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by Bible League International

Verse of the Day and Devotion

“I am not asking you to take them out of the world. But I am asking that you keep them safe from the Evil One.” – John 17:15 ERV

Devotion

The world can be a dangerous place for Christians. The world created by God is fine and good. The Bible says, “God looked at everything he had made. And he saw that everything was very good.” (Genesis 1:31) But the world in so far as it has been infiltrated and twisted by Satan is not good at all. That’s the world that is dangerous for Christians. Speaking of the relationship between that world and His disciples, Jesus said, “And the world has hated them, because they don’t belong to the world, just as I don’t belong to the world.” (John 17:14)

If Jesus’ disciples don’t belong to that world, then why didn’t He ask the Father to take them out of it? Why not, to put it another way, take them from the world troubled by Satan to the better place in heaven above? Jesus himself gave the answer: “God sent his Son into the world. He did not send him to judge the world guilty, but to save the world through him.” (John 3:17) God loves the world He made and He’s not going to leave it the way it is. Through Jesus, He intends to save it. “Yes, God loved the world so much that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him would not be lost but have eternal life.” (John 3:16)

Although God through Jesus Christ is saving the world, He’s not saving Satan. Indeed, it’s just the opposite: “The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.” (I John 3:8) Even more, Jesus will come again to destroy the devil himself: “Then the devil . . . was thrown into the fiery lake of burning sulfur [where he will be] tormented day and night forever and ever.” (Revelation 20:10) God is ridding the good world He made of the nefarious and evil influence of Satan. God, in other words, is purifying the world.

Jesus didn’t ask the Father to take His disciples out of the world because they need to be in the world in order to spread the message of what God is doing for the world. All they need is to be kept safe from the Evil One until the day he is removed from the world.