I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil.
Christ does not ask for His followers to be removed from the world but to be left in it under the Father's guard against evil. Their remaining is intentional, for they have a work like His own to do, mingling with others to uplift them as salt and light while separated from the world's sinful spirit, practices and customs rather than from people. This keeping shields them from sin, falling and yielding to temptation and from the world's contamination without taking away trial and opposition, through the Holy Spirit, the promises of the Word, earnest prayer and vigilant watchfulness. Those so kept receive God's word, are sanctified by the truth which cleanses the whole person, and are sent into the world as Christ was sent to live pure and noble lives as He lived. They are made one with one another and with the Father and the Son, and that unity and Christlike character give the world proof that the Father sent Christ, a prayer answered when variance and strife are put away in repentance, humility and brotherly love.
Prayer Setting and Scope
The prayer belongs to John 17, spoken alone with the eleven in the upper chamber after Judas withdrew, when the oppressive shadow lifted and peace returned, because the multitude could not understand the sacred truths about to be unfolded. It was Christ's final prayer with His disciples before His trial and humiliation, given during their last week together to prepare their minds for separation from Him and for seeing Him suffer wicked things at the hands of men through betrayal and rejection, after the comfort and encouragement of John 13-16. It was offered to comfort them before His betrayal, trial, agony in Gethsemane, crucifixion, and ascension, and its teachings on sanctification through truth and unity are to be read, studied carefully, and followed.
The prayer was not fully understood and appreciated until after the resurrection and the descent of the Holy Spirit, following the instruction of John 16. Its words of comfort, counsel, and prayer recorded in John 15, 16, and 17 were repeated again and again by the disciples to stay their sinking hearts in great disappointment and trial. From their testimony those words spread over all lands to live through all ages, comforting the desponding and giving peace and hope to thousands who believe.
The prayer embraces not only the disciples then present but all who would afterward believe through their word, including believers now and the church in the last days, and it is given for God's people to have and to keep continually before them. It shows the possibilities of Christian life and what believers may become as they strive to answer it and live in keeping with it. It joins keeping from evil with sanctification through God's truth, being sent into the world as Christ was sent, and being made one as the Father is in Christ and Christ in the Father, made perfect in one and sharing the glory given to Christ, so the world may believe and know that the Father sent Christ and loves them as He loved Christ.
The prayer continues as living intercession carried on in heaven within the veil for all who receive Him and believe on His name even to the ends of the earth, expressing His desire that all be saved through faith rather than come under the control of the great apostate. Standing at His Father's right hand He pleads for those who receive Him, and His intercession prevails to make atonement, take away sins, and give power to become sons of God, so that because He lives they shall live also. He keeps His tried and suffering people in remembrance and never forgets them in a world seared and marred by the curse, a tempting and persecuting world, sustaining them with all the divine resources of His sympathy and love while linked to them as Forerunner within the veil by love and truth in closest sympathy. While congregations stand clothed with filthy garments like Joshua with Satan resisting, and humbly seek pardon with fasting and prayer, He presents His bruised hands bearing the wounds of cruel spikes, claims as graven on His palms the names of those who believe, and asks that His atoning sacrifice come up before God with sincere repentance so iniquity may pass and they may stand fast in His righteousness.
The chapter is misused when used to distinguish the apostles from those who would believe through their word in order to claim spiritual gifts for the apostles but deny them to later believers. That distinction is rejected because the commission promises that signs will accompany believers.
Spiritual life under the prayer is kept by Christ formed within through daily eating the Word of God as His flesh and blood, and only study of the Word nourishes healthful piety and gives the soul nourishment and vitality. As bodily food must be eaten daily, so the Word must be daily eaten as meat and drink; its entrance gives light and understanding to the simple, renews the spirit of the mind, causes growth up into Christ the living Head, and opens the heart to receive the engrafted word. He who feeds on that Word has Christ formed within, the hope of glory, and through obedience becomes a partaker of the divine nature, while the branch unless firmly united fiber by fiber and vein by vein to the vine and supplied with nourishment becomes a withered, frail, fruitless stalk, for reception of the bread from heaven is reception of Christ Himself and the knowledge of the Word is eternal life.
The chapter gives instruction needed by all who claim to be Christians about how to possess His grace, to be received in every home, and refusing its conditions leaves people unready to stand before Him when He comes in glory. It expresses Christ's mind toward His Father and toward His disciples, much is comprehended in it, and it is a lesson to all who are trying to follow the Saviour.
Remaining in the World
The prayer asks not for removal from the world but for preservation within it while Christ Himself leaves it, and this remaining is God's will and provision for the human race. Those who remain do not belong to the world even as Christ does not belong to it, and though the world hates them for receiving God's word they are to be guarded against evil rather than taken out. Separation therefore is from principles and interests, not isolation from people, for like Christ they mingle with others to uplift and ennoble them and let divine love preserve the world from corruption.
Remaining is intentional because every person has an appointed work to do in the world, and being kept from evil while staying in it makes that work possible. They are sent into the world even as the Father sent Christ into the world, with a work to do similar to the work Christ did, representing Him and cooperating with Him for perishing souls rather than sitting down at ease as though there were nothing to be done. At the judgment reward will correspond to whether a person did that appointed work or did nothing but look out for himself. Their consecration is to appear in daily conduct as righteousness and true holiness, showing what lived truth does, winning people to Christ by serving and seeking to save them without condemning or repulsing them amid the world's hatred.
Remaining does not mean withdrawal, seclusion, or abandoning duties and people, for complete separation that can do the world no good is a mistake. Believers remain in the world to seek lost people and defend God's law, yet must not adopt its pursuit of applause, riches, or honor, but live distinctly from it even when it does not understand or accept them. They are to learn to adapt themselves to their work and make themselves useful wherever placed, remaining at their post even in difficult or ungodly surroundings. Their preservation in trial and opposition does not call them to work against one another, for their struggle is against error and sin, and when falsehoods spread they answer through Bible-based, Christlike work marked by patience, forbearance, and love to convince rather than condemn, avoiding prejudice, angry retaliation, and other unchristlike methods.
The world itself is good and beautiful, but humanity has become sensual and depraved and embittered against God, so the earth groans under accumulated guilt as a place of sin, evil, trials, danger, temptation, persecution, suffering, pollution, infidelity, hypocrisy, pride, and profligacy. It is seared and marred by the curse, a tempting and persecuting world where crime in the cities is strong and fearful and where the power of satanic agencies will certainly increase as time is short. God does not remove His people from this condition but keeps them from evil and provides a never-failing refuge while they remain, sustaining them with divine sympathy, love, and resources as clean and pure witnesses steadfast in truth.
Believers stay in this world as sheep among wolves to meet tribulation and to be persecuted as Christ was persecuted, partakers with Him in self-denial, self-sacrifice, and sufferings. They were exposed to trials from the opposition of the world just before He left them, having received God's word and His joy fulfilled in them while facing hatred because they are not of the world. In test and trial all things will be brought to their remembrance, as He promised when sending them forth. Their faith is to remain firm and steadfast in the fearful test ahead, shielded from danger and strengthened for trial by tender love reaching forward even amid His own approaching agony, so that suffering and His death do not overwhelm them with despair.
Keeping from Evil
Keeping means the Father guards those who remain in the world from evil, sin, falling, and yielding to temptation, protecting them from its practices, values, beliefs, attitudes, spirit, customs, and contamination. Separation from the world is separation from its sinful spirit and practices, not withdrawal from earthly life, for they are not to belong to the world or share its spirit while living in it. This protection is a spiritual blessing secured through intercession, so that those who do their duties faithfully may trust the prayer will be answered, and it does not seek worldly wealth or preferment but faithfulness to God. God also draws them to Himself, forgives their sins, keeps them unspotted, and gives His word to sanctify and protect them, though receiving that word brings the world's hatred. The protection does not remove trials and opposition, through which they grow in watchfulness, prayer, patience, fortitude, and trust.
This keeping comes through the guidance and protection provided after the ascension through the Holy Spirit, who sanctifies through the truth, for God's word is truth. In temptation and trial trust is to be put in Him, by grasping the promises left in the Word, enjoying them, and presenting them to others without depending on feeling, keeping minds uplifted on the sacrifice by which humanity grasps divinity, giving hope, confidence, and trust. Going groaning and mourning as if having no Saviour dishonors Him, while the words of the prayer sustain courage, strengthen faith, keep souls in God's love, and support a faith that claims God's promises as its own. They are left where crime in the cities is strong and fearful and where satanic agencies will increase as time is short, yet safely guarded to remain clean and pure witnesses, steadfast in truth, as spiritual helpers and messengers in clear distinct lines and a spiritual power for righteousness and truth. This keeping comes through watching unto prayer, growing in grace and in knowledge of God's will through faith in humble obedience, with Christ's minutemen helping them, and it gives help in every emergency to truly penitent souls who ask in faith for fresh grace, new supplies of strength, and the efficiency and power of the Holy Spirit promised to all who ask.
Keeping is answered by praying earnestly and often for protection, for continual prayer gives strength to resist temptation and without prayer there is powerlessness before Satan. Amid surrounding sin and pollution prayer is to be continual for deliverance from evil, and when weakness is recognized and this prayer is offered the enemy's temptation is made powerless. It comes through personal piety obtained by shutting the door on outward activity, kneeling alone before the Maker, considering duty in the light of the Word, and seeking after God until He is found. The kept life is then full of goodness, love, and truth, its conversation is of heaven from whence the Saviour is expected, and its religion proves itself by its influence and personal deeds. Without vigilant watchfulness and earnest prayer youth gather defilement like leaves gathering dust and character stays dingy, so robes of character must be washed white.
The world itself is good and beautiful, but man has become sensual and depraved and embittered against God, the earth groans under accumulated guilt, and followers must cultivate firm principle amid infidelity, hypocrisy, pride, and profligacy. Keeping from evil therefore means being Bible students who carry Bible rules into everyday life, never allowing knavery, deception, and dishonesty to beguile them from simplicity, and constantly studying how to attain and cherish purity and meekness. Like the pure lily growing among filth, faith's penetrating root must descend beneath outward things to gather spiritual strength through Bible study, hours of secret communion, and meditation on heavenly themes, developing purity resembling the spotless lily. The life of God in the soul then becomes a well of water springing up into everlasting life, refreshing all who connect with them, producing complete character by natural growth with affections obedient to Christ and motives pure, making everyday deportment living lessons that lift schoolmates and associates upward to God and heaven to seek peace, purity, and happiness from above, with Jesus as source of comfort, strength, and fortitude amid vexation, trials, and grievous temptations.
Keeping means not giving heed to every suggestion and temptation of the enemy, keeping what is temporal secondary to what is spiritual, not putting self forward at the expense of Christianity, and not being divorced from fellowship and love, with the truth of the Word as the standard of action. By obeying the Father's will victory is gained over the world and Satan's agencies while resisting the enemy's wiles. A believer can be in the world and not of it, living together with God with a divine Helper at every step, with Jesus bearing the heavy end of the yoke, so separation from evil is possible while still living among men. This life requires humbling self at every step and not exalting self, letting Jesus do all the lifting up. Those kept are pure in heart, full of kindness toward all, keeping the way of the Lord by doing justice and loving mercy and walking humbly with God.
Keeping is to be answered and practiced in every word uttered and every thought cherished, by seeking the fullness that is in Christ and laboring in His lines so the Spirit can abide. It forbids letting perplexities and discouragements eat into the soul and make fretful and impatient with fellow laborers over different branches of work, and forbids strife, evil thinking, evil speaking, evil surmisings, and jealousy. Even thoughts are to be brought into captivity to think no evil of brethren, cultivating the oneness prayed for until all are made perfect in one with Christ's glory given and the Father's love in them. Answering the prayer requires putting the powers of the whole being into effort and correcting thoughts, words, and acts, emptying the heart of selfishness and self-centeredness, receiving the Holy Spirit and the transforming influence of grace, doing the appointed work with one's best in Christ's lines, and revealing Christ in spirit, words, and acts. When the words are lived believers become kind, tender, loving, and Christlike, showing appreciation for one another, esteeming others better than self, helping and strengthening one another, speaking words of hope and cheer that make hearts glad instead of sorrowful, cherishing love and loving as Christ loved, ceasing to accuse, backbite, criticize, weaken one another's hands, and engage in unkind talk and judgment, so the world sees that God sent His Son to save sinners and takes knowledge they have been with Jesus.
Truth Sanctification and Mission
Those kept from evil are not taken out of the world but left in it under the Father's care, having received God's word and being hated by the world because they are not of the world even as Christ is not of the world. They remain distinct from the world, guarded by God and united in Him, with Christ's joy fulfilled in themselves while they are kept in the Father's name. This keeping is the guidance and protection Christ provides after His ascension through the Holy Spirit.
They are sanctified through the truth because God's word is truth, and that sanctification belongs together with remaining in the world and being sent into the world. God's truth sanctifies the whole person in body and soul, and it is not truly received unless it is practiced. So received and practiced, it forms them for sacred fellowship and shared labor with Christ and brings forth repentance toward God and faith in Jesus Christ as fruits of the renewing power of the Spirit's grace. Repentance here is the process by which the soul seeks to reflect Christ's image to the world, living the life of Christ instead of continuing in sin without repentance, so that the world sees true Christianity exemplified in the life.
They are left in the world in order to be sent into the world even as the Father sent Christ into the world, to bear witness and to work earnestly toward the holiness and unity Christ asks for. That mission is diligent, patient, organized work to educate those ignorant of Scripture, to lead youth to study it, and to sow truth that God waters to transform character into a harvest of praise. No professing believer is therefore to sit down and take life easily as though there were nothing to be done, but everyone who attains eternal life is to cooperate with Christ in a great work for souls perishing out of Christ, ministers and people together, for there is no perfection in division.
Christ fitted them for this by giving them true views of God and of truth and by training them to obey through showing truth's principles in His own character, and by sanctifying Himself that they might be sanctified through the truth. He Himself lived in the world without belonging to it, sharing human life and facing temptation and trial yet remaining free from sin. He did not conform to worldly practices to fulfill His life's purpose nor seek to please Himself, but maintained the highest moral standard, because any departure from strict moral rectitude would have marred His whole work, copying no human model but guided by principles brought from heaven as the brightness of the Father's glory and the express image of His person. In His strength those sent as He was sent can live lives of purity and nobility, revealing the Father's name and love while remaining distinct from the age.
Unity and Witness
Those kept from evil are made one with each other and with the Father and the Son, made perfect in one, sharing the glory given to Christ so that they may be one even as the Father and Son are one, with Christ in them and the Father in Christ and the Father's love in them, loved by the Father as He loved the Son when changed from sin to holiness, partaking of the divine nature and escaping the corruption that is in the world through lust. They have received God's word and are hated by the world because they are not of the world even as Christ is not of the world, yet they are left in the world and sent into the world even as the Father sent Christ into the world, sanctified through the truth because God's word is truth, with Christ sanctifying Himself that they might be sanctified through the truth. The prayer reaches all who will believe through their word, including believers now, and Christ is glorified in them as His ransomed church, the chief source of His glory and recompense for His conquests, and when these words are believed and practiced a powerful influence goes forth from God's commandment-keeping people, which angels repeat with deepest power. Keeping is answered and practiced in every word uttered and every thought cherished, by seeking the fullness that is in Christ and laboring in His lines so the Spirit of God can abide, bringing even thoughts into captivity to Christ to think no evil of brethren, until they are with Christ where He is to behold His glory.
