When Jesus prayed for his disciples in John 17, he made a point of saying that they are “not of this world”. If we call ourselves Christians, we should also be of the mindset that we’re just visiting here on earth. This is not our permanent home. In John 17 verses 14 and 15, Jesus says:
“I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one.”
If we are truly not of this world, we should probably act like it. If you’re visiting someplace, you won’t let yourself get too comfortable because you realize that at some point you will be returning home. In fact, Jesus tells us that when we are here on earth, we are in hostile territory. He tells us that the world hates us and he prays that God will protect us from the evil one. So, as a fellow brother in Christ, I encourage you to remember where you came from, or more accurately, where you’ll be returning to. We need to take on the likeness and characteristics of our Father so that when we return, he’ll have no trouble recognizing us and we’ll have no trouble settling into our real home with our eternal family.
---
Jesus prayed for his disciples, saying that they are not of the world any more than he is of the world. And like the disciples, if we are not of this world, we should act like it. If we truly follow the ways of Jesus, we will not be accepted because as Jesus puts it, the world hates us. The world can be alluring to our flesh, or our sin-nature. Even still, we should always remember who we belong to; that this world is temporary, and that we will some day return home. That should give us a bit of added strength and incentive to act as foreigners on this earth. After all, if Jesus prays for us like he prayed for his disciples, we know that even though he is not praying for God to take us out of the world, he is praying that God protect us from the evil one.
