What is the meaning of John 17:14? I have given them Your word • Jesus speaks as the faithful Son who has literally delivered the Father’s message to His disciples (John 17:8; John 12:49). • “Your word” is truth that nourishes (Matthew 4:4), equips (2 Timothy 3:16–17), and guards the heart (Psalm 119:11). • By receiving this Word the disciples are marked out as belonging to God, not to the prevailing culture (John 15:3). and the world has hated them • The same world system that rejected Christ (John 15:18–19) turns its hostility on those who bear His Word. • Hatred here is practical opposition—mockery, exclusion, or persecution (2 Timothy 3:12; 1 John 3:13; Matthew 5:10–12). • The clash is unavoidable because light exposes darkness (John 3:19–20). For they are not of the world • In Christ, believers receive a new birth and a new citizenship (John 1:12–13; Philippians 3:20). • Their values, loyalties, and hopes are shaped by heaven, not by earthly norms (Colossians 3:2–3; Romans 12:2). • This separation is moral and spiritual, not geographical; Christians still live in the world but march to a different drumbeat (1 Peter 2:11–12). just as I am not of the world • Jesus is the pattern: He came from above (John 8:23; John 3:31) and remained unstained by sin (Hebrews 7:26). • Our set-apart status flows from union with Him; we share His life, so we share His distinctiveness (Galatians 2:20; 1 Peter 2:21). • The parallel underscores both privilege and responsibility—reflecting Christ’s character in a hostile environment (Ephesians 5:8–10). summary John 17:14 shows that Jesus gifts His disciples with the Father’s life-giving Word, a treasure that instantly distinguishes them from the surrounding world. That very distinction draws the world’s hatred, yet it also signals a new identity: believers no longer belong to the earthbound order but to heaven, mirroring the nature of the Savior who is “not of the world.” Confidence in the inerrant Word, endurance amid hostility, and conformity to Christ’s holiness are the practical outworkings of this verse. |
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