<p>17:15 <i>I do not pray that You should take them out from the world, but that You should keep them from the evil</i>- The association of &quot;evil&quot; with &quot;the world&quot; is clear. And in John, &quot;the world&quot; usually refers to the Jewish world. Clearly it was Judaism which was the source of &quot;evil&quot; for the early Christians, explaining why it is referred to as the great &quot;satan&quot; / adversary in the later New Testament. It&rsquo;s observable that the Lord Jesus Himself prayed most parts of His model prayer in His own life situations. &ldquo;Your will be done... Deliver us from evil&rdquo; (Mt. 6:13; Lk. 11:4) were repeated by Him in Gethsemane, when He asked for God&rsquo;s will to be done and not His, and yet He prayed that <i>the disciples</i> would be delivered from evil. It is as if He prays the &quot;Lord's prayer&quot; for them; &quot;keep them from the evil&quot;, although they should have been praying this for themselves. And there are times when we likewise almost have to pray prayers for others which they ought to be praying themselves.</p><p>The Lord reasoned that by remaining in the world, as He had been in the world, they could be the light of the world. He therefore speaks of the day when they shall be cast out of the synagogues (16:2), which was spoken of by some Rabbis as being cast out of the Jewish world. He wanted them to remain as long as they could, and here He prays that the Father will enable this to happen- that they should not be taken out of the Jewish world. We see here His complete lack of any 'guilt by association' mentality.</p>