I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me; for they are thine.
Christ prays for those the Father gave Him out of the world, and not for the world, because they are the Father's own. Those given to Him are those who have received His words, kept the Father's word, and believed He came from the Father, and the petition takes in not the first disciples alone but all who shall afterward believe through their word. He asks that they be kept from sin and evil and sanctified through the truth, not that they gain riches or human favor. He prays that they be one with Him as He is one with the Father, and through Him one with one another and with God, in unselfish love that witnesses to the world that God sent Him. That same intercession He offered aloud with the eleven before His suffering He now carries on in heaven for all who receive Him, to keep the obedient from falling and give them power to become sons of God.
Setting of the Prayer
This petition belongs to the farewell prayer spoken alone with the eleven after Judas left the upper chamber, when He was about to be separated from them and no longer be with them as their visible counselor. It was offered as His last prayer just before His trial, betrayal, humiliation, agony in Gethsemane where the cup of bearing the sins of the whole world trembled in His hand, separation on the cross, and crucifixion, coming in the last week together after He closed His instruction with strong hopeful words. He poured out His soul with divine love and tenderest sympathy, carrying the burden of His soul in a petition that reaches across the earth and up to heaven. The prayer was to comfort, instruct, and prepare the disciples' minds for the coming trial, separation, and wicked things they would see Him suffer, so that in fearful tests their faith would remain steadfast and His suffering and death would not overwhelm them with despair, while teaching them more definitely about His kingdom and reproving desire for temporal reign. The disciples did not fully understand these words of comfort, counsel, and prayer until after the resurrection and the descent of the Holy Spirit, though the words afterward stayed with them through disappointment and trial giving peace and hope.
Jesus prayed aloud in the hearing of His disciples as a sample on earth of His intercession carried on in heaven within the veil for all who receive Him even to the ends of the earth, joining finite humanity to God as with His human arm He embraces Adam's children and with His divine arm He reaches the throne of the Infinite as consecrated High Priest and beloved Master. The instruction in John 14-17 was given as special provision because without divine power combined with human effort their future work to bless humanity would fail, showing He knew every phase of experience, conflict, affliction, and temptation to lose faith they would meet from the world and mingling bright hopeful promises with the dark. He prayed specially for His disciples and for Himself that they might be kept from daily evil influences and His own soul might be strengthened for the duties and trials of the day, identifying with human needs, weaknesses, and failings though unsullied and a stranger to sin. He often bowed all night in retirement on the Mount of Olives with strong crying and tears while followers slept, leaving an example especially for ministers who pray little.
Meaning of Them and World
In this petition He prays for those the Father gave Him out of the world, not for the world, because they are the Father's own. The distinction is deliberate and focused, a special prayer for the disciples given to Him rather than a prayer for the world as a whole. The prayer in John 17 gives lessons believers are to study and practise, shaping their habits and conduct, and His care for His disciples in it belongs to His work of saving people from sin and turning them to righteousness. He is glorified as they follow Him in self-denial and sacrifice, sharing in His suffering.
What is His is the Father's and what is the Father's is His, a shared belonging of Father and Son affirmed in the very act of praying for those who belong to the Father. Father and Christ are presented as distinct persons in relation to one another, even while united in ownership and purpose. Their unity becomes the pattern for the unity prayed for, yet without erasing distinct personality. United with Him, the disciples are to show the world that God sent His Son to save sinners, reflecting His unity with the Father while remaining distinct persons themselves.
Those given are those to whom He manifested the Father's name, who kept the Father's word, who know that all things given to Christ are from the Father, who received the words the Father gave to Christ, who knew surely that He came out from the Father, and who believed the Father sent Him. Their experience is one of learning and trusting in God, kept by the Father as Christ's own, and these words are to have due weight on hearts at all times and in all places as the mystery of godliness lifting to a higher plane of action. The prayer belongs with His power over all flesh to give eternal life to as many as the Father gave Him, eternal life meaning to know the only true God and Jesus Christ whom He sent, after He glorified the Father on earth and finished the work given Him and asked to be glorified with the glory He had before the world was. It was poured out to prepare their minds for coming trial and separation and the wicked things they would see Him suffer, and is to be studied from the first verse to the last for understanding of its meaning.
