I pray not that Thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that Thou shouldest keep them from the evil.
JOHN 17:15
IN the hour of trial,
Jesus, plead for me;
Lest by base denial
I depart from Thee.
JAMES MONTGOMERY
OUR Lord would have His people to be in the world, and yet to be separate from it. He would have them be separated, not by isolation from it, but by living loyally under Him as their King, where His claims are denied and His rule is rejected; by courageously living in obedience to righteousness where desire is too generally the impelling and formative power. To live in the world as Christ's soldiers and servants; to witness for Him by word and deed as we live in obedience to His will--this is the separation which Christ teaches, this is the separation that gives glory to God. Woe be to us if we fail in expressing by loyal obedience here our loyalty to Christ as our King! To fail here is to bear stamped on us the brand of a traitor's moral cowardice, and a brand of greater shame than it no mortal brow can bear.
GEORGE BODY
This is a public domain version of Joy and Strength.