Danger of Absorption in Worldly Things
W. Baxendale. John 17:16 They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. I once saw a picture of an artist sitting on a rock in the ocean, which had been left bare by the retreating tide. There he sat, sketching on his canvas the beautiful scenery around him, sky and wave and sea, all unconscious that the tide had turned, had cut him off from the shore, and was rapidly covering the rock on which he sat. The tempest, the waves, the rising sea were forgotten, so absorbed was he in his picture; nor did he hear his friends calling to him from the shore. (W. Baxendale.) Parallel Verses KJV: They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. WEB: They are not of the world even as I am not of the world.