“I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil.”
King James Version (KJV)
17:15 That thou wouldest take them out of the world - Not yet: but that thou wouldest keep them from the evil one - Who reigns therein.
Joh 17:15,16 I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world. The world had hated the Master and was about to slay him, because he was not of the world. So it would hate the apostles, who were not of the world, and seek to slay them; he does not pray that they should be taken out of the world, for they have a work to do, but that the Father would keep them from the power of the evil one.