As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world.
As the Father sent Christ into the world, so Christ sends his followers into the world, making the Father's sending the pattern, authority and continuance of their mission. This sending belongs to his farewell intercessory prayer for his disciples and his church, spoken to the eleven alone after Judas withdrew on the eve of his betrayal and crucifixion, when as consecrated High Priest he identified his interests with fallen humanity and pointed them to glorifying the Father's name. Those sent are his delegated representatives and channels for revealing Christ as Christ reveals the Father, appointed to manifest his Spirit, character, goodness and tender love so that others may know, love and serve him. They are not taken out of the world but left in it as its light and salt, kept from its evil and sanctified through the truth of God's word by knowing, receiving and practicing it in soul, body and spirit. That sanctifying truth makes them one as the Father is in Christ and Christ in them, and their unselfish love and harmonious unity is the evidence that God sent Jesus, by which the world believes and sinners are saved.
Setting of the Prayer
John 17:18 belongs to Christ's farewell intercessory prayer for His disciples and His church, offered in the upper chamber to the eleven alone after Judas withdrew, on the eve of His betrayal, agony in Gethsemane, trial and crucifixion, after the comfort and counsel of John 13-16, when He was about to leave them and pointed them to glorifying the Father's name as the great object of His mission. It was His last prayer before crucifixion, with the agony of the cross before Him, spoken just before His trial and crucifixion and just before His agony in the garden, caring not for Himself but for those He would leave to carry His work forward in the earth when He was about to leave them but did not want them to think they would be left helpless orphans. The sending belongs to the vast enterprise of the salvation of human beings that calls into action every attribute of the divine nature, in which the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit have pledged themselves to make God's children more than conquerors and have provided power to enable overcomers because the Lord is gracious and long-suffering and not willing that any should perish. It embraces not the first disciples alone but all who will believe on Him through their word to the close of time, for He foresaw their trials and dangers and is not unmindful of the dissensions and divisions that distract and weaken His church, looking upon them with deeper interest and more tender compassion than moves an earthly parent toward a wayward afflicted child, bidding them learn of Him, trust Him, open their hearts to receive His love, with His pledge to be their helper. His intercession makes it possible for those who come to Him humbly and trust His saving power to receive spiritual help, remain loyal to God, and be kept from sin.
In that prayer He ministers as consecrated High Priest and Intercessor after completing His sacrifice, identifying His interests with fallen humanity as the Good Shepherd, remembering His tried people in a world of temptation, and illustrating His continuing intercession before the Father. He entered within the veil as Forerunner to present His bruised hands bearing the wounds of cruel spikes, His blood and merits, to supply divine sympathy and love, pleading that He has graven His church, the names of those who believe on Him, upon the palms of His hands. The prayer is a lesson guiding the course of action of believers and contains truth that will stand the test of ages, which He is now making at His Father's right hand for ministers over congregations and the churches entrusted to them when they stand clothed with filthy garments and need humbling, fasting, prayer, pardon, and the atoning sacrifice, and will continue to make to the end of the world for ministers, churches and all who believe. Their love and unity in closest Christian fellowship as one body under one Head is His will and work as Intercessor, existing in proportion to illumination and sanctification by the divine Spirit, harmonizing understanding of truth and judgment and giving peace, testifying with convicting power that the Word of God is the safe rule of life.
The prayer and this verse hold far more meaning than is realized, present God's plain will and the plan of redemption, and are to be received into the treasure-house of the soul, studied word by word from the first verse to the last, often repeated, made the daily lesson and rule of life, prayed and lived out in practical godliness to guide habits and conduct. It serves as the church's creed, showing that difference and disunion dishonor God, and ministers are to believe it and live it before their fellow ministers. Received and acted upon it keeps from getting above the simplicity of pure Christlikeness, with power to raise fallen people, heal sick souls and prepare them to stand in the shaking time.
Meaning of the Sending
As the Father sent Christ into the world, so Christ sends his disciples into the world, and the Father's sending is the pattern, authority and parallel for their sending. Their mission follows his and continues the work he began, carrying his work into the world rather than being removed from it, for they are sent to serve there while belonging to Christ's kingdom rather than Satan's. They are placed under responsibility to be sanctified not only for their own benefit but so they can help others, and as he came to seek and save the perishing and bring them the light of truth, he sends those who receive him as Saviour to carry on that same work.
