OUT OF THIS WORLD
by W. Carl Ketcherside

In John 17:13, Jesus points out that one part of his preparation for return to the Father was to share some things while still in the world. This was done that the envoys might have his joy fulfilled in themselves. The original of the word for joy is chara, gladness, delight, happiness. Jesus entered the world to the sound of angel song, “Joy to the world,” and now he is going to leave with his joy fulfilled in men: They were given the word of the Father, and they had the assurance that the Holy Spirit would bring all things to their remembrance, “whatsoever I have said unto you” (John 14:26). Theirs would be a perfect recall.

They had to endure the hatred of the world. That hatred was not something to create wonder. “Marvel not, my brethren, if the world hate you” (1 John 3:13). Jesus said, “If the world hate you, you know it hated me before it hated you” (John 15:18). We tend to love our own. There is an old saying, “Every crow thinks its own is the blackest.” So the Lord says, “If you were of the world, the world would love his own: but because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.”

Yet, Jesus did not pray that they should be taken out of the world. They were the light and leaven of the world. They were the salt of the earth. They had to be in contact with it. They had been chosen and ordained to go and bring forth fruit. They would pay the price in a world which hated them. That price, with one possible exception, was death. Jesus did not want them removed from the world, until the world itself proved unworthy of them. He did pray that they should be kept “from the evil.” The word for evil is poneros and may refer to temptation, thoughts, or trials. Inherent in it is any destructive attitude or action, and Jesus did not want their testimony to be influenced for evil. Like Jesus, they were not of the world.

Our Lord asks that the Father sanctify the apostles by His truth. The word sanctify is from the Latin sanctus. It means to consecrate or set apart for a holy purpose. It was used of things as well as people. It corresponds to holy or hallowed. The truth of God has power to sanctify us to His service. And, as a rational being we contact that truth through His word. It is His means of communication, and our means of dedication. It is to be deeply regretted that we live in an age when the word is circulated so widely and known so little.

God sent Jesus into an alien world. It was a world made by him and yet it knew him not (John 1:10). In spite of that he was the true light, which lights the way for every man who enters the world. Just as the sun rules the day by giving light, so the Son rules the world by giving moral and spiritual light. Those who seek to ignore him by closing their eyes walk in darkness and are blinded. They do not affect the light, but their own condition. The sun shines as brightly on a world which refuses to see it as it does upon one where every person has his eyes wide open. Just as the Father sent Jesus into a world which rejected him, so Jesus sent the apostles into that world.

He consecrated himself to the work of the Father for their sakes, so they might be consecrated through the truth. They needed a role model. Jesus not only gave them the truth, but he gave them an example of perfect reaction to it. He told them and showed them. He left an example that we should follow in his steps (1 Pet. 2:21). He was the pioneer and perfecter of the faith, going on in advance and blazing a trail through an alien world. The reason Jesus consecrated himself was for the sake of the disciples. He wanted them to be sanctified in the truth. In the final analysis this meant being consecrated to him.

Of transcendent importance to us is the fact that Jesus did not limit the scope of his prayer to those he had been given as ambassadors by the Father. The word “apostle” means “one sent on a mission.” Involved is the sender, the one sent, the mission to be accomplished, and the message by which it is to be accomplished. The apostles were dispatched into all the world. They were to proclaim the Good News to every creature. They were God’s servants in the winnowing process. Those who believed were the grain. Those who refused to believe were the chaff. And Jesus prayed, not alone for the apostles but for all who believed in Him by their testimony.

Belief in the person of Jesus on the basis of testimony was to make the difference. Our salvation was made to hinge, not upon the breadth of our knowledge of things, but upon the depth of our faith in a person — one who lived and died in the realm of history. This is one of the most amazing demonstrations of divine wisdom and ingenuity. It is our only hope of achieving fellowship. We can agree upon him and his identity. The apostolic message was one of sincere faith — producing assurance that Jesus is the Son of God. And all who believe that are to be one. The fact that Jesus prayed for them to be one is proof that all may not be one. We tend to pray for those things which we desire to see transpire.

Yet we must not forget that this was the Son praying, and while he does not arbitrarily act to force men into a certain pattern of behavior, neither does he petition God for what is vain and impossible. And while the sad record of the past points otherwise, my hope for the future of true oneness of believers in Jesus in unquenched. I expect the prayer of Jesus to be honored. Whatever it takes to achieve it I am sure the Father will provide. I do not expect to live to see it, much as I would like to personally hail the great day but I feel the time is coming when the brotherhood of man will be as wide as the acceptance of Jesus. May God hasten that auspicious day! — 4420 Jamieson, C-1, St. Louis, Mo. 63109.