I. THE EXCLUSION. We have here a striking illustration of the definiteness of the prayers of Jesus. He knows exactly for whom he is praying, and what he wants for them. He defines them positively, and he defines them negatively. It is not enough for him to call them his own.' It must also be said why they are his own. If they belonged to the world, and had in them, unchecked and unmixed, the spirit of the world, they would not be his. This is a very decided exclusion for the purpose which Jesus has in view; but no one who understands the whole drift of the work of Jesus will say that it is a harsh exclusion. When Jesus prays for his own, he is really doing the best he can for the world. What can the Father of Jesus do for the world, so long as it remains the world? He has nothing to give that the world cares for. What God bestows on the world is given irrespective of prayer - given to all; given, a great deal of it, to the lower creation as well. If more is to be given, it is because of the appearing of a spirit of recipiency which is in itself a sign of passing from the world to the Church. When Jesus prays for his own, he is really praying that they may so let their light shine as to attract and persuade the world. The very best things that Jesus can do for the world are to be done through the character of his own people.

II. THE GROUNDS OF THE REQUEST. Jesus prays to the Father for those whom the Father had given to him. What a view of the claims of the heavenly Father is here! When we give anything it implies that we have a right to give it. We have made it our own by purchase or manufacture; We could not take any human life and make a present of it to somebody else that he might use it for his own purposes. There would be a protest at once. But God makes this claim, and gives over human souls to the control of Jesus. To that control and to no other. The same truth is expressed when Jesus says that all authority is given to him in heaven and on earth. What an inspiration there should be in the thought that the Father reckons us worthy to be bestowed on the Son for him to use! What a folly and misuse of ourselves if we, who are intended for gifts to Jesus, should refuse to Jesus the necessary control! What an explanation of the frequent misery and waste of life! If Jesus cannot get a proper use of his own, how can we turn it to anything but misuse? But Jesus goes on to say how that in receiving he only receives to give back. "All mine are thine, and thine are mine." No wonder that, in the first fullness of Pentecostal blessing, the disciples had all things in common. The Father and the Son have all things in common. The Father gives humanity to the Son that Jesus may send out consecrated men and women to glorify him. And then these consecrated men and women, used as they only can be used by Jesus, are rendered up to the Father who bestowed them on the Son. The heavenly Father is the great Fountain of the highest good, and all that he gives comes back to him at last, having ministered strength and gladness to human hearts innumerable. All that is in God and all that is in Jesus are for us; and we are, not for ourselves - that is only a small part of the truth - but for the Son in the Father, and the Father in the Son. There is no serving the Son without serving the Father, nor glorifying the Son without glorifying the Father. And we need that the Father should strengthen and equip us through invisible means for all this serving and glorifying, because the Son no longer remains visibly in the world. The invisible ministry is far to excel in depth and extent the visible one. - Y.

I. SPIRITUAL PRIVILEGE. "I hath given them Thy Word."

1. These terms are comprehensive of the revelation of Divine grace and truth as a whole, which Christ Jesus taught as they were able to bear it. Who at this time, in the whole world, knew the Word of God as did these Galilean fishermen?

2. To receive the Word of God —(1) As a personal possession;(2) as a sacred deposit in trust for the whole world; and —(3) from Him who was the Revealer of God and the Redeemer of men was the highest privilege.

3. And since with every privilege responsibility is involved, these disciples were invested with a trust which required them to be kept with Divine power. All disciples now, in a sense, share in this privilege and responsibility.

II. MORAL SEPARATION.

1. They were not of the world —(1) In their character, for the world is ever presented as having a character opposed to God. Self, not God, is its foundation; it seeks the present rather than the future, walks by sight rather than by faith, glories in the human rather than in the Divine, holds by the carnal rather than the spiritual. In this respect the disciples were no longer of the world.(2) In their condition. The world, as such, was lying in wickedness and under condemnation. The children of disobedience are declared to be the children of wrath, and the friendship of the world is enmity with God.

2. This separation exposed them to social persecution — "The world hath hated them," &c. The only world of which they knew anything by experience as yet was their own country, and it hated them. And if this was their experience up to now how signally in a wider sphere did it come to be so afterwards (1 Corinthians 4:13). The Saviour's spotless purity rebuked the looseness of the age, His benevolence its selfishness, His piety its worldliness. Therefore it hated Him, and the disciples shared in the hostility which was heaped upon the Master.

3. Christ was the model of this separation. "Even as I am not of the world." Jesus had not come out of the world as His disciples had done, for He was never of it, as they were. He was not of the world, although He came to the world, lived in the world, mixed with the men of the world, and in the scenes of the world, He was holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners, and His disciples accepted His principles, and gradually became assimilated to His character. To be like Christ, and to be "unspotted from the world "is the only true and abiding glory of human character. What does the world care for saints? It has not a good opinion of them, nor a good word for them; its spirit is entirely opposed to them, and it is not slow to call them fools.

(J. Spence, D. D.)