Christ was sent as the Father's messenger to represent the Father, reveal his character and great love, convict the world of sin, seek and save the perishing, bring the light of truth, give his life and impart life, and glorify the Father's name. Those sent share that same object, work and superhuman help, for Christ came with divine power clothed in humanity so that people may grasp divinity and become partakers of the divine nature, and their work is joined to sanctification through the truth. Those freed from sin become channels of light to the world through the Spirit, who shapes them in God's likeness, for he came to bring people into harmony with God. They are sent with a most solemn message of truth as professed repositories of God's law with greater light and a higher standard than any other people, so they must show greater perfection of character, deeper devotion, deeper consecration, and purer and holier lives, exalting sacred and eternal things. Their work is to let light shine in clear beams to brighten the pathway of those in darkness and daily glorify God, with every member carrying individual responsibility to preserve harmony, union and love in the church. Their oneness is the evidence the world cannot withstand and the convincing argument that leads the world to believe that God sent Jesus, while bickering, strife and dissension disgust unbelievers, fasten them in unbelief and infidelity, and dishonor God, so that it is better never to have seen the light of truth than to profess it without being sanctified by it.
Their ministry must build upon a divine Christ with divine power combined with human effort, with the Holy Spirit working through human agencies in maintained partnership between God and the workers. Man works because God works in him and all efficiency and power is of God, yet all responsibility rests with the human instrument who must move among men doing a divine work to bless humanity and uplift fallen humanity. This was given just before he would be separated from them and no longer be their visible counselor to take responsibility in all matters, so they needed special instruction to succeed, and must still seek power from on high and improve the facilities God has provided to reach the highest standard, for leaving the divine agency out makes their future work fail. As the Father sent Christ to do the Father's works, Christ sends his followers to walk in his footsteps and do his works, which means studying his ways and not man's ways, obeying his will and not self-will, refusing to go ahead of him, consulting him before every move, and meeting obstacles and difficulties unitedly hand in hand under his leadership. Following these teachings brings unity, and the only hope of reaching heaven is to be one with Christ, and then in and through Christ to be one with one another, for no one is called to walk alone and there is only one way to heaven which all must travel, for Christ is the Way, the Truth and the Life in whom life and immortality are brought to light and who has opened the way to the kingdom of heaven to believers.
Those sent are his delegated representatives, coworkers, instrumentalities, light-bearers and channels for the revelation of Christ as Christ is the channel for the Father, commissioned to show the world God's character by expressing Christ's love and making known mercy, forgiveness and salvation. Every individual disciple, transformed by grace and united to the divine nature, is Heaven's appointed channel to manifest his Spirit, character, goodness, mercy and tender love, so that with Jesus dwelling in them their lives serve as a message through which others who do not know him come to understand his character and are led to know him, love and serve him. Angels wait to communicate heaven's light through them, and if they fail the world is to that degree robbed of the promised influence of the Holy Spirit. They are to serve as missionaries, teaching the gospel by what they say and do and showing people how to live righteous and godly lives in an evil world, lifting up Christ as the Lamb who takes away the world's sin and helping others come into unity with Christ. This applies to all of Christ's children to the close of time, no less than to the first disciples, including children and youth, to be representatives of God, to reveal his Spirit, to manifest his character and to do his work, standing by the side of Christ in unselfish service for which their education is to fit them. Their work, from which they cannot be excused, is to represent him continually in character, to reveal the Father as Christ did, and to be disentangled from worldly policies.
The disciples did not fully understand or appreciate the prayer until after the resurrection and the descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, which opens blinded eyes to its provision and instruction for the human race. It belongs to Christ's last prayer for his disciples, which followed his instruction in John 16:24-33, spoken to his faithful disciples in the upper chamber after Judas withdrew, as the burden of his soul in words of comfort, counsel and prayer recorded in John 15, 16 and 17. It was not spoken for the multitude who could not understand such sacred truths. They repeated its words again and again to stay their hearts and stay their sinking hearts in disappointment and trial. As chosen witnesses who had seen his works and heard his teaching, their testimony to continue the work he had begun and carry the message of salvation has spread over all lands through all ages to comfort the desponding and give peace and hope to thousands who believe.
Sanctified Through Truth
Those sent are not taken out of the world but left in it to carry out their mission there, kept from its evil, deception and temptation while remaining in it and not of it. They are sanctified through the truth, which is God's word, and united with God and one another so their witness may lead the world to believe. Sanctification means being set apart and made holy in soul, body and spirit for special service and consecrated witness. It is accomplished by knowing, receiving and practicing the truth, building on Scripture, searching both Testaments, obeying from the heart, and keeping all God's requirements including the Sabbath commandment. The world where they serve in preparation for heaven is their field of consecrated service, and they carry His word and witness to the truth while distinct from its customs.
For their sakes Christ consecrated, sanctified and devoted Himself by a life of perfect obedience as the perfect pattern, so they also may be sanctified through the truth and prepared to do the work to which He sends them. He gives them true knowledge and teaches obedience by showing truth's principles in character, in His life, example, lessons and words. His work of sowing eternal truth brings a harvest of joy. This sanctifying and sending belongs not to the first disciples alone but to all who believe through their word.
