In, But Not Of
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I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 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. And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth.
I have noticed: we live in a very all or nothing society. People tend to be very passionate about something, or they are completely indifferent.
For example, take politics. In my experience, there are three types of people - two of them are extreme - pick a politician and one says they are exactly what our country needs and the other says they are the worst thing to ever happen. The third person doesn’t want to talk about it.
Pick any issue - it doesn’t need to be political, necessarily - and you will find that most people, if they have an opinion, have extremely strong opinions about it - it’s the most important thing ever!!! Or, they don’t care.
Pick a celebrity - whether an actor or a singer or an athlete - and opinions seem to be limited to "great”, “terrible/overrated” - and the third person says: I don’t watch movies/sports.
Or even just talk about the weather - like today’s weather. There are those who love the heat. There are those who hate the heat. And then there are the shoulder-shruggers in the middle who could take it or leave it.
But I’ve never met someone passionately in the middle of anything.
Because that is just human nature. If we care, we tend toward extremes. Extremes are more conducive to passion, to excitement - they move us to action.
Or, we really don’t care.
Well I wonder: how does this affect how we live the Christian life? Do unhealthy extremes, or passive indifference, affect how we carry out our mission as the church?
Well, have you ever heard the expression that Christians are “in the world but not of the world?” The idea, of course, is that we are here in the world because we have a mission in the world - we are to proclaim the Gospel and make disciples so that God’s presence will spread to the ends of the earth. So to do that, we have to be in the world.
But not being of the world means that we do not live according to worldly wisdom or wordly ways. It means that we ourselves are disciples of Christ who have repented - who have changed our whole lives to conform to Christ. It means that we have the Holy Spirit in us - which means we have the very presence and power of God with us - so we can live lives of holiness.
But in how we - Christians - live this out in practice - in how we live in the world but not of the world - we tend either to extremes, or indifference.
We tend to live our lives on one side of this. We either live in the world OR we live not of the world.
And for those who only live in the world, we tend to wind up living of the world.
For those who live not of the world, we tend to wind up living not in the world.
For others, while we would never shrug our shoulders and say we don’t care - the fact of the matter is that we are indifferent. I can go either way. And so I do. Sometimes I live in and of the world, other times, I live not of the world.
But we are called to live in the world, but not of the world, all the time. We are called to passionately live out both, while never going to one extreme or the other.
And in our passage today, we’ll see Jesus pray that we do just that.
This passage is part of Jesus’s “High Priestly Prayer” from John chapter 17. This is the night before the crucifixion - mere hours away from Jesus’s arrest.
Jesus has told His disciples that He is about to win victory over sin, death, and the devil. He has told them that He is then going away, but will come to them by His Holy Spirit, that they may continue the work of the Gospel and bear fruit.
He has also spent a good amount of time explaining to them that the world hates them. That the world is going to persecute them. But He finishes by telling them that through His work, He is going to overcome the world.
And then, Jesus prays to the Father on their - and our - behalf. Our passage today is part of that prayer.
And note, He is praying to the Father that He would work in and through these disciples and all that will believe. Once again, we see that this is God’s work.
And the reason we need God to work this in us and through us, is because we are here - in the world that hates us and will persecute us - in order to bring it the Gospel of repentance and forgiveness of sins - while never living like the world.
We are in the world, but not of the world.
And that is what Jesus addresses in this part of His prayer.
We are going to see four points that Christ makes in this prayer about what it means to be in the world, but not of the world.
First, and this may seem like it goes without saying, but it doesn’t:
We are in the world to be in the world:
I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one.
You have likely heard me say, there is a reason that God does not just bring us up to heaven the moment we believe. It’s because our faith is not about us. It’s about Jesus. That’s why He doesn’t want us out of the world.
We are here for a purpose. We are here because the world needs to know Jesus. We are here for all of the things we have seen throughout this series. We are here to proclaim the Gospel - to proclaim repentance and the forgiveness of sins. We are here to make disciples. We are here to spread God’s presence over the whole world - to the end of the earth.
And to do this, we need to be in the world. And while it is also true that we are here to build each other up and help each other grow in holiness and to serve each other - and that is so very important - but we are supposed to do all of that - and need to do all of that - so that we can as the church carry out our mission in the world.
And here is where we need to avoid extremes. Because if we tend towards the “not of the world” side of the equation, we can very easily wind up removing ourselves from the world. We think we have to avoid worldly situations - and worse: worldly people - because we are not of the world.
But Jesus prays to the Father and clarifies that He is not praying that we would be taken out of the world. He wants us in the world.
