What does the Bible *really* say about... Living in the world (and not of it) pt 1

We will start with the horse's mouth:

John 17

When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, 2 since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. 3 And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. 4 I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. 5 And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.

• This has been included as context. This conversation with God is in the Garden of Gethsemane before Judas and the mob arrive.

6 “I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. 7 Now they know that everything that you have given me is from you. 8 For I have given them the words that you gave me, and they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me. 

9 I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours. 10 All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them. 

11 And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one. 12 While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. 

13 But now I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves. 14 I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 15 I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one.[a] 16 They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 17 Sanctify them[b] in the truth; your word is truth. 18 As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. 19 And for their sake I consecrate myself,[c] that they also may be sanctified[d] in truth.

• What gift was given to the apostles that resulted in the world hating them?

• Is it reasonable to draw the connection that this passage indicates that the gift of God’s Word is a-if-not-the direct cause of their being no longer of the world? Why or why not?

• What is a direct measure we can take from verse 14 of whether we are “of the world” or not? 

• Can you give an example of what it would look like in your life/current culture for the world to hate you because you are not of the world? What doesn’t it look like?

• In verse 15, what distinction does Jesus make from being removed from the world vs being in the world but not of it?

• The level of transformation indicated in verses 16-18 is more extreme than people typically comprehend in a casual reading. Jesus’s expectation is that through sanctification in the truth, we can/will become so like him that he can literally see our dispatch into the world as the same as His being sent here. What are the potential implications of this? How do you feel knowing that that degree of transformation is not only possible, but Jesus’s expected outcome of our sanctification?

20 “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, 21 that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, 23 I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me. 

• Take in and consider the excitement and hope in Jesus’s words here. Jesus’s prayer is that those who believe in Him would be so unified that they would be as fused as the Holy Trinity is! What might that level of true unification look like for believers as a body?

• Have you ever seen a small-scale glimpse of this kind of unity? Share what you have witnessed.

• Verse 23 takes it a step further, Jesus looping in the unified body of believers to the flawless unification of the Trinity. Our holiness in the world would be so impossible to hide He calls it perfection, and specifies that it is that perfection that would give irrefutable evidence of the Gospel message and God’s love for humanity. Discuss what it would look like in practicality for the line to be so obvious between our perfect unification with each other and with the Trinity that it would not only set us apart but give testament to the God the Father’s love for us and for Jesus, and for the world.

• What steps could we take to contribute to the unity of the body of Christ, here and now and in the near future?

John 17

When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, 2 since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. 3 And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. 4 I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. 5 And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.

• This has been included as context. This conversation with God is in the Garden of Gathsemene before Judas and the mob arrive.

6 “I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. 7 Now they know that everything that you have given me is from you. 8 For I have given them the words that you gave me, and they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me. 

9 I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours. 10 All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them. 

11 And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one. 12 While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. 

13 But now I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves. 14 I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 15 I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one.[a] 16 They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 17 Sanctify them[b] in the truth; your word is truth. 18 As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. 19 And for their sake I consecrate myself,[c] that they also may be sanctified[d] in truth.

• What gift was given to the apostles that resulted in the world hating them?

• Is it reasonable to draw the connection that this passage indicates that the gift of God’s Word is a-if-not-the direct cause of their being no longer of the world? Why or why not?

• What is a direct measure we can take from verse 14 of whether we are “of the world” or not? 

• Can you give an example of what it would look like in your life/current culture for the world to hate you because you are not of the world? What doesn’t it look like?

• In verse 15, what distinction does Jesus make from being removed from the world vs being in the world but not of it?

• The level of transformation indicated in verses 16-18 is more extreme than people typically comprehend in a casual reading. Jesus’s expectation is that through sanctification in the truth, we can/will become so like him that he can literally see our dispatch into the world as the same as His being sent here. What are the potential implications of this? How do you feel knowing that that degree of transformation is not only possible, but Jesus’s expected outcome of our sanctification?

20 “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, 21 that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, 23 I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me. 

• Take in and consider the excitement and hope in Jesus’s words here. Jesus’s prayer is that those who believe in Him would be so unified that they would be as fused as the Holy Trinity is! What might that level of true unification look like for believers as a body?

• Have you ever seen a small-scale glimpse of this kind of unity? Share what you have witnessed.

• Verse 23 takes it a step further, Jesus looping in the unified body of believers to the flawless unification of the Trinity. Our holiness in the world would be so impossible to hide He calls it perfection, and specifies that it is that perfection that would give irrefutable evidence of the Gospel message and God’s love for humanity. Discuss what it would look like in practicality for the line to be so obvious between our perfect unification with each other and with the Trinity that it would not only set us apart but give testament to the God the Father’s love for us and for Jesus, and for the world.