Why Are We Left in the world?

Lesson #283

In the last lesson Jesus told his Father that he had given the disciples his word and as a result the world hated them because they were not of the world. Jesus continues his prayer by saying: “I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one” (John 17:15 ESV). As a result of teaching in an underground seminary in China and personally spending time with students there, some of whom had parents in prison because of their Christian activities, and by going to VOM conferences on persecution, and by studying considerable material on persecution, I have come to an understanding on this verse that is different than many western Christians will readily accept.

Even though the world hates true practicing Christians living out the word, Jesus does not ask his Father to remove them out of the world and thus away from danger. It would be nice that as soon as we are born again that we would be transported to heaven; at least we initially think it would be nice because we would sure miss many trials and much suffering. But if we stop and get the focus off our desire for comfort and focus on why Jesus came to earth, we would soon realize the importance of us staying in the world. We will consider what I consider two major reasons; spiritual maturity and assigned work.

When we are born again, we are spiritual babies with an important need to mature. This spiritual growth is mentioned in Hebrews 5:12 – 13 (ESV): “For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child.” and in 1 Corinthians 3:2 (ESV): “I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And even now you are not yet ready.” We begin our spiritual life as children and the Father needs time to train us, to prepare us for life with him and his Son in heaven. This training, growing period, is referred to as working out our salvation with fear and trembling (Philippians 2:12). But in addition to maturing spiritually, we are to complete the work assigned to us: “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” (Ephesians 2:10 ESV).

The Son of God came into the world and took on a body of human flesh, who we know as Jesus, to live a perfect life and then die on the cross as our perfect sacrifice in payment for our salvation. But that is not all he did. While living on earth he chose his disciples and taught them about himself and his Father and the gospel of salvation and their responsibility to share it with others and on into the future until every person the Father had chosen for salvation was found and helped on their way to being born again. There are many Christians living under persecution who are giving their lives to accomplish this work. Here in the west we stand opposed to what Jesus is praying in principle and stress the importance of removing Christians from danger. Do not forget that we are engaged in a spiritual battle and in any war there will be casualties.  You cannot continue to retreat from areas of danger and expect to advance into the domain of darkness in search of loss sheep. Is it any wonder the church is growing where Christians remain engaged and not growing in areas where our safety is more important? That is why I was willing to be smuggled, under darkness, into the school in China to teach.

We still need to cover the phrase “keep them from the evil one”, but there is too much to say about it to include here. We will finish this verse in the next lesson.

Prayer

Father, I pray for my brothers and sisters who are willing to suffer for their faith as Jesus suffered. I pray for their encouragement during their suffering; for endurance to be able to stand against evil; and for steadfastness to be able to withstand the temptation to turn from the Lord and deny their faith. In areas of persecution, Christianity sets people apart from the world and are seen as a threat. Unfortunately, here in the west Christianity does not set us apart from the world and we are not seen as a threat and thus we are not persecuted. Here we must decide to live different than the world and that seems to be more difficult to do than stand against persecution. Father, it appears that the devil may have gained the upper hand here in the west.