Through The Bible in a Year - July 30, 2026

“I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.” - John 17:15-16

Jesus had every opportunity and many reasons to pray that God would take His disciples out of the world. They were about to face intense persecution. They would be cast out of synagogues. Some would be killed by religious people who believed they were serving God by doing so. The world would hate them.

Yet, Jesus did not pray, “Father, take them out of this dangerous world.”

He prayed, “Keep them from the evil one.”

Jesus prayed that his disciples would be in the world but not be overwhelmed by its evil. This is the old Puritan Dilemma: our calling to live in the world, without losing our testimony—to be in the world but not of it. The questions that dilemma always poses are: “How do you live in the soup of a sinful world without the soup soaking into you? How do you remain a witness for Christ in the world without becoming indistinguishable from it?”

Jesus doesn’t try to solve the dilemma by removing His disciples from the world. Rather, He sends them deeper into it challenges—promising his instruction and presence to make them different even as they remain engaged in his mission.

The current realities of the dilemma Jesus commissions His disciples to face remain sobering. The statisticians tell us that those who identify as born-again Christians differ very little from the surrounding culture in divorce rates, entertainments, work practices, moral choices, wealth priorities, and more.

Few Christians can deny that we have been in the soup—and some of it has soaked into us.

That confession always tempts us to run in one of two unhealthy directions: either we retreat into a Christian huddle, isolating ourselves from difficult people and a hostile culture – neglecting Christ’s mission; or, we conform so completely to the world around us that there’s nothing left to distinguish us—forgetting Christ’s example. Both are failures of the calling Jesus describes here.

Abraham Kuyper powerfully described the claim Christ has upon our world and our lives: “There is not one square inch of the world over which Jesus does not stand and say, ‘This is mine.’” That means the places that where a testimony is hard and the culture is hostile are places where Christ’s disciples are called to live in transforming faithfulness.

Respond: In which direction is the world’s evil  pulling you—toward retreat or toward conformity? Are you insulating yourself from the world in ways that protect your comfort but eliminate your witness? Or have you soaked in the culture so completely that nothing distinguishes your life from those around you?

Jesus is not asking you to choose between safety and conformity. He prays for you, as he prayed for his disciples, that the Father would protect you enough to fulfill his purposes as you stay engaged in the world for Christ’s sake.

This week, it may help you to identify one place or person from which you have been retreating, rather than using opportunities to make Jesus known. And, it will almost certainly be helpful to identify where you have been conforming to the world, but where Jesus is now calling you to live differently.

Prayer: Heavenly Father, Your Son didn’t pray for You to disengage your disciples from the world—but to keep them from the influences of the evil one in that world. Forgive me for retreating into safety when You’ve called me to be a faithful presence in difficult places, and for conforming to worldly priorities when You’ve called me to be different. Keep me from the evil one as I go. Let my life in the world—the places I work, the relationships I have, the neighborhood I live in—carry the mark of someone who belongs to You. In Jesus’ name, Amen.