“If the World Hates You…”

Well, we turn once again to John chapter 17. And as we turn to the Scriptures, we turn to the Lord:

Lord, this is your Word, your truth. We come in need of your food, the food that lasts and yields eternal life. And so we pray that we might hear your voice and that we might entrust ourselves entirely to you, even though all may seem to be against us. And we pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Now, the verses that we’re giving attention to this morning are John 17:14–16. So if you’re there, let me just read them for us. Jesus says—verse 14—“I have given them your word”—he’s speaking to the Father in prayer—“and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.”

In my little black book that I keep for notes, quotes, and anecdotes, I have only one note relating to the late Margaret Thatcher. And it came to mind as I was reading this section in John this week. And her quote goes like this. She’s speaking to a group of people, politicians, and she says, “If you set out to be liked, you would be prepared to compromise on anything at any time, and you would achieve nothing.” “If you set out to be liked, you would be prepared to compromise on anything at any time, and you would achieve nothing.” There’s a reason why after all these years, she’s still known as the Iron Lady. Because even now, when her name comes up in conversation, as it sometimes does, we discover that people either hated her or loved her. But in her case, neutrality seemed not to be an option at all.

And I begin in this way this morning because if we are honest, we like to be liked. Nobody goes out of their way in order to be opposed or disenfranchised or just unliked. You don’t go to school in order that people might not like you and so on. And it’s important to have that in mind, because the words that we’re reading here in John [17], in concurrence with the instruction of Jesus throughout the Bible, give us pause in relationship to what our motivation might be in seeking the approval of those around us.

For example, in Luke chapter 6, in the context of the instruction of Jesus that he gives to the people gathered on the plain, he says to them, “Woe to you, when…” And this is Luke 6:26: “Woe to you, when all people speak well of you, for so their fathers did to the false prophets.” Now, you’ll notice that word “all” there. It’s very important. He doesn’t say, “Woe to you when people speak well of you.” He says, “Woe to you when all people speak well of you, because in actual fact, that’s what happened when the prophets of old decided that they would tell the people what they wanted to hear.” And so, in order that they might be the beneficiaries of the approval of those to whom they speak, they then altered their message in order that they might enjoy that approval.

Eugene Peterson, paraphrasing that section of Luke chapter 6, does a wonderful job, I think. This is what he says: “There’s trouble ahead when you live only for the approval of others, saying what flatters them, doing what indulges them. Popularity contests are[n’t] truth contests—look how many scoundrel preachers were approved by your ancestors! Your task is to be true, not popular.”[1]

Now, if you happen to turn to Luke chapter 6, you will see that, strikingly, Jesus actually says that the life of blessing—the enchanted life of living for Jesus, kingdom life—will actually involve being hated. This is Luke 6:22–23:

Blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude you and revile you and spurn your name as evil, on account of the Son of Man! Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven; for so their fathers did to the prophets.

So in other words, we ended last time with the notion of inappropriate joy, and here it would seem Jesus gives another occasion for joy that would appear to be inappropriate. Who leaps for joy in the reaction of people that is one of hatred?

Now, it’s very, very important and I want to take time to set context for this this morning so that we minimize the potential for going wrong. Jesus is speaking here of situations where it is our relationship with him—our relationship with Jesus—that causes the response of rejection or condemnation. It is because we are in Christ, because we are for Christ, because we are prepared to speak the name of Christ, not because we’ve been unkind, or we’ve been obnoxious, or we’ve been bitter.

What he’s saying is that for the follower of Jesus, sooner or later, if you live for Jesus, you will discover that you’re not liked. Now, think about this. And we think about young people in the context of this weekend and going to school in an environment that does not affirm the things of Jesus. If you want to just hide your light under a bushel, if you want just to go silent on the subject, you can probably skate through unscathed. But if you’re prepared actually to say, “No, I do believe in Jesus; I do believe that Jesus is the way and the truth and the life,”[2] and so on, don’t expect them to hold parties in your name and affirm your convictions.

Verse 14 of chapter 17 is our opening verse. Let’s read it again: Jesus says, “I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they[’re] not of the world, just as I am not of the world.”

Sooner or later, if you live for Jesus, you will discover that you’re not liked.

Now, again, the context in which this is given is of importance. We’ve said this all along—that this prayer that the disciples are privy to be part of is set within the framework of all that has gone before. If you go all the way back to chapter 13, we could begin there: “Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.”[3] And Jesus has begun to set this out before his followers: “I am the one who’s departing, and you’re the ones who are staying.”

In John chapter 15—and sorry to make you bounce all around—but in John chapter 15, the verses that immediately precede the reading that we had, which began in verse 18, Jesus says to his followers, “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. These things I command you, so that you will love one another.”[4]

That’s the mission. All right? “Here I have chosen you that you would go out into the world and that you would be bearing fruit.” And that is immediately then followed by opposition—the mission and then the opposition: “If the world hates you, know that it … hated me [first].”[5] Now, what Jesus has said to them there in John chapter 15 he’s now saying about them to the Father in John 17: Being hated by the world is a reality; it’s not just a possibility.

The Disciples’ Reception

Now, in order to try and unpack this, let us consider first of all the reception of the word by the disciples. There you have it, verse 14: “I have given them your word.” “I have given them your word.”

Jesus actually fulfills the prophecy that we found way back in Deuteronomy 18, a promise that was given to Moses. And if you can imagine the unfolding story of the Bible, where people who were aware of what God had said of old to the prophets and through the prophets—how they must have been wondering and looking to see, “Who is the embodiment of this great promise that God has made?” It’s Deuteronomy 18:18. Here’s the promise that’s given to Moses: “I will raise up for [my people] a prophet like you from among their brothers. And I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him.” So they knew: “There is going to be somebody who comes who out-prophets all the prophets. They spoke about the word; he is the Word.” And this one is none other than Jesus.

Now, we’re aware of this, I hope, because we’ve been reading chapter 17. If your Bible is there, you’ll notice in verse 8, in concurrence with the promise given to Moses—verse 8—Jesus says, “For I have given them the words that you gave me, and they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me.” In other words, there is a radical change that has taken place in the lives of these disciples. This is what has happened: They have heard the word; they have received the word; they know in truth that Jesus is the incarnate son of God, that he came from the Father; and they actually believed that “you sent me.”

Jesus, remember, in his response to the question of the Jewish audience that he was in front of, remember, they said to him—this is John chapter 7, if you’re looking for it—they said to one another, “How is it that this man has learning, when he[’s] never studied?”[6] They’re basically saying, “He never went to seminary. He wasn’t a part of our Judaistic background and our learning. How is it that this man has learning, though he has never studied?” And Jesus replies, “My teaching is not mine, but [is] his who sent me.”[7]

Now, this is very, very important. You see, Jesus expects everyone who hears him to believe his words because they’re not his words, to believe his words because they are the words of God. “The words that I speak, I’m not making this up,” Jesus is essentially saying. “The words that the Father has given me to speak I speak.”

If you think in your mind of that amazing moment in the Mount of Transfiguration—and you can read of that in Matthew chapter 17—where in that encounter, Peter has an idea that is rebutted, but the voice comes from heaven, “This is my beloved Son …; listen to him.”[8] “Listen to him.” It’s interesting: It doesn’t say, “Look at him.” “Listen to him.” Why? Because of the words that he speaks.

Now, this is what the disciples have received. And if you are a true follower of Jesus, this may be said of you as well—that you have received this word. There was a day when the Bible was foreign territory to you. There was a day when the Bible mattered little to you. It was an unread book. It was an unconsidered book. And because of a friend or a neighbor or something along the line, the Bible began to be in your consideration, and suddenly, you discovered that the Bible knew more about you than you knew about the Bible, and you began to realize that this is no ordinary book, and you realized that this is the very Word of God and that you have believed that Jesus is himself the living Word of God.

That’s the reception.

The World’s Reaction

Secondly: the reaction of the world to the disciples who have received the word. It’s there straightforwardly: “The world has hated them.” He says, “Father, I gave them your word, the word that you gave me. They’ve received it, and as a result, they’re hated.” Why are they hated? Why would the disciples be hated?

Well, because they’re in alignment with the Father and with the Son. They have been out in the regions of Judea and Samaria, all around these regions, and when the question has come up about the identity of Jesus, they have over a period of time come to understand that he is actually “the way, … the truth, and the life”;[9] that he is the Word of God the Father, from before the world began; that he is actually “the light of the world.”[10] That’s why they’re following him. That’s why they’re no longer in darkness. All of that because of their alignment with Jesus—because of that conviction, because they’ve actually come to believe what Philip had been inquiring about in John chapter 14: “Show us the Father, and that will suffice us,”[11] as Philip characteristically says, and Jesus says, “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.”[12] What an amazing statement! “You’ve seen me,” he says, “you’ve seen God.” And these fellows said, “Yeah, we get that.” And they’re going to live their lives for it, and in many cases, they’re going to die for it. Why? Because the world can’t stand it. The world hates it.

And if you just allow yourself to fast-forward and think about what it meant after the resurrection of Jesus… You could read this this afternoon. It would do you good. It’d do us all good—chapter 5 of Acts, where the apostles are being told not to do the work of mission. They’re “speak[ing] to the people all the words of this Life.” That’s the command they’ve been given—verse 20. And then the authorities come around, and they brought them and set them before the council, and the high priest questioned them—said, “What do you think you’re doing, spouting all this stuff here?” And he strictly charged them not to teach in the name. “And we’ve done that,” he says, “and yet you are…” And verse [28]: “You have filled Jerusalem with your teaching.”

We don’t have time to go through it all, but by verse 40, they’ve taken a jolly good beating. Verse 40 of chapter 5: “And so they called the apostles in, and they said, they decided, ‘Let’s just beat them.’”[13] And “they beat them and charged them” again “not to speak in the name of Jesus,” and then they “let them go.” And they all went away and had a pity party on their own and got themselves an ice cream cone. No! “Then they left.” “Then they left the presence of the council.” Here we go: inappropriate joy! “They left … the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for [his] name.”[14]

“I want to be liked. I don’t want dishonor.” Well, listen: If we’re going to hold the Jesus line, prepare for it. Who says? Jesus says! They counted it a matter of joy to suffer, and they continued “in the temple and from house to house,” and “they did not cease teaching and preaching that the Christ is Jesus,”[15] that the Messiah is Jesus. That was the issue. The real issue, you see, is: Is Jesus the person he claims to be? Is Jesus God, the Messiah? You say, “Well, they didn’t like it then.” Guess what? They don’t like it now.

Whenever the disciple of Jesus, whether in the first century or the twenty-first century, whenever the disciple proclaims this word, presents the truth, and by so doing exposes the plight of our neighbors and our friends, of contemporary man—whenever we are prepared to do that, we’re not actually welcomed. We’re hated.

Now, people may not say things like “I hate you.” But you will find that you are sidelined, that you are excluded, that you’re damned by faint praise. People say things either to you or behind you: “Well, I can see how that would be something that you would need.” They hate the thought that it is something that they might need. For if there is salvation in no one else save in Jesus, then the something that we proclaim, the someone whom we follow is saying to our friends and neighbors, “Without him, you are lost. Without him, you are enslaved. Without him, you are without hope and without God in the world.”[16] “Oh, no! We believe in God.” If you do not believe in Jesus, you do not actually believe in God.

The apostles were really clear: “We must obey God. We must obey God.” And we must obey God. We’re not at liberty to rewrite the Bible so that people will like us, to accommodate the perspectives and positions of a world that is alien to the truth of God.

And part of our problem in dealing with these things is that we don’t have a… It’s not that we don’t have a biblical understanding of what it means to be in Christ. Many of us don’t have a biblical understanding of what it means to be without Christ! We don’t have a biblical understanding of the nature of the world in which we live: that the world—Romans 8—is at enmity with God; that the world is actually opposed to God; that in its projections and convictions and expressions in lifestyle, it is saying, “We will not have a God to rule over us. We will create our own idols. We will fashion them—those that we can handle and can handle us.”

We’re not at liberty to rewrite the Bible so that people will like us, to accommodate the perspectives and positions of a world that is alien to the truth of God.

I don’t want to delay on it, but let’s just put it in concrete terms at the moment—this idea of the way in which the world hates biblical truth and Christian conviction. Think about it in relationship to a biblical view of life. A biblical view of life—the origin of life, the nature of life, the sanctity of life. The world is opposed to that. It actually hates that notion. Because what it says is “I am accountable to someone up and out and beyond myself.” “I don’t want to be accountable to anybody except myself. I don’t want you or anybody else, and certainly not your God, to tell me what I can do with my life.”

Think about it in relationship to death. Presently, in a bill that is in its first reading in the Houses of Parliament in the UK, it is in order to see if Britain cannot copy the Netherlands and Canada and other places in assisting people to end their lives. Now, the fascinating thing for me in all of those—and I’ve read a lot about it lately, because it is so prevalent—the fascinating thing is, whatever your view is of the way that life ends, the one thing that is missing from the perspective of the world is the notion of judgment: that we will actually stand before God, and the God to whom we are accountable because he made us for himself (“We’re not like that; we’re living for ourselves”), that we will actually stand before God. So whatever way you die, it is appointed unto man once to die, and after this comes the judgment.[17] Now, people hate that: “You can’t possibly be telling me that.”

What about marriage? What about family? What about education? What about gender? What about just about anything? You say, “Well, why would you apply it in that way? Surely there are bigger issues than the issues that you’re referencing here.” Do you remember what Luther said about “Where the battle ensues is where you find the real soldier”?

You see, forty years ago, when we were all reading books like The Battle for the Bible, all the argument was in relationship to the veracity of the Scriptures, the historical reality, and so on. And that battle was fought, and in some ways, we might say, it was largely won. But that battle has been replaced by an entirely different battle. And the real question of whether there is an authoritative God, whether there is a creator God, whether there is an absolute morality, whether there is an absolutely flawless truth, ultimate truth—that’s where the battle is being fought.

And listen to Luther:

If I profess with the loudest voice and clearest exposition every portion of the truth of God except … that little point which the world and the devil are at that moment attacking, I[’m] not confessing Christ, however boldly I may be professing Christ. Where the battle rages, there the loyalty of the soldier is proved, and to be steady on all the battlefield besides, is mere flight and disgrace if he flinches at that point.[18]

Seems to make sense, doesn’t it?

Jesus’ Explanation

So, the reception of the disciples to the word; the reaction of the world to that reception; and then the explanation that is provided by Jesus, right there in the text. Why is it that the world has reacted in that way? Why is it that an alien world does what it does? Well, they’re hated because “they[’re] not of the world, just as I am not of the world.”

Well, we know that is true of Jesus. We sometimes sing, “From heaven you came, helpless babe, entered our world, your glory veiled.”[19] We understand that to be true of Jesus. He was “the true light” that “gives light” that “was coming into the world”[20]—“coming into the world” that he had made. Jesus was actually never of this world. He entered this world in order that those whom the Father gives him might be removed from this world. He has come down, if you like, in order that we might go up. He has entered into the ignominy and shame of a world that is in rebellion against God in order that he might bear the curse that God the Father expresses in all of his wrath so that those who rest in his provision may find themselves taken to a different place.

Now, it seems to me very straightforward, and I hope to you too. Once, by natural birth, these disciples for whom Jesus prays were of the world. But now, as a result of the new birth, although they are to remain in it, they are no longer of it. And as a result, the world now views the followers of Jesus as, actually, traitors and renegades and, as a result, has no time for them and actually hates them.

Now, if you think about this and think about it for any length of time at all, you realize—and it’s important that we keep in mind—this is not some kind of hatred because you’re just a jolly nuisance, because you tailgate people, or because you’ve been making a royal nuisance of yourself in the neighborhood because you don’t like Mr. Jenkins’s tree leaning on your property or whatever that might be. That’s got nothing to do with that stuff. That’s just because you’re a bad person. This is not this.

This is the transformation. Here is Paul in Ephesians: “You were dead in … trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world”—it was just doing what comes naturally—“following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that[’s] now at work in the sons of disobedience.” Why do people do all these things? Because the spirit of the prince of the power of this air is at work in the sons of disobedience (daughters too), “among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.” But what has happened? “God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ.”[21] He reached down and took us out of the realm of darkness and brought us unto the realm of light. He radically intervened in the predicament, in our circumstances.

Jesus entered this world in order that those whom the Father gives him might be removed from this world. He has come down, if you like, in order that we might go up.

Peter does what Paul does when in chapter 4 of his first letter, again describing the difference: “For the time that is past suffices for doing what the [pagans] want to do,” which is what? “Living in sensuality, passions, drunkenness, orgies, drinking parties, and lawless idolatry. With respect to this they are surprised when you do not join them in the same flood of debauchery, and they malign you.”[22]

But if you’re going to go, sir, in your office party to the strip joints with them, they will like you. They will say, “Now this is the kind of Christianity that excites us!” Because what it does is it says to them, “There is nothing immoral, there is nothing wrong in this. It’s entirely understandable.” But when, if you were once there—as some of us may well have been—when that is an old life for us, and the new life has come, and we say, “No, no, no, no,” and they say, “Oh, you’re not in that Jesus thing again, are you? You’re not starting that again”—wow! They hate you. Who do you want to be loved by? You want to be loved for the right reasons and hated for the right reasons.

So, having been chosen out of the world, they no longer share—we no longer share—its opinions and its practices. Because the world, as I’ve said, that was made by God is in rebellion against God. And therefore, the life of the Christian in the world is ultimately a life of conflict.

Why? Because the same grace that reconciles us to God antagonizes us to the Evil One—that we have become a friend of God and an enemy of Satan. And his opposition is there. And so it is, Jesus says. And this is actually his prayer. So far, it’s been a description. But what is his prayer?

One, part one: “I do not ask that you take them out of the world.” I’ll just say a word or two about this; we may have to come back to it. “I do not ask that you take them out of the world.” I remember at school, sometimes in peculiar circumstances at the grammar school in Ilkley—I can’t remember how I managed this, but I would say to the teacher, “Is there any chance that we could leave early today?” It’s like, “Begg, why don’t you just sit there and be quiet?” I said, “No, it’d be good. We could… Look, it’s a nice day. We could go. Let us leave early. Come on!” Well, it never happened.

There were three people in the Old Testament who made a similar request—not to get out of school but to get out of life. There’s a prize if you know who they were. Moses, Elijah, and Jonah. And all three of them asked if they could be removed, and the request was denied in each case.

And in the same way, far from the notion of being whisked out of this to live in a monastery or to live high on a hill, all in a little collection of our own, Jesus says, “No, I’m not asking that. I’m actually asking that they wouldn’t be removed but they would be involved.”

You may have wondered—some of us were talking earlier in the day—you may have wondered why when we trust in Jesus, we’re not immediately glorified. I mean, that would be good. You believe, and you’re gone, straight there: “Do not pass Go. Do not collect two hundred dollars. Just go straight there.” Done! Why not? Why are we not immediately delivered from sin’s implications? Why are we not immediately delivered from sickness, from suffering, from weakness, from infection? Why are we not actually delivered from death itself in its entirety so that those who believe in Jesus would never actually physically die at all, but we would just be translated?

What’s the answer to those kind of questions? The answer is that God knows what he’s doing, that he’s best—so that our earthly pilgrimage, whether short or long, in trials, in perplexities, in problems, we come to know God in a way that we could not know God in any other way at all. In other words, we learn, along with Andraé Crouch from a long time ago,

If I never had a problem,
I’d never know that God could solve them.
I’d never know what faith in God could do.
Through it all, through it all,
I’ve learned to trust in Jesus.
I’ve learned to trust in God through it all.[23]

“Thank you for not taking us out! Thank you for leaving us here! Thank you for keeping your disciples there so that they might, in their generation, proclaim the gospel so that the gospel might fan out from the Middle East into Europe and to the very ends of the earth, so that this morning, we are the beneficiaries of the fulfillment of the prayer of Jesus in John 17: ‘Father, do not take them out of the world.’” We should all say hallelujah to that, that he didn’t do that. And here we are. “Don’t take them out of the world. Rather, keep them from the Evil One.”

We will need to come back to this. We can handle it when we come to the next verse. (Incidentally, you will notice that verse 16 simply repeats verse 14—the emphasis of repetition.) “But Father, I pray that you will keep them from the Evil One.” Well, when they heard that, they surely paused. The departure of Judas and the soon denial of Peter left them in no doubt that there’s a battle involved. There’s a battle involved.

Peter, when he writes his first letter, you remember he says to people that the devil is “a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.”[24] When Paul writes to the Ephesians, he ends his Ephesian letter with the same emphasis: “We’re not wrestling against flesh and blood but against spiritual wickedness in the heavenly places.”[25] When John in his letter writes, he says, “We know that we are from God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.”[26] Therefore, to pray along with Christ this prayer—as we do, incidentally, when we pray the Lord’s Prayer—we are actually asking, “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from [the] evil [one].”[27] And it is the ultimate in naivete if we think that to live for Jesus is just, if you like, a walk in the park.

When we come together to pray tonight, perhaps these things will linger in our minds. Don Carson, in a wonderful sentence or two, he says, “The spiritual dimensions” of Jesus’ prayer “are consistent and overwhelming. By contrast, we spend much more time today praying about our health, our projects, our decisions, our finances, our family, and even our games”—more time in that than in “praying about the danger of the evil one.”[28]

I don’t think there can be any doubt at all that the fact that many of us are still following Jesus today is on account of the prayers of people who have actually prayed these things for us: “Father, watch her. Keep her.” “Help him. Keep him. Don’t let him become another statistic in the collapse of evangelical pastoral ministry.” It must be. It must be the prayers—which is great.

I feel bad that I haven’t given you a song from my childhood, so here it is. I had one for you last week. This is this week’s one:

There’s a fight to be fought, there’s a race to be run,
There are dangers to meet on the way,
And the Lord is my life, and the Lord is my light,
And the Lord is my strength and stay.
On his Word I depend; he’s my Savior and friend,
And he tells me to trust and obey.
For the Lord is my light, and the Lord is my life,
And the Lord is my strength and stay.[29]

Don’t waver in the battle, “looking unto Jesus the author,” the “finisher of our faith.”[30]

A brief moment of silence, and then we’ll sing a song that reminds us that God is dealing with us moment by moment and day by day—just ask God that we might have the Word of God, the things that he wants us to know, to believe, to trust, that they might be sealed in our hearts, and they might be anchored in our thinking.

Our Father in heaven, we do pray that you will “lead us not into temptation” but that you will keep us from evil and from the Evil One. And thank you for the assurance that we have that you know exactly what you’re doing—what you’re doing with us in all the facets of our life and all the facets of our life together as a congregation. In this we rest. And in Christ’s name we pray. Amen.

[1] Luke 6:26 (MSG).

[2] See John 14:6.

[3] John 13:1 (ESV).

[4] John 15:16–17 (ESV).

[5] John 15:18 (ESV).

[6] John 7:15 (ESV).

[7] John 7:16 (ESV).

[8] Matthew 17:5 (ESV). See also Mark 9:7.

[9] John 14:6 (ESV).

[10] John 8:12; 9:5 (ESV).

[11] John 14:8 (paraphrased).

[12] John 14:9 (ESV).

[13] Acts 5:40 (paraphrased).

[14] Acts 5:40–41 (ESV).

[15] Acts 5:42 (ESV).

[16] See Ephesians 2:12.

[17] See Hebrews 9:27.

[18] Martin Luther, quoted in Francis A. Schaeffer, The God Who Is There (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 1968), 18.

[19] Graham Kendrick, “The Servant King (From Heaven You Came)” (1983).

[20] John 1:9 (ESV).

[21] Ephesians 2:1–5 (ESV).

[22] 1 Peter 4:3–4 (ESV).

[23] Andraé Crouch, “Through It All” (1971). Lyrics lightly altered.

[24] 1 Peter 5:8 (NIV).

[25] Ephesians 6:12 (paraphrased).

[26] 1 John 5:19 (ESV).

[27] Matthew 6:13 (ESV).

[28] D. A. Carson, The Farewell Discourse and Final Prayer of Jesus: An Exposition of John 14–17 (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1980), 191.

[29] Naomi Pope, “There’s a Fight to Be Fought” (1936). Lyrics lightly altered.

[30] Hebrews 12:2 (KJV).