1494. The Believer and the World

The Believer and the World

"I pray not that Thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that Thou shouldest keep them from the evil" (Joh_17:15).

After we have studied the tender compassion with which the Lord holds those whom the Father has given Him, we need not wonder that this same marvelous prayer will give us the Lord's heart toward His children in their attitude toward the world in which they live and move. Let us observe this sevenfold relationship.

1. "The men which Thou gavest Me out of the world" (Joh_17:6). God's people are a called-out people. The Church of Jesus Christ is an "ecclesia," that means they are "called out."

This in no wise means that Christ desires us to live lives segregated from men, and isolated from the people. In Joh_17:15 Christ prays, "I pray not that Thou shouldest take them out of the world."

The Lord Himself walked among men. He neither entered a monastery, nor did He hide away in the dens and caves of the earth. He received sinners, ate with them, and taught them His Word. He mingled with the crowds at Bethesda's pool, and healed the man thirty years sick. He was even numbered with the transgressors, in His death–the Holy One of God hung between two thieves.

2. "These are in the world" (Joh_17:11). Not alone in a physical world, a world of forests and fields and flowers, but in a world of men. Saints are constantly rubbing elbows with sinners, as they press along the crowded thoroughfares of world cities.

It is interesting to mark, with a map, the journeyings of the Apostle Paul, as on three successive trips he made his way hither and thither over a wide territory and 'mid the larger cities of his day.

3. "They are not of the world" (Joh_17:14). In the world but not of it. Believers possess a life born, not of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of men. They are Spirit-born.

Believers are not of the world in the spiritual blessings which they have obtained through Christ. Their blessings all are Heavenly.

Believers are not of the world in the things which they enjoy. They run not with them to the same excess of riot; they walk not after the same desirings of the flesh.

Believers are not of the world. Their treasures, their citizenship, their great rewards are all above. They look for a city whose builder and maker is God.

4. "The world hath hated them" (Joh_17:14). "Even as" is the key note of the Christian's attitude toward the world and of the world's attitude toward the Christian. If we hold the same relationship toward the world which Christ held, then the world will hold the same attitude toward us, which it held toward Christ.

"If it hated Me, it will hate you" is Christ's message. "If they have called the Master of the house Beelzebub, how much more shall they call them of His own household?"

Let us go with Christ outside the camp and bear His reproach. Let us glory in the Cross by which the world is crucified unto us, and we unto the world.

5. "I also sent them into the world" (Joh_17:18). Once more we have the "even as." Our mission in the world is the same as our Lord's. The fact that the world hated Him did not keep Him back from serving. Even on the Cross He cried, "Father, forgive them" in behalf of the very ones who nailed Him there, in behalf of those who mocked Him. We must go into all the world and carry the message of love and life, preaching to every creature; for God hath committed unto us both the word and the work of reconciliation.

6. "That the world may believe that Thou hast sent Me" (Joh_17:21). We are in the world in order to turn men to God. We are to magnify God, take of His things and show them unto men. We are to give unto the world both a testimony and a life that will cause the world to believe in saving grace.

7. "That the world may know that Thou hast sent Me, and hast loved them" (Joh_17:23). Christ has long been gone from earth, He wants His children to be so perfect in one, and to so manifest the Christ-life that the world will know that Christ was sent of God.

What a task! A task that far outweighs any social service or ethical enlightenment that we might give the world.

Christ's birth is an historical fact; Christ's resurrection is an historical fact. The world knows and acknowledges both. We must now, live in such oneness with Christ, and so represent His endless life, that the world will know that Christ still lives and loves His own.

Autor: R.E. NEIGHBOUR