Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified.
As we look at these three verses it is very important to understand the word, “sanctify,” to get what Jesus is saying. I looked up the Greek at blueletterbible.com and learned that the word means to “make holy,” to set apart, to clean and purify. With this understanding, let’s look at the text again.
Jesus says: Make my disciples holy, set apart, cleansed by your truth.
That makes sense, doesn’t it? Yesterday Jesus talked about being in the world but not part of the world. Today he describes a bit about what that means.
The “world’s” view is that truth is relative to who you are and how you feel about things at a given time. Jesus refers to “the” truth. He then adds the clarification that God’s word is truth. This word is not only the word spoken to Moses but every word that Jesus himself has spoken. The truth cleanses the mind, it purifies the one who hears the word, and to those who believe it sets them apart.
Food for Thought: If you are a believer, you are being sanctified. How have you seen that work out in your life?
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I would like to think that I am a little less like the world and a little more like Jesus than I was twenty years ago. I have changed for the better. Yet, I still have a lot of changing to do. In fact, the more I seem to get closer to Jesus, the more I see how far I still have to go.
Thanks, Rich! I alway appreciate you sharing a bit of your self here. I can relate to what you are saying. I’ve learned over the years that true change is always about what happens inside of me. Waiting for others to change is a long slog. Asking God to change me, that is another matter. He is always happy to answer that prayer.