Receiving truth alone is not enough; it is not truly received unless it is practiced, and practicing it sanctifies the whole person, body and soul. Knowing truth calls for careful, prayerful study, and daily feeding on the Word as flesh and blood forms Christ within as the hope of glory while building growth in grace and knowledge. The truth works through love and cleanses the soul from selfishness, so hearts must be cleansed and subdued before God. Through the molding influence of the Holy Spirit those daily sanctified through the truth improve in moral power, have imperfections of character revealed as grievous in the sight of a holy God, and advance daily with deeper discernment, firmer knowledge of the Word, living experience, and holiness of heart and life for service as the close of time nears. That cherished truth works a blessed unity among His followers in their life on earth and binds them together.
Unity as Witness
The sending stands inside a prayer for all who will believe through the disciples' word, that they be one as the Father is in Christ and Christ in the Father, with Christ in them and the Father in Christ, made perfect in one. That oneness shares the glory the Father gave to Christ, partakes of the divine nature and escapes worldly corruption, and expresses God's will thirsting for His believing people. It is the true platform secured by spiritual gifts and not by human creeds, the church's creed, an inward living union in which heaven is represented upon earth. The prayer joins this unity to remaining in the world as a ransomed church, kept from evil rather than taken out, sanctified through the truth, given God's word and joy, loved as Christ was loved, and destined to be with Him where He is to behold His glory.
That love and unity is the evidence of discipleship and the credentials borne that God sent Jesus to save sinners. When believers live in unselfish love, compassion, tenderness, courtesy and harmonious action, keep His commandments and reveal His character, the world believes and knows that the Father sent Christ and loves them as He loved Christ. By that revelation sinners are saved, souls are convicted and converted, and God is glorified. Until that brotherly love exists the sending remains unanswered and success is withheld.
Oneness does not erase distinct personality, for Father and Son remain distinct, and believers one with Christ keep their own identity while united in purpose to save the fallen, giving up their own way for God's way. Division, bickering, strife, jealousy, evil surmising and seeking supremacy dishonor God, disgust unbelievers and fasten them in unbelief and infidelity. All who bring weakness, sorrow and discouragement upon God's people by perverse ways and tempers work directly against Christ's prayer and give Satan advantage. Satan labors to make the prayer of none effect by creating bitterness and discord, because where there is unity there is strength, a oneness that all the powers of hell cannot break.
Answering the prayer therefore requires repentance, conversion and entire consecration, putting away variance, envy, strife, criticism, evil surmising, discord and evil speaking. It requires esteeming others better than self, loving as brethren in word and deed, helping and strengthening one another, and seeking and receiving the Holy Spirit whose witness causes the world to know they have been with Jesus and learned of Him. Praying for union and then living so God can answer ends petty differences, links believers to one another and to Christ, brings perfect fellowship and obedience with its fruit, and forms characters revealing the power of grace. Only those who so live it will stand the test of the shaking time, become an impregnable wall against Satan's determined assaults, have sick souls healed, and enter with Christ through the gates into the city.
Those made one with Christ through accepting the truth are dear to Christ's heart and through His grace obtain moral courage to accept unpopular truth and to suffer reproach for His sake. Those sanctified through the truth and brought into oneness meet together without distinction of wealth, learning, or social rank, as people equally loved by God, bought by Christ's sacrifice, and dependent on their Redeemer.
Scope of the Commission
The sending is not for the first disciples alone but for all who will believe through their word to the close of time, for Christ foresaw their trials and dangers to the end and prayed with deeper interest and tenderer compassion than an earthly parent feels for a wayward afflicted child. That embrace takes in everyone who complies with the truth, granting the privilege of being blended in Christ as His life is one with the Father, with no one called to walk alone but all to travel the same way in Him, including children and youth. It is to be carried out together, with believers of every nationality joining talents and labor as one in answering the prayer for union, sanctified through the truth whose word is truth.
Their field is the whole world, not confined to the Jews, beginning in Jerusalem, extending through Samaria, and reaching to the uttermost parts of the earth and to earth's remotest bounds. It is a duty to carry the knowledge of God to the millions destitute of it who walk in darkness and in the shadow of death, to go to places near and far proclaiming the gospel and bringing believers into the church, to keep laboring until every part has been reached by the light they bear. New fields constantly open before the church and call for more means to lift the standard of truth and righteousness, laying a solemn charge to carry truth into new territory and give the warning message to those in darkness, sustained with tithes, offerings, money, time, strength and influence, for which the church is held responsible. Those sent must first be sanctified by the truth in their own lives so the truth through them becomes a sanctifying power upon others, with the whole church trained in missionary work including practical knowledge of treating disease, and even a bitter opponent treated with respect while presenting the truth.