But we can be so concerned with our own holiness - and each other’s holiness - that we take ourselves out of the world to avoid sin. Instead of relying on God to keep us from the evil one - to guard us from or preserve us through the temptations of the devil, which is what this means - we just keep ourselves from those temptations by avoiding them altogether.
My fundamentalist background - plenty of rules Christians followed
You don’t drink, don’t smoke, don’t get tattoos, don’t listen to secular music - men don’t get their ears pierced or grow their hair because that’s for women - women shouldn’t wear pants, that’s for men. And you do not associate with sinners.
Why? Because associating with sinners can ruin your testimony.
That is going to the extreme “not of the world” to the point that we were not in the world. And this is not uncommon.
Fundamentalists in room 8 joke
We laugh, but if we’re not careful, this kind of thinking subtly creeps in to our minds and our church. And we start to think with an “us” vs. “them” mentality when it comes to the unsaved. And before you know it, we separate ourselves from the very people we’re sent to.
The Christian bubble - can’t put ourselves in heaven before God does - we are in the world to be in the world
Sometimes, our area is discouraging because it is so un-Christian - but we have more opportunity!
We cannot take ourselves out of the world. What we need to do, is grow in our faith so that we are protected from the temptations of the devil while in the world. This is the process of sanctification - being made holy.
Because we need to realize - sin doesn’t come from without. It comes from within.
That’s why Jesus prayed that we would be in the world, but not of the world. That our opportunities to be a witness would not be taken away, but that the Spirit would keep us from falling into sin like the world around us.
So we can’t separate ourselves from the world. In fact, we need to seize every opportunity to be in the world - to be where there are unbelievers. God is placing us in these situations so that we can be a witness.
Martin Luther on the visit of the Shepherds. What was their reaction to seeing the Savior the Angel told them about?
The shepherds worked. They had a mean job watching their flocks by night, but after seeing the babe they went back. Surely that must be wrong. We should correct the passage to read, “They went and shaved their heads, fasted… and put on cowls.” Instead we read, “The shepherds returned.” Where to? To their sheep. The sheep would have been in a sorry way if they had not.
The world will be in a sorry way if we are not in the world to bear witness to Christ.
And if we feel like we shouldn’t associate with blatant sinners, then we should heed what Paul told the Corinthian church:
I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people— not at all meaning the sexually immoral of this world, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world. But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler—not even to eat with such a one. For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge? God judges those outside. “Purge the evil person from among you.”
Sin doesn’t belong in the church, but it is a reality in the world, and we need not - we cannot - separate ourselves from sinners.
Being with sinners is not condoning their sin. Otherwise, we’d have to say Jesus condoned sin. Because He spent all His time with sinners.
Which is why Christ prayed:
I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one.
We are to keep ourselves from sin, not from sinners.
We are in the world to be in the world.
We are in the world to show forth Christ
I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.
Jesus compares us to Himself - we are not of the world just as He is not of the world. In fact, He says this twice:
They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.
We are to be “not of the world” like Christ. As we saw in both Luke 24 and Acts 1 - we are His witnesses.
And He was in the world, but He was not of the world.
And we may think to ourselves that this applies to Him in a completely different way than it does to us. After all, He is God incarnate. God the Son - the eternal Creator of all things - He took on flesh and stepped down into the world in the body of a man.
Surely, His “not of the world” is different than my “not of the world.”
But look at what He says. We are not of the world just as He is not of the world. He is equating His other-worldiness to our other-wordliness. As He is in this regard, so are we.
Remember what we have already talked about. He has granted us repentance and has made us someone completely new - heart, mind, spirit - the whole person is made new. We are not what we once were - of the world - we are reborn of God.
And we live a life of repentance - we constantly cultivate this life - we change our ways to be more and more of what He has made us.
And we have dwelling in our flesh God the Holy Spirit. We have God in us.
So we are not of the world just like He is not of the world.
And this is important because of what Jesus says in verse 18. He equates us to Himself in another important way. He says to the Father:
As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world.
Jesus was not of this world, but the Father sent Him into the world for a purpose.
We are not of this world, but in the same way the Father sent Christ, so Christ sends us into the world.
I just want us to think about this for a moment. Of all the “sending” passages in the New Testament - the Great Commission, Luke 24 that we considered two weeks ago, Acts 1:8 that we looked at last week - of all of them, this is the most amazing.
This is a sobering thought when you realize what Jesus is saying.
Just as He was sent into the world, we are sent into the world.
Now what does this mean? What does it mean that we are sent as Jesus is sent? Well, let’s consider Jesus’s sending for a minute.