This oneness of Christ with the Father does not make them one person, for God and Christ are two distinct personages, and the oneness of Christ with His followers does not destroy the personality of either nor their individuality though scattered the world over and not taken out of the world. It comes only as they give up their own way for His way and work to be one with Christ on an elevated platform, fulfilling God's purpose in all its height and depth, a blending of the believer in Christ as Christ is one with the Father that grants great privilege to everyone who complies with its conditions. By this unity and Christlike character they make it plain to the world that God sent His Son to save sinners, giving the great unmistakable proof of it, while a loose lax religion leaves the world confused and bewildered.
That unity and imparted character are to make the world believe and know that the Father sent Christ and loves believers as He loved Christ, for through Christ's Spirit His character is imparted to disciples, making their fellowship and witness the means by which the world may believe. Answering the prayer requires putting the powers of the whole being into effort and correcting thoughts, words, and acts, so believers become kind, tender, loving, and Christlike, and the world sees that God sent His Son to save sinners and others take knowledge that they have been with Jesus and learned of Him. The church's unity in fellowship and working together, rather than division, helps convince the world that Christianity is genuine.
The prayer is not yet answered where ministers and lay members proclaiming the gospel remain envious, full of strife, destitute of love, revealing worldly characteristics and dishonoring the name of Jesus before unbelievers. It is answered in word and deed when they seek the blessing of the Holy Spirit, repent and be converted, put away all variance, suspicion, envy, jealousy, evil thinking and speaking, spiritual pride and love of supremacy, come together with humiliation and sincere repentance, become as little children, and love as brethren in Christian association with no glory given to man, no seeking of own glory, no dissension and strife, no human kingly power exercised, and every thread of selfishness taken out. Then His Spirit bears witness that they are His instrumentalities, the world takes knowledge that they have been with Jesus and learned of Him, their efforts for unbelievers become acceptable to God, sinners are saved, and God is eternally glorified. Living this prayer means ceasing criticism and evil speaking, going to God in earnest prayer to help the erring, linking with one another and with Christ, praying for union and then living so God can answer, until Christ as Comforter abides in the heart making joy full, His words become the bread of life giving strength to develop characters that are an honor to God, perfect Christian fellowship exists, and the fruit that always results from obedience to the truth is seen.
Difference, division, and disunion dishonor God, are incompatible with being branches of the True Vine, and obstruct the Holy Spirit, while becoming one opens the heart to God's love and power and removes barriers of selfishness to bring people to conversion. The chapter is to guide the church, to be studied and made the rule of life and presented as the church's creed, showing believers becoming one with one another and with Christ and through Christ with God as essential to the work of God. Satan understands the prayer better than church members and keeps them in discord over little misunderstandings lest they see their advantages and visitation.
Aggressive warfare under this keeping is directed against error and sin, not against one another, for believers are to strengthen and heal one another rather than destroy one another. To publish conflicting views and to oppose fellow believers publicly counteracts Christ's own instruction and acts contrary to the spirit of this prayer, for Christ never prompts any man to work against Christ. The protection in remaining in the world under hatred, trial, and opposition belongs with this call to unity with one another and with God, turning efforts against the enemies of God and truth rather than against one another, and the prayer applies not only to the disciples then present but also to those who would believe through their words, including Christ's church in the last days.
Living the Answered Prayer
The prayer is to be studied deeply, read over and over and repeated often, made the rule of life, and carried into practical life in habits, home, church, and institutions. Ministers and medical missionaries are to study and practice its lessons, bringing lives and habits into harmony with it, learning from it how to pray and how to live, and forming characters that reveal the power of grace. Living it presses believers together in unity, love and peace, putting away suspicion, envy, jealousy, evil thinking and speaking, criticism, spiritual pride and love of supremacy, and becoming as little children linked with one another and with Christ. Where it is lived there is no walking alone but walking in the footsteps of Jesus doing His works on the one way to heaven, with oneness with Christ and then through Him oneness with one another as the only hope of reaching heaven. If this unity is preserved God will love believers as He loved His Son, sinners will be saved, and God will be eternally glorified.
Living the prayer means entire consecration to God, which is the only hope and the way fitness for heaven is obtained here in this world by being brought onto a higher platform through purification, refinement, and sanctification. Those who believe and practice the Word answer the prayer, and confessing and forsaking sin removes what separates people from God as evidence to the world that God sent His Son to save sinners. Its words sustain courage, strengthen faith, and keep souls in God's love, for believers can claim power in Christ's name when tempted and tried and claim God's promises as their own while remaining in the world kept from evil. That close union with Christ leaves no place for speculative theories and fits the work of bearing witness to the truth, with feeling the worth of souls for whom Christ died and realizing how perilous is doing nothing to bring souls to Christ.
Separation under the verse is from the world's sinful spirit, practices, customs, principles, interests, pursuit of applause, riches, and honor, not withdrawal from earthly life or isolation from people. Like Christ, believers mingle with others to uplift, enlighten, and ennoble them, living in the world as representatives of Christ and the truth rather than as people of the world, standing apart in customs and principles and shining as lights amid moral darkness while remaining joined to Christ and carrying His help wherever they go. God's word is the means of their sanctification and protection, keeping them from selfishness, pride, and natural inclinations and from what dishonors God, even when the world does not understand or accept them. Divine love in them preserves the world from corruption as they seek lost people and defend God's law.
Like the pure lily growing among filth in a world that is good and beautiful yet sensual, depraved, embittered against God and groaning under accumulated guilt, believers must cultivate firm principle amid infidelity, hypocrisy, pride and profligacy. Keeping from evil means being Bible students who carry Bible rules into everyday life, never allowing knavery, deception and dishonesty to beguile them from simplicity, and constantly studying how to attain and cherish purity and meekness so the world is better for their having lived in it. They need faith's penetrating root descending beneath outward things to gather spiritual strength through Bible study, hours of secret communion with God, and meditation upon heavenly themes, developing purity resembling the spotless lily. The life of God in the soul is Christ in them a well of water springing into everlasting life, refreshing all who connect with them, producing complete Christian character filled with grace by natural growth, with affections obedient to Christ and motives pure. Their everyday deportment becomes lessons of instruction as living epistles known and read of all men, lifting them above everything debasing, pointing schoolmates and associates upward to God and heaven to seek peace, purity and happiness from above, with Jesus as source of comfort, strength and fortitude amid vexation, trials and grievous temptations. Without vigilant watchfulness and earnest prayer youths gather defilement like leaves gathering dust and character stays dingy, so they must wash their robes of character white in the blood of the Lamb.
This life is possible as shown by faithful examples: Enoch lived godly even when the world was hostile to Christian character, and as iniquity increases and love grows cold God's people should become more earnest and show Christ rather than hide their light. In an age of widespread sin and corruption they are to live like Noah, developing Christian character and pleasing God. Daniel illustrates remaining without becoming part of the world, living amid temptations and corrupting influences of a heathen court yet true to God, relying on Him for strength and refusing compromise. When God places believers amid corruption and temptation, as He placed Joseph in a heathen court, He gives grace to stand by His strength rather than their own.
