THE BELIEVER, THE WORLD AND THE EVIL ONE!

We face a world system (κοσμος) filled with evil. Often - too often - we wish to escape the evil in this world system, but that is not God's will for us during this age. Jesus intends that we stay in the world so long as the world is not in us. Jesus prays, "I am not asking that you (Father) remove them from the world but that you might keep them from the evil (one)" (John 17:15).

Is it evil or the evil one? The articular adjective in the genitive case (του πονηρου) can be taken as either neuter or masculine in gender. Some take it as neuter indicating generic evil that rules this world system (Godet, John, p.896). The prayer is that we would be kept out of an evil domain. Others understand the adjective as masculine referring to the Evil One - the Devil (Meyer, John, p.467). We are not to be kept out of the evil domain but from the power of the Evil One even as we remain in his domain. This interpretation fits the context better.

We hear an echo from the Lord's Prayer (Mt. 6:13) where Jesus taught us to pray, "deliver us from the Evil One." The verb "deliver" (ρυσαι) is different, and the preposition "from" (απο) is different, but the sentiment is parallel. The distinction between prepositions is not significant in this case, and the better contextual interpretation is that Jesus is talking about the Evil One not evil generically in the Lord's Prayer (Bernard, John, 2:573).

The preposition "from" (εκ) frequently used in John 17 indicates separation from what once had power over us (Robertson, Grammar, p.598). The phrases "from the world" (εκ του κοσμου) and "from the Evil One" (εκ του πονηρου) are parallel in John 17:15. Jesus says that we are not removed (αρης) from the world, but we are separated from the Evil One who controls and dominates the world. John will later write that we have overcome the Evil One (1 John 2:14) who controls the world. "We know that we are of God, and that the whole world lies in (the power of) the Evil One" (εν τω πονηρω, 1 John 5:19).

Jesus prays that the Father might keep (τηρησης) us from the Evil One. The verb can mean to keep as in "not lose" but is probably better understood as to keep as in "protect" (BAGD, p.815). The expression is only found in one other place in the New Testament - Revelation 3:10 (Bernard, John, 2:573). We are kept from "the hour of testing which is about to come upon the whole world," John writes in the Apocalypse. Once again the preposition "from" (εκ) is not an expression of motion signifying that we are kept through a period of time. The preposition indicates an absolute keeping - a separation - from the hour of testing coming upon this world. In the same way, we are separated from the power of the Evil One by His protection. The Devil has no power over us!

Jesus asks the Father to protect us from the power of Satan even as He leaves us in the domain of Satan. If Jesus asks the Father for our protection, surely the Father agrees, so we are secure in His keeping that separates us from the power of the Evil One. All who are His are kept by His power!

PRAYER THAT FILLS US WITH JOY

Jesus prayed to be heard. His prayer in John 17 was not silent but audible. He prayed out loud as the disciples listened. His prayer was for their benefit demonstrating for us that audible prayer leads to joy for those who listen.

How do we know Jesus prayed out loud in John 17? He said, "These things I am speaking in this world in order that they might possess My joy having been filled up in them" (John 17:13). The verb translated "I am speaking" (λαλω from λαλεω) means to speak in contrast to staying silent. The word referred to the physical act of making sounds in contrast to the inability of a deaf and mute person to make sounds (cf. Mark 7:35; BAGD, p. 463). Jesus prayed out loud not for His benefit or God's, but for the benefit of the disciples who were listening (Meyer, John, 3:467).

"These things" (ταυτα) that Jesus is saying could refer to the entire discourse (John 13-16), but most likely refer to the prayer itself (John 17). The present tense of speaking (λαλω) implies that He is continuing to express "these things" not that He had said "these things" in the past. Jesus was making the following requests to the Father as the disciples listened to Him pray.