Those sent remain in the world as His ransomed church, the chief source of His glory and recompense for His conquests, through whom the manifold wisdom of God is made known to principalities and powers in heavenly places and to angels and unfallen worlds. They are sent with God's word, kept from evil rather than taken out, sanctified through God's truth, given Christ's joy and the glory the Father gave Him, made one as the Father is in Christ and Christ in the Father and made perfect in one so the world may believe and know the Father sent Christ. The surrounding prayer assures them the Father's love for them is as real and great as His love for the Son, loving changed members of the fallen race from sin to holiness as He loves His Son. It reveals the positive privilege of covenant relation with God as His chosen children and heirs joined to Him in drawing the world to God, the greatest gift within reach to be improved under accountability, with promise of the salvation of His striving people as the Spirit gives energy to transform the dead in trespasses to put away sin and live to Christ, destined to be with Christ where He is to behold His glory with the Father's love and Christ Himself in them.
In World but Not Of
Those sent remain in the world as its light and salt, not secluded from it nor taken out of it, but left in it to serve there while kept from its evil, deception and temptation. They belong to Christ's kingdom rather than Satan's, consecrated to God and distinct from the world's customs, corrupt principles and worldly practices. Their fitness for this remaining is bound to being sanctified through the truth and kept through obedience to God's Word and conformity to His will, united with God and one another so their witness leads the world to believe.
While in the world they are not of the world even as Christ is not of the world, hated by the world because they received God's word as He was hated. They stay in a world seared and marred by the curse amid persecution, trial, suffering, self-denial and sacrifice, needing all the divine resources of His sympathy. The world is their place of preparation for heaven, where they are given God's word, Christ's joy and glory, and sanctification through the truth.
Their distinct life is to be a corrective, saving, preserving influence, remaining pure and holy so their lives show the restoring power of Christ's grace to restore the divine likeness in man. As salt that retains its savor among an unholy, impure, idolatrous generation they must not pattern after the world but spread divine love, refusing worldly policy, appearance, recognition and self-advancement at the expense of Christianity. Making the temporal secondary to the spiritual, they let faith, dress, conduct and daily dealings show they serve Christ, acting rightly in it and shining so others glorify God, with the principles governing the church and its institutions coming from God and not from the world.
Living the Mission
Those sent continue in the world the same seeking and saving work for which the Father sent the Son, to seek and save the perishing and bring them the light of truth. They are commissioned as missionaries to go near and far, proclaim the gospel, open the Scriptures, teach the truth, communicate the message of salvation to those perishing in sin, and gather believers into the church. Their witness is to lift up Christ as the Lamb who takes away sin and lift up the cross of Calvary, showing people by word and deed how to live righteous and godly lives in an evil world. That witness must be borne by clear and truthful speech that leads others to Jesus, by serving others as well as preaching, and by lives shaped in obedience, in word and spirit and act, multiplying copies of his character.
Fulfilling that sending requires self-denial and sacrifice in giving self to God's work and carrying out God's plan. It is a divine-human partnership in which divine power is combined with human effort, the Holy Spirit working through human agencies while all efficiency is of God and yet all responsibility rests on the human instrument who must move among men doing a divine work. Sanctified believers must therefore actively cooperate and cannot sit idle or take life easily as if there were nothing to be done, for individual responsibility rests on everyone who attains eternal life, ministers and people alike. They are to oppose the powers of darkness while angels join them, remain distinct from the world, and bring health and strength to those who receive Christ. The work begins in the home, where parents teach God's Word to children so their light reaches the church and those in darkness and children themselves help instruct others and win souls, and where tender regard, unity, and ungrieved Spirit make the home a symbol of the heavenly family whose influence extends outward.
The commission embraces medical missionary work and every God-given line of service, to be done according to God's will and not by any person's judgment or independent action. Ministry and medical work, ministers and physicians, are to labor together in unity of purpose with heart, soul, mind and strength, for God's work is one and separation between them shows hearts untouched by the Holy Spirit. Those sent are to represent Christ as Christ represented the Father, working as he worked and revealing the Father through the Son, keeping prominent the saving of sinners and the demonstration of God's love, disentangled from worldly policy and made a spectacle to men, angels and unfallen worlds. Their lives are to reflect a purer light by manifesting his kindness, compassion, love and humility in words and deeds, with sacred work such as medical missionary work corresponding perfectly to the lifework of the Great Missionary.
The way to do this work is to study Christ's ways and not man's, obey his will and not self-will, refuse to go ahead of him, consult him before every move, and meet obstacles and difficulties unitedly hand in hand under his leadership. No one is called to walk alone, for there is one way to heaven and all must travel the same path in Christ, setting self and hereditary tendencies aside, learning his meekness and lowliness, and being filled with the Spirit. As members cooperate with God through Christian fellowship they grow in strength and efficiency, form characters like Christ's, and reflect heaven's purity, light and love, so that unity in heart and belief expressed in love, compassion, courtesy and grace testifies that God sent his Son. By consecrated lives and genuine Christian principles carried out in homes and daily conduct, correcting wrongs with his mind in patience and love, the church answers the prayer and gives the unconverted evidence that it practices the truth it professes and bears its fruit in righteousness and holiness.
