Now they have known that all things whatsoever thou hast given me are of thee.
The men the Father gave Christ out of the world have now come to settled knowledge that everything the Father has given Him is from the Father and comes from God. They know this because He made the Father's name known to them and gave them the words the Father gave Him, and they received and kept those words and knew surely that He came out from the Father and believed the Father sent Him. The saying reveals the Father and Christ as two distinct persons who are one without losing the individuality of either, with Christ joining Himself to fallen humanity as Elder Brother and suppliant for grace. It seeks sacred oneness among believers after that pattern, that they give up their own way for God's way so the world may know God sent His Son to save sinners. Believers answer it by entire consecration to live its words, being sanctified through the truth and made kind, tender, loving and Christlike in sympathy and unity with one another.
Prayer Setting Described
The words were spoken aloud in the upper chamber when Jesus was alone with the eleven after Judas withdrew, for the multitude could not understand these sacred truths. They belong to Christ's last prayer at the close of His ministry and instruction with the disciples, offered just before His betrayal by Judas, His agony in Gethsemane under the sins of the world, His trial, crucifixion, burial and resurrection, and before His humiliation and departure. It was the prayer poured out at the end of His instruction in their last week together, after the comfort and encouragement of John 13, 14, 15 and 16 had ended with strong hopeful words.
He prayed lifting His eyes to heaven in the hour of glorification, directing thought to the great object of His mission that He kept ever before Him, with joy that all His humiliation and suffering would glorify the Father's name. He declared He had finished the work given Him and defined eternal life as knowing the only true God and Jesus Christ whom He sent. The prayer was to prepare, comfort, instruct and strengthen the disciples for the coming trial and separation, to make them aware of His purposes and plans, and it gives a sample of His intercession still carried on in heaven within the veil for all to the ends of the earth who receive Him and believe on His name.
Even the disciples did not fully understand or appreciate these words until after the resurrection and the descent of the Holy Spirit, whose coming opens blinded eyes as at Pentecost. Afterward they repeated them again and again to stay their sinking hearts in great disappointment and trial and to comfort one another. They continue to give comfort, peace and hope and to benefit readers of Scripture through all time, having spread from their testimony over all lands and living through all ages to comfort the desponding.
Disciples Knowledge Explained
The men given out of the world to Christ have now come to know that everything whatsoever given to Him is of the Father and comes from God. This recognition belongs to His prayer for His disciples, in which as the Good Shepherd He identifies His interests with fallen humanity and intercedes on their behalf. Everyone given to Him keeps the Father's word in this settled certainty.
They came to this settled, certain knowledge because He manifested the Father's name to them and gave them the words the Father gave Him. They received those words and kept them, took them in, and knew surely that He came out from the Father. They believed that the Father sent Him, and through receiving His words and so believing they learned that all He had received came from the Father.
As they receive and obey His words and conform to the Father's will they come to know the truth and grow in their knowledge of Christ. What the Father gives to Christ comes from the Father, and those given to Christ by the Father advance in this way.
This knowledge belongs to the experience of true, trusting believers who receive His words and learn in the faith. To know God in this way is to know that all things given to Christ are from the Father, and it lays obligation to acknowledge Him in all ways and to seek more and more of this knowledge. Its significance sustains courage, strengthens faith, and keeps the believer in the love of God. The disciples reached this settled knowledge that all entrusted to Christ originated with the Father.
Their witness rested on seeing God's work revealed in Jesus, witnessing His miracles and hearing His words, which testimony they were to carry to the world. Inwardly Christ is formed within by eating the Word of God as His flesh and blood. As blood is formed in the body by food eaten, feeding on that Word forms Christ within, the hope of glory, and the written Word brings the searcher to the flesh and blood of the Son of God so that through obedience he becomes a partaker of the divine nature. As temporal food must be eaten daily and not once, God's Word must be eaten daily, for there is constant need of feeding upon it, the knowledge of which is eternal life. The entrance of that Word gives light and understanding to the simple, enlightening the mind and opening the heart to receive the engrafted word, and it must be meat and drink feasted upon so the believer is renewed in the spirit of the mind and grows up in Christ the living Head. As the branch becomes a withered stalk producing no fruit unless firmly united fiber by fiber and vein by vein to the vine stock and supplied with nourishment, dependence and sufficiency are found only in vital union with Christ, for reception of the Word, the bread from heaven, is reception of Christ Himself, and appetite for the Word must be encouraged because it nourishes healthful piety and gives the soul its nourishment and vitality.
