John 17:17-18 “Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. As you have sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sakes, I sanctify myself, so that they also may be sanctified in truth.” Today's episode looks at the Enduring Word Bible commentary for this verse. It explains why Jesus prayed for our sanctification. It explains our mission in the world and why Jesus sent us out. Music:"Adding the Sun" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Sanctify Them In The Truth
John 17:17-18 “Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. As you have sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sakes, I sanctify myself, so that they also may be sanctified in truth.”
The beginning part of this was the verse of the day today. I liked this verse because it talks about sanctifying them with the Lord’s truth. I wasn’t exactly sure what this verse meant, so I turned to the “Enduring Word Bible Commentary.” I always learn a lot when I look to the people who write Bible commentary for more information.
The verse above starts with, “Sanctify them in the truth.” Sanctify means to be set apart for God’s special pleasure and use. It implies holiness, being set apart from the corruption of the world and for God’s use. We have all been set apart from this world. Yes, we are all meant to live in this world, but we are not meant to be of this world. I know that probably just sounds like fancy rhetoric that you hear people say but don’t really know what it means. What it means is that although we are living in the world, we must not conform to its ways.
The world’s view and the Lord’s view are very different, and we must be careful not to get lazy and just start believing what the world believes. It can be hard not to fall into the trap of believing what the world believes because what the world believes is so much in our faces. We are surrounded by it. They try to convince us that the things they are doing are not as bad as we think they are. The world will try to normalize all the things that the Lord says we should not be doing.
The world tells us that it’s ok to tell “little white lies” because they really aren’t hurting anyone. The world tells us that it is ok to take what is ours, even if it doesn’t technically belong to us. The world tells us so many things that just aren’t true. Yet their justification seems to make sense to us. This is why I said earlier that we have to be careful not to get lazy and just start believing what the world believes. It takes work to examine their reasoning and their justification and see right through it.
Another thing that just came to mind is that we need to know why God says what He says. We need to know why the church says what it says. Before I started learning more about my Catholic faith, I would have people ask me why I believed what I believed, and they would quote scripture to me and tell me why I was wrong or why the Catholic Church was wrong. Their arguments seemed to make sense, and I would start to question what I believed. This is when I started learning all I could about my beliefs and why the Church teaches what it teaches. I learned so much, and I began to realize that most of the things that my friends were saying about the Catholic Church were not actually true. They had issues with what they thought we believed or what they thought we were doing, but that wasn’t what we believed or what we were doing.
One instance is when they asked why we worship Mary or the Saints. We don’t do either of these things. We definitely give Mary the respect she is owed as Mother of our Lord and Savior, but we don’t worship her. We also don’t worship the saints. We do talk with the Saints, and we do ask them to bring our requests to the Lord, but this is no different than when anyone would ask you to pray for their family. We aren’t asking the Saint to fix our situation; we are asking them to bring out a request to the Lord. The more people praying for our situation, the better!
Back to the verse. Jesus didn’t just leave the disciples to sanctify themselves. He prayed for their sanctification. This process is not left to us alone; it is a work of God in us and through us. Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth: The dynamic behind sanctification is truth. The word of God is read, heard, understood, and applied. “Sanctification is not effected apart from divine revelation.” (Morris) “The more truth you believe, the more sanctified you will be. The operation of truth upon the mind is to separate a man from the world unto the service of God.” (Spurgeon)
The verse goes on to say, “As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world.”Jesus gave us a mission to go out into the world. The reason Jesus asked for our sanctification was not primarily for personal holiness, although that is included, more so being set apart for God’s service and mission. “He does not merely leave them in the world, but sends them into it, to witness to this same truth of God.” (Alford) “The word ‘mission’ comes from the Latin verb mitto, mittere, misi, missum, which means ‘to send’ or ‘dispatch.’ A mission is a sending forth.” (Boice) Jesus gave us each a mission, and we need to start living out this mission. “Christ was the great Missionary, the Messiah, the Sent One; we are the minor missionaries, Sent out into the world to accomplish the Father’s will and purpose.” (Spurgeon) “Christ’s commission is on a higher scale than ours; for he was sent to be a propitiation and covenant-head, and so came into positions which it would be presumption for us to dream of occupying. Still, there is a likeness, though it is only that of a drop to the sea.” (Spurgeon)
Think of how Jesus came, and connect it to the way that He sends us into the world:
· Jesus did not come as a philosopher like Plato or Aristotle, though He knew higher philosophy than them all.
· Jesus did not come as an inventor or a discoverer, though He could have invented new things and discovered new lands.
· Jesus did not come as a conqueror, though He was mightier than Alexander or Caesar.
· Jesus came to teach.
· Jesus came to live among us.
· Jesus came to suffer for truth and righteousness.
· Jesus came to rescue men.
The verse then says, “And for their sakes I sanctify Myself:” One should not think that Jesus was unsanctified up to this point. Yet now He was about to enter a new aspect of being set aside for God the Father and His purpose: to complete the work of the cross. It was through that finished work that the word of God and the work of God would become fully effective in the lives of the disciples (that they also may be sanctified by the truth).
Christ died on the cross for us. He gave His life for us, and now we are called to go out and complete his mission. We are called to spread the truth of the Bible to all those we meet.
Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today. Jesus, we love you, and we thank you for walking the Earth and showing us how to live. We thank you for showing us how to complete the mission you have given us. We thank you for sanctifying us and for not leaving us alone to do your mission but for sending the Holy Spirit to be with us as we go out into the world. We ask that you continue to be with us always and you continue to lead us on our mission. We ask this in Jesus’s holy name, Amen!
Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. I look forward to meeting you here again tomorrow. If you enjoy this podcast and these teachings and think you want more, I invite you to check out my mentoring program. This month’s theme is “Be Not Afraid.” Who doesn’t need to learn more ways to trust the Lord and have less worry in their lives? I hope you will join me tomorrow night for week #3 of our “Be Not Afraid” Series. Remember, Jesus loves you, and so do I! Have a blessed day.
Today’s Word from the Lord was received in May 2024 by a member of my Catholic Charismatic Prayer Group. If you have any questions about the prayer group, these words, or how to join us for a meeting please email CatholicCharismaticPrayerGroup@gmail.com. Today’s Word from the Lord is, “My children, when you are struggling, call my name. Remember there's power in my name. Fall upon me, and I will help you.”