And all mine are thine, and thine are mine; and I am glorified in them.
Spoken alone with the eleven after Judas withdrew, Christ prayed not for the world but for those the Father had given Him, reaching also to all who would afterward believe through their word. All that belongs to the Son belongs to the Father and all that belongs to the Father belongs to the Son, so the disciples and all His followers belong alike to both as one family in heaven and on earth. He is glorified in His people when He gives them the glory of His character and through His Spirit appears in their lives in sanctified harmony, obedience bearing fruit, and love abiding in the heart in self-denial and service to save souls. That life grounds the call for believers to be one with Christ and through Him one with one another as He is one with the Father, which is the badge of discipleship and the evidence to the world that God sent His Son to save sinners. His ransomed church is His recompense for His suffering and the chief source of His glory, through which God's manifold wisdom is made known to principalities and powers in heavenly places.
Setting of the Prayer
Jesus spoke these words privately in the upper chamber alone with the eleven after Judas withdrew, when the peace of heaven returned to Him, sharing comfort, counsel and prayer with His faithful disciples. They were not for the multitude who could not understand such sacred truths. With divine love and tenderest sympathy He spoke of the approaching separation before directing their thoughts to the great object of His mission ever kept before Him, whose joy was that all His humiliation and suffering would glorify the Father's name. The disciples repeated these words again and again to stay their sinking hearts in great disappointment and trial, yet did not fully understand them until after the resurrection, and through their testimony they have spread over all lands to live through all ages comforting the desponding and giving peace and hope to thousands who believe.
The saying belongs to Christ's last farewell prayer for His disciples, offered shortly before His departure after ending His instruction in John 13-16 with strong hopeful words. He spoke after finishing the work given Him to do, having glorified God on earth, manifested the Father's name, and gathered out those who were to continue His work among men, declaring that His glory comes through them. It was prayed in their last week together to prepare their minds for the coming trial of separation and of seeing Him suffer rejection and betrayal by Judas into the hands of wicked men, and before His trial, humiliation, Gethsemane agony, suffering and crucifixion. Its purpose was to comfort them, to strengthen their faith with assurance and hope, to teach that their ministry must be built on Christ with human effort working together with divine power lest without God's agency their work fail, to teach the nature of His kingdom and the call to be one with Christ and through Him one with another, and to teach that God's people should not be self-centered but wholly sanctified for God's service in applying His instruction to their own lives.
The prayer was not for the world but for those the Father gave Him, because they are the Father's, who receive His word through Christ in faithful trust that the Father sent Him. It was for His disciples and for all who would afterward believe on Him through their word, and therefore reaches beyond the immediate disciples to take in present believers also. For everyone who complies with the conditions it grants the privilege of being blended in oneness in Christ Jesus as His life is one with the Father, holding possibilities that strengthen faith and give a higher idea of what a Christian may become by striving to answer this prayer. In Him believers are complete and may be one with Christ in God, while apart from Him they are deficient, and they answer the prayer by accepting this oneness.
As consecrated High Priest He poured out His soul in prayer for His disciples, with divine authority placing His elect church in the Father's arms and gathering His flock as a faithful shepherd under the shadow of the Almighty in a strong and sure refuge as He went forth to meet His last battle with Satan. As the Good Shepherd and humanity's Elder Brother He identified His interests with fallen humanity, sought fresh grace from the Father, and then strengthened and encouraged His followers with assurance and hope, though adored by angels sharing human infirmities and tempted in every way yet without sin. In this farewell prayer for His church He embraced humanity and joined earth to heaven, bringing finite people into connection with the infinite God, encircling the children of Adam with His human arm while grasping the throne of the Infinite with His divine arm in a prayer broad as the earth and reaching high heaven. He who spent nights such as on the Mount of Olives in strong crying and tears identifying with human weakness now pleads in behalf of guilty ministers and congregations that their sins be pardoned through His atoning sacrifice, presenting His bruised hands bearing the wounds of the spikes and claiming those who believe in Him as His own, with the church and the names of believers graven upon the palms of His hands.