Jesus said that He was sent to do the will of the One Who sent Him - and Who sent Him was God the Father.
He also said that He was sent to speak the words of the One Who sent Him, and to speak those words in the authority of the One Who sent Him.
He said that He was sent to teach the teaching of the One Who sent Him.
He said that He was sent to work the works of the One Who sent Him.
He said that He was sent so people would believe in the One Who sent Him.
And He says to the Father: as You have sent me, so I send them.
So what does that mean for us practically? It means, we are in the world to do the will of the One Who sent us. To speak His word. To do His work. To teach what He taught in His authority - like we were also told in the Great Commission.
And we do all of this, because the world needs to believe in the One Who sent us. Jesus tells us many “whats” of His sending - to teach, to speak, to work.
But there is only one “why” - so people would believe in God.
So that means, we must do those things that Christ has told us to do - we obey His commands like we spoke about last week. We proclaim the Gospel. We all need to tell the people of the world how Jesus has changed us. That is proclaiming repentance and the forgiveness of sins in His name. And we do that, remember, for all people.
We need to make disciples of all people. We need to teach them what Christ taught. We need to model obedience to what Christ taught. We must seek to incorporate people into the community of faith so we can together better carry out our mission.
We need to be His presence in the world. We are the only Christ the world will see until it’s too late.
And why do we do all of this?
So that they may believe in Him.
That’s why we are to bring the presence of God with us wherever we go. Into our homes. Into our jobs. Into our group of friends. That is what Jesus has commanded us.
This is what He sends us to do.
We are in the world to show forth Christ, that people may believe. That’s why we’re here.
But there’s more to it than that.
We show forth Christ by not being of the world
And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth.
Simply put: we are not like the world. We are like Christ.
And “consecrate” and “sanctified” here are the same word in the Greek - it means to be made holy. Christ made Himself holy - set apart - from the world He came to save even though He was in the world.
And He did it that we may be made holy - set apart from the world even though we are in the world.
And what does set-apart mean? Well, it doesn’t mean that we are separated from the world. Christ wasn’t. He came into the world.
And, as we have seen, Jesus was exactly like us in every way. He identified Himself with us to save us. But there was one exception. There was one way that Jesus was not like us. He didn’t sin. That is literally what sets Him apart from the rest of the world.
And note: He did it for our sake: for their sake I consecrate myself - for their sake I make myself holy - that they also may be holy.
We are to be holy - set apart from the world - even though we are in the world. And what sets us apart from the world, is the same thing that set Christ apart. We are not of the world because we do not share in its sin.
This is the very heart of what what it means to be those who are in but not of the world. Am I calling for sinless perfection? No! Of course not!!
Am I calling for us to be very obviously different from those of the world? Yes. Because that’s what Christ calls us to.
And here is where we have to guard against two things.
First, we need to guard against the extreme of being so in the world that we live of the world.
Jesus of Nazareth lived in the world. He didn’t separate Himself from people. He went and sought people. He came to seek and save the lost.
He hung out with criminals, prostitutes, and traitors to His nation. He drank. He went to parties. He did things that appalled the “religious conservatives” of His day.
As He said of those religious people:
Matthew 11:19 (ESV)
The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Look at him! A glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’
He lived very much in the world.
He did not separate Himself from sinners.
He set Himself apart from sinners.
He knew how to live in the world without being of the world.
Because He was like the sinners He loved, without sharing in their sin.
For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.
Jesus hung out with sinners, but He did not join them in their sin.
Rather, He took the opportunity to love them - to be with them - so that He could tell them the truth. And He wasn’t afraid to speak the truth. He didn’t shy away from telling people when they were doing something sinful.
He wasn’t PC. It seems today like the greatest wrong someone can do is to tell someone else that what they’re doing is wrong. That is what the world says. But we are not of the world.
And as we saw a few weeks ago, it takes actions and words. We need to share the Gospel with people. They need to hear about Jesus.
But we need to give people a reason to hear what we say.
And if we are just like everyone else, why should they listen to us? We are just one more voice of the world.
If we take part in their sin, if we live according to how the world tells us to, why should they listen to us?
If we are not set apart - if we are not holy - why should they listen to us?
And I have heard Christians object that if they are so obviously different from their unsaved friends - then those friends will separate themselves from them and they will lose the opportunity to witness to them.
So the logic is: I can’t show Christ to my friends, otherwise, I won’t get the chance to show Christ to them.