In business and duty believers remain at their post instead of being taken out, staying connected with the world in business matters while kept from evil, carrying piety, goodness, truth and righteousness through ordinary duties. They buy and sell with the realization that the eye of God is upon them, following strict integrity rather than deception and oppression, putting aside selfish gain, never using false balances or deceitful weights, acting in God in all details, and refusing to corrupt themselves for bribe or gain. For one in business responsibility this requires whole dedication, working from a different standpoint than the worldling and making a business of serving God, learning Jesus' meekness and lowliness with life directed by God's claims. It requires standing amid temptations and a spiritual atmosphere poisonous to spirituality, guarding interests without becoming unprincipled, refusing dishonesty and sharp dealing because that is the world's custom, showing heavenly extraction, and keeping the soul unpolluted and without blot amid crowds, cares and financial pressure. It is kept by firmly relying on God through prayer and faith, standing in moral independence with kindness, love and goodness, resisting society's temptations, maintaining communion with God, transmitting Heaven's blessings through social relations, and refusing to sanction wrongs and prejudices of society, church and fellow workers.
Parents are to pray this keeping for their children, that they remain in the world protected from yielding to temptations around them, and to cooperate by teaching temperance and self-control from infancy and early childhood rather than indulging appetite and expecting later restraint. God hears such prayers when parents teach patiently and bring children to Him in prayer, watching them closely and holding them for the Lord, seeking strength, praying much, and giving Him the heart's best affections because Satan stands ready to lead young minds away.
Children and youth are to be educated to live apart from the world's practices, maxims, dispositions, values, beliefs, attitudes and spirit by being given God's word, which makes their actions, words and spirit unlike the world's though this brings the world's hatred. Every instructor is to work in harmony with the prayer by leading students to Christ in this line, using the same method and force Christ used to keep His disciples. Young workers among outcasts are to guard eyes and ears from evil rather than be sent into the most dangerous places unprotected, laboring under experienced supervision as those who watch, pray and trust God, while all work to rescue the young from defiling temptations in a world corrupted by sin.
Avoiding evil as far as possible while remaining in touch with the world is illustrated by placing the sanitarium outside Sydney away from city smoke and noise yet conveniently connected to the city.
Civic separation means belonging to Christ's kingdom, set apart and sanctified for holy service while needing protection from evil, refusing worldly alliances, principles, purposes, parties and interests that conflict with that service, and giving undivided allegiance. Being kept from the world does not mean separating into national or language-based groups, for which Christ gave no encouragement. Yet without sacrificing principle believers are not to stand independent or put away privileges that advance God's cause, but to become acquainted with men in high places, bring truth before them, give them fair chance to receive and weigh evidence, travail in soul for them, receive what they give for God's work, and use every providential opportunity.
Believers answer the prayer by associating with people of the world because wherever they are they have a work to do, not leaving religion at home but with determination keeping God's glory ever in view, revealing Christ's purity and gentleness, and speaking for Christ and His truth whenever opportunity offers under continual burden to manifest Him. Like Jesus associating and eating with publicans and sinners without becoming one with them in word or spirit, they mingle to sow truth and enlighten, breaking with secret societies and living divested of self, meek and lowly, shining as stars amid moral darkness so souls come to light, glorify God by seeing good works, and when converted enlighten others.
They witness without needless exposure to corrupting influences and tempting places where they are likely to be led astray, yet live near God to speak to unbelievers and do work that helps them. When falsehoods spread they answer through Bible-based, Christlike work marked by patience, forbearance and love, uplifting Christ to convince not condemn, persuading not retaliating with prejudice, anger or other unchristlike methods. This protection enables seeking to save without condemning or repulsing, through sanctification by belief in truth that works by love and purifies from sin.
They remain to present truth clearly and prepare people to endure final trials, so those who stand will welcome God as Savior. Remaining separate while kept from evil means working with God to prepare a people for the soon coming of the Lord and prepare the way, binding to His sacred work with no time for inaction, providing facilities for missionary work, and teaching old and young, men and women, to lay up treasure beside the throne.
The verse reveals Christ's tender love reaching forward amid His own agony and before His suffering to protect companions He would leave, understanding their dangers under Satan's temptations to be led from duty into wrongdoing. After thirty-three years of scorn, insult, mockery, rejection and crucifixion, about to ascend to glory, He did not withdraw sympathy from ungrateful people nor center affection only where appreciated by sinless angels, but purposed to stay with followers to the end. As Shepherd and Elder Brother He identifies His interests with fallen humanity, prays for followers and seeks strength from the Father to help them, showing concern for their needs. He highly values purchased people, chosen out to live distinct Christlike examples led by the Spirit with meekness and holy love as light, requiring careful, patient, forbearing treatment that follows the gospel plan to correct the erring with meekness and restore rather than wound.
Everyone passed from death to life who wears Christ's yoke prays this prayer, not talking darkness but talking of Him who called them from darkness into marvelous light, contemplating His love and its effect, gaining clear views of heaven because men had lost sight of the other world and Christ came to reveal it, so they can present heaven to others. Christ prayed with earnest longing for perishing souls ready to die, weeping over them in love, tenderness, compassion and solicitude, reproducing His character, aims and purposes in self-denial, self-sacrifice and continual service to win souls.
God can keep His children spiritually safe while they remain, separate from the world's spirit and influences without removal, watching with constant measureless everlasting care. They must give undivided allegiance rather than serve both God and Mammon, keep a distinct line from the world that can never be obliterated, not follow Baal nor serve mammon but follow the meek Saviour and go about doing good to inherit the mansions prepared. They must not give affections to passing things and lose eternal reward, but hold to eternal things and promises, live up to every specification of the law revealing character after Christ's pattern, and abide crucified with Christ so He lives in them by faith on the narrow path.
When the prayer is lived Christ as Comforter abides in the heart making joy full, His words become bread of life giving strength to develop honorable character, perfect fellowship exists, and the fruit of obedience appears. Eating and drinking show whether believers belong to the world or are separated by truth. Christ does not ask that they gain wealth, status, honor or worldly approval or conform to its sinful customs, but that they be set apart for God, with prosperity of soul the greatest gain. Truly converted believers are transformed and value this prayer more than any worldly favor.
The prayer governs every church accepting heavenly truth and every institution, holding deep, broad, eternal principle to be acted upon. Keeping it means refusing worldly fashion, order, display, and principles that drain strength and vital godliness, for any other course walks in sparks of one's own kindling. Medical missionary work is to stay bound with gospel ministry on truth's platform uninfluenced by false theories and worldly counsels, resisting worldly ways to remain faithful. This calls for constant guardianship, watchfulness and care not to offend God, standing as faithful sentinels with sanctified powers to elevate, ennoble and lead souls to Christ, preserving distinction from the world instead of assimilating while carrying out work in it.
Jesus modeled the keeping by withdrawing at night to the Mount of Olives while the city was hushed and disciples slept, spending all night bowed in prayer with pleadings ascending that disciples be guarded from daily harmful influences. By that prayer His own soul was strengthened and braced for duties and trials of the day, with dew and frost upon Him, praying for disciples and Himself and thus joining human need and weakness while unsullied by sin, leaving an example to pray and then live out prayer.
The chapter presents Christ and His church as one with Christ in His people united to God, joined to Christ who is one with God as God's chosen heirs redeemed and counted among His remnant, loved by the Father as He loves the Son. It shows the breadth of mercy waiting for the obedient and humble, teaches acknowledgment of God and growing knowledge of Him, and holds God's will with the divine antidote for the world's sin by making believers one with Him in this life to be one through eternity. Living it in practical life brings unity with one another and with Christ and strength to withstand Satan's attacks and the shaking time.
