“I have given them Your Word, and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. I do not request that You would take them out of the world, but that You would keep them out of its evil. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them (set them apart from the world) through Your truth: Your Word is truth.” – John 17:14-17
There is strong, rational order to Jesus’ prayer. Jesus said we are “sanctified” by God’s truth. Sanctified means “set apart” to God from the evils of this world. God’s Word gives us FACTS – eternal, unchanging truths from Heaven - setting us free from deceptions, error, and naivety on earth.
It is by hearing and understanding these “facts” from God’s Word that FAITH is produced… “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God” (Romans 10:17). Faith is the conviction that God is true. So FACTS lead to FAITH, and FAITH leads to proper FEELINGS because we have an anchor for our souls…
“Because it is impossible for God to lie (facts), we have strong consolation who have fled for refuge to lay hold on the hope set before (faith): which hope we have as an anchor of the soul (psyche – mind, heart, emotions, and attitudes), both secure and steadfast, which enters into that place within the veil (Heaven), where the Forerunner (Jesus) has entered for us…” (Hebrews 6:18,19).
Facts, faith, feelings – in that order, anchored in our risen Christ; grafted eternally to Him by His Spirit. We can’t get any safer than this, no matter how the world rages around us. The first armor of the Believer against this devil-usurped world is truth.
Stand firm. Maranatha.
Comments