Receiving the spoken Word is the way this knowledge comes, and it belongs to the lesson of the prayer for everyone in service that God's servants preach His Word to the people. Believers are to pass on to others those same words given to the disciples, words holding worth for this life and for eternity, so that God is glorified instead of self. They are to make known to the sinful world all that this truth implies, their baptismal vows signifying death to the world and rising from the water symbolizing the new birth at conversion. Those who share this knowledge and belief are to pattern after Christ and pattern His works, and doing that keeps them from missing the way and gives them heaven.
What Christ has received comes from God, so the disciples' work must rest on Christ and depend on divine power. Human effort is required, but its power and effectiveness come from God.
Father and Son Revealed
The verse expresses the distinct identity and relationship of the Father and Christ, for God and Christ are two distinct personages, and though Christ is one with the Father their unity does not erase the individuality of either. Everything the Father gave to Christ came from the Father, and in this setting the disciples received the words the Father gave to Christ, knew surely that Christ came out from the Father, and believed that the Father sent Him. That oneness does not destroy personality, whether of Christ or of His followers, for followers scattered over the world are to be one with Him by giving up their own way for His way and for God's way, fulfilling God's purpose in all its height and depth. Their oneness with Christ is to make plain to the world that God sent His Son to save sinners, standing as the great unmistakable proof of His mission, while a loose, lax religion leaves the world confused and bewildered.
In this prayer the Good Shepherd identifies His interests with fallen humanity and intercedes on their behalf, joining believing people to Himself in the work of saving the lost world. The disciples are shown here recognizing that what the Father has given Christ comes from the Father. Christ prays as a suppliant to the Father, seeking fresh supplies of grace so He can give His followers assurance and hope, as their Elder Brother sharing human infirmities and tempted as they are yet without sin.
After completing His sacrifice Christ intercedes for His people in the heavenly sanctuary as their High Priest, and His sacrifice and intercession make redemption available to those who come to Him humbly and believe in His power to save. This prayer belongs to the time before His trial and crucifixion, yet it contains truth that stands through the ages and gives a sample of the intercession now carried on in heaven within the veil for all to the ends of the earth who receive Him and believe on His name. That intercession is made at the Father's right hand for those who believe and will continue to the end of the world, prevailing to take away sin and giving all who receive Him power to become sons of God, so that those obedient to His will shall live with Him and be kept from falling. There Jesus stands before the Father holding out His bruised hands bearing the wounds of cruel spikes and pleads that His church, the names of those who believe on Him, are graven upon the palms of His hands, a prayer presented on behalf of ministers over congregations and the churches they serve when they stand clothed with filthy garments and humble their hearts with fasting and prayer for pardon through the atoning sacrifice.
The Father loves members of the fallen human race changed from sin to holiness as He loves His Son. Those so united become partakers of the divine nature, escaping the corruption that is in the world through lust, and are one with Christ in God, bound up with Him and with God as God's chosen children and heirs with Christ redeemed by His blood. It is the privilege of men and women to have this enduring union of true grace in the heart uniting believers to Christ and to one another, which opens to them the source of rich and eternal happiness that outlives all earthly, sinful enjoyment. Preserving the unity prayed for raises fallen man, causes God to love believers as He loved His Son, saves the sinner, and glorifies God eternally.