As the Father sent Christ into the world, so Christ sends his followers into the world, making the Father's sending the pattern, authority and continuance of their mission. This sending belongs to his farewell intercessory prayer for his disciples and his church, spoken to the eleven alone after Judas withdrew on the eve of his betrayal and crucifixion, when as consecrated High Priest he identified his interests with fallen humanity and pointed them to glorifying the Father's name. Those sent are his delegated representatives and channels for revealing Christ as Christ reveals the Father, appointed to manifest his Spirit, character, goodness and tender love so that others may know, love and serve him. They are not taken out of the world but left in it as its light and salt, kept from its evil and sanctified through the truth of God's word by knowing, receiving and practicing it in soul, body and spirit. That sanctifying truth makes them one as the Father is in Christ and Christ in them, and their unselfish love and harmonious unity is the evidence that God sent Jesus, by which the world believes and sinners are saved.
Setting of the Prayer
John 17:18 belongs to Christ's farewell intercessory prayer for His disciples and His church, offered in the upper chamber to the eleven alone after Judas withdrew, on the eve of His betrayal, agony in Gethsemane, trial and crucifixion, after the comfort and counsel of John 13-16, when He was about to leave them and pointed them to glorifying the Father's name as the great object of His mission. It was His last prayer before crucifixion, with the agony of the cross before Him, spoken just before His trial and crucifixion and just before His agony in the garden, caring not for Himself but for those He would leave to carry His work forward in the earth when He was about to leave them but did not want them to think they would be left helpless orphans. The sending belongs to the vast enterprise of the salvation of human beings that calls into action every attribute of the divine nature, in which the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit have pledged themselves to make God's children more than conquerors and have provided power to enable overcomers because the Lord is gracious and long-suffering and not willing that any should perish. It embraces not the first disciples alone but all who will believe on Him through their word to the close of time, for He foresaw their trials and dangers and is not unmindful of the dissensions and divisions that distract and weaken His church, looking upon them with deeper interest and more tender compassion than moves an earthly parent toward a wayward afflicted child, bidding them learn of Him, trust Him, open their hearts to receive His love, with His pledge to be their helper. His intercession makes it possible for those who come to Him humbly and trust His saving power to receive spiritual help, remain loyal to God, and be kept from sin.
In that prayer He ministers as consecrated High Priest and Intercessor after completing His sacrifice, identifying His interests with fallen humanity as the Good Shepherd, remembering His tried people in a world of temptation, and illustrating His continuing intercession before the Father. He entered within the veil as Forerunner to present His bruised hands bearing the wounds of cruel spikes, His blood and merits, to supply divine sympathy and love, pleading that He has graven His church, the names of those who believe on Him, upon the palms of His hands. The prayer is a lesson guiding the course of action of believers and contains truth that will stand the test of ages, which He is now making at His Father's right hand for ministers over congregations and the churches entrusted to them when they stand clothed with filthy garments and need humbling, fasting, prayer, pardon, and the atoning sacrifice, and will continue to make to the end of the world for ministers, churches and all who believe. Their love and unity in closest Christian fellowship as one body under one Head is His will and work as Intercessor, existing in proportion to illumination and sanctification by the divine Spirit, harmonizing understanding of truth and judgment and giving peace, testifying with convicting power that the Word of God is the safe rule of life.
The prayer and this verse hold far more meaning than is realized, present God's plain will and the plan of redemption, and are to be received into the treasure-house of the soul, studied word by word from the first verse to the last, often repeated, made the daily lesson and rule of life, prayed and lived out in practical godliness to guide habits and conduct. It serves as the church's creed, showing that difference and disunion dishonor God, and ministers are to believe it and live it before their fellow ministers. Received and acted upon it keeps from getting above the simplicity of pure Christlikeness, with power to raise fallen people, heal sick souls and prepare them to stand in the shaking time.
Meaning of the Sending
As the Father sent Christ into the world, so Christ sends his disciples into the world, and the Father's sending is the pattern, authority and parallel for their sending. Their mission follows his and continues the work he began, carrying his work into the world rather than being removed from it, for they are sent to serve there while belonging to Christ's kingdom rather than Satan's. They are placed under responsibility to be sanctified not only for their own benefit but so they can help others, and as he came to seek and save the perishing and bring them the light of truth, he sends those who receive him as Saviour to carry on that same work.
Christ was sent as the Father's messenger to represent the Father, reveal his character and great love, convict the world of sin, seek and save the perishing, bring the light of truth, give his life and impart life, and glorify the Father's name. Those sent share that same object, work and superhuman help, for Christ came with divine power clothed in humanity so that people may grasp divinity and become partakers of the divine nature, and their work is joined to sanctification through the truth. Those freed from sin become channels of light to the world through the Spirit, who shapes them in God's likeness, for he came to bring people into harmony with God. They are sent with a most solemn message of truth as professed repositories of God's law with greater light and a higher standard than any other people, so they must show greater perfection of character, deeper devotion, deeper consecration, and purer and holier lives, exalting sacred and eternal things. Their work is to let light shine in clear beams to brighten the pathway of those in darkness and daily glorify God, with every member carrying individual responsibility to preserve harmony, union and love in the church. Their oneness is the evidence the world cannot withstand and the convincing argument that leads the world to believe that God sent Jesus, while bickering, strife and dissension disgust unbelievers, fasten them in unbelief and infidelity, and dishonor God, so that it is better never to have seen the light of truth than to profess it without being sanctified by it.
Their ministry must build upon a divine Christ with divine power combined with human effort, with the Holy Spirit working through human agencies in maintained partnership between God and the workers. Man works because God works in him and all efficiency and power is of God, yet all responsibility rests with the human instrument who must move among men doing a divine work to bless humanity and uplift fallen humanity. This was given just before he would be separated from them and no longer be their visible counselor to take responsibility in all matters, so they needed special instruction to succeed, and must still seek power from on high and improve the facilities God has provided to reach the highest standard, for leaving the divine agency out makes their future work fail. As the Father sent Christ to do the Father's works, Christ sends his followers to walk in his footsteps and do his works, which means studying his ways and not man's ways, obeying his will and not self-will, refusing to go ahead of him, consulting him before every move, and meeting obstacles and difficulties unitedly hand in hand under his leadership. Following these teachings brings unity, and the only hope of reaching heaven is to be one with Christ, and then in and through Christ to be one with one another, for no one is called to walk alone and there is only one way to heaven which all must travel, for Christ is the Way, the Truth and the Life in whom life and immortality are brought to light and who has opened the way to the kingdom of heaven to believers.
Those sent are his delegated representatives, coworkers, instrumentalities, light-bearers and channels for the revelation of Christ as Christ is the channel for the Father, commissioned to show the world God's character by expressing Christ's love and making known mercy, forgiveness and salvation. Every individual disciple, transformed by grace and united to the divine nature, is Heaven's appointed channel to manifest his Spirit, character, goodness, mercy and tender love, so that with Jesus dwelling in them their lives serve as a message through which others who do not know him come to understand his character and are led to know him, love and serve him. Angels wait to communicate heaven's light through them, and if they fail the world is to that degree robbed of the promised influence of the Holy Spirit. They are to serve as missionaries, teaching the gospel by what they say and do and showing people how to live righteous and godly lives in an evil world, lifting up Christ as the Lamb who takes away the world's sin and helping others come into unity with Christ. This applies to all of Christ's children to the close of time, no less than to the first disciples, including children and youth, to be representatives of God, to reveal his Spirit, to manifest his character and to do his work, standing by the side of Christ in unselfish service for which their education is to fit them. Their work, from which they cannot be excused, is to represent him continually in character, to reveal the Father as Christ did, and to be disentangled from worldly policies.
The disciples did not fully understand or appreciate the prayer until after the resurrection and the descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, which opens blinded eyes to its provision and instruction for the human race. It belongs to Christ's last prayer for his disciples, which followed his instruction in John 16:24-33, spoken to his faithful disciples in the upper chamber after Judas withdrew, as the burden of his soul in words of comfort, counsel and prayer recorded in John 15, 16 and 17. It was not spoken for the multitude who could not understand such sacred truths. They repeated its words again and again to stay their hearts and stay their sinking hearts in disappointment and trial. As chosen witnesses who had seen his works and heard his teaching, their testimony to continue the work he had begun and carry the message of salvation has spread over all lands through all ages to comfort the desponding and give peace and hope to thousands who believe.
Sanctified Through Truth
Those sent are not taken out of the world but left in it to carry out their mission there, kept from its evil, deception and temptation while remaining in it and not of it. They are sanctified through the truth, which is God's word, and united with God and one another so their witness may lead the world to believe. Sanctification means being set apart and made holy in soul, body and spirit for special service and consecrated witness. It is accomplished by knowing, receiving and practicing the truth, building on Scripture, searching both Testaments, obeying from the heart, and keeping all God's requirements including the Sabbath commandment. The world where they serve in preparation for heaven is their field of consecrated service, and they carry His word and witness to the truth while distinct from its customs.
For their sakes Christ consecrated, sanctified and devoted Himself by a life of perfect obedience as the perfect pattern, so they also may be sanctified through the truth and prepared to do the work to which He sends them. He gives them true knowledge and teaches obedience by showing truth's principles in character, in His life, example, lessons and words. His work of sowing eternal truth brings a harvest of joy. This sanctifying and sending belongs not to the first disciples alone but to all who believe through their word.
