I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world.
(John 17:15-18)
We
could do everything better if we were taken out of the world and glorified with God right now,
except one thing - spread the gospel with those who don’t know Jesus. That is why Jesus is not asking the Father that we would be taken out of the world.
Jesus was sent and so are we. We are sent in the same way Jesus was sent. What does that look like?
“I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.
(John 17:20-23)
The glorious, giving love that exists within the trinity overflows in creation and continues to go out to us, even when we rebel against it. That's how Jesus was sent. That’s the same way we are sent. Jesus prays for our unity so that the world may believe in him and know him. The world seeing the christian community truly loving each other, not self-serving but giving and serving others, is seeing something of the glory of God. Jesus was sent with the authority to give eternal life and what is that eternal life? v3 - to know God. It’s not a transaction, it’s being welcomed into the family.