Christ does not ask for His followers to be removed from the world but to be left in it under the Father's guard against evil. Their remaining is intentional, for they have a work like His own to do, mingling with others to uplift them as salt and light while separated from the world's sinful spirit, practices and customs rather than from people. This keeping shields them from sin, falling and yielding to temptation and from the world's contamination without taking away trial and opposition, through the Holy Spirit, the promises of the Word, earnest prayer and vigilant watchfulness. Those so kept receive God's word, are sanctified by the truth which cleanses the whole person, and are sent into the world as Christ was sent to live pure and noble lives as He lived. They are made one with one another and with the Father and the Son, and that unity and Christlike character give the world proof that the Father sent Christ, a prayer answered when variance and strife are put away in repentance, humility and brotherly love.
Prayer Setting and Scope
The prayer belongs to John 17, spoken alone with the eleven in the upper chamber after Judas withdrew, when the oppressive shadow lifted and peace returned, because the multitude could not understand the sacred truths about to be unfolded. It was Christ's final prayer with His disciples before His trial and humiliation, given during their last week together to prepare their minds for separation from Him and for seeing Him suffer wicked things at the hands of men through betrayal and rejection, after the comfort and encouragement of John 13-16. It was offered to comfort them before His betrayal, trial, agony in Gethsemane, crucifixion, and ascension, and its teachings on sanctification through truth and unity are to be read, studied carefully, and followed.
The prayer was not fully understood and appreciated until after the resurrection and the descent of the Holy Spirit, following the instruction of John 16. Its words of comfort, counsel, and prayer recorded in John 15, 16, and 17 were repeated again and again by the disciples to stay their sinking hearts in great disappointment and trial. From their testimony those words spread over all lands to live through all ages, comforting the desponding and giving peace and hope to thousands who believe.
The prayer embraces not only the disciples then present but all who would afterward believe through their word, including believers now and the church in the last days, and it is given for God's people to have and to keep continually before them. It shows the possibilities of Christian life and what believers may become as they strive to answer it and live in keeping with it. It joins keeping from evil with sanctification through God's truth, being sent into the world as Christ was sent, and being made one as the Father is in Christ and Christ in the Father, made perfect in one and sharing the glory given to Christ, so the world may believe and know that the Father sent Christ and loves them as He loved Christ.
The prayer continues as living intercession carried on in heaven within the veil for all who receive Him and believe on His name even to the ends of the earth, expressing His desire that all be saved through faith rather than come under the control of the great apostate. Standing at His Father's right hand He pleads for those who receive Him, and His intercession prevails to make atonement, take away sins, and give power to become sons of God, so that because He lives they shall live also. He keeps His tried and suffering people in remembrance and never forgets them in a world seared and marred by the curse, a tempting and persecuting world, sustaining them with all the divine resources of His sympathy and love while linked to them as Forerunner within the veil by love and truth in closest sympathy. While congregations stand clothed with filthy garments like Joshua with Satan resisting, and humbly seek pardon with fasting and prayer, He presents His bruised hands bearing the wounds of cruel spikes, claims as graven on His palms the names of those who believe, and asks that His atoning sacrifice come up before God with sincere repentance so iniquity may pass and they may stand fast in His righteousness.
The chapter is misused when used to distinguish the apostles from those who would believe through their word in order to claim spiritual gifts for the apostles but deny them to later believers. That distinction is rejected because the commission promises that signs will accompany believers.
Spiritual life under the prayer is kept by Christ formed within through daily eating the Word of God as His flesh and blood, and only study of the Word nourishes healthful piety and gives the soul nourishment and vitality. As bodily food must be eaten daily, so the Word must be daily eaten as meat and drink; its entrance gives light and understanding to the simple, renews the spirit of the mind, causes growth up into Christ the living Head, and opens the heart to receive the engrafted word. He who feeds on that Word has Christ formed within, the hope of glory, and through obedience becomes a partaker of the divine nature, while the branch unless firmly united fiber by fiber and vein by vein to the vine and supplied with nourishment becomes a withered, frail, fruitless stalk, for reception of the bread from heaven is reception of Christ Himself and the knowledge of the Word is eternal life.
The chapter gives instruction needed by all who claim to be Christians about how to possess His grace, to be received in every home, and refusing its conditions leaves people unready to stand before Him when He comes in glory. It expresses Christ's mind toward His Father and toward His disciples, much is comprehended in it, and it is a lesson to all who are trying to follow the Saviour.
Remaining in the World
The prayer asks not for removal from the world but for preservation within it while Christ Himself leaves it, and this remaining is God's will and provision for the human race. Those who remain do not belong to the world even as Christ does not belong to it, and though the world hates them for receiving God's word they are to be guarded against evil rather than taken out. Separation therefore is from principles and interests, not isolation from people, for like Christ they mingle with others to uplift and ennoble them and let divine love preserve the world from corruption.
Remaining is intentional because every person has an appointed work to do in the world, and being kept from evil while staying in it makes that work possible. They are sent into the world even as the Father sent Christ into the world, with a work to do similar to the work Christ did, representing Him and cooperating with Him for perishing souls rather than sitting down at ease as though there were nothing to be done. At the judgment reward will correspond to whether a person did that appointed work or did nothing but look out for himself. Their consecration is to appear in daily conduct as righteousness and true holiness, showing what lived truth does, winning people to Christ by serving and seeking to save them without condemning or repulsing them amid the world's hatred.
Remaining does not mean withdrawal, seclusion, or abandoning duties and people, for complete separation that can do the world no good is a mistake. Believers remain in the world to seek lost people and defend God's law, yet must not adopt its pursuit of applause, riches, or honor, but live distinctly from it even when it does not understand or accept them. They are to learn to adapt themselves to their work and make themselves useful wherever placed, remaining at their post even in difficult or ungodly surroundings. Their preservation in trial and opposition does not call them to work against one another, for their struggle is against error and sin, and when falsehoods spread they answer through Bible-based, Christlike work marked by patience, forbearance, and love to convince rather than condemn, avoiding prejudice, angry retaliation, and other unchristlike methods.
The world itself is good and beautiful, but humanity has become sensual and depraved and embittered against God, so the earth groans under accumulated guilt as a place of sin, evil, trials, danger, temptation, persecution, suffering, pollution, infidelity, hypocrisy, pride, and profligacy. It is seared and marred by the curse, a tempting and persecuting world where crime in the cities is strong and fearful and where the power of satanic agencies will certainly increase as time is short. God does not remove His people from this condition but keeps them from evil and provides a never-failing refuge while they remain, sustaining them with divine sympathy, love, and resources as clean and pure witnesses steadfast in truth.
Believers stay in this world as sheep among wolves to meet tribulation and to be persecuted as Christ was persecuted, partakers with Him in self-denial, self-sacrifice, and sufferings. They were exposed to trials from the opposition of the world just before He left them, having received God's word and His joy fulfilled in them while facing hatred because they are not of the world. In test and trial all things will be brought to their remembrance, as He promised when sending them forth. Their faith is to remain firm and steadfast in the fearful test ahead, shielded from danger and strengthened for trial by tender love reaching forward even amid His own approaching agony, so that suffering and His death do not overwhelm them with despair.
Keeping from Evil
Keeping means the Father guards those who remain in the world from evil, sin, falling, and yielding to temptation, protecting them from its practices, values, beliefs, attitudes, spirit, customs, and contamination. Separation from the world is separation from its sinful spirit and practices, not withdrawal from earthly life, for they are not to belong to the world or share its spirit while living in it. This protection is a spiritual blessing secured through intercession, so that those who do their duties faithfully may trust the prayer will be answered, and it does not seek worldly wealth or preferment but faithfulness to God. God also draws them to Himself, forgives their sins, keeps them unspotted, and gives His word to sanctify and protect them, though receiving that word brings the world's hatred. The protection does not remove trials and opposition, through which they grow in watchfulness, prayer, patience, fortitude, and trust.
This keeping comes through the guidance and protection provided after the ascension through the Holy Spirit, who sanctifies through the truth, for God's word is truth. In temptation and trial trust is to be put in Him, by grasping the promises left in the Word, enjoying them, and presenting them to others without depending on feeling, keeping minds uplifted on the sacrifice by which humanity grasps divinity, giving hope, confidence, and trust. Going groaning and mourning as if having no Saviour dishonors Him, while the words of the prayer sustain courage, strengthen faith, keep souls in God's love, and support a faith that claims God's promises as its own. They are left where crime in the cities is strong and fearful and where satanic agencies will increase as time is short, yet safely guarded to remain clean and pure witnesses, steadfast in truth, as spiritual helpers and messengers in clear distinct lines and a spiritual power for righteousness and truth. This keeping comes through watching unto prayer, growing in grace and in knowledge of God's will through faith in humble obedience, with Christ's minutemen helping them, and it gives help in every emergency to truly penitent souls who ask in faith for fresh grace, new supplies of strength, and the efficiency and power of the Holy Spirit promised to all who ask.
Keeping is answered by praying earnestly and often for protection, for continual prayer gives strength to resist temptation and without prayer there is powerlessness before Satan. Amid surrounding sin and pollution prayer is to be continual for deliverance from evil, and when weakness is recognized and this prayer is offered the enemy's temptation is made powerless. It comes through personal piety obtained by shutting the door on outward activity, kneeling alone before the Maker, considering duty in the light of the Word, and seeking after God until He is found. The kept life is then full of goodness, love, and truth, its conversation is of heaven from whence the Saviour is expected, and its religion proves itself by its influence and personal deeds. Without vigilant watchfulness and earnest prayer youth gather defilement like leaves gathering dust and character stays dingy, so robes of character must be washed white.
The world itself is good and beautiful, but man has become sensual and depraved and embittered against God, the earth groans under accumulated guilt, and followers must cultivate firm principle amid infidelity, hypocrisy, pride, and profligacy. Keeping from evil therefore means being Bible students who carry Bible rules into everyday life, never allowing knavery, deception, and dishonesty to beguile them from simplicity, and constantly studying how to attain and cherish purity and meekness. Like the pure lily growing among filth, faith's penetrating root must descend beneath outward things to gather spiritual strength through Bible study, hours of secret communion, and meditation on heavenly themes, developing purity resembling the spotless lily. The life of God in the soul then becomes a well of water springing up into everlasting life, refreshing all who connect with them, producing complete character by natural growth with affections obedient to Christ and motives pure, making everyday deportment living lessons that lift schoolmates and associates upward to God and heaven to seek peace, purity, and happiness from above, with Jesus as source of comfort, strength, and fortitude amid vexation, trials, and grievous temptations.
Keeping means not giving heed to every suggestion and temptation of the enemy, keeping what is temporal secondary to what is spiritual, not putting self forward at the expense of Christianity, and not being divorced from fellowship and love, with the truth of the Word as the standard of action. By obeying the Father's will victory is gained over the world and Satan's agencies while resisting the enemy's wiles. A believer can be in the world and not of it, living together with God with a divine Helper at every step, with Jesus bearing the heavy end of the yoke, so separation from evil is possible while still living among men. This life requires humbling self at every step and not exalting self, letting Jesus do all the lifting up. Those kept are pure in heart, full of kindness toward all, keeping the way of the Lord by doing justice and loving mercy and walking humbly with God.
Keeping is to be answered and practiced in every word uttered and every thought cherished, by seeking the fullness that is in Christ and laboring in His lines so the Spirit can abide. It forbids letting perplexities and discouragements eat into the soul and make fretful and impatient with fellow laborers over different branches of work, and forbids strife, evil thinking, evil speaking, evil surmisings, and jealousy. Even thoughts are to be brought into captivity to think no evil of brethren, cultivating the oneness prayed for until all are made perfect in one with Christ's glory given and the Father's love in them. Answering the prayer requires putting the powers of the whole being into effort and correcting thoughts, words, and acts, emptying the heart of selfishness and self-centeredness, receiving the Holy Spirit and the transforming influence of grace, doing the appointed work with one's best in Christ's lines, and revealing Christ in spirit, words, and acts. When the words are lived believers become kind, tender, loving, and Christlike, showing appreciation for one another, esteeming others better than self, helping and strengthening one another, speaking words of hope and cheer that make hearts glad instead of sorrowful, cherishing love and loving as Christ loved, ceasing to accuse, backbite, criticize, weaken one another's hands, and engage in unkind talk and judgment, so the world sees that God sent His Son to save sinners and takes knowledge they have been with Jesus.
Truth Sanctification and Mission
Those kept from evil are not taken out of the world but left in it under the Father's care, having received God's word and being hated by the world because they are not of the world even as Christ is not of the world. They remain distinct from the world, guarded by God and united in Him, with Christ's joy fulfilled in themselves while they are kept in the Father's name. This keeping is the guidance and protection Christ provides after His ascension through the Holy Spirit.
They are sanctified through the truth because God's word is truth, and that sanctification belongs together with remaining in the world and being sent into the world. God's truth sanctifies the whole person in body and soul, and it is not truly received unless it is practiced. So received and practiced, it forms them for sacred fellowship and shared labor with Christ and brings forth repentance toward God and faith in Jesus Christ as fruits of the renewing power of the Spirit's grace. Repentance here is the process by which the soul seeks to reflect Christ's image to the world, living the life of Christ instead of continuing in sin without repentance, so that the world sees true Christianity exemplified in the life.
They are left in the world in order to be sent into the world even as the Father sent Christ into the world, to bear witness and to work earnestly toward the holiness and unity Christ asks for. That mission is diligent, patient, organized work to educate those ignorant of Scripture, to lead youth to study it, and to sow truth that God waters to transform character into a harvest of praise. No professing believer is therefore to sit down and take life easily as though there were nothing to be done, but everyone who attains eternal life is to cooperate with Christ in a great work for souls perishing out of Christ, ministers and people together, for there is no perfection in division.
Christ fitted them for this by giving them true views of God and of truth and by training them to obey through showing truth's principles in His own character, and by sanctifying Himself that they might be sanctified through the truth. He Himself lived in the world without belonging to it, sharing human life and facing temptation and trial yet remaining free from sin. He did not conform to worldly practices to fulfill His life's purpose nor seek to please Himself, but maintained the highest moral standard, because any departure from strict moral rectitude would have marred His whole work, copying no human model but guided by principles brought from heaven as the brightness of the Father's glory and the express image of His person. In His strength those sent as He was sent can live lives of purity and nobility, revealing the Father's name and love while remaining distinct from the age.
Unity and Witness
Those kept from evil are made one with each other and with the Father and the Son, made perfect in one, sharing the glory given to Christ so that they may be one even as the Father and Son are one, with Christ in them and the Father in Christ and the Father's love in them, loved by the Father as He loved the Son when changed from sin to holiness, partaking of the divine nature and escaping the corruption that is in the world through lust. They have received God's word and are hated by the world because they are not of the world even as Christ is not of the world, yet they are left in the world and sent into the world even as the Father sent Christ into the world, sanctified through the truth because God's word is truth, with Christ sanctifying Himself that they might be sanctified through the truth. The prayer reaches all who will believe through their word, including believers now, and Christ is glorified in them as His ransomed church, the chief source of His glory and recompense for His conquests, and when these words are believed and practiced a powerful influence goes forth from God's commandment-keeping people, which angels repeat with deepest power. Keeping is answered and practiced in every word uttered and every thought cherished, by seeking the fullness that is in Christ and laboring in His lines so the Spirit of God can abide, bringing even thoughts into captivity to Christ to think no evil of brethren, until they are with Christ where He is to behold His glory.
