John 17:14

I hath given them Thy Word, and the world hath hated them.

The believer’s position in the world

It was one distinguished by

I. SPIRITUAL PRIVILEGE. “I hath given them Thy Word.”

1. These terms are comprehensive of the revelation of Divine grace and truth as a whole, which Christ Jesus taught as they were able to bear it. Who at this time, in the whole world, knew the Word of God as did these Galilean fishermen?

2. To receive the Word of God

(1) As a personal possession;

(2) as a sacred deposit in trust for the whole world; and

(3) from Him who was the Revealer of God and the Redeemer of men was the highest privilege.

3. And since with every privilege responsibility is involved, these disciples were invested with a trust which required them to be kept with Divine power. All disciples now, in a sense, share in this privilege and responsibility.

II. MORAL SEPARATION.

1. They were not of the world

(1) In their character, for the world is ever presented as having a character opposed to God. Self, not God, is its foundation; it seeks the present rather than the future, walks by sight rather than by faith, glories in the human rather than in the Divine, holds by the carnal rather than the spiritual. In this respect the disciples were no longer of the world.

(2) In their condition. The world, as such, was lying in wickedness and under condemnation. The children of disobedience are declared to be the children of wrath, and the friendship of the world is enmity with God.

2. This separation exposed them to social persecution--“The world hath hated them,” &c. The only world of which they knew anything by experience as yet was their own country, and it hated them. And if this was their experience up to now how signally in a wider sphere did it come to be so afterwards (1 Corinthians 4:13). The Saviour’s spotless purity rebuked the looseness of the age, His benevolence its selfishness, His piety its worldliness. Therefore it hated Him, and the disciples shared in the hostility which was heaped upon the Master.

3. Christ was the model of this separation. “Even as I am not of the world.” Jesus had not come out of the world as His disciples had done, for He was never of it, as they were. He was not of the world, although He came to the world, lived in the world, mixed with the men of the world, and in the scenes of the world, He was holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners, and His disciples accepted His principles, and gradually became assimilated to His character. To be like Christ, and to be “unspotted from the world “is the only true and abiding glory of human character. What does the world care for saints? It has not a good opinion of them, nor a good word for them; its spirit is entirely opposed to them, and it is not slow to call them fools. (J. Spence, D. D.)

Christians not of the world

Let us

I. EXPLAIN AND ESTABLISH THE TRUTH OF THE ASSERTION. Christians are not of the world

1. Because they are not attached to its party.

(1) In many cases it is lawful to associate with the people of the world. Such are cases of necessity--when we are compelled by our situations to live among them; cases of business, charity, and piety, civility, and affinity.

(2) But further than this a Christian will not go. He cannot choose and affinity.

(2) But further than this a Christian will not go. He cannot choose the people of the world as his companions and friends.

(a) The authority of God forbids it. “Come out from among them and ye separate,” &c.

(b) The peace of his fellow Christians. Such bold intimacies with the world would grieve the strong, and throw a stumbling-block in the way of the weak.

(c) The welfare of his own soul. “Can a man take fire in his bosom and not be burned?” My young friends, beware of wicked company! Cultivate no friendships that will end in everlasting ruin.

2. They are not actuated by the spirit of the world. Everything else is vain without this. Your forsaking the world in profession, your leaving it in appearance, by your apparel, your discourse, your manner of life, is nothing unless it be animated by internal principle. And when the heart is detached from the world, these two advantages flow from it:

(1) Even in the midst of all your secular concerns you will maintain your distinction. Though in the world, you will not be of it, because the heart is elsewhere, and God looketh to the heart.

(2) When the heart is withdrawn from the world, everything else will follow of course.

(a) Then you will not be governed by the maxims and opinions of the world. You will not ask what are the sentiments of the multitude, but what says the Scripture?

(b) You will not be attached to its amusements and dissipations. The sun arising conceals the stars--not by spreading gloom, but by diffusing lustre. It is a poor thing to be dragged out of the dissipations of the world, against inclination, while we still look back with Lot’s wife. But it is a glorious thing to leave these diversions from the discovery and possession of superior entertainment and sublimer joys.

(c) You will not be led by the conversation of the world; for speech is governed by affection; “and out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.”

3. They are not natives of the world. Our Lord said to the Jews, “Ye are from beneath, I am from above; ye are of this world, I am not of this world.” Now the believer may adopt the same language. He is here only as “a stranger, and a foreigner,” not a native; he derives his being from heaven. And as he is born from above, no wonder that he “seeks those things which are above.”

4. They do not choose their portion here. Hence the Christian learns in whatsoever state he is, therewith to be content. This never can be the case with the man who makes the world his portion. A Christian feels worldly trials, but he is not miserable. He is thankful for temporal indulgencies, but he is not exalted above measure.

II. WHAT DOES THIS TRUTH TEACH US?

1. It enables us easily to account for the world’s persecution of real Christians. They are not willing indeed to acknowledge what our Lord alleges as the cause of their hatred. “It is not for your holiness we condemn you, but for your pride, your censoriousness, your hypocrisy.” But how is it that the most holy and zealous Christians have been the most obnoxious to the men of the world? And a much stronger case: how was it that the Lord was more abhorred than His followers? Was He proud, censorious, false? And what our Saviour said to the Jews will apply to many Christians--falsely so called now--“The world cannot hate you”--you are somuch like it--“but Me”--Me “it hateth because I testify of it that the works thereof are evil.” Bear the same decisive testimony by your words and actions, and be assured a portion of the same rancour will follow. The case is plain. Resemblance is a ground of affection; but unsuitableness, of dislike. “Hence,” say the Apostle, “all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution” of one kind or another. It began early. Cain slew his brother Abel; “and wherefore slew he him”? It prevailed also in the family of Abraham; “and as it was then, so it is now; he that was born after the flesh persecuted Him that was born after the Spirit.” “Marvel not therefore,” says our Saviour, “if the world hate you.” Do not murmur; you suffer in the noblest company, and your enemies can neither hinder your present peace, nor destroy your future happiness.

2. If the distinguishing badge of a Christian is this--that he is “not of the world”--then are there few real Christians to be found. Judge yourselves by this test. Ask yourselves wherein you differ from the men of the world.

3. See how little we should be affected with the charge of preciseness and singularity. You would not be afraid of being peculiarly wise, or beautiful, or wealthy. Why then wish to escape the praise of being singular in religion? What wisdom, what beauty, what riches can be compared to this?

4. If Christians are not of the world, no wonder they are more than reconciled to a withdrawment from it. No wonder they love solitude and enter their closets. There they exchange the world for God. No wonder they prize the Sabbath--it is a day of retreat, it is an emblem of heavenly rest. No wonder if death be no longer formidable--it is leaving a vain, vexing, defiling world. (W. Jay.)