15 My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. 16 They are not of the world, even as I am not of it.
I am reminded of a verse contained in the Lord’s great example of prayer when giving a response to His disciple’s query regarding that subject:
13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. Matt 6:13 (NIV)
Jesus does not desire the believer’s removal from evil and its certain disheartening effects of pain, labor and sorrow. He prays rather for the believer’s protection through it in our verse for today and delivery from it in the verse from Matthew above. Scripture attests to both of these in the lives of the saints. It is a damaging lie from the pit of hell that believer’s in Christ will not suffer in this world. While it is a very appealing notion to believe, it will always come back to bite you quite simply because it is not Truth. In fact, Scripture states the exact opposite – not once but over and over again. The most obvious example being our Lord Jesus – adored and loved Son of God - yet was allowed to suffer greater than any. Indeed, that was the very reason for which He came. Hence we see in our verses for today and the verse in Matthew Jesus praying for both the believer’s protection and the believer’s deliverance while their feet walk this earth.
“The only priority that drives the Master of the vineyard is to bring us to fruitfulness. He will do whatever it takes to make that happen.” Wayne Jacobsen
Protection implies our Lord being with us through our trials and suffering as followers of Christ are most assuredly preserved in the Beloved – Jesus is our security, our constancy and our safe-keeping defense. Scripture also tells us His own are “perfected by suffering”. Satan may destroy the believer’s body but he can never destroy the believer’s soul - praise Jesus! The account of the first Christian martyr Stephen comes to mind and his “safe-keeping” within the stoning:
15 All who were sitting in the Sanhedrin looked intently at Stephen, and they saw that his face was like the face of an angel. Acts 6:15 (NIV)
54 When they heard this, they were furious and gnashed their teeth at him. 55 But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. 56 "Look," he said, "I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God." 57 At this they covered their ears and, yelling at the top of their voices, they all rushed at him, 58 dragged him out of the city and began to stone him. Meanwhile, the witnesses laid their clothes at the feet of a young man named Saul. Acts 7:54-58 (NIV)
Indeed, they took his body by rocks but on his spirit, no stone was laid. Stephen enters heaven with the face of an angel greeted by Jesus standing on His feet to welcome him home. Certainly no more pain, labor or sorrow for him. Stephen would remain forever in the presence of the Lord.
Delivery implies yet another meaning. Sometimes the Lord chooses to snatch us from evil or drag us away from its grasp. A wonderful example of this found in Scripture shows Peter miraculously freed from prison as an answer to the church’s fervent prayers. We find the story related in Acts:
5 So Peter was kept in prison, but the church was earnestly praying to God for him. 6 The night before Herod was to bring him to trial, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains, and sentries stood guard at the entrance. 7 Suddenly an angel of the Lord appeared and a light shone in the cell. He struck Peter on the side and woke him up. "Quick, get up!" he said, and the chains fell off Peter's wrists. 8 Then the angel said to him, "Put on your clothes and sandals." And Peter did so. "Wrap your cloak around you and follow me," the angel told him. 9 Peter followed him out of the prison, but he had no idea that what the angel was doing was really happening; he thought he was seeing a vision. 10 They passed the first and second guards and came to the iron gate leading to the city. It opened for them by itself, and they went through it. When they had walked the length of one street, suddenly the angel left him. 11 Then Peter came to himself and said, "Now I know without a doubt that the Lord sent his angel and rescued me from Herod's clutches and from everything the Jewish people were anticipating." Acts 12:5-11 (NIV)
Go had miraculously delivered Peter from the hands of Herod and the Jews rescuing him from their clutches. God had quite literally snatched Peter from evil and drug him away by the angels grasp. The outreach of the Gospel was growing and no opposition would be able to thwart God’s hand – no opposition is ever able to.
10 I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say: My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please. Isaiah 46:10 (NIV)
“On Him then reckon, to Him look, on Him depend: and be assured that if you walk with Him, look to Him and expect help from Him, He will never fail you. An older brother, who has known the Lord for forty-four years, who writes this, says for your encouragement that He has never failed him. In the greatest difficulties, in the heaviest trials, in the deepest poverty and necessities, He has never failed me; but because I was enabled by His grace to trust in Him, He has always appeared for my help. I delight in speaking well of His Name.” George Mueller