Father Son Shared Possession
All that is Christ's is the Father's, and all that is the Father's is Christ's, in a close union that joins them without merging them into one person or effacing their distinct identities and personal relation. This mutual possession is declared over those given to the Son out of the world, for whom He asks the Father to keep, to make one, and to preserve from evil while they remain in the world. Their unity and loyalty to God mark them as distinct from the world, whose hatred of them follows its earlier hatred of Christ, and their oneness with Him in love and unity through faith displays His glory, whereas division and dissension do not. These words are to have due weight upon hearts at all times and in all places, as a privilege to understand belonging to the mystery of godliness that lifts action onto a higher plane.
The disciples and all who follow Christ belong alike to both the Father and the Son, so that what belongs to Christ belongs to the Father and what belongs to the Father belongs to Christ. They are received and kept through the Father's word given through Christ, in faithful trust that the Father sent Him, and their lives are to display His unselfish purpose of giving what saves from sin and turns toward righteousness. This shared belonging calls them to become one with Christ and with one another in faith and understanding of God's Word, shaping life and habit by the lessons of His prayer. That harmony and love through faith glorify Christ in them, while division and strife oppose the unity He desired. Following Him in self-denial and sacrifice, bearing the cross and dying to self, glorifies God, and His followers share in His suffering before entering God's city.
Believers are God's property because Jesus gave His life for them, having purchased them at the sacrifice of His own life, and therefore they are to obey God and stand faithfully in the truth even when set apart from the world or from opposing family members. All human powers and every part and property of human nature belong to God and to Christ by that purchase, placing upon His people the high value He set on them just before Gethsemane. For this reason they must be treated with care and love, and show Christlikeness by loving one another as the reflection of His character. He is glorified in them when His character, aims and purposes are reproduced in them, when His love abiding in the heart produces love for fellow beings, self-denial, self-sacrifice, earnest zeal and continual service to save a perishing world, when His tenderness, compassion and solicitude appear in one who wears His yoke, and when they pray as He prayed with longing and weeping for souls ready to perish.
Christ Glorified in Followers
Christ is glorified in His disciples when He gives His true followers the glory of His own character and through the impartation of His Spirit appears in their lives. That glorifying is seen in perfect oneness as close as the union between the Father and the Son, in sanctified harmony, in obedience to the truth bearing its fruit, in characters that honor God, and in a united life that convinces the world that God sent His Son to save sinners and gives success to the efforts of His workers. It is glorified in those who receive Him as personal Saviour and work with His unselfish love to restore God's image in humanity, reflecting the love He revealed in representing His Father. It appears when believers are united heart to heart in love as the badge of discipleship, living His pattern life, making a combined consecrated effort in one great work, cherishing tender respectful regard for one another, and working for the recovery of sinners to loyalty.
As righteous principles soften and subdue the natural disposition, which is the mystery of godliness, believers become on earth a symbol of the heavenly family and win souls by revealing Christ, while God proves His people in testing time to see who are worthy of admittance into His family. This glorifying must begin in the home, for church members are measured by what they are in the home, and when His words are obeyed there by working the works of Christ and not grieving the Spirit of God by an unchristlike course, the influence extends to the church and the brightly burning lamp of good works causes men in darkness to glorify the heavenly Father. Living His prayer means representing Him in character by putting the powers of the whole being into being so kind, so tender, so loving, so Christlike that the world sees that God indeed sent His Son to save sinners. Christ is glorified in them when they correct their thoughts, words and acts, take themselves and self sternly in hand, read and practice the Word, set a right example so others take knowledge that they have been with Jesus and learned of Him, and cherish love for God and one another, overcome separation into isolated groups, seek sanctification through the truth, and use their talents to fulfill His prayer.