The chapter shows how full and broad the mercy and love of Jesus are, waiting to bestow them on all who walk before Him in obedience and humility. It is to be lived out through keeping God's Word and allowing Christ's Spirit to transform character. God gives Christ those who remain true and loyal, and Christ undertakes to redeem them from Satan's power at the cost of His life, showing the high estimate He places on human beings in purchasing them at the sacrifice of His life. Therefore the purchase of His blood must be treated with care, with forbearance and patience, loving one another as He loved and not wounding and bruising the hearts of brethren, for Christlike love distinguishes Christians from worldlings and cleanses the heart from selfishness.
Believers Unity Taught
The prayer seeks sacred unity among believers, that they may be one as Christ and the Father are one, and every verse gives essential instruction for the church on this point. Difference and disunion dishonor God, while unity accords with the prayer and pleases God, and divisions and strife are contrary to that unity. Christ desired His followers to be one with Him as He was one with the Father, and to seek unity in faith and understanding of God's word. No one is to be discouraged, and those carrying heavy burdens need encouragement in living out this lesson.
Christ's followers are to be one with Him as He is one with the Father by giving up their own way for God's way and fulfilling God's purpose in all its height and depth. That oneness is to make plain to the world that God sent His Son to save sinners, standing as the great unmistakable proof of His mission, while a loose, lax religion leaves the world confused and bewildered. It is the result of the influence of the grace of God upon human hearts, and when lived it corrects thoughts, words, and acts and makes believers kind, tender, loving, and Christlike so others take knowledge that they have been with Jesus and have learned of Him. Maintaining this oneness in life work assures believers that Christ works with them as they work with Him.
Entering this close relation requires confessing and forsaking sin, leaving the gift before the altar of prayer and doing what Christ commanded to take out of the way anything standing between the soul and God or between brethren, so the blood of Jesus Christ is efficacious in behalf of the sinner. It requires emptying the heart of all selfishness and self-centeredness, taking out every thread of selfishness, depending wholly on Christ, and receiving the Holy Spirit to work in Christ's lines. It requires cherishing love for God and one another, seeking sanctification through truth, living by Christ's pattern and bound heart to heart in love, united in one great work with combined consecrated effort and tender respectful regard for one another. Kept in this way it ends accusing, backbiting, criticizing, dissension, strife, and weakening one another's hands, with no human kingly power exercised and no glory given to man. The practice begins in the home, where Christ's words are to be obeyed and His works done without grieving the Spirit by an unchristlike course, and when obeyed there the influence extends to the church as earth's symbol of heaven's family so men see good works and glorify the heavenly Father.
True grace gives enduring union with Christ in the heart, uniting believers to Christ and to one another. Those so united become partakers of the divine nature, escaping the corruption that is in the world through lust, and are one with Christ in God. Becoming one brings God's love and power richly into the soul, with Christ dwelling in His people united to God the great Head, which opens the source of rich and eternal happiness that outlives all earthly, sinful enjoyment.
That oneness is the foundation of unity laid by Christ, and the spiritual gifts were Heaven's appointed means to bring the church till all come in the unity of the faith and to keep it united and edified. Believers must constantly seek to answer that prayer by living in unity, for being at variance with one another is incompatible with being branches of the True Vine. The distinction between the apostles and those who would believe on their word does not confine gifts to the first Christians, for the promised signs follow all who believe.
The prayer calls believers to be sanctified through the truth, in which Jesus embraces believers as His children and asks that they be one with God as He is one with the Father. Obedience to God's commands brings people into this unity with Christ, who is one with God. His followers are to love one another as He loved them with unselfish love that humbles the heart before God, picks no flaws in others, and gives no glory to man.
Living Prayer Daily
The teachings of this prayer are essential instruction for the spiritual life, to be read and studied carefully, read over and over, believed literally, watched unto in prayer, and carried into practical life as the rule of life. Understood with new enlightenment when the mind is transformed by God's Spirit, they lead to understanding the mystery of godliness and to coming onto a higher plane of action, and they reveal what Christians may become as they strive to answer the prayer, strengthening faith and raising the sense of Christian possibility. Followed, they bring into unity, for the only hope of reaching heaven is to be one with Christ, and then in and through Christ to be one with one another, with no one called to walk alone. In Christ life and immortality are brought to light, He has opened the way to the kingdom to those who believe, He assigns to no one a path different from that which all must travel, and He calls for unity by following the Leader unitedly, walking in the footsteps of Jesus and doing His works even as He did the works of His Father, studying His ways, obeying His will, and making no move without consulting Him in humble prayer.