This oneness of Christ with the Father does not make them one person, for God and Christ are two distinct personages, and the oneness of Christ with His followers does not destroy the personality of either nor their individuality though scattered the world over and not taken out of the world. It comes only as they give up their own way for His way and work to be one with Christ on an elevated platform, fulfilling God's purpose in all its height and depth, a blending of the believer in Christ as Christ is one with the Father that grants great privilege to everyone who complies with its conditions. By this unity and Christlike character they make it plain to the world that God sent His Son to save sinners, giving the great unmistakable proof of it, while a loose lax religion leaves the world confused and bewildered.
That unity and imparted character are to make the world believe and know that the Father sent Christ and loves believers as He loved Christ, for through Christ's Spirit His character is imparted to disciples, making their fellowship and witness the means by which the world may believe. Answering the prayer requires putting the powers of the whole being into effort and correcting thoughts, words, and acts, so believers become kind, tender, loving, and Christlike, and the world sees that God sent His Son to save sinners and others take knowledge that they have been with Jesus and learned of Him. The church's unity in fellowship and working together, rather than division, helps convince the world that Christianity is genuine.
The prayer is not yet answered where ministers and lay members proclaiming the gospel remain envious, full of strife, destitute of love, revealing worldly characteristics and dishonoring the name of Jesus before unbelievers. It is answered in word and deed when they seek the blessing of the Holy Spirit, repent and be converted, put away all variance, suspicion, envy, jealousy, evil thinking and speaking, spiritual pride and love of supremacy, come together with humiliation and sincere repentance, become as little children, and love as brethren in Christian association with no glory given to man, no seeking of own glory, no dissension and strife, no human kingly power exercised, and every thread of selfishness taken out. Then His Spirit bears witness that they are His instrumentalities, the world takes knowledge that they have been with Jesus and learned of Him, their efforts for unbelievers become acceptable to God, sinners are saved, and God is eternally glorified. Living this prayer means ceasing criticism and evil speaking, going to God in earnest prayer to help the erring, linking with one another and with Christ, praying for union and then living so God can answer, until Christ as Comforter abides in the heart making joy full, His words become the bread of life giving strength to develop characters that are an honor to God, perfect Christian fellowship exists, and the fruit that always results from obedience to the truth is seen.
Difference, division, and disunion dishonor God, are incompatible with being branches of the True Vine, and obstruct the Holy Spirit, while becoming one opens the heart to God's love and power and removes barriers of selfishness to bring people to conversion. The chapter is to guide the church, to be studied and made the rule of life and presented as the church's creed, showing believers becoming one with one another and with Christ and through Christ with God as essential to the work of God. Satan understands the prayer better than church members and keeps them in discord over little misunderstandings lest they see their advantages and visitation.
Aggressive warfare under this keeping is directed against error and sin, not against one another, for believers are to strengthen and heal one another rather than destroy one another. To publish conflicting views and to oppose fellow believers publicly counteracts Christ's own instruction and acts contrary to the spirit of this prayer, for Christ never prompts any man to work against Christ. The protection in remaining in the world under hatred, trial, and opposition belongs with this call to unity with one another and with God, turning efforts against the enemies of God and truth rather than against one another, and the prayer applies not only to the disciples then present but also to those who would believe through their words, including Christ's church in the last days.
Living the Answered Prayer
The prayer is to be studied deeply, read over and over and repeated often, made the rule of life, and carried into practical life in habits, home, church, and institutions. Ministers and medical missionaries are to study and practice its lessons, bringing lives and habits into harmony with it, learning from it how to pray and how to live, and forming characters that reveal the power of grace. Living it presses believers together in unity, love and peace, putting away suspicion, envy, jealousy, evil thinking and speaking, criticism, spiritual pride and love of supremacy, and becoming as little children linked with one another and with Christ. Where it is lived there is no walking alone but walking in the footsteps of Jesus doing His works on the one way to heaven, with oneness with Christ and then through Him oneness with one another as the only hope of reaching heaven. If this unity is preserved God will love believers as He loved His Son, sinners will be saved, and God will be eternally glorified.
Living the prayer means entire consecration to God, which is the only hope and the way fitness for heaven is obtained here in this world by being brought onto a higher platform through purification, refinement, and sanctification. Those who believe and practice the Word answer the prayer, and confessing and forsaking sin removes what separates people from God as evidence to the world that God sent His Son to save sinners. Its words sustain courage, strengthen faith, and keep souls in God's love, for believers can claim power in Christ's name when tempted and tried and claim God's promises as their own while remaining in the world kept from evil. That close union with Christ leaves no place for speculative theories and fits the work of bearing witness to the truth, with feeling the worth of souls for whom Christ died and realizing how perilous is doing nothing to bring souls to Christ.
Separation under the verse is from the world's sinful spirit, practices, customs, principles, interests, pursuit of applause, riches, and honor, not withdrawal from earthly life or isolation from people. Like Christ, believers mingle with others to uplift, enlighten, and ennoble them, living in the world as representatives of Christ and the truth rather than as people of the world, standing apart in customs and principles and shining as lights amid moral darkness while remaining joined to Christ and carrying His help wherever they go. God's word is the means of their sanctification and protection, keeping them from selfishness, pride, and natural inclinations and from what dishonors God, even when the world does not understand or accept them. Divine love in them preserves the world from corruption as they seek lost people and defend God's law.
Like the pure lily growing among filth in a world that is good and beautiful yet sensual, depraved, embittered against God and groaning under accumulated guilt, believers must cultivate firm principle amid infidelity, hypocrisy, pride and profligacy. Keeping from evil means being Bible students who carry Bible rules into everyday life, never allowing knavery, deception and dishonesty to beguile them from simplicity, and constantly studying how to attain and cherish purity and meekness so the world is better for their having lived in it. They need faith's penetrating root descending beneath outward things to gather spiritual strength through Bible study, hours of secret communion with God, and meditation upon heavenly themes, developing purity resembling the spotless lily. The life of God in the soul is Christ in them a well of water springing into everlasting life, refreshing all who connect with them, producing complete Christian character filled with grace by natural growth, with affections obedient to Christ and motives pure. Their everyday deportment becomes lessons of instruction as living epistles known and read of all men, lifting them above everything debasing, pointing schoolmates and associates upward to God and heaven to seek peace, purity and happiness from above, with Jesus as source of comfort, strength and fortitude amid vexation, trials and grievous temptations. Without vigilant watchfulness and earnest prayer youths gather defilement like leaves gathering dust and character stays dingy, so they must wash their robes of character white in the blood of the Lamb.
This life is possible as shown by faithful examples: Enoch lived godly even when the world was hostile to Christian character, and as iniquity increases and love grows cold God's people should become more earnest and show Christ rather than hide their light. In an age of widespread sin and corruption they are to live like Noah, developing Christian character and pleasing God. Daniel illustrates remaining without becoming part of the world, living amid temptations and corrupting influences of a heathen court yet true to God, relying on Him for strength and refusing compromise. When God places believers amid corruption and temptation, as He placed Joseph in a heathen court, He gives grace to stand by His strength rather than their own.
