(Audio)
Consecrate them in the truth.
Your word is truth.
consecrate - to make or declare sacred; set apart or dedicate to the service of a deity (Dictionary.com)
The Word of God is sacred, set apart for the service of the Father. Jesus prays that we my share in his own consecration to the Father. This means that we can no longer live as if we belong to the world.
Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? (see James 4:4).
This consecration comes with both perks and responsibilities. It comes with the protection and favor of the Father, just as it did for Jesus.
I do not ask that you take them out of the world
but that you keep them from the Evil One.
To be clear, being consecrated does not exclude us from suffering and pain. But it does mean that none of us need ever be lost. Because of it, we can have great confidence that he who began a good work in us will bring it to completion (see Philippians 1:6). It means that, to the degree that we do allow ourselves to come apart from the world, the Father won't let anyone interfere with his perfect will and plan for us.
The consecration of Jesus was marked by his anointing with the Holy Spirit. So too with us. The giving of the Spirit is the answer of the Father to the prayer of Jesus in the Gospel today. The Spirit is the source of our protection from the evil one. Just as the Ark of the Covenant was so set apart that it was not even to be touched, just as Mary was so set apart that she was preserved from original sin, so too does our own consecration place us under God's protection in a special way. The Spirit is also the One who makes us one even as Jesus and the Father are one.
Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace (see Ephesians 4:3).
Because Jesus, filled with the Spirit, offered himself as a consecrated offering for us, we too can become Spirit filled and offer own lives for the sake of God and neighbor. It is as though his own consecration and anointing were broken open upon the cross and made available to all. We are consecrated for the same mission for which Jesus came, sent as he was sent, to reveal the love of the Father and his plan of salvation for the world.
I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship (see Romans 12:1).
The consecration Jesus offers us is meant to make our hearts like that of Paul, who admonished the Church of Ephesus unceasingly and with tears, who could not leave them without weeping together loudly. In Christ he was consecrated for them. He longed for them to fully share in this same consecration.
And now I commend you to God
and to that gracious word of his that can build you up
and give you the inheritance among all who are consecrated.
The question is how do we enter more and more into this consecration? It does not happen automatically. We need the word that can build us up and the Spirit that responds to that word to do so. As we learn the word more and more and open ourselves to the Spirit more and more the consecration will set us apart, just as it did for Paul, as Jesus himself was set apart.
Show forth, O God, your power,
the power, O God, with which you took our part;
How would our day look different if we believed we were consecrated and set apart for God?
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