Believers answer the prayer by entire consecration to God, putting the whole being into living its words, and those who believe and practice God's Word answer it because it presents the plan of redemption. That consecration corrects thoughts, words and acts and makes them kind, tender, loving and Christlike, meek and lowly, close to Christ and to one another in sympathy and love, giving confidence to the weak by a tender spirit and demonstrating the sanctifying power of truth upon heart and character. It is the only hope and the way to obtain fitness for heaven in this world and to make certain work for eternity, bringing purification, refinement, and sanctification onto a higher platform, with unreserved surrender and continuous progressive increase until grace is lost in glory. The chapter contains instruction that God's family on earth must learn and apply, including setting aside self-centeredness and devoting oneself wholly to God's service, and each believer should examine by the chapter where he stands.
Living it means ceasing criticism and evil speaking, going to God in earnest prayer to help the erring, linking with one another and with Christ, and praying for union while living in such a way that God can answer. It requires emptying the heart of all selfishness and self-centeredness, receiving the Holy Spirit to work in Christ's lines, revealing Christ in spirit and words and acts, cherishing love for one another with the heart filled with the love of Christ, and loving one another as Christ has loved. It requires showing appreciation for one another and esteeming others better than self, helping and strengthening one another, and speaking words of hope and cheer that make hearts glad instead of sorrowful, giving no glory to man and seeking no own glory, with all dissension and strife ceasing, no human kingly power exercised, and every thread of selfishness taken out. Kept in this way it ends accusing, backbiting, criticizing, and weakening one another's hands, and the Lord is glorified in the life; then the Comforter abides in the heart making joy full, Christ's words become as the bread of life, and in the strength thus gained characters are developed that honor God and reveal the power of His grace, with perfect Christian fellowship and the fruit of obedience to the truth seen in the life.
The verse lays on believers the work of passing on to others those same words given to the disciples, words that hold worth for this life and for eternity, so that God is glorified instead of self. Their witness rested on seeing God's work revealed in Jesus, witnessing His miracles, and hearing His words, which they were to carry to the world, and believers are to make known to the sinful world all that this truth implies. Doing so is connected with being the light of the world, devoting powers to bearing witness to the truth, doing Christ's works as He did His Father's works with no move without humble prayer, and leaving no room for empty speculative theories. In public efforts this directs workers to confine themselves with intense earnestness to important united lines of truth with clear light, sacred testing truths beautiful in simplicity, and the sacred truths of the binding claims of the law of God, rather than making controversy over the daily of Daniel 8 or other agitating subjects a test or a prominent part of discourse, because agitation diverts minds, delays and hinders the essential city work to be done now, and pleases the enemy.
The commendation in John 17:6-10 applies to every Christian: Christians should stand true to principle and profession and hold fast to God, and doing so they are safe and hidden with Christ in God. Its significance sustains courage, strengthens faith, and keeps people in the love of God so they may enter the city with Him. The prayer is the help of the truly penitent in every emergency as they offer earnest petitions for fresh grace, new supplies of strength, and the efficiency and power of the Holy Spirit promised to all who ask in faith.
The practice begins in the home, where Christ's words are to be obeyed and His works done without grieving the Spirit of God by an unchristlike course, for God measures church members by what they are in the home. When obeyed there the influence extends to the church as a symbol on earth of the family in heaven, with the lamp burning brightly so men see good works and glorify the heavenly Father. Believers are to seek the Lord more earnestly and give themselves to Him as a whole sacrifice, confessing their sins with brokenness, weeping and prayer, and to count it their privilege to apportion their means and put it into circulation to supply deficiencies by giving back to the Lord His own portion to advance His cause in the world. Zeal is to be directed not toward human uplift but toward the glory of God.
