evidence of that. They have a common root, form, which refers to a structure or system. Conform speaks of being “with” this system, the acceptable structures of the present world. Paul is saying the being “with it” is to be avoided. Transform speaks of going above and beyond the structures of the world. This is how we overcome the world. We break away from conformity to the culture’s accepted norms, what the Germans call the zeitgeist, or the “spirit of the age.” Instead, we begin to obey God, conforming to His norms; in other words, to His commands. And we achieve this by the renewing of our minds, by the Holy Spirit working in and through God’s Word to apply the Gospel to our lives. Clearly, therefore, we can overcome this obstacle to pleasing God only by relying on God to enable us.
Jesus also prayed in John 17 that God would not take His disciples out of the world but would protect them from the evil one (v. 15). We will learn more about the devil later, but we must see that God intends that we not withdraw from the world. We simply must guard against conformity to it and seek to reach it with the Gospel of God’s love.
Coram Deo Living before the face of God
In their zeal to not be “of” the world, Christians have shunned all sorts of activities and practices that have no real moral quotient. The non-conformity to which we are called is not just being different but going beyond the world’s standards of what is acceptable. Seek real non-conformity—behaving as if God matters in your life.
for further study
- Galatians 6:14
- 2 Timothy 4:10
- James 4:4
- 1 John 2:15–17
- 1 John 3:1
- 1 John 4:5