John 17:16 Study Bible: They are not of the world even as I am not of the world.

◄ John 17:16 ►

They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.

They are not of the world
This phrase emphasizes the distinction between the followers of Christ and the secular world. The Greek word for "world" here is "kosmos," which often refers to the fallen, sinful system opposed to God. Historically, the early Christians were set apart from the prevailing cultural norms of the Roman Empire, living by a different set of values and ethics. This separation is not about physical removal but a spiritual and moral distinction. Believers are called to live in the world but not be conformed to its ways, reflecting a higher allegiance to God's kingdom.

just as I am not of the world
Jesus draws a parallel between His own nature and that of His disciples. The phrase "just as" (Greek "kathōs") indicates a direct comparison, underscoring the unity between Christ and His followers. Jesus, though fully human, was not influenced by the sinful nature of the world. His mission was divine, and His kingdom was not of this world (John 18:36). Historically, this statement would have been radical, as it set Jesus apart from other religious leaders of His time, who often sought power and influence within the worldly systems. For believers, this serves as a reminder of their identity in Christ, called to live with a heavenly perspective and purpose, transcending earthly limitations and temptations.

Persons / Places / Events

1. Jesus Christ
The speaker of this verse, Jesus is praying to the Father on behalf of His disciples. This prayer is part of what is known as the High Priestly Prayer.

2. The Disciples
The immediate audience of Jesus' prayer, representing all believers who follow Christ. They are the ones Jesus refers to as "not of the world."

3. The World
In this context, "the world" refers to the system of values, beliefs, and practices that are opposed to God and His kingdom.

4. The Father
God the Father, to whom Jesus is praying. The relationship between Jesus and the Father is central to understanding the mission and identity of believers.

5. The High Priestly Prayer
This is the event in which Jesus prays for His disciples and all future believers, found in John 17. It is a significant moment of intercession before His crucifixion.

Teaching Points

Identity in Christ
As believers, our identity is rooted in Christ, not in the world. We are called to live as citizens of heaven, reflecting the values and character of Jesus.

Separation from Worldly Values
Being "not of the world" means rejecting the values and practices that are contrary to God's will. This involves discernment and a commitment to holiness.

Mission in the World
While we are not of the world, we are sent into the world to be salt and light. Our distinctiveness should draw others to Christ.

Dependence on God
Just as Jesus depended on the Father, we must rely on God for strength and guidance to live out our calling in a world that often opposes our faith.

Unity with Other Believers
Jesus' prayer emphasizes unity among His followers. Our shared identity in Christ should foster love and cooperation within the body of Christ.

Bible Study Questions

1. How does understanding that we are "not of the world" influence the way we live our daily lives?

2. In what ways can we practically demonstrate our identity in Christ while living in a world that often opposes Christian values?

3. How can we balance being separate from the world with our mission to reach the world for Christ?

4. What are some specific worldly values or practices that we need to guard against in our own lives?

5. How can we foster unity with other believers, recognizing our shared identity in Christ, as emphasized in Jesus' prayer?

Connections to Other Scriptures

John 15:19
Jesus tells His disciples that they are not of the world because He has chosen them out of the world. This reinforces the idea of being set apart.

Romans 12:2
Paul exhorts believers not to conform to the pattern of this world but to be transformed by the renewing of their minds, echoing the call to live differently from the world.

1 John 2:15-17
John warns against loving the world or anything in it, as the world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever.

Philippians 3:20
Paul reminds believers that their citizenship is in heaven, emphasizing the distinction between believers and the world.

2 Corinthians 6:17
Paul calls believers to come out from among unbelievers and be separate, highlighting the call to holiness and distinction.

Sermons

Attractions of Worldliness	T. L. Cuyler, D. D.	John 17:16
Danger of Absorption in Worldly Things	W. Baxendale.	John 17:16
Distinguishing Character of Christians	B. Beddome, M. A.	John 17:16
The Character of Christ's People	C. H. Spurgeon.	John 17:16
The Danger of Worldliness	T. Manton, D. D.	John 17:16
The Unwordliness of a Christian Life	R. Abercrombie, M. A.	John 17:16
The Unworldliness of Christ	D. Thomas, D. D.	John 17:16
Unworldliness	R. M. Spoor.	John 17:16
Worldliness Described	F. W. Robertson, M. A.	John 17:16
The Divine Suppliant	D. Thomas, D. D.	John 17:9-16
The Keeping of the Saints	T. Whitelaw, D. D.	John 17:9-16
The Mediatorial Plea	J. Spence, D. D.	John 17:9-16
Why Christ Did not Pray for the World	F. Godet, D. D.	John 17:9-16
Why Christ Prayed for the Disciples	F. Godet, D. D.	John 17:9-16

People

Jesus, Disciples

Places

Jerusalem

Topics

Belong

Dictionary of Bible Themes

John 17:16

     2030   Christ, holiness
     6109   alienation
     8341   separation
     8848   worldliness

John 17:1-26

2360 Christ, prayers of
8603 prayer, relationship with God

John 17:6-19

4030 world, behaviour in

John 17:6-26

8611 prayer, for others

John 17:10-22

5308 equality

John 17:11-23

7622 disciples, characteristics

John 17:14-16

7028 church, life of
8211 commitment, to world

John 17:14-18

4027 world, fallen

John 17:15-18

5542 society, positive

John 17:16-18

2428 gospel, descriptions

Library

October 10 Evening
After this manner . . . pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven.--MATT. 6:9. Jesus lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father.--My Father, and your Father. Ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.--Ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God. Because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into …
Anonymous—Daily Light on the Daily Path

August 10 Morning
I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but thou shouldest keep them from the evil.--JOHN 17:15. Blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world.--Ye are the salt of the earth, . . . the light of the world.--Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is heaven. I also withheld thee from sinning against me. The Lord is faithful, …
Anonymous—Daily Light on the Daily Path

July 20 Morning
They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.--JOHN 17:16. He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief.--In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world. Such an high priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners.--That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation. Jesus of Nazareth . . . went about doing good, and …
Anonymous—Daily Light on the Daily Path

February 21 Morning
I am the Lord which sanctify you.--LEV. 20:8. I am the Lord your God, which have separated you from other people. And ye shall be holy unto me: for I the Lord am holy, and have severed you from other people, that ye should be mine. Sanctified by God the Father.--Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.--The very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus . . . that he might …
Anonymous—Daily Light on the Daily Path

November 16 Morning
Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.--JOHN 17:17. Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.--Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom. Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? by taking heed thereto according to thy word. With my whole heart have I sought thee: O let me not wander from thy commandments. When wisdom entereth into thine heart, and knowledge is pleasant unto thy soul: discretion shall preserve thee, understanding shall keep …
Anonymous—Daily Light on the Daily Path

November 27 Morning
The glory which thou gavest me I have given them.--JOHN 17:22. I saw . . . the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. Above it stood the seraphims. And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory.--These things said Esaias, when he saw his glory, and spake of him.--Upon the likeness of the throne was the likeness . . . of a man above upon it. As the appearance of the bow that is in the cloud …
Anonymous—Daily Light on the Daily Path

November 13 Evening
Through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father.--EPH. 2:18. I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one. Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it. And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but …
Anonymous—Daily Light on the Daily Path

January 1 Morning
This one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind,. . . I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.--PHI. 3:13,14. Father, I will that they . . . whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me.--I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day.--He which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus …
Anonymous—Daily Light on the Daily Path

May 4 Evening
I have glorified thee on the earth.--JOHN 17:4. My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work.--I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work. Wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business? And they understood not the saying which he spake unto them.--This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby. Said I not unto thee, that if thou wouldest believe, thou …
Anonymous—Daily Light on the Daily Path

January 25 Evening
The spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.--ROM. 8:15. Jesus . . . lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father, . . . Holy Father, . . . O righteous Father.--He said, Abba, Father.--Because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.--For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father. Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints and of the household of God. Doubtless thou …
Anonymous—Daily Light on the Daily Path

February 12 Morning
They shall be mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels.--MAL. 3:17. I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world: thine they were, and thou gavest them me; and they have kept thy word. I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me; for they are thine. And all mine are thine, and thine are mine; and I am glorified in them. Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am: that …
Anonymous—Daily Light on the Daily Path

December 31. "I Pray not that Thou Shouldst Take them Out of the World, but that Thou Shouldst Keep them from the Evil" (John xvii. 15).
"I pray not that Thou shouldst take them out of the world, but that Thou shouldst keep them from the evil" (John xvii. 15). He wants us here for some higher purpose than mere existence. That purpose is nothing else than to represent Him to the world, to be the messengers of His Gospel and His will to men, and by our lives to exhibit to them the true life, and teach them how to live it themselves. He is representing us yonder, and our one business is to represent Him here. We are just as truly sent …
Rev. A. B. Simpson—Days of Heaven Upon Earth

November 5. "I in Them, and Thou in Me" (John xvii. 23).
"I in them, and Thou in Me" (John xvii. 23). If we would be enlarged to the full measure of God's purpose, let us endeavor to realize something of our own capacities for His filling. We little know the size of a human soul and spirit. Never, until He renews, cleanses and enters the heart can we have any adequate conception of the possibilities of the being whom God made in His very image, and whom He now renews after the pattern of the Lord Jesus Himself. We know, however, that God has made the human …
Rev. A. B. Simpson—Days of Heaven Upon Earth

December 11. "I Pray not for the World, but for Them" (John xvii. 9).
"I pray not for the world, but for them" (John xvii. 9). How often we say we would like to get some strong spirit to pray for us, and feel so helped when we think they are carrying us in their faith. But there is One whose prayers never fail to be fulfilled and who is more willing to give them to us than any human friend. His one business at God's right hand is to make intercession for His people, and we are simply coming in the line of His own appointment and His own definite promise and provision, …
Rev. A. B. Simpson—Days of Heaven Upon Earth