He receives glory in His people when love for one another is cherished in daily life, when selfishness is emptied from the heart, others are esteemed better than self, and spirit and words and acts reveal Christ through transforming grace and the Holy Spirit, with each doing his appointed work and strengthening one another with words of hope and cheer that make hearts glad. Where accusing, backbiting, criticizing and weakening one another's hands continue He is not glorified because love is lacking, but when hearts are filled with the love of Christ and believers love one another as He loved them, He is glorified in them. That love abiding in the heart produces self-denial, zeal and service to save souls, with Christlikeness at home, in the church and in the world, and with lives formed within by daily feeding on the Word as the bread from heaven. His ransomed church is His recompense for His conquests and suffering and the chief source of His glory, claimed at the close of His work on earth after His promise of seeing His seed and prospering was fulfilled.
Through the church God's manifold wisdom is made known to principalities and powers in heavenly places. His church is to bring to completion the work He began, and when the church is finally redeemed in Paradise He will be satisfied as He sees the result of His suffering to redeem fallen humanity, and the redeemed will be His chief glory and satisfaction throughout eternity. Whether He is glorified in those who profess religion and claim to be children of God tests character and connection with humanity, for conduct must show purity and dignity and wholeheartedness in the cause and work of God. Those who have long known the truth must make earnest and serious effort to understand what it means to follow Jesus, to glorify Christ in life, to search the heart to expose motives behind wrong words and actions, to discern sin from righteousness, to remain true to principle and profession and hold fast to God, and to seek to be glorified through Jesus Christ, for those who do so are safe, hidden with Christ in God.
Preserving the unity for which He prayed is connected with God loving believers as He loved His Son, with the sinner's salvation, and with God's eternal glory. Doing wrong makes right example before others impossible, so self must be corrected and the Word practiced. Gossip, faultfinding, suspicion and jealousy must be put away, for they glorify Satan instead of Christ.
Call to Unity
The verse grounds the call for believers to be one with Christ and through Him one with one another as Christ is one with the Father. That oneness is an enduring, living union with God, expressed in shared love and purpose, in completeness in Christ, and in partaking of the divine nature while escaping corruption, with believers loved by the Father as He loves His Son. It is the only hope of reaching heaven, for Christ has opened the way to the kingdom to those who believe, assigning no different path, carrying on the great process by which believers are made one with Him in this present life to be one with Him throughout all eternity, holding part of the divine antidote for the sin of the whole world. Living it out means opening the heart to His melting love to replace coldness and hardness, asking God to forgive perversity and heal backsliding, abiding as branches of the True Vine which cannot be at variance with one another, and giving encouragement rather than discouragement to those carrying heavy burdens.
That unity is shown by taking out of the way anything standing between a person and God or between a person and brethren, by leaving the gift before the altar of prayer and doing what Christ requires, by confessing and forsaking sins so that the blood of Jesus Christ is efficacious, and then walking in meekness, Christlike sympathy, shared speech, combined consecrated effort, and giving up one's own way for God's way in living union with God. It is the badge of discipleship and the evidence given to the world that God sent His Son to save sinners, convincing the world that Christianity is genuine, so that through the witness of loving unity with one another and with Christ, and through Him with God, many are converted. In that oneness believers remain one with Christ, cooperate with Him as He works with them, and hate the sin that separates the soul from God when conviction comes and the light of the glory of God is revealed as the result of grace upon human hearts. God's people are therefore to work together as a church, for division into separate, isolated groups would disrupt God's plan.
Difference, disunion, strife, ambition, disobedience, defiling talk, gossip, faultfinding, passing judgment and accusing the brethren dishonor God, oppose Christ's desire, present the opposite of what God desires, hurt souls, spoil God's work as strange fire, and bring weakness and confusion. Separation, such as between medical missionary work and the ministry, shows the Holy Spirit is not working upon hearts, while becoming one with Christ and with one another opens the way for God's love and power to flow richly among believers. Unity and love lived out in practical life form a defense against Satan's attacks so that those who live this prayer will stand the test, whereas dissension and striving for the highest place bring weakness. Satan understands the prayer and keeps God's people in discord over little misunderstandings, so division gives him cause to triumph; neglecting the chapter's call to unity and love, which is to be read repeatedly, taken deeply into the heart and lived out, puts the church at risk of losing its candlestick, and unheeded counsels become a savor of death unto death instead of life unto life.
