"13 But now I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves. 14 I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 15 I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. 16 They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 17 Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth."
John 17:13-17
The need for Christ's keeping power is seen particularly in these verses in the constant antagonism and hatred of the world against all who follow Him. God's Word separates us from the world (14) calling us out from it and setting us in irreconcilable opposition to it. The whole of the book of Acts reveals the truth of this, that all who will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. To be a believer means to be against the stream of the world, and our Lord's keeping power will always be needed here. Not only so, as we saw earlier, there is an inward conflict as well as the outward one. Christ's keeping power is needed there too, and it is provided in the words of 17. The sanctifying power of the Word works in the believer's life in answer to the prayers of our Lord, and 'keeps' him, stabilising him and stablishing him in grace. As the Psalmist says, 'Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed thereto according to Thy word' (Psalm 119:9). This serves also to underline the nature of His keeping power. The disciples of Jesus are kept in the world, in the midst of all its tensions and pressures. They are not 'of the world' but they are also not 'out of the world', but immersed in it, involved an all its brokenness and alienation. The nature of Christ's salvation is that believers have peace in the conflict. This is the amazing paradox of Christian experience. We are not promised freedom from conflict – 'in the world ye shall have tribulation' - but by God's grace we may know His peace in the midst of it all.