John 17:15

John 17:15. I ask not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them out of the evil one. The disciples are in the world, and Jesus cannot yet pray that they may be taken out of it, for it is the very purpose of the Father that they shall be left in it to carry on His work. What He does pray for is, that, as their work and His will be identical, so also their preservation may be identical, with His own. The element distinguishing His preservation had been that mentioned in chap. John 14:30, a total separation between the prince of this world and Him. The same complete separation He would now have for them, not merely that they may be delivered from attacks of the evil one, but also that they may be kept ‘out of' him, may have no fellowship with him, no weakening of their testimony by yielding to him, but may be single, pure, and faithful to the last as He had been. The expression ‘to be kept out of the evil one' may surprise the reader until he re members that in 1 John 5:19-20 the Apostle really speaks of the world as lying in the evil one. The teaching of this Gospel and of the whole New Testament is that there are two spheres in which man may live, that of the world and its prince, and that of ‘Jesus Christ.' (Compare the many passages which speak of the Christian as ‘ in Christ.') Our prayer ought to be, not that we may be kept ‘from ' the one, but that we may be kept ‘out of' the one and ‘in ' the other.