The chapter is to serve as the church's creed, showing that difference and disunion dishonor God. The oneness between Christ and the Father is the pattern for the oneness of the church as unity of the faith for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, and for the edifying of the body of Christ. That unity is to be secured by Heaven's appointed means of spiritual gifts, not by human creeds, which create divided denominations, shut out the gifts, and cannot stand on the foundation of unity laid by Christ. The prayer is answered when believers take instruction such as that given in 1 Corinthians into earnest life practice.
Living Out the Prayer
John 17 as a whole, with this verse in it, sets out God's will in the teaching of John 13-17 and is to be believed and lived out before fellow ministers, read repeatedly, taken deeply into the heart, studied to show where believers stand in relation to unity, and carried into practical life. It expresses Christ's mind toward His Father and toward His disciples, comprehends much, and is a lesson to all who are trying to follow Him, presenting God as the one to be acknowledged in all ways and directing people to seek an ever fuller knowledge of God as revealed in Christ. It is the highest spiritual education, eternal principles, and the science that will stand the test of ages, with words sufficient to sustain courage and keep souls in God's love, while neglecting it risks losing the candlestick. It describes the advantages Christ purchased for humanity through His sacrifice and points believers to power they can claim in Christ's name when tempted and tried.
Living the prayer means sanctification through the truth, hearing and obeying Christ, working with Him, dying to self, letting Him live within, and bearing the cross and sharing His suffering before entering the city with Him. It means obeying God even when set apart from the world, with His love enabling believers to love one another as He has loved them, leaving no place for finding fault but humbling self before God to have one's own faults removed. Those who belong alike to the Father and to the Son are loved by the Father as He loves Jesus, united with Christ with lives hidden with Him in God as God's chosen children and heirs redeemed by the Lamb, and Christ is glorified in them. That instruction is to be practiced first in the home to shape conduct, so that the light of good works reaches others, for Christ identifies Himself with His believing people and joins them to Himself to carry His light beyond home to the church and the whole world in saving a lost world.
Believers answer the prayer by believing and practicing God's Word, for the chapter presents God's plan of redemption. The answer is complete consecration to God, presented as the only hope for becoming fit for heaven, and striving to be one so as to be the light of the world. Truly converted believers value this prayer more than any favor the world can offer, and it is to be kept and held before the church as a call to unity and faith so believers stand together in the shaking time with strength against Satan's attacks rather than letting differences divide them. Those who teach truth must in that close unity with Him crucify self and purge selfishness to become pure as Christ is pure, having no place for speculative theories but bearing witness to the truth and focusing on what must be done to inherit eternal life.
The intercessory prayer teaches Christ's ministry as Mediator and High Priest in the heavenly sanctuary after His sacrifice, picturing the intercession He is making now and will continue to make to the end of the world. That intercession is for those who come to Him humbly and trust His power to save, pardoning guilty ministers and congregations through His atoning sacrifice, and it presents the plan of redemption, the day of visitation, and the advantages purchased by His sacrifice. The chapter shows the fullness and breadth of Jesus' mercy and love bestowed on those who walk before Him in obedience and humility, with power to claim in His name when tempted, and its instruction in John 14-17 becomes clearer through the enlightening influence of the Spirit of God. It gives the lesson guiding conduct, was the basis for calling seekers to seek the Lord earnestly, give themselves wholly to Him, confess sins, and return the Lord's portion of means to advance His cause, and it opens an enduring union as the true work of grace in the heart uniting believers to Christ and to one another and making them one with Christ in God as partakers of the divine nature escaping corruption through lust, changed from sin to holiness and loved by the Father as He loves His Son, opening the source of rich and eternal happiness outliving all earthly sinful enjoyment.
