I do not ask Thee to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one. John 17:15What is Christ's desire for His people?
It is certainly not that they should remain in the world, in its ethical sense. Already they had been given Him out of the world, and therefore they were no more of the world--no more than Christ Himself was. The truth had already been given them (John 17:8), that truth which should free from sin, God's own name had been manifested to and in them (John 17:6)and they were in radical opposition to the world, so that the world hated them (John 17:14).
Accordingly His prayer distinctly is that they should be kept from that evil which constituted the very characteristic of the world, and that their sanctification should be continued in the truth. (John 17:16--17) He does not desire them to remain in the world in this sense. He has instituted a radical contrariety between them and "the world" ethically considered; and He is providing for this contrariety to widen into an ever broadening gulf.
Just as certainly, it is not that they should remain always in the world in its more local sense. The tone of joy with which the Lord notes that the time of His sojourn on earth is over and he is ready to re-enter His heavenly glory is unmistakable (John 17:1-2). Equally unmistakable is the tone of sadness with which he adverts to leaving His followers in the world. (John 17:11) They are in danger there; in danger from the world's hate; in danger from the world's temptation. They are away from their true and proper home there--in the enemy's country--not householders at home, but soldiers on duty, pilgrims on their journey.
He longs for them to enter their rest. And though He leaves them joy and the means of more joy in the word of truth, His desire for them is something higher than they can find there below. Nay, His distinct "will" for them is that they also may be with Him where He is to be; that they may behold His glory; that they may share in that glory. (John 17:24) He wishes for them what His servant afterwards declared to be "far better" (Philippians 1:23), that they too like Him should go out of the world and enter into glory--where Christ is on the right hand of God, where God dwells and His knowledge is, and where love is perfected in all.
But it is that they may temporarily remain in the world, out of which they have in one sense already come, but in which, in the other sense, they are still left, while kept from the evil of it.
Why? Well, for one thing, for their own sakes--that they may be sanctified. God's name has already been manifested to them; God's world have already been given to them; and they have received them; and men hate them for it. The good work is already, therefore, begun with them. Its fruits are already shown it their radical departure from the world and the world's consequent hatred. But the work is not completed. Therefore, the Saviour prays that "they may be sanctified in the truth", just as He had been.
They are to remain in the world then for their own sakes that the good work begun in them may be perfected unto the end. This appears as needful. Not, of course, as if they might not conceivably, like the dying thief, be prepared for heaven in a moment. God's almighty grace can work wonders. But that is not God's ordinary way; the muscles of holiness must grow by practice; hence temptation itself and trials are blessings. Hence, too, it emerges that sanctification is to take place in this life, in the ordinary provision of God. God's children are to remain in the world for their sanctification.
For another thing--(they are to remain here) for other's sake. God's plans need their presence in and work for the world. They are not the whole harvest, but the first fruits only. And that the first fruits may share in the harvest, it is needful to have them stay and labour here. They are to be the seed--"the good seed are they who . . ." And after a while this sowing is to ripen into a good in-gathering. Accordingly, our Lord prays not only for them but for them also who believe--throughout the whole future--on Him by their word (John 17:20). His glance takes in His whole Church, of all the ages; and these are to abide for it.
For still another thing, (they are to remain here) for the sake of the world itself. . . . The world is to be convicted of sin and convinced of Christ's mission and glory. His own are to remain in the world and to propagate and grow into a mighty, unitary Church, in order that the world itself may know that the lowly Jesus whom it has despised and rejected is none other than the Son of God; and that these lowly followers of His, despised and persecuted by it, are loved of the Father even as the Father loves them (John 17:20--23). The mighty testimony of the Church of God! how little we are bearing it! How we ought to bestir ourselves to it!
And then, finally, we must say also, (they are to remain here) for the Son's own sake. For He, too, reaps advantages for their abiding below. So, and humanly speaking, so only, may His mission be vindicated and His glory manifested to the world, in His Church; may His glory be fully manifested to His own, when at last they come to Him; may His love then be perfected in them (John 17:25-26).
For these reasons, at least, it is well that Christ's people remain for a season in this wicked world.
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