Sanctify them through thy truth

“Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.” - John 17v17

After Jesus prayed for unity in the body of Christ he prayed that God would sanctify us. To sanctify something is to set it apart for a special purpose or use. Obviously here He is talking about setting us apart for His service. Jesus prayed that God would set us apart by His own truth. In other words our sanctification is based not on our ideas, but on God’s truth. Where do we find God’s truth? Jesus made that clear for us too, God’s word is truth.

They have been many attempts through history to sanctify men by man’s standards. The Pharisees had created a whole legal system to see if man was sanctified or not. Religions and other groups even today try to set up some kind of sanctification system based on their own history of tradition. Jesus did not leave any room for doubt – there is only one way for sanctification to take place, “Your word is truth.”

There is only one way and one standard of true sanctification – God’s word. Anything and everything else is always going to fall short.