‘But These Are In The World’

‘But These Are In The World’

‘And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee.  Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are.’

John 17:11

Christ was keenly aware of the effect which His departure would have upon His disciples.  As He prayed His High Priestly Prayer, He interceded for them with His Father on the basis of the fact that He was about to depart this scene of time.  He was also keenly aware of the environment in which He was leaving them.  In our text for today, He says, ‘these are in the world.’  Christ understood how much the worldings would hate His people.  He had already warned His disciples, ‘If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you.  If ye were of the world, the world would love his own:  but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.’   He had plainly told them that they would be the targets of persecution.  At their best, these were a frail, feeble and timid lot.  They would stand in great need of the preservation of God.  We are the spiritual inheritors of the legacy of the disciples.  If we adhere to the Gospel of Jesus Christ; if we hold Him above all and proclaim His truth, we may expect the same treatment as the world gave them.  We need not be belligerent and pugnacious.  We need merely to proclaim the simple truth that, ‘neither is there salvation in any other.’  This will be sufficient to incur hatred and persecution.  We are yet, ‘in the world,’ as they were.  Our hope is in Christ, in His Intercession for us and in the power of God to ‘deliver us from every evil work and to preserve us unto His heavenly kingdom.’

Our most High and Holy God,
we rejoice that Christ intercedes for us who are still in the world.
We praise You that by Your almighty power,
You will uphold and preserve us in all our ways.

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning