Not of the World


 * This article is part of a series from Jesus' Last Prayer with his Apostles

Not of the world,* Koine: οὐκ ἐκ τοῦ κόσμου, was an expression used by Jesus during the last prayer with his apostles.

I have given them Your word
[1] “I am the true vine, and my Father is the cultivator. [2] He takes away every branch in me not bearing fruit, and he cleans every one bearing fruit, so that it may bear more fruit. [3] You are already clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. [4] Remain in union with me, and I will remain in union with you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it remains in the vine, neither can you unless you remain in union with me. [5] I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever remains in union with me and I in union with him, this one bears much fruit; for apart from me you can do nothing at all. [6] If anyone does not remain in union with me, he is thrown out like a branch and dries up. And men gather those branches and throw them into the fire, and they are burned. [7] If you remain in union with me and my sayings remain in you, ask whatever you wish and it will take place for you. [8] My Father is glorified in this, that you keep bearing much fruit and prove yourselves my disciples. [9] Just as the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; remain in my love. [10] If you observe my commandments, you will remain in my love, just as I have observed the commandments of the Father and remain in his love. [11] “These things I have spoken to you, so that my joy may be in you and your joy may be made full. [12] This is my commandment, that you love one another just as I have loved you.
 * - John 15:1-12

Hate without cause
[17] “These things I [that is, Jesus] command you, that you love one another. [18] If the world hates you, you know that it has hated me before it hated you. [19] If you were part of the world, the world would be fond of what is its own. Now because you are no part of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, for this reason the world hates you. [20] Keep in mind the word I said to you: A slave is not greater than his master. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have observed my word, they will also observe yours. [21] But they will do all these things against you on account of my name, because they do not know the One who sent me. [22] If I had not come and spoken to them, they would have no sin. But now they have no excuse for their sin. [23] Whoever hates me also hates my Father. [24] If I had not done among them the works that no one else did, they would have no sin; but now they have both seen me and hated me as well as my Father. [25] But this happened in order to fulfill the word written in their Law: ‘They hated me without cause.’ [26] When the helper comes that I will send you from the Father, the spirit of the truth, which comes from the Father, that one will bear witness about me; [27] and you, in turn, are to bear witness, because you have been with me from the beginning.
 * - John 15:17-27

Enemy of God
Adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever, therefore, wants to be a friend of the world is making himself an enemy of God. (James 4:4)

Do not love the world
Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life*—is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.

Do not be conformed
Therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, I urge you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God; this is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this age*, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God.

Finish your training
[8] Keep your senses, be watchful! Your adversary, the Devil, walks about like a roaring lion, seeking to devour someone. [9] But take your stand against him, firm in the faith, knowing that the same kind of sufferings are being experienced by the entire association of your brothers in the world. [10] But after you have suffered a little while, the God of all undeserved kindness, who called you to his everlasting glory in union with Christ, will himself finish your training. He will make you firm, he will make you strong, he will firmly ground you. [11] To him be the might forever. Amen.
 * - 1 Peter 5:8-11

Protect them from the evil one
And do not bring us into temptation, but deliver us from the wicked one.’ Lord's Prayer (Matthew 6:13).

We know that everyone who has been born from God does not practice sin, but the one born from God watches him, and the wicked one cannot take hold of him. We know that we originate with God, but the whole world is lying in the power of the wicked one. (1 John 5:18, 19)

Keep your senses, be watchful! Your adversary, the Devil, walks about like a roaring lion, seeking to devour someone. (1 Peter 5:8)

Now there is a judging of this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out. (John 12:31)

Inheritance of the holy ones
We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and the love you have for all the holy ones because of the hope that is being reserved for you in the heavens. You previously heard about this hope through the message of truth of the good news that has come to you. Just as the good news is bearing fruit and increasing in all the world, so it is also doing among you from the day you heard and accurately knew the undeserved kindness of God in truth. (Colossians 1:3-6) That is also why from the day we heard of it, we have never stopped praying for you and asking that you may be filled with the accurate knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual comprehension, so as to walk worthily of Jehovah in order to please him fully as you go on bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the accurate knowledge of God; and may you be strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may endure fully with patience and joy, as you thank the Father, who made you qualify to share in the inheritance of the holy ones in the light. He rescued us from the authority of the darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved Son, by means of whom we have our release by ransom, the forgiveness of our sins. (Colossians 1:9-14)

As I am not of the world
Jesus answered [Pilate]: “My Kingdom is no part of this world. If my Kingdom were part of this world, my attendants would have fought that I should not be handed over to the Jews. But as it is, my Kingdom is not from this source.” (John 18:36)