In business and duty believers remain at their post instead of being taken out, staying connected with the world in business matters while kept from evil, carrying piety, goodness, truth and righteousness through ordinary duties. They buy and sell with the realization that the eye of God is upon them, following strict integrity rather than deception and oppression, putting aside selfish gain, never using false balances or deceitful weights, acting in God in all details, and refusing to corrupt themselves for bribe or gain. For one in business responsibility this requires whole dedication, working from a different standpoint than the worldling and making a business of serving God, learning Jesus' meekness and lowliness with life directed by God's claims. It requires standing amid temptations and a spiritual atmosphere poisonous to spirituality, guarding interests without becoming unprincipled, refusing dishonesty and sharp dealing because that is the world's custom, showing heavenly extraction, and keeping the soul unpolluted and without blot amid crowds, cares and financial pressure. It is kept by firmly relying on God through prayer and faith, standing in moral independence with kindness, love and goodness, resisting society's temptations, maintaining communion with God, transmitting Heaven's blessings through social relations, and refusing to sanction wrongs and prejudices of society, church and fellow workers.
Parents are to pray this keeping for their children, that they remain in the world protected from yielding to temptations around them, and to cooperate by teaching temperance and self-control from infancy and early childhood rather than indulging appetite and expecting later restraint. God hears such prayers when parents teach patiently and bring children to Him in prayer, watching them closely and holding them for the Lord, seeking strength, praying much, and giving Him the heart's best affections because Satan stands ready to lead young minds away.
Children and youth are to be educated to live apart from the world's practices, maxims, dispositions, values, beliefs, attitudes and spirit by being given God's word, which makes their actions, words and spirit unlike the world's though this brings the world's hatred. Every instructor is to work in harmony with the prayer by leading students to Christ in this line, using the same method and force Christ used to keep His disciples. Young workers among outcasts are to guard eyes and ears from evil rather than be sent into the most dangerous places unprotected, laboring under experienced supervision as those who watch, pray and trust God, while all work to rescue the young from defiling temptations in a world corrupted by sin.
Avoiding evil as far as possible while remaining in touch with the world is illustrated by placing the sanitarium outside Sydney away from city smoke and noise yet conveniently connected to the city.
Civic separation means belonging to Christ's kingdom, set apart and sanctified for holy service while needing protection from evil, refusing worldly alliances, principles, purposes, parties and interests that conflict with that service, and giving undivided allegiance. Being kept from the world does not mean separating into national or language-based groups, for which Christ gave no encouragement. Yet without sacrificing principle believers are not to stand independent or put away privileges that advance God's cause, but to become acquainted with men in high places, bring truth before them, give them fair chance to receive and weigh evidence, travail in soul for them, receive what they give for God's work, and use every providential opportunity.
Believers answer the prayer by associating with people of the world because wherever they are they have a work to do, not leaving religion at home but with determination keeping God's glory ever in view, revealing Christ's purity and gentleness, and speaking for Christ and His truth whenever opportunity offers under continual burden to manifest Him. Like Jesus associating and eating with publicans and sinners without becoming one with them in word or spirit, they mingle to sow truth and enlighten, breaking with secret societies and living divested of self, meek and lowly, shining as stars amid moral darkness so souls come to light, glorify God by seeing good works, and when converted enlighten others.
They witness without needless exposure to corrupting influences and tempting places where they are likely to be led astray, yet live near God to speak to unbelievers and do work that helps them. When falsehoods spread they answer through Bible-based, Christlike work marked by patience, forbearance and love, uplifting Christ to convince not condemn, persuading not retaliating with prejudice, anger or other unchristlike methods. This protection enables seeking to save without condemning or repulsing, through sanctification by belief in truth that works by love and purifies from sin.
They remain to present truth clearly and prepare people to endure final trials, so those who stand will welcome God as Savior. Remaining separate while kept from evil means working with God to prepare a people for the soon coming of the Lord and prepare the way, binding to His sacred work with no time for inaction, providing facilities for missionary work, and teaching old and young, men and women, to lay up treasure beside the throne.
The verse reveals Christ's tender love reaching forward amid His own agony and before His suffering to protect companions He would leave, understanding their dangers under Satan's temptations to be led from duty into wrongdoing. After thirty-three years of scorn, insult, mockery, rejection and crucifixion, about to ascend to glory, He did not withdraw sympathy from ungrateful people nor center affection only where appreciated by sinless angels, but purposed to stay with followers to the end. As Shepherd and Elder Brother He identifies His interests with fallen humanity, prays for followers and seeks strength from the Father to help them, showing concern for their needs. He highly values purchased people, chosen out to live distinct Christlike examples led by the Spirit with meekness and holy love as light, requiring careful, patient, forbearing treatment that follows the gospel plan to correct the erring with meekness and restore rather than wound.
Everyone passed from death to life who wears Christ's yoke prays this prayer, not talking darkness but talking of Him who called them from darkness into marvelous light, contemplating His love and its effect, gaining clear views of heaven because men had lost sight of the other world and Christ came to reveal it, so they can present heaven to others. Christ prayed with earnest longing for perishing souls ready to die, weeping over them in love, tenderness, compassion and solicitude, reproducing His character, aims and purposes in self-denial, self-sacrifice and continual service to win souls.
God can keep His children spiritually safe while they remain, separate from the world's spirit and influences without removal, watching with constant measureless everlasting care. They must give undivided allegiance rather than serve both God and Mammon, keep a distinct line from the world that can never be obliterated, not follow Baal nor serve mammon but follow the meek Saviour and go about doing good to inherit the mansions prepared. They must not give affections to passing things and lose eternal reward, but hold to eternal things and promises, live up to every specification of the law revealing character after Christ's pattern, and abide crucified with Christ so He lives in them by faith on the narrow path.
When the prayer is lived Christ as Comforter abides in the heart making joy full, His words become bread of life giving strength to develop honorable character, perfect fellowship exists, and the fruit of obedience appears. Eating and drinking show whether believers belong to the world or are separated by truth. Christ does not ask that they gain wealth, status, honor or worldly approval or conform to its sinful customs, but that they be set apart for God, with prosperity of soul the greatest gain. Truly converted believers are transformed and value this prayer more than any worldly favor.
The prayer governs every church accepting heavenly truth and every institution, holding deep, broad, eternal principle to be acted upon. Keeping it means refusing worldly fashion, order, display, and principles that drain strength and vital godliness, for any other course walks in sparks of one's own kindling. Medical missionary work is to stay bound with gospel ministry on truth's platform uninfluenced by false theories and worldly counsels, resisting worldly ways to remain faithful. This calls for constant guardianship, watchfulness and care not to offend God, standing as faithful sentinels with sanctified powers to elevate, ennoble and lead souls to Christ, preserving distinction from the world instead of assimilating while carrying out work in it.
Jesus modeled the keeping by withdrawing at night to the Mount of Olives while the city was hushed and disciples slept, spending all night bowed in prayer with pleadings ascending that disciples be guarded from daily harmful influences. By that prayer His own soul was strengthened and braced for duties and trials of the day, with dew and frost upon Him, praying for disciples and Himself and thus joining human need and weakness while unsullied by sin, leaving an example to pray and then live out prayer.
The chapter presents Christ and His church as one with Christ in His people united to God, joined to Christ who is one with God as God's chosen heirs redeemed and counted among His remnant, loved by the Father as He loves the Son. It shows the breadth of mercy waiting for the obedient and humble, teaches acknowledgment of God and growing knowledge of Him, and holds God's will with the divine antidote for the world's sin by making believers one with Him in this life to be one through eternity. Living it in practical life brings unity with one another and with Christ and strength to withstand Satan's attacks and the shaking time.