• Keep them in your name (v.11)
• That they may be one (v.11, 21)
• Keep them from the Evil One (v.15)
• Sanctify them in truth (v.17)
• That they may be perfected in unity (v.23)
• That they may be with Jesus and see His glory (v.24)

The purpose of Jesus' prayer was that (ινα) they, and we by extension (see v.20), might possess (εχωσιν) His joy (την χαραν την εμην). What is the joy Jesus wants us to enjoy? It is the joy that Jesus Himself possesses (John 15:11; 16:24). Jesus' joy is the joy of His heart drawn from the obedient communion with the Father. It is the joy of knowing for certain that no matter what happens we are being kept by the Father, protected in His care just as Jesus was kept by the Father (Godet, John, p. 895). Jesus knew this joy even as He faced the cross. We, too, can experience His joy in the certainty of God's loving care for us.

The joy has filled us and is continuing to fill us up. The verb is a perfect tense (πεπληρωμενην) indicating a past filling with abiding results. The passive participle tells us that God does the filling that we enjoy. We do not fill ourselves with His joy. He makes us full of joy no matter our circumstances in life.

The joy we experience - His joy - is found in ourselves (εν εαυτοις). This joy is a joy we experience in our inner conscious person (BAGD, p. 212). We have an inner joy that comes from hearing Jesus pray for God's loving care sheltering us in this world. Nothing can happen to us outside of God's work of keeping us which produces in us a deep joy in our inner person.

We can follow Jesus' example in prayer for each other. All too often our prayers revolve around our health and wealth. Perhaps if we heard others pray for us as Jesus prayed for us, we would be filled up with Jesus' joy in our inner being! Perhaps if we prayed more for the things Jesus prayed about, we would experience more of the joy Jesus enjoyed!

IN HIS CUSTODY

Jesus keeps all He receives. The pattern of protection Jesus demonstrated for His disciples is the pattern we can expect for ourselves. "While I was with them, I, myself, was keeping them in your name which you have given to me, and I guarded them, and no one out of them was lost except the son of lostness, that the Scripture might be fulfilled" (John 17:12).

The two verbs for protection used here are probably used synonymously (NIDNTT, 2:135), although there could be slightly different shades of meaning between the two. The first verb (ετηρουν) meant to keep watch over or preserve (BAGD, p. 814) while the second verb (εφυλαξα) meant to guard or defend (BAGD, p. 868). Both verbs could be used for prisoners under the custody of guards.

The first verb (ετηρουν) is an Imperfect tense indicating action in progress or repeated action. Jesus was keeping watch over the disciples until this moment of His prayer for them. The second verb (εφυλαξα) is an Aorist tense indicating a summation of His guardianship. They were in His custody, and He lost no one out of the group (ουδεις εξ αυτων).

The exception (ει μη) was Judas. Jesus describes him as the "son of destruction" (ο υιος της απωλειας), an expression drawn from the Hebrew (Semitic) style of writing. The play on words with the previous verb (απωλετο) is hard to bring out in an English translation. Both words come from the same root meaning to ruin or destroy, and Jewish literature associated the word with the destruction of the world at the end of the age (NIDNTT, 1:463). The verb carries a sense of lostness and is used for the lost sheep and the lost coin in Jesus' parables (Luke 15:4, 8). People without God are lost. Lostness is the condition of their souls (NIDNTT, 1:464).

Judas and the "man of lawlessness" (2 Thess. 2:3) are both described as sons of destruction. It is a Semitic idiom like "sons of light" or "sons of darkness." The noun "son" (υιος) followed by the genitive expresses a quality or characteristic (Turner, Grammar, 3:207), not a prediction. Jesus stresses that lostness characterizes the condition of Judas more than He stresses lostness as the destiny of Judas (Morris, John, p. 728). A lost condition will eventually lead to a lost destiny. He is a ruined soul whose end is destruction apart from repentance. Judas is responsible for his choices, but those choices exhibit his characteristic condition as the son of lostness.

Jesus keeps us in His custody. We are "sons of God (υιοι θεου) being sons of the resurrection" (Luke 20:36). We are not sons of lostness just as the disciples were not! We are children (τεκνα) of God (John 1:12). Jesus holds His children in His custody forever. He will not lose a single one!