Receiving truth alone is not enough; it is not truly received unless it is practiced, and practicing it sanctifies the whole person, body and soul. Knowing truth calls for careful, prayerful study, and daily feeding on the Word as flesh and blood forms Christ within as the hope of glory while building growth in grace and knowledge. The truth works through love and cleanses the soul from selfishness, so hearts must be cleansed and subdued before God. Through the molding influence of the Holy Spirit those daily sanctified through the truth improve in moral power, have imperfections of character revealed as grievous in the sight of a holy God, and advance daily with deeper discernment, firmer knowledge of the Word, living experience, and holiness of heart and life for service as the close of time nears. That cherished truth works a blessed unity among His followers in their life on earth and binds them together.
Unity as Witness
The sending stands inside a prayer for all who will believe through the disciples' word, that they be one as the Father is in Christ and Christ in the Father, with Christ in them and the Father in Christ, made perfect in one. That oneness shares the glory the Father gave to Christ, partakes of the divine nature and escapes worldly corruption, and expresses God's will thirsting for His believing people. It is the true platform secured by spiritual gifts and not by human creeds, the church's creed, an inward living union in which heaven is represented upon earth. The prayer joins this unity to remaining in the world as a ransomed church, kept from evil rather than taken out, sanctified through the truth, given God's word and joy, loved as Christ was loved, and destined to be with Him where He is to behold His glory.
That love and unity is the evidence of discipleship and the credentials borne that God sent Jesus to save sinners. When believers live in unselfish love, compassion, tenderness, courtesy and harmonious action, keep His commandments and reveal His character, the world believes and knows that the Father sent Christ and loves them as He loved Christ. By that revelation sinners are saved, souls are convicted and converted, and God is glorified. Until that brotherly love exists the sending remains unanswered and success is withheld.
Oneness does not erase distinct personality, for Father and Son remain distinct, and believers one with Christ keep their own identity while united in purpose to save the fallen, giving up their own way for God's way. Division, bickering, strife, jealousy, evil surmising and seeking supremacy dishonor God, disgust unbelievers and fasten them in unbelief and infidelity. All who bring weakness, sorrow and discouragement upon God's people by perverse ways and tempers work directly against Christ's prayer and give Satan advantage. Satan labors to make the prayer of none effect by creating bitterness and discord, because where there is unity there is strength, a oneness that all the powers of hell cannot break.
Answering the prayer therefore requires repentance, conversion and entire consecration, putting away variance, envy, strife, criticism, evil surmising, discord and evil speaking. It requires esteeming others better than self, loving as brethren in word and deed, helping and strengthening one another, and seeking and receiving the Holy Spirit whose witness causes the world to know they have been with Jesus and learned of Him. Praying for union and then living so God can answer ends petty differences, links believers to one another and to Christ, brings perfect fellowship and obedience with its fruit, and forms characters revealing the power of grace. Only those who so live it will stand the test of the shaking time, become an impregnable wall against Satan's determined assaults, have sick souls healed, and enter with Christ through the gates into the city.
Those made one with Christ through accepting the truth are dear to Christ's heart and through His grace obtain moral courage to accept unpopular truth and to suffer reproach for His sake. Those sanctified through the truth and brought into oneness meet together without distinction of wealth, learning, or social rank, as people equally loved by God, bought by Christ's sacrifice, and dependent on their Redeemer.
Scope of the Commission
The sending is not for the first disciples alone but for all who will believe through their word to the close of time, for Christ foresaw their trials and dangers to the end and prayed with deeper interest and tenderer compassion than an earthly parent feels for a wayward afflicted child. That embrace takes in everyone who complies with the truth, granting the privilege of being blended in Christ as His life is one with the Father, with no one called to walk alone but all to travel the same way in Him, including children and youth. It is to be carried out together, with believers of every nationality joining talents and labor as one in answering the prayer for union, sanctified through the truth whose word is truth.
Their field is the whole world, not confined to the Jews, beginning in Jerusalem, extending through Samaria, and reaching to the uttermost parts of the earth and to earth's remotest bounds. It is a duty to carry the knowledge of God to the millions destitute of it who walk in darkness and in the shadow of death, to go to places near and far proclaiming the gospel and bringing believers into the church, to keep laboring until every part has been reached by the light they bear. New fields constantly open before the church and call for more means to lift the standard of truth and righteousness, laying a solemn charge to carry truth into new territory and give the warning message to those in darkness, sustained with tithes, offerings, money, time, strength and influence, for which the church is held responsible. Those sent must first be sanctified by the truth in their own lives so the truth through them becomes a sanctifying power upon others, with the whole church trained in missionary work including practical knowledge of treating disease, and even a bitter opponent treated with respect while presenting the truth.