The men the Father gave Christ out of the world have now come to settled knowledge that everything the Father has given Him is from the Father and comes from God. They know this because He made the Father's name known to them and gave them the words the Father gave Him, and they received and kept those words and knew surely that He came out from the Father and believed the Father sent Him. The saying reveals the Father and Christ as two distinct persons who are one without losing the individuality of either, with Christ joining Himself to fallen humanity as Elder Brother and suppliant for grace. It seeks sacred oneness among believers after that pattern, that they give up their own way for God's way so the world may know God sent His Son to save sinners. Believers answer it by entire consecration to live its words, being sanctified through the truth and made kind, tender, loving and Christlike in sympathy and unity with one another.
Prayer Setting Described
The words were spoken aloud in the upper chamber when Jesus was alone with the eleven after Judas withdrew, for the multitude could not understand these sacred truths. They belong to Christ's last prayer at the close of His ministry and instruction with the disciples, offered just before His betrayal by Judas, His agony in Gethsemane under the sins of the world, His trial, crucifixion, burial and resurrection, and before His humiliation and departure. It was the prayer poured out at the end of His instruction in their last week together, after the comfort and encouragement of John 13, 14, 15 and 16 had ended with strong hopeful words.
He prayed lifting His eyes to heaven in the hour of glorification, directing thought to the great object of His mission that He kept ever before Him, with joy that all His humiliation and suffering would glorify the Father's name. He declared He had finished the work given Him and defined eternal life as knowing the only true God and Jesus Christ whom He sent. The prayer was to prepare, comfort, instruct and strengthen the disciples for the coming trial and separation, to make them aware of His purposes and plans, and it gives a sample of His intercession still carried on in heaven within the veil for all to the ends of the earth who receive Him and believe on His name.
Even the disciples did not fully understand or appreciate these words until after the resurrection and the descent of the Holy Spirit, whose coming opens blinded eyes as at Pentecost. Afterward they repeated them again and again to stay their sinking hearts in great disappointment and trial and to comfort one another. They continue to give comfort, peace and hope and to benefit readers of Scripture through all time, having spread from their testimony over all lands and living through all ages to comfort the desponding.
Disciples Knowledge Explained
The men given out of the world to Christ have now come to know that everything whatsoever given to Him is of the Father and comes from God. This recognition belongs to His prayer for His disciples, in which as the Good Shepherd He identifies His interests with fallen humanity and intercedes on their behalf. Everyone given to Him keeps the Father's word in this settled certainty.
They came to this settled, certain knowledge because He manifested the Father's name to them and gave them the words the Father gave Him. They received those words and kept them, took them in, and knew surely that He came out from the Father. They believed that the Father sent Him, and through receiving His words and so believing they learned that all He had received came from the Father.
As they receive and obey His words and conform to the Father's will they come to know the truth and grow in their knowledge of Christ. What the Father gives to Christ comes from the Father, and those given to Christ by the Father advance in this way.
This knowledge belongs to the experience of true, trusting believers who receive His words and learn in the faith. To know God in this way is to know that all things given to Christ are from the Father, and it lays obligation to acknowledge Him in all ways and to seek more and more of this knowledge. Its significance sustains courage, strengthens faith, and keeps the believer in the love of God. The disciples reached this settled knowledge that all entrusted to Christ originated with the Father.
Their witness rested on seeing God's work revealed in Jesus, witnessing His miracles and hearing His words, which testimony they were to carry to the world. Inwardly Christ is formed within by eating the Word of God as His flesh and blood. As blood is formed in the body by food eaten, feeding on that Word forms Christ within, the hope of glory, and the written Word brings the searcher to the flesh and blood of the Son of God so that through obedience he becomes a partaker of the divine nature. As temporal food must be eaten daily and not once, God's Word must be eaten daily, for there is constant need of feeding upon it, the knowledge of which is eternal life. The entrance of that Word gives light and understanding to the simple, enlightening the mind and opening the heart to receive the engrafted word, and it must be meat and drink feasted upon so the believer is renewed in the spirit of the mind and grows up in Christ the living Head. As the branch becomes a withered stalk producing no fruit unless firmly united fiber by fiber and vein by vein to the vine stock and supplied with nourishment, dependence and sufficiency are found only in vital union with Christ, for reception of the Word, the bread from heaven, is reception of Christ Himself, and appetite for the Word must be encouraged because it nourishes healthful piety and gives the soul its nourishment and vitality.
Receiving the spoken Word is the way this knowledge comes, and it belongs to the lesson of the prayer for everyone in service that God's servants preach His Word to the people. Believers are to pass on to others those same words given to the disciples, words holding worth for this life and for eternity, so that God is glorified instead of self. They are to make known to the sinful world all that this truth implies, their baptismal vows signifying death to the world and rising from the water symbolizing the new birth at conversion. Those who share this knowledge and belief are to pattern after Christ and pattern His works, and doing that keeps them from missing the way and gives them heaven.
What Christ has received comes from God, so the disciples' work must rest on Christ and depend on divine power. Human effort is required, but its power and effectiveness come from God.
Father and Son Revealed
The verse expresses the distinct identity and relationship of the Father and Christ, for God and Christ are two distinct personages, and though Christ is one with the Father their unity does not erase the individuality of either. Everything the Father gave to Christ came from the Father, and in this setting the disciples received the words the Father gave to Christ, knew surely that Christ came out from the Father, and believed that the Father sent Him. That oneness does not destroy personality, whether of Christ or of His followers, for followers scattered over the world are to be one with Him by giving up their own way for His way and for God's way, fulfilling God's purpose in all its height and depth. Their oneness with Christ is to make plain to the world that God sent His Son to save sinners, standing as the great unmistakable proof of His mission, while a loose, lax religion leaves the world confused and bewildered.
In this prayer the Good Shepherd identifies His interests with fallen humanity and intercedes on their behalf, joining believing people to Himself in the work of saving the lost world. The disciples are shown here recognizing that what the Father has given Christ comes from the Father. Christ prays as a suppliant to the Father, seeking fresh supplies of grace so He can give His followers assurance and hope, as their Elder Brother sharing human infirmities and tempted as they are yet without sin.
After completing His sacrifice Christ intercedes for His people in the heavenly sanctuary as their High Priest, and His sacrifice and intercession make redemption available to those who come to Him humbly and believe in His power to save. This prayer belongs to the time before His trial and crucifixion, yet it contains truth that stands through the ages and gives a sample of the intercession now carried on in heaven within the veil for all to the ends of the earth who receive Him and believe on His name. That intercession is made at the Father's right hand for those who believe and will continue to the end of the world, prevailing to take away sin and giving all who receive Him power to become sons of God, so that those obedient to His will shall live with Him and be kept from falling. There Jesus stands before the Father holding out His bruised hands bearing the wounds of cruel spikes and pleads that His church, the names of those who believe on Him, are graven upon the palms of His hands, a prayer presented on behalf of ministers over congregations and the churches they serve when they stand clothed with filthy garments and humble their hearts with fasting and prayer for pardon through the atoning sacrifice.
The Father loves members of the fallen human race changed from sin to holiness as He loves His Son. Those so united become partakers of the divine nature, escaping the corruption that is in the world through lust, and are one with Christ in God, bound up with Him and with God as God's chosen children and heirs with Christ redeemed by His blood. It is the privilege of men and women to have this enduring union of true grace in the heart uniting believers to Christ and to one another, which opens to them the source of rich and eternal happiness that outlives all earthly, sinful enjoyment. Preserving the unity prayed for raises fallen man, causes God to love believers as He loved His Son, saves the sinner, and glorifies God eternally.