Spoken alone with the eleven after Judas withdrew, Christ prayed not for the world but for those the Father had given Him, reaching also to all who would afterward believe through their word. All that belongs to the Son belongs to the Father and all that belongs to the Father belongs to the Son, so the disciples and all His followers belong alike to both as one family in heaven and on earth. He is glorified in His people when He gives them the glory of His character and through His Spirit appears in their lives in sanctified harmony, obedience bearing fruit, and love abiding in the heart in self-denial and service to save souls. That life grounds the call for believers to be one with Christ and through Him one with one another as He is one with the Father, which is the badge of discipleship and the evidence to the world that God sent His Son to save sinners. His ransomed church is His recompense for His suffering and the chief source of His glory, through which God's manifold wisdom is made known to principalities and powers in heavenly places.
Setting of the Prayer
Jesus spoke these words privately in the upper chamber alone with the eleven after Judas withdrew, when the peace of heaven returned to Him, sharing comfort, counsel and prayer with His faithful disciples. They were not for the multitude who could not understand such sacred truths. With divine love and tenderest sympathy He spoke of the approaching separation before directing their thoughts to the great object of His mission ever kept before Him, whose joy was that all His humiliation and suffering would glorify the Father's name. The disciples repeated these words again and again to stay their sinking hearts in great disappointment and trial, yet did not fully understand them until after the resurrection, and through their testimony they have spread over all lands to live through all ages comforting the desponding and giving peace and hope to thousands who believe.
The saying belongs to Christ's last farewell prayer for His disciples, offered shortly before His departure after ending His instruction in John 13-16 with strong hopeful words. He spoke after finishing the work given Him to do, having glorified God on earth, manifested the Father's name, and gathered out those who were to continue His work among men, declaring that His glory comes through them. It was prayed in their last week together to prepare their minds for the coming trial of separation and of seeing Him suffer rejection and betrayal by Judas into the hands of wicked men, and before His trial, humiliation, Gethsemane agony, suffering and crucifixion. Its purpose was to comfort them, to strengthen their faith with assurance and hope, to teach that their ministry must be built on Christ with human effort working together with divine power lest without God's agency their work fail, to teach the nature of His kingdom and the call to be one with Christ and through Him one with another, and to teach that God's people should not be self-centered but wholly sanctified for God's service in applying His instruction to their own lives.
The prayer was not for the world but for those the Father gave Him, because they are the Father's, who receive His word through Christ in faithful trust that the Father sent Him. It was for His disciples and for all who would afterward believe on Him through their word, and therefore reaches beyond the immediate disciples to take in present believers also. For everyone who complies with the conditions it grants the privilege of being blended in oneness in Christ Jesus as His life is one with the Father, holding possibilities that strengthen faith and give a higher idea of what a Christian may become by striving to answer this prayer. In Him believers are complete and may be one with Christ in God, while apart from Him they are deficient, and they answer the prayer by accepting this oneness.
As consecrated High Priest He poured out His soul in prayer for His disciples, with divine authority placing His elect church in the Father's arms and gathering His flock as a faithful shepherd under the shadow of the Almighty in a strong and sure refuge as He went forth to meet His last battle with Satan. As the Good Shepherd and humanity's Elder Brother He identified His interests with fallen humanity, sought fresh grace from the Father, and then strengthened and encouraged His followers with assurance and hope, though adored by angels sharing human infirmities and tempted in every way yet without sin. In this farewell prayer for His church He embraced humanity and joined earth to heaven, bringing finite people into connection with the infinite God, encircling the children of Adam with His human arm while grasping the throne of the Infinite with His divine arm in a prayer broad as the earth and reaching high heaven. He who spent nights such as on the Mount of Olives in strong crying and tears identifying with human weakness now pleads in behalf of guilty ministers and congregations that their sins be pardoned through His atoning sacrifice, presenting His bruised hands bearing the wounds of the spikes and claiming those who believe in Him as His own, with the church and the names of believers graven upon the palms of His hands.