Those sent remain in the world as His ransomed church, the chief source of His glory and recompense for His conquests, through whom the manifold wisdom of God is made known to principalities and powers in heavenly places and to angels and unfallen worlds. They are sent with God's word, kept from evil rather than taken out, sanctified through God's truth, given Christ's joy and the glory the Father gave Him, made one as the Father is in Christ and Christ in the Father and made perfect in one so the world may believe and know the Father sent Christ. The surrounding prayer assures them the Father's love for them is as real and great as His love for the Son, loving changed members of the fallen race from sin to holiness as He loves His Son. It reveals the positive privilege of covenant relation with God as His chosen children and heirs joined to Him in drawing the world to God, the greatest gift within reach to be improved under accountability, with promise of the salvation of His striving people as the Spirit gives energy to transform the dead in trespasses to put away sin and live to Christ, destined to be with Christ where He is to behold His glory with the Father's love and Christ Himself in them.
In World but Not Of
Those sent remain in the world as its light and salt, not secluded from it nor taken out of it, but left in it to serve there while kept from its evil, deception and temptation. They belong to Christ's kingdom rather than Satan's, consecrated to God and distinct from the world's customs, corrupt principles and worldly practices. Their fitness for this remaining is bound to being sanctified through the truth and kept through obedience to God's Word and conformity to His will, united with God and one another so their witness leads the world to believe.
While in the world they are not of the world even as Christ is not of the world, hated by the world because they received God's word as He was hated. They stay in a world seared and marred by the curse amid persecution, trial, suffering, self-denial and sacrifice, needing all the divine resources of His sympathy. The world is their place of preparation for heaven, where they are given God's word, Christ's joy and glory, and sanctification through the truth.
Their distinct life is to be a corrective, saving, preserving influence, remaining pure and holy so their lives show the restoring power of Christ's grace to restore the divine likeness in man. As salt that retains its savor among an unholy, impure, idolatrous generation they must not pattern after the world but spread divine love, refusing worldly policy, appearance, recognition and self-advancement at the expense of Christianity. Making the temporal secondary to the spiritual, they let faith, dress, conduct and daily dealings show they serve Christ, acting rightly in it and shining so others glorify God, with the principles governing the church and its institutions coming from God and not from the world.
Living the Mission
Those sent continue in the world the same seeking and saving work for which the Father sent the Son, to seek and save the perishing and bring them the light of truth. They are commissioned as missionaries to go near and far, proclaim the gospel, open the Scriptures, teach the truth, communicate the message of salvation to those perishing in sin, and gather believers into the church. Their witness is to lift up Christ as the Lamb who takes away sin and lift up the cross of Calvary, showing people by word and deed how to live righteous and godly lives in an evil world. That witness must be borne by clear and truthful speech that leads others to Jesus, by serving others as well as preaching, and by lives shaped in obedience, in word and spirit and act, multiplying copies of his character.
Fulfilling that sending requires self-denial and sacrifice in giving self to God's work and carrying out God's plan. It is a divine-human partnership in which divine power is combined with human effort, the Holy Spirit working through human agencies while all efficiency is of God and yet all responsibility rests on the human instrument who must move among men doing a divine work. Sanctified believers must therefore actively cooperate and cannot sit idle or take life easily as if there were nothing to be done, for individual responsibility rests on everyone who attains eternal life, ministers and people alike. They are to oppose the powers of darkness while angels join them, remain distinct from the world, and bring health and strength to those who receive Christ. The work begins in the home, where parents teach God's Word to children so their light reaches the church and those in darkness and children themselves help instruct others and win souls, and where tender regard, unity, and ungrieved Spirit make the home a symbol of the heavenly family whose influence extends outward.
The commission embraces medical missionary work and every God-given line of service, to be done according to God's will and not by any person's judgment or independent action. Ministry and medical work, ministers and physicians, are to labor together in unity of purpose with heart, soul, mind and strength, for God's work is one and separation between them shows hearts untouched by the Holy Spirit. Those sent are to represent Christ as Christ represented the Father, working as he worked and revealing the Father through the Son, keeping prominent the saving of sinners and the demonstration of God's love, disentangled from worldly policy and made a spectacle to men, angels and unfallen worlds. Their lives are to reflect a purer light by manifesting his kindness, compassion, love and humility in words and deeds, with sacred work such as medical missionary work corresponding perfectly to the lifework of the Great Missionary.
The way to do this work is to study Christ's ways and not man's, obey his will and not self-will, refuse to go ahead of him, consult him before every move, and meet obstacles and difficulties unitedly hand in hand under his leadership. No one is called to walk alone, for there is one way to heaven and all must travel the same path in Christ, setting self and hereditary tendencies aside, learning his meekness and lowliness, and being filled with the Spirit. As members cooperate with God through Christian fellowship they grow in strength and efficiency, form characters like Christ's, and reflect heaven's purity, light and love, so that unity in heart and belief expressed in love, compassion, courtesy and grace testifies that God sent his Son. By consecrated lives and genuine Christian principles carried out in homes and daily conduct, correcting wrongs with his mind in patience and love, the church answers the prayer and gives the unconverted evidence that it practices the truth it professes and bears its fruit in righteousness and holiness.