¹⁵ “I do not ask You to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one.”

The evil one, that is the problem with being in the world. Ultimately the battle is not with other Christians or even with ourselves. It’s the devil. He has been in the picture from the beginning tempting the image-bearers of God to turn away from His sufficiency to find fulfillment through their own resources. The battle is a spiritual one at the core, not a social, economic or relational one. By God not taking us “out of the world,” He leaves us exposed to Satan’s influence.

There is coming a time when temptation will be no more, at the consummation of the ages: “And the devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are also; and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever” (Rev 20:10). But, until then, Jesus’ desire, as much as we sometimes wish it were to the contrary, is that the Father would not, “take them out of the world.” There is a reason Christ left His disciples in the world and didn’t take them with Him to heaven when He ascended. And that reason is that they had a mission to accomplish on earth, and so do we today. When our mission is over, then God will take us home.

Until then, we are in the world, and we need protection from Satan and his cohorts. He prowls around like a roaring lion (1 Peter 5:8). That is the real battle, and we should not get distracted by lesser skirmishes. Paul wrote: “For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ” (2 Co 10:3–5).

So we resist the devil (James 4:7), and so keep in step with God’s help for us in protecting us from Satan. The prayer of Jesus in the Upper Room assumes that His followers will agree and work in harmony with the Lord’s desires. Jesus asks the Father to “keep” us from Satan—but that doesn’t mean Satan can’t get at us at all., It requires our complicity with God’s desire, namely resisting the devil (James 4:7), keeping “in step with the Spirit” (Gal 5:25 NIV). That is why God lets us be privy to this prayer of our Lord, so we know what the plan is. God will protect us, so we are motivated to resist Satan, bringing every thought captive to this truth, in obedience to Christ.

Lord, I want my resistance to the devil to come in line with Your desire to keep me from him. I don’t want to be deterred from the mission You have given me.