Father Son Shared Possession
All that is Christ's is the Father's, and all that is the Father's is Christ's, in a close union that joins them without merging them into one person or effacing their distinct identities and personal relation. This mutual possession is declared over those given to the Son out of the world, for whom He asks the Father to keep, to make one, and to preserve from evil while they remain in the world. Their unity and loyalty to God mark them as distinct from the world, whose hatred of them follows its earlier hatred of Christ, and their oneness with Him in love and unity through faith displays His glory, whereas division and dissension do not. These words are to have due weight upon hearts at all times and in all places, as a privilege to understand belonging to the mystery of godliness that lifts action onto a higher plane.
The disciples and all who follow Christ belong alike to both the Father and the Son, so that what belongs to Christ belongs to the Father and what belongs to the Father belongs to Christ. They are received and kept through the Father's word given through Christ, in faithful trust that the Father sent Him, and their lives are to display His unselfish purpose of giving what saves from sin and turns toward righteousness. This shared belonging calls them to become one with Christ and with one another in faith and understanding of God's Word, shaping life and habit by the lessons of His prayer. That harmony and love through faith glorify Christ in them, while division and strife oppose the unity He desired. Following Him in self-denial and sacrifice, bearing the cross and dying to self, glorifies God, and His followers share in His suffering before entering God's city.
Believers are God's property because Jesus gave His life for them, having purchased them at the sacrifice of His own life, and therefore they are to obey God and stand faithfully in the truth even when set apart from the world or from opposing family members. All human powers and every part and property of human nature belong to God and to Christ by that purchase, placing upon His people the high value He set on them just before Gethsemane. For this reason they must be treated with care and love, and show Christlikeness by loving one another as the reflection of His character. He is glorified in them when His character, aims and purposes are reproduced in them, when His love abiding in the heart produces love for fellow beings, self-denial, self-sacrifice, earnest zeal and continual service to save a perishing world, when His tenderness, compassion and solicitude appear in one who wears His yoke, and when they pray as He prayed with longing and weeping for souls ready to perish.
Christ Glorified in Followers
Christ is glorified in His disciples when He gives His true followers the glory of His own character and through the impartation of His Spirit appears in their lives. That glorifying is seen in perfect oneness as close as the union between the Father and the Son, in sanctified harmony, in obedience to the truth bearing its fruit, in characters that honor God, and in a united life that convinces the world that God sent His Son to save sinners and gives success to the efforts of His workers. It is glorified in those who receive Him as personal Saviour and work with His unselfish love to restore God's image in humanity, reflecting the love He revealed in representing His Father. It appears when believers are united heart to heart in love as the badge of discipleship, living His pattern life, making a combined consecrated effort in one great work, cherishing tender respectful regard for one another, and working for the recovery of sinners to loyalty.
As righteous principles soften and subdue the natural disposition, which is the mystery of godliness, believers become on earth a symbol of the heavenly family and win souls by revealing Christ, while God proves His people in testing time to see who are worthy of admittance into His family. This glorifying must begin in the home, for church members are measured by what they are in the home, and when His words are obeyed there by working the works of Christ and not grieving the Spirit of God by an unchristlike course, the influence extends to the church and the brightly burning lamp of good works causes men in darkness to glorify the heavenly Father. Living His prayer means representing Him in character by putting the powers of the whole being into being so kind, so tender, so loving, so Christlike that the world sees that God indeed sent His Son to save sinners. Christ is glorified in them when they correct their thoughts, words and acts, take themselves and self sternly in hand, read and practice the Word, set a right example so others take knowledge that they have been with Jesus and learned of Him, and cherish love for God and one another, overcome separation into isolated groups, seek sanctification through the truth, and use their talents to fulfill His prayer.
