Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Sacred & Sent

These two verses are right next to each other in John 17, Jesus' prayer for His followers:

"Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. As you have sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world."

Sanctify means to make sacred or holy. If you think about the sacred or holy objects in the world, we tend to hide them away from public view, or put them under glass, or somehow protect them. Jesus is asking His Father to do exactly the opposite: make His followers sacred through your truth, then send them out into the world.

In other words, God has made His followers special through truth & holiness - but then we are to be "totally out there", not worrying about our self-protection, reaching those who are not yet followers of His. God protects His people (see the preceding verse, John 17:15), but not by taking them out of the world.

You and I are sacred and sent - do we act so?

No comments: