John 17:16 - Exposition

They are not of the world, even as of the world I am not . This verse simply repeats, with alteration of order, the clause of John 17:14 as the basis of the next great petition. John 17:14 draws the comparison between Christ and the disciples; John 17:16 lays, by a transposition of words, the greater emphasis on "the world." Alas that this great utterance should so often be utterly ignored! How often in our own days, is other-worldliness and unworldliness derided as a pestilent heresy, and "a man of the world," instinct with its purpose and saturated with its spirit, lauded as the true man and ideal leader of a Christian state!