He receives glory in His people when love for one another is cherished in daily life, when selfishness is emptied from the heart, others are esteemed better than self, and spirit and words and acts reveal Christ through transforming grace and the Holy Spirit, with each doing his appointed work and strengthening one another with words of hope and cheer that make hearts glad. Where accusing, backbiting, criticizing and weakening one another's hands continue He is not glorified because love is lacking, but when hearts are filled with the love of Christ and believers love one another as He loved them, He is glorified in them. That love abiding in the heart produces self-denial, zeal and service to save souls, with Christlikeness at home, in the church and in the world, and with lives formed within by daily feeding on the Word as the bread from heaven. His ransomed church is His recompense for His conquests and suffering and the chief source of His glory, claimed at the close of His work on earth after His promise of seeing His seed and prospering was fulfilled.
Through the church God's manifold wisdom is made known to principalities and powers in heavenly places. His church is to bring to completion the work He began, and when the church is finally redeemed in Paradise He will be satisfied as He sees the result of His suffering to redeem fallen humanity, and the redeemed will be His chief glory and satisfaction throughout eternity. Whether He is glorified in those who profess religion and claim to be children of God tests character and connection with humanity, for conduct must show purity and dignity and wholeheartedness in the cause and work of God. Those who have long known the truth must make earnest and serious effort to understand what it means to follow Jesus, to glorify Christ in life, to search the heart to expose motives behind wrong words and actions, to discern sin from righteousness, to remain true to principle and profession and hold fast to God, and to seek to be glorified through Jesus Christ, for those who do so are safe, hidden with Christ in God.
Preserving the unity for which He prayed is connected with God loving believers as He loved His Son, with the sinner's salvation, and with God's eternal glory. Doing wrong makes right example before others impossible, so self must be corrected and the Word practiced. Gossip, faultfinding, suspicion and jealousy must be put away, for they glorify Satan instead of Christ.
Call to Unity
The verse grounds the call for believers to be one with Christ and through Him one with one another as Christ is one with the Father. That oneness is an enduring, living union with God, expressed in shared love and purpose, in completeness in Christ, and in partaking of the divine nature while escaping corruption, with believers loved by the Father as He loves His Son. It is the only hope of reaching heaven, for Christ has opened the way to the kingdom to those who believe, assigning no different path, carrying on the great process by which believers are made one with Him in this present life to be one with Him throughout all eternity, holding part of the divine antidote for the sin of the whole world. Living it out means opening the heart to His melting love to replace coldness and hardness, asking God to forgive perversity and heal backsliding, abiding as branches of the True Vine which cannot be at variance with one another, and giving encouragement rather than discouragement to those carrying heavy burdens.
That unity is shown by taking out of the way anything standing between a person and God or between a person and brethren, by leaving the gift before the altar of prayer and doing what Christ requires, by confessing and forsaking sins so that the blood of Jesus Christ is efficacious, and then walking in meekness, Christlike sympathy, shared speech, combined consecrated effort, and giving up one's own way for God's way in living union with God. It is the badge of discipleship and the evidence given to the world that God sent His Son to save sinners, convincing the world that Christianity is genuine, so that through the witness of loving unity with one another and with Christ, and through Him with God, many are converted. In that oneness believers remain one with Christ, cooperate with Him as He works with them, and hate the sin that separates the soul from God when conviction comes and the light of the glory of God is revealed as the result of grace upon human hearts. God's people are therefore to work together as a church, for division into separate, isolated groups would disrupt God's plan.
Difference, disunion, strife, ambition, disobedience, defiling talk, gossip, faultfinding, passing judgment and accusing the brethren dishonor God, oppose Christ's desire, present the opposite of what God desires, hurt souls, spoil God's work as strange fire, and bring weakness and confusion. Separation, such as between medical missionary work and the ministry, shows the Holy Spirit is not working upon hearts, while becoming one with Christ and with one another opens the way for God's love and power to flow richly among believers. Unity and love lived out in practical life form a defense against Satan's attacks so that those who live this prayer will stand the test, whereas dissension and striving for the highest place bring weakness. Satan understands the prayer and keeps God's people in discord over little misunderstandings, so division gives him cause to triumph; neglecting the chapter's call to unity and love, which is to be read repeatedly, taken deeply into the heart and lived out, puts the church at risk of losing its candlestick, and unheeded counsels become a savor of death unto death instead of life unto life.