The chapter shows how full and broad the mercy and love of Jesus are, waiting to bestow them on all who walk before Him in obedience and humility. It is to be lived out through keeping God's Word and allowing Christ's Spirit to transform character. God gives Christ those who remain true and loyal, and Christ undertakes to redeem them from Satan's power at the cost of His life, showing the high estimate He places on human beings in purchasing them at the sacrifice of His life. Therefore the purchase of His blood must be treated with care, with forbearance and patience, loving one another as He loved and not wounding and bruising the hearts of brethren, for Christlike love distinguishes Christians from worldlings and cleanses the heart from selfishness.
Believers Unity Taught
The prayer seeks sacred unity among believers, that they may be one as Christ and the Father are one, and every verse gives essential instruction for the church on this point. Difference and disunion dishonor God, while unity accords with the prayer and pleases God, and divisions and strife are contrary to that unity. Christ desired His followers to be one with Him as He was one with the Father, and to seek unity in faith and understanding of God's word. No one is to be discouraged, and those carrying heavy burdens need encouragement in living out this lesson.
Christ's followers are to be one with Him as He is one with the Father by giving up their own way for God's way and fulfilling God's purpose in all its height and depth. That oneness is to make plain to the world that God sent His Son to save sinners, standing as the great unmistakable proof of His mission, while a loose, lax religion leaves the world confused and bewildered. It is the result of the influence of the grace of God upon human hearts, and when lived it corrects thoughts, words, and acts and makes believers kind, tender, loving, and Christlike so others take knowledge that they have been with Jesus and have learned of Him. Maintaining this oneness in life work assures believers that Christ works with them as they work with Him.
Entering this close relation requires confessing and forsaking sin, leaving the gift before the altar of prayer and doing what Christ commanded to take out of the way anything standing between the soul and God or between brethren, so the blood of Jesus Christ is efficacious in behalf of the sinner. It requires emptying the heart of all selfishness and self-centeredness, taking out every thread of selfishness, depending wholly on Christ, and receiving the Holy Spirit to work in Christ's lines. It requires cherishing love for God and one another, seeking sanctification through truth, living by Christ's pattern and bound heart to heart in love, united in one great work with combined consecrated effort and tender respectful regard for one another. Kept in this way it ends accusing, backbiting, criticizing, dissension, strife, and weakening one another's hands, with no human kingly power exercised and no glory given to man. The practice begins in the home, where Christ's words are to be obeyed and His works done without grieving the Spirit by an unchristlike course, and when obeyed there the influence extends to the church as earth's symbol of heaven's family so men see good works and glorify the heavenly Father.
True grace gives enduring union with Christ in the heart, uniting believers to Christ and to one another. Those so united become partakers of the divine nature, escaping the corruption that is in the world through lust, and are one with Christ in God. Becoming one brings God's love and power richly into the soul, with Christ dwelling in His people united to God the great Head, which opens the source of rich and eternal happiness that outlives all earthly, sinful enjoyment.
That oneness is the foundation of unity laid by Christ, and the spiritual gifts were Heaven's appointed means to bring the church till all come in the unity of the faith and to keep it united and edified. Believers must constantly seek to answer that prayer by living in unity, for being at variance with one another is incompatible with being branches of the True Vine. The distinction between the apostles and those who would believe on their word does not confine gifts to the first Christians, for the promised signs follow all who believe.
The prayer calls believers to be sanctified through the truth, in which Jesus embraces believers as His children and asks that they be one with God as He is one with the Father. Obedience to God's commands brings people into this unity with Christ, who is one with God. His followers are to love one another as He loved them with unselfish love that humbles the heart before God, picks no flaws in others, and gives no glory to man.
Living Prayer Daily
The teachings of this prayer are essential instruction for the spiritual life, to be read and studied carefully, read over and over, believed literally, watched unto in prayer, and carried into practical life as the rule of life. Understood with new enlightenment when the mind is transformed by God's Spirit, they lead to understanding the mystery of godliness and to coming onto a higher plane of action, and they reveal what Christians may become as they strive to answer the prayer, strengthening faith and raising the sense of Christian possibility. Followed, they bring into unity, for the only hope of reaching heaven is to be one with Christ, and then in and through Christ to be one with one another, with no one called to walk alone. In Christ life and immortality are brought to light, He has opened the way to the kingdom to those who believe, He assigns to no one a path different from that which all must travel, and He calls for unity by following the Leader unitedly, walking in the footsteps of Jesus and doing His works even as He did the works of His Father, studying His ways, obeying His will, and making no move without consulting Him in humble prayer.