I. EXPLAIN AND ESTABLISH THE TRUTH OF THE ASSERTION. Christians are not of the world —

1. Because they are not attached to its party.(1) In many cases it is lawful to associate with the people of the world. Such are cases of necessity — when we are compelled by our situations to live among them; cases of business, charity, and piety, civility, and affinity.(2) But further than this a Christian will not go. He cannot choose and affinity.(2) But further than this a Christian will not go. He cannot choose the people of the world as his companions and friends.(a) The authority of God forbids it. "Come out from among them and ye separate," &c.(b) The peace of his fellow Christians. Such bold intimacies with the world would grieve the strong, and throw a stumbling-block in the way of the weak.(c) The welfare of his own soul. "Can a man take fire in his bosom and not be burned?" My young friends, beware of wicked company! Cultivate no friendships that will end in everlasting ruin.

2. They are not actuated by the spirit of the world. Everything else is vain without this. Your forsaking the world in profession, your leaving it in appearance, by your apparel, your discourse, your manner of life, is nothing unless it be animated by internal principle. And when the heart is detached from the world, these two advantages flow from it:(1) Even in the midst of all your secular concerns you will maintain your distinction. Though in the world, you will not be of it, because the heart is elsewhere, and God looketh to the heart.(2) When the heart is withdrawn from the world, everything else will follow of course.(a) Then you will not be governed by the maxims and opinions of the world. You will not ask what are the sentiments of the multitude, but what says the Scripture?(b) You will not be attached to its amusements and dissipations. The sun arising conceals the stars — not by spreading gloom, but by diffusing lustre. It is a poor thing to be dragged out of the dissipations of the world, against inclination, while we still look back with Lot's wife. But it is a glorious thing to leave these diversions from the discovery and possession of superior entertainment and sublimer joys.(c) You will not be led by the conversation of the world; for speech is governed by affection; "and out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh."

3. They are not natives of the world. Our Lord said to the Jews, "Ye are from beneath, I am from above; ye are of this world, I am not of this world." Now the believer may adopt the same language. He is here only as "a stranger, and a foreigner," not a native; he derives his being from heaven. And as he is born from above, no wonder that he "seeks those things which are above."

4. They do not choose their portion here. Hence the Christian learns in whatsoever state he is, therewith to be content. This never can be the case with the man who makes the world his portion. A Christian feels worldly trials, but he is not miserable. He is thankful for temporal indulgencies, but he is not exalted above measure.

II. WHAT DOES THIS TRUTH TEACH US?

1. It enables us easily to account for the world's persecution of real Christians. They are not willing indeed to acknowledge what our Lord alleges as the cause of their hatred. "It is not for your holiness we condemn you, but for your pride, your censoriousness, your hypocrisy." But how is it that the most holy and zealous Christians have been the most obnoxious to the men of the world? And a much stronger case: how was it that the Lord was more abhorred than His followers? Was He proud, censorious, false? And what our Saviour said to the Jews will apply to many Christians — falsely so called now — "The world cannot hate you" — you are so much like it — "but Me" — Me "it hateth because I testify of it that the works thereof are evil." Bear the same decisive testimony by your words and actions, and be assured a portion of the same rancour will follow. The case is plain. Resemblance is a ground of affection; but unsuitableness, of dislike. "Hence," say the Apostle, "all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution" of one kind or another. It began early. Cain slew his brother Abel; "and wherefore slew he him"? It prevailed also in the family of Abraham; "and as it was then, so it is now; he that was born after the flesh persecuted Him that was born after the Spirit." "Marvel not therefore," says our Saviour, "if the world hate you." Do not murmur; you suffer in the noblest company, and your enemies can neither hinder your present peace, nor destroy your future happiness.

2. If the distinguishing badge of a Christian is this — that he is "not of the world" — then are there few real Christians to be found. Judge yourselves by this test. Ask yourselves wherein you differ from the men of the world.

3. See how little we should be affected with the charge of preciseness and singularity. You would not be afraid of being peculiarly wise, or beautiful, or wealthy. Why then wish to escape the praise of being singular in religion? What wisdom, what beauty, what riches can be compared to this?

4. If Christians are not of the world, no wonder they are more than reconciled to a withdrawment from it. No wonder they love solitude and enter their closets. There they exchange the world for God. No wonder they prize the Sabbath — it is a day of retreat, it is an emblem of heavenly rest. No wonder if death be no longer formidable — it is leaving a vain, vexing, defiling world.

(W. Jay.)

     2030   Christ, holiness
     2426   gospel, responses
     4124   Satan, kingdom of
     5030   knowledge, of Christ
     5548   speech, divine
     5565   suffering, of believers
     5875   hatred
     6233   rejection, experience
     7155   saints
     8787   opposition, to God
     8795   persecution, nature of
     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 17:14-15

     8484   spiritual warfare, enemies
     8730   enemies, of believers

John 17:14-16

     7028   church, life of
     8211   commitment, to world
     8269   holiness, separation from worldly

John 17:14-18

     4027   world, fallen

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