So we ever so subtly convince ourselves its okay to be of the world when we’re in the world. It will keep us in the world and give us the opportunity to show forth Christ. And we miss opportunity after opportunity waiting for the opportunity.
And that is the second things we need to guard against - and I think this is the larger problem in American Christianity today. It is the indifference I spoke about earlier. This is like when we don’t really have an opinion on something. We can go either way. So we do.
When we’re with our Christian brethren, we go the way of “not of the world” and forget the “in the world” When we’re with our unsaved friends and family and coworkers, we go the way of “in the world” and abandon the “not of the world.”
But we need to be both in the world, and not of the world. We need to be passionately in the world, and passionately not of the world.
Otherwise, it isn’t Christ that we’re bearing witness to.
And realize something: those who wanted Him to go away, those who hated Him and persecuted Him - they were not the people He spent time with in the world. They were not the people Jesus loved and hung out with. They were not the people who saw Jesus’s holiness - who saw how different He was.
It was the people that called Him a sinner. It wasn’t His holiness that turned them on Him, it was those who heard what He said without also seeing His holiness.
And just like Jesus, those are the people that will want us to just go away. Those are the people that will persecute us. Those are the people that will hate us. Those who do not see our holiness - who do not see that we are different - that we are set apart.
They will hate us.
Because if we are like Christ, we should expect to be hated by the same people that hated Him.
I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.
The world does have an “us” vs. “them” mentality. You’re not like them? You don’t agree with them? You don’t say and do the same things as them? Then you’re not one of them.
We need to be careful not to think that way, that’s worldly wisdom, and we are not of the world!
And we are sent like Christ was sent. And Christ was sent to a world that hated Him. That didn’t want Him. That didn’t think they needed Him.
And yet, God so loved the world that He gave it His only Son that whoever would believe in Him would have eternal life. Remember, Jesus said He was sent that people may believe.
And He came into the world that hated Him, even though He was not of the world. And those he spent time with, who saw how set-apart He is - they came to love Him. Those Who saw His holiness and heard His words, saw Jesus for Who He is.
Those who see our holiness and hear our words - remember, we are holy as He is, and do His works, and we speak the words He gave us to speak - and those who see us and hear us, will be seeing and hearing Christ.
The rest of the world will hate us.
Shortly before this prayer of Jesus, He said this to His disciples:
“If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours.
Now we need to understand what Jesus said here.
We like to think in very black and white terms. It would actually make us feel much more at ease if the Bible said categorically: the whole world will hate you. Then, we could justify being neither of the world nor in the world.
We don’t like messy middle ground, as evidenced by our strong beliefs when we do have an opinion on something.
Here, when Jesus says “If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours” - there are two different “theys” here. This isn’t saying the world as a whole will either persecute us or believe us. That isn’t what the world did to Jesus.
Some of the world - maybe most - will hate us. Some of the world - hopefully many - will keep our word - will believe the message we bring them. Which is why we’re here.
And the difference between the two will be the same as it was for Jesus. Those who He spent time with in the world, while living not of the world, are those who came to faith.
Everyone else persecuted Him.
The same is true for us.
Because we are sent just as Jesus was sent. And we are not of the world just as He was not of the world. So the people we choose to invest in will see Christ in us.
The people that we are with, but not like, will see the difference in us.
R. C. Sproul, in his book The Holiness of God, tells of a time when Billy Graham was invited to play golf with the President and a pro golfer:
After the round of golf was finished, one of the other pros came up to the golfer and asked, “Hey, what was it like playing with the President and with Billy Graham?” The pro unleashed a torrent of cursing, and in a disgusted manner said, “I don’t need Billy Graham stuffing religion down my throat.” With that he turned on his heel and stormed off...After a few minutes the anger of the pro was spent. He settled down. His friend said quietly, “Was Billy a little rough on you out there?” The pro heaved an embarrassed sigh and said, “No, he didn’t even mention religion.”
Sproul then says this:
Luther was right, the pagan does tremble at the rustling of a leaf. He feels the hound of heaven breathing down his neck. He feels… holiness even if it is only made present by an imperfect… human vessel
If we reflect the holiness of Christ - even as utterly imperfectly as we do - it will be undeniable for those around us.
As Christ said:
“You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.
Those we love enough to be with, and love enough be different from, are those that will see Christ in us.
And I am not saying that those we invest in are guaranteed to come to faith. Not even all 12 that Jesus chose to invest in were saved.
But what I am saying is that if we want to see the lost saved, we need to remember that the only chance they have is Jesus. And the only chance they have to see Jesus, is us.
And we need to show them Jesus. So we need to be in the world, and not of the world.
This is why we’re here.
But it is no accident that right before Jesus tells us to shine our light, He tells us that we will do it in a world that hates us:
“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
“Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
“You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet.
“You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.
Jesus goes from the saying “the world will hate you because of Me” right to “go show Me to the world.”
And just like we should expect that sinners will sin, and that if we are in the world, we will be around this sin - so should we expect that those who hear the words of Christ without seeing the works of Christ will hate us.
There is no lack of hate in the world. But just like we are not to partake of that sin we will be around, neither can we ever partake of the hate we will encounter. Jesus doesn’t give us that choice.
He doesn’t say: hate who hates you, does He. No, shortly after He says this, He tells us:
“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
And He brings this back to being like God. Jesus was sent to reveal the Father, we are sent to reveal Jesus, we therefore must be perfect - must be holy - like our Father is.
And we must love indiscriminately like our Father. And like Jesus. Because there is no better way to show Him than to love those who hate us. And the world hates us.
Which means, there are plenty of opportunities to love if we are in the world, but not of the world.
Because that is how the world will see Jesus. We show forth Christ by not being of the world.
We are made “not of the world” through the Word of God
Christ says we learn to not be of the world through the Word of God:
I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 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. And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth.
Jesus starts with the Word of God. All He said and all He taught, remember, were of the One Who sent Him. And He ties that in with our not being of the world. “I have given them your word and the world has hated them because they are not of the world.”
He ties in the Word with being like Him. We are not of the world just as He is not of the world, because He has given us His Word.
And then Jesus asks that we would be kept from the evil one. From the temptations of Satan. And He ends this by saying that He has consecrated Himself - He has lived not of the world - He has set Himself apart by not joining in on the sin of the world, so that we also - just like Him - might be set apart.
And He says we are set apart - we are sanctified - in truth.
And there is one more verse here we have not considered:
Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.
Same word - make them holy - set them apart - in truth, just like He prays in verse 19.
And the truth is God’s Word, which Jesus started with by saying it would make us not of the world like He is not of the world.
It is the Word of God that will make all of this possible.
We need to hear God speak. We need to know His Word. It is truth. It makes us holy. It makes us like Jesus.
It makes us what we need to be for the world to see Jesus in us.
It is what will keep us not “of the world” while we’re in the world.
So, if we say we want to be like Christ. And if we say we want to see sinners come to faith. And if we say we want to witness to people so they may see Christ…and we are not passionately seeking God in the Word, then what we say and what we do are two different things.
We say all of those things with our words.
But with what we do, we shrug our shoulders and say “I can take it our leave it.”
Remember, it is word and deed that show the world Christ. We can’t just say we want to do these things. We need to do them.
Come to the Word to seek Christ, and He promises that it will change you. It will make you more like Him - more not of the world - so that the people you invest in can see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.
It will give you the words to speak, and it will set you apart so people have a reason to listen.
When we go to Scripture… it is important for us to remember that it is not only a text, an object of academic study… it is the presence of God among us and therefore a book that cannot be tamed. It will never leave us the same. If God’s grace has gripped us, and we are ready to respond in faith and obedience, then God’s Word will be powerful to sanctify our hearts. - John Frame
We are in the world to be in the world.
We are in the world to show forth Christ.
We show forth Christ by not being of the world.
We are made not of the world through the Word of God.
So if we are in the world, and we are not in the Word, we will find ourselves of the world.
But if we are in the Word of God, even though we are in the world, we will find ourselves not of the world, but of the Word. We will be sanctified in truth, conformed to the image of Christ, able to be sent as He was sent.
This is why we’re here.
So I want to encourage you to do a few things. And you have to go in this order.
First, decide what you want to do. You need to make a decision, this is not going to happen by accident. (Justification is not your decision, sanctification most certainly is) - decide if you want to be set apart like Christ was and calls us to be.
Second, get in the Word. This is the truth through which God sanctifies the people that He sends (if you struggle, come see me).
Third, be a witness - be in the world, but not of the world
Be in the world. Take opportunities to be with the unsaved so they can see your light shine. Love them. Invest in them. We are sent like Jesus was sent.
Be not of the world. Why?
(Because not every conversation needs to be turned to your faith!) live set apart so they will listen to your words when the opportunity arises. (Tell them what God has done for you)
Not our job to close - not every encounter, and I would submit to you that no encounter, needs to end with a commitment by the the person. Because we are called to plant, God reaps; we are not sent to save souls (only God can do that), we are sent to speak the truth in love, and live so people have a reason to listen. The rest is up to God, and we can trust Him.