Let’s Revise the Popular Phrase
“In, But Not Of”
By David Mathis
“Jesus is not asking his Father for his disciples to be taken out of the world, but he is praying for them as they are ‘sent into’ the world. He begins with them being ‘not of the world’ and prays for them as they are ‘sent into’ the world. So maybe it would serve us better—at least in light of John 17—to revise the popular phrase ‘in, but not of’ in this way: ‘not of, but sent into.’ The beginning place is being ‘not of the world,’ and the movement is toward being ‘sent into’ the world. The accent falls on being sent, with a mission, to the world—not being mainly on a mission to disassociate from this world.”
(Read the article here.)
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