DELIVER US FROM EVIL
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Opening Prayer
Father, use the truth of your Word to sanctify me and make me better able to serve you.
Read JOHN 17:6–19
For additional translations of the passage, use this link to Bible Gateway.
Jesus Prays for His Disciples
6 “I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word. 7 Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you. 8 For I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me. 9 I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours. 10 All I have is yours, and all you have is mine. And glory has come to me through them. 11 I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name, the name you gave me, so that they may be one as we are one. 12 While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe by that name you gave me. None has been lost except the one doomed to destruction so that Scripture would be fulfilled.
13 “I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them. 14 I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. 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. 17 Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. 18 As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. 19 For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified.
Reflect
‘It is well with my soul.’1 Whatever strains you are under at the moment, allow yourself to take in this simple truth.
As a child, I used to play tag with my friends. If you were caught, you were ‘it’—but not if you shouted ‘barley’ first. That was the magic word that kept you safe. It may be tempting to view God’s name as a form of protection in a similar way. In this prayer for his disciples, Jesus asks the Father to protect them ‘by the power of your name, the name you gave me’ (v. 11). Is God’s name some kind of talisman? If not, what does it mean for God to ‘protect [us] from the evil one’ by his name (v. 15)?
First, it’s important to appreciate that a ‘name’ in ancient thought is not simply a label but stands for the whole person.2 God’s name means who God is. It’s extraordinary, therefore, that Jesus talks of this being the name the Father gave him and that they are ‘one’ (v. 11). The Father has shared everything with the Son, down to his very self. Jesus says that he has kept the disciples safe ‘by that name you gave me’ (v. 12). The full being of God that he has shared with Jesus is their guard.
Second, God’s protection means more than preventing bodily harm. Many of the disciples experienced persecution and martyrdom: Jesus has already referred to a time when they will be put out of the synagogue and killed.3 What is much more important than their physical safety is the relationship of love and trust they enjoy with the Lord, which extends beyond death. The Father’s protection has a purpose. It is not to preserve the disciples’ individual lives; it is ‘so that they may be one as we are one’ (v. 11). This is what the ‘evil one’ seeks to destroy.
Apply
Meditate on these words: ‘Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me, Christ in me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me, Christ on my right, Christ on my left.’4
Closing prayer
Holy Spirit, help me to manifest the power of Jesus’ name as I relate to this world around me. Enable me to grow in grace and help me to be used for his glory.
1 ‘When Peace, Like a River’, Horatio G Spafford, 1873. 2 Morris, 88. 3 John 16:2. 4 St Patrick’s Breastplate.
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