The students among our readership will immediately recognize that the title words are redundant.  I could have written "Saintly Saints" or "Holy Holy Ones".  This idea of being "set apart" (holy) is a major Bible theme and is not new to John 17.  In Deuteronomy Moses told the second generation of Jews after the Exodus, "For you are a holy people to the LORD your God; the LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for Himself, a special treasure above all the peoples on the face of the earth."  God wants people to know Him and be His because He is good and the best thing in life is to know Him and love Him as He knows and loves us.  God Himself calls His own, "a special treasure."  In John 17 we have been studying the qualities that Jesus prays will characterize His people.  They should be people of joy, holiness, mission and unity.  Holiness is often misunderstand because some people have equated it with "self-righteousness."  That is repulsive!  However, true holiness means sanctified not only in position or status but in practice.  It means we are becoming who we really are--not that we have arrived.  Salvation is not just about destination, it is about transformation.  It is about becoming the kind of people who can occupy heaven!  A Christian is one who wants to be like Christ NOT just avoid the pit of hell.  As we'll see in John 17, Jesus sanctified Himself for the purpose of our sanctification.  Let's do our part to cooperate and apprehend what we were apprehended for!  Be a Holy Saint!

So, the believer is in the world, not of the world but sent to the world because God so loved the world. Yet, we must not love the world because whoever loves the world reveals that the love of the Father is not in him. What? This can get a little confusing if we are not acquainted with the terminiology of the New Testament.  God loves the people of the world, not the values or systems of the world.  God wants to take people out of the world system because it is under the dominion of the devil and it is a system that promises but does not deliver.  God intends that we have "life" now and forever.   The love of the world system and loving the Father's reign are mutually exclusive.  So, as believers we are from the world system, sanctified (out of) from the world, but sent to the people of the world that they may have what we have!  AND, we are protected from the world and its evil because we are part of God's family.  This does not mean "bad things" will never happen to us.  It does mean our eternal destiny is never in jeopardy.  The world can't kill us, they can only send us to Heaven!  What should characterize this very interesting journey?  Joy!  We have the means for this joy, why don't we use it?