The Folded Flock
I will that they also, whom Thou hast given Me, be with Me where I am; that they may behold My glory.'--JOHN xvii. 24. This wonderful prayer is (a) for Jesus Himself, (b) for the Apostles, (c) for the whole Church on earth and in heaven. I. The prayer. 'I will' has a strange ring of authority. It is the expression of His love to men, and of His longing for their presence with Him in His glory. Not till they are with Him there, shall He 'see of the travail of His soul and be satisfied.' We …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture: St. John Chaps. XV to XXI

Christ's Summary of his Work
'I have declared onto them Thy name, and will declare it: that the love wherewith Thou hast loved Me may be in them, and I in them.'--JOHN xvii. 26. This is the solemn and calm close of Christ's great High-priestly prayer; the very last words that He spoke before Gethsemane and His passion. In it He sums up both the purpose of His life and the petitions of His prayer, and presents the perfect fulfilment of the former as the ground on which He asks the fulfilment of the latter. There is a singular …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture: St. John Chaps. XV to XXI

The Intercessor
'These words spake Jesus, and lifted up His eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour is come; glorify Thy Son, that Thy Son also may glorify Thee: As Thou hast given Him power over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as Thou hast given Him. And this is life eternal, that they might know Thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent. I have glorified Thee on the earth: I have finished the work which Thou gavest Me to do. And now, O Father, glorify Thou Me with …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture: St. John Chaps. XV to XXI

'The Lord Thee Keeps'
...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.'--JOHN xvii. 14-16. We have here a petition imbedded in a reiterated statement of the disciples' isolated position when left in a hostile world without Christ's sheltering presence. We cannot fathom the depth of the mystery of the praying Christ, but we may be sure of this, …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture: St. John Chaps. XV to XXI

The High Priest's Prayer
'Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on Me through their word; That they all may be one; as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that Thou hast sent Me. And the glory which Thou givest Me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: I in them, and Thou in Me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that Thou hast sent Me, and hast loved them, as Thou hast loved …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture: St. John Chaps. XV to XXI

Sixteenth Day. Holiness and Truth.
Make them holy in the Truth: Thy word is Truth.'--John xvii. 17. 'God chose you unto salvation in sanctification and belief of the Truth.'--2 Thess. ii. 12. The chief means of sanctification that God uses is His word. And yet how much there is of reading and studying, of teaching and preaching the word, that has almost no effect in making men holy. It is not the word that sanctifies; it is God Himself who alone can sanctify. Nor is it simply through the word that God does it, but through …
Andrew Murray—Holy in Christ

Seventeenth Day. Holiness and Crucifixion.
For their sakes I sanctify myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth.'--John xvii. 19. 'He said, Lo, I am come to do Thy will. In which will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus once for all. For by one offering He hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified.'--Heb. x. 9, 10, 14. It was in His High-priestly prayer, on His way to Gethsemane and Calvary, that Jesus thus spake to the Father: 'I sanctify myself.' He had not long before spoken …
Andrew Murray—Holy in Christ

The Plenary Inspiration of Every Part of the Bible, vindicated and Explained. --Nature of Inspiration. --The Text of Scripture.
Thy Word is Truth. I THANKFULLY avail myself of the opportunity which, unexpected and unsolicited, so soon presents itself, to proceed with the subject which was engaging our attention when I last occupied this place. Let me remind you of the nature of the present inquiry, and of the progress which we have already made. Taking Holy Scripture for our subject, and urging, as best we knew how, its paramount claims on the daily attention of the younger men,--who at present are our hope and ornament; …
John William Burgon—Inspiration and Interpretation

August the Twenty-Fourth the Lord's Body
"I have finished the work which Thou gavest Me to do." --JOHN xvii. 1-11. This quiet confession is in itself a token of our Lord's divinity. The serenity in which He makes His claims is as stupendous as the claims themselves. "Finished," perfected in the utmost refinement, to the last, remotest detail! Nothing scamped, nothing overlooked, nothing forgotten! Everything which concerns thy redemption and my redemption has been accomplished. "It is finished!" "And now ... I come to Thee." The visible …
John Henry Jowett—My Daily Meditation for the Circling Year

The Cure of Evil-Speaking
"If thy brother shall sin against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone: If he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother. But if he will not hear, take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established. And if he will not hear them, tell it to the Church. But if he does not hear the church, let him be to thee as an heathen man and a publican." Matt. 18:15-17 1. "Speak evil of no man," says the great Apostle: -- As plain a …
John Wesley—Sermons on Several Occasions

Links

John 17:16 NIV
John 17:16 NLT
John 17:16 ESV
John 17:16 NASB
John 17:16 KJV

John 17:16 Commentaries

Bible Hub