The chapter is to serve as the church's creed, showing that difference and disunion dishonor God. The oneness between Christ and the Father is the pattern for the oneness of the church as unity of the faith for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, and for the edifying of the body of Christ. That unity is to be secured by Heaven's appointed means of spiritual gifts, not by human creeds, which create divided denominations, shut out the gifts, and cannot stand on the foundation of unity laid by Christ. The prayer is answered when believers take instruction such as that given in 1 Corinthians into earnest life practice.
Living Out the Prayer
John 17 as a whole, with this verse in it, sets out God's will in the teaching of John 13-17 and is to be believed and lived out before fellow ministers, read repeatedly, taken deeply into the heart, studied to show where believers stand in relation to unity, and carried into practical life. It expresses Christ's mind toward His Father and toward His disciples, comprehends much, and is a lesson to all who are trying to follow Him, presenting God as the one to be acknowledged in all ways and directing people to seek an ever fuller knowledge of God as revealed in Christ. It is the highest spiritual education, eternal principles, and the science that will stand the test of ages, with words sufficient to sustain courage and keep souls in God's love, while neglecting it risks losing the candlestick. It describes the advantages Christ purchased for humanity through His sacrifice and points believers to power they can claim in Christ's name when tempted and tried.
Living the prayer means sanctification through the truth, hearing and obeying Christ, working with Him, dying to self, letting Him live within, and bearing the cross and sharing His suffering before entering the city with Him. It means obeying God even when set apart from the world, with His love enabling believers to love one another as He has loved them, leaving no place for finding fault but humbling self before God to have one's own faults removed. Those who belong alike to the Father and to the Son are loved by the Father as He loves Jesus, united with Christ with lives hidden with Him in God as God's chosen children and heirs redeemed by the Lamb, and Christ is glorified in them. That instruction is to be practiced first in the home to shape conduct, so that the light of good works reaches others, for Christ identifies Himself with His believing people and joins them to Himself to carry His light beyond home to the church and the whole world in saving a lost world.
Believers answer the prayer by believing and practicing God's Word, for the chapter presents God's plan of redemption. The answer is complete consecration to God, presented as the only hope for becoming fit for heaven, and striving to be one so as to be the light of the world. Truly converted believers value this prayer more than any favor the world can offer, and it is to be kept and held before the church as a call to unity and faith so believers stand together in the shaking time with strength against Satan's attacks rather than letting differences divide them. Those who teach truth must in that close unity with Him crucify self and purge selfishness to become pure as Christ is pure, having no place for speculative theories but bearing witness to the truth and focusing on what must be done to inherit eternal life.
The intercessory prayer teaches Christ's ministry as Mediator and High Priest in the heavenly sanctuary after His sacrifice, picturing the intercession He is making now and will continue to make to the end of the world. That intercession is for those who come to Him humbly and trust His power to save, pardoning guilty ministers and congregations through His atoning sacrifice, and it presents the plan of redemption, the day of visitation, and the advantages purchased by His sacrifice. The chapter shows the fullness and breadth of Jesus' mercy and love bestowed on those who walk before Him in obedience and humility, with power to claim in His name when tempted, and its instruction in John 14-17 becomes clearer through the enlightening influence of the Spirit of God. It gives the lesson guiding conduct, was the basis for calling seekers to seek the Lord earnestly, give themselves wholly to Him, confess sins, and return the Lord's portion of means to advance His cause, and it opens an enduring union as the true work of grace in the heart uniting believers to Christ and to one another and making them one with Christ in God as partakers of the divine nature escaping corruption through lust, changed from sin to holiness and loved by the Father as He loves His Son, opening the source of rich and eternal happiness outliving all earthly sinful enjoyment.