Believers answer the prayer by entire consecration to God, putting the whole being into living its words, and those who believe and practice God's Word answer it because it presents the plan of redemption. That consecration corrects thoughts, words and acts and makes them kind, tender, loving and Christlike, meek and lowly, close to Christ and to one another in sympathy and love, giving confidence to the weak by a tender spirit and demonstrating the sanctifying power of truth upon heart and character. It is the only hope and the way to obtain fitness for heaven in this world and to make certain work for eternity, bringing purification, refinement, and sanctification onto a higher platform, with unreserved surrender and continuous progressive increase until grace is lost in glory. The chapter contains instruction that God's family on earth must learn and apply, including setting aside self-centeredness and devoting oneself wholly to God's service, and each believer should examine by the chapter where he stands.
Living it means ceasing criticism and evil speaking, going to God in earnest prayer to help the erring, linking with one another and with Christ, and praying for union while living in such a way that God can answer. It requires emptying the heart of all selfishness and self-centeredness, receiving the Holy Spirit to work in Christ's lines, revealing Christ in spirit and words and acts, cherishing love for one another with the heart filled with the love of Christ, and loving one another as Christ has loved. It requires showing appreciation for one another and esteeming others better than self, helping and strengthening one another, and speaking words of hope and cheer that make hearts glad instead of sorrowful, giving no glory to man and seeking no own glory, with all dissension and strife ceasing, no human kingly power exercised, and every thread of selfishness taken out. Kept in this way it ends accusing, backbiting, criticizing, and weakening one another's hands, and the Lord is glorified in the life; then the Comforter abides in the heart making joy full, Christ's words become as the bread of life, and in the strength thus gained characters are developed that honor God and reveal the power of His grace, with perfect Christian fellowship and the fruit of obedience to the truth seen in the life.
The verse lays on believers the work of passing on to others those same words given to the disciples, words that hold worth for this life and for eternity, so that God is glorified instead of self. Their witness rested on seeing God's work revealed in Jesus, witnessing His miracles, and hearing His words, which they were to carry to the world, and believers are to make known to the sinful world all that this truth implies. Doing so is connected with being the light of the world, devoting powers to bearing witness to the truth, doing Christ's works as He did His Father's works with no move without humble prayer, and leaving no room for empty speculative theories. In public efforts this directs workers to confine themselves with intense earnestness to important united lines of truth with clear light, sacred testing truths beautiful in simplicity, and the sacred truths of the binding claims of the law of God, rather than making controversy over the daily of Daniel 8 or other agitating subjects a test or a prominent part of discourse, because agitation diverts minds, delays and hinders the essential city work to be done now, and pleases the enemy.
The commendation in John 17:6-10 applies to every Christian: Christians should stand true to principle and profession and hold fast to God, and doing so they are safe and hidden with Christ in God. Its significance sustains courage, strengthens faith, and keeps people in the love of God so they may enter the city with Him. The prayer is the help of the truly penitent in every emergency as they offer earnest petitions for fresh grace, new supplies of strength, and the efficiency and power of the Holy Spirit promised to all who ask in faith.
The practice begins in the home, where Christ's words are to be obeyed and His works done without grieving the Spirit of God by an unchristlike course, for God measures church members by what they are in the home. When obeyed there the influence extends to the church as a symbol on earth of the family in heaven, with the lamp burning brightly so men see good works and glorify the heavenly Father. Believers are to seek the Lord more earnestly and give themselves to Him as a whole sacrifice, confessing their sins with brokenness, weeping and prayer, and to count it their privilege to apportion their means and put it into circulation to supply deficiencies by giving back to the Lord His own portion to advance His cause in the world. Zeal is to be directed not toward human uplift but toward the glory of God.