Loved, but Set Apart

Living in the tension of the part from the whole.

There’s a tension in Jesus’ words that’s hard to ignore.

In John 3:16, we hear what might be the most well-known verse in all of Scripture—“For God so loved the world…” But here, in John 17:9, Jesus says something that seems almost contradictory: “I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me.”

So which is it? Does God love the world, or does Jesus refuse to pray for it?

The tension here isn’t an accident. It’s a paradox we are meant to live in.

The love of God is what drives the whole story of Scripture—creation, covenant, incarnation, crucifixion, resurrection, and redemption. God loves the world, not in an abstract way, but in a way that led Jesus to take on flesh and suffer at the hands of that same world.

And yet, there’s a reason Jesus makes a distinction.

Jesus is about to send his disciples into the world. They are not separate from it, but they are not of it (we’ll see this tomorrow in John 17:14-16). They have been set apart, not in the sense of being distant, but in being different.

This is why Jesus prays specifically for them. Not because the world is beyond God’s love, but because so much of the world, as it is, stands in opposition to God. And that means his followers will face resistance.

Maybe the Church has often struggled with this tension because it’s easier to collapse into one side or the other.

Some have overemphasized God’s love for the world to the point that they’ve forgotten we are called to be set apart—that following Jesus requires a different way of life, one that won’t always make sense to the world around us.

Others have overemphasized being set apart from the world, turning separation into isolation or even hostility, forgetting that God’s love is still reaching out, still calling, still drawing people in.

But Jesus refuses to let us pick just one side.

God so loved the world. AND Jesus prays for those who have been called out from the world.

Both are true. And we live right in the middle of that tension.

Our calling is not to retreat from the world, nor to embrace it as it is when it opposes God. Our calling is to remain in Christ—the one who loves the world enough to die for it, yet calls his people to be transformed within it.

John 17:1-9

When Jesus finished saying these things, he looked up to heaven and said, “Father, the time has come. Glorify your Son, so that the Son can glorify you. You gave him authority over everyone so that he could give eternal life to everyone you gave him. This is eternal life: to know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you sent. I have glorified you on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do. Now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I shared with you before the world was created.

“I have revealed your name to the people you gave me from this world. They were yours and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you. This is because I gave them the words that you gave me, and they received them. They truly understood that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me.

“I’m praying for them. I’m not praying for the world but for those you gave me, because they are yours.

Psalm 67:1-2

Let God grant us grace and bless us; let God make his face shine on us, Selah
so that your way becomes known on earth, so that your salvation becomes known among all the nations.

Prayer

God,

There is much tension all around. Honestly, I don’t feel at home in any of the poles. The sides seem unChristlike. I’m not just trying to avoid both sides. My faith and understanding of Jesus truly repels me from the dichotomies. Help me where I’m wrong.

Help me in the midst of it all to do all I can to point to Jesus. Remind me that my pointing is best seen in how I love, treat, and care for those around me, neighbor and stranger alike. Indeed, melt those I see as strangers into neighbors into family.

Yet there seems to be so much. Lord, help me to not get lost in massiveness of the forest and miss the trees right in front of and beside me. Forget the image…just make me to notice my neighbors.

By your spirit & in Christ,
Amen.