The prayer is not for the first disciples alone but takes in all who shall afterward believe through their word, including present believers. It reaches those seeking salvation in the perils of the last days, who are to cling to Christ who gave His life that they may become children of God and gain victory over sin, with lives showing sanctification in purity, holiness, self-control, thanksgiving, and trust. Its possibilities strengthen faith and show what Christians may become as they strive to answer it. The signs promised to believers belong to all who believe, not to the first Christians only, with no division between the apostles and those who believe on their word.
They stand on Jesus' side under His banner, having received Him as personal Savior and pledged to keep His holy law and reveal Him in life and conduct in church and world. He purchased them through His love and power, manifest on their behalf, and set Himself apart for His appointed work so they may be set apart for theirs, united with Him and with one another to show the world the Father sent Him to save sinners. The Father gave the Son those who would remain true and loyal, and Christ covenanted to redeem them from Satan's power at the cost of His life, with the Holy Spirit gathering God's people into one family. So high is the value He places on those belonging to God, purchased at the sacrifice of His life, that they are to be treated with patience, forbearance, and care, not wounded or bruised.
These followers remain in the world but are not of it, hated by the world because they are not of it, kept from evil, sanctified by the truth of God's word, and sent into the world as Jesus was sent. They serve a different Master from the world and cannot unite in fellowship with those who do not serve God. The church therefore must not conform to the world's practices, love of display, and love of fashion which weaken it, but needs the Holy Spirit's reviving influence and sanctifying truth put into practice. Christ's prayer calls believers to be united with Him and with one another while remaining separate from the world.
Unity Christ Prays For
The prayer asks that believers be blended together in Christ Jesus in the same oneness that the Son shares with the Father, so that they are one with Christ and through Him one with one another and with God, with no one called to walk alone. Its concern for those the Father gave to the Son belongs to their unity with Christ and the Father, including unity in faith and in understanding of God's word. That unity is to be carried into practical life by putting away pride, and preserving it is joined to God loving them as He loved His Son, to the sinner being saved, and to God being glorified. The prayer pictures the true work of grace by which those for whom He prays become partakers of the divine nature, escape the corruption in the world through lust, are made one with Christ in God, and are changed from sin to holiness. It is a lesson to be lived out by seeking the disciples' unity with one another as Christ is one with the Father, by encouraging those who carry heavy burdens and discouraging no one.
That oneness is to appear in unselfish love for one another, meekness, Christlike sympathy, love, loyalty to Christ, appreciation, brotherly fellowship, helping and strengthening one another, and words of hope and cheer that make hearts glad. It gives no glory to man and leaves no place for self-seeking, dissension, strife, human kingly power, faultfinding, backbiting, criticizing, or weakening one another's hands. God's standard of unity must be believed and practiced until every thread of selfishness is taken out, with hearts emptied of selfishness and accusation, others esteemed better than self, and the transforming grace of Christ and the Holy Spirit received to do the work appointed to each one. When believers are thus united they may expect God's love and power to flow richly into their lives.
This perfect oneness, as close as the union between the Father and the Son, gives success to God's workers and is the evidence given to the world that God sent His Son to save sinners and loves believers as He loved Christ. The unity of Christ's people is to convince the world that Christianity is genuine, bearing witness so that many are converted. It is God's plan for His people working together as a church rather than breaking into separate groups, for disorganization and division would hinder the church's work. United believers join their interests together in brotherly sympathy and love, and the result of the influence of the grace of God upon human hearts helps bring more people to conversion.
The oneness comes when anything standing between a person and God or between a person and brethren is taken out of the way by confessing and forsaking sin, making the blood of Jesus Christ efficacious in their behalf. It requires emptying hearts of selfishness and accusation and taking out every thread of selfishness until God's standard is reached. It calls for removing barriers of selfishness, color, caste, and territorial distinction.
Difference and disunion dishonor God, pulling apart is contrary to the prayer and displeasing to God, and division among believers dishonors Him. The prayer is to serve as the church's creed. Believers at variance with one another cannot live as branches of the True Vine.
The prayer lays the foundation of unity for the church. The spiritual gifts were Heaven's appointed means to secure that state of unity for His people and to bring them to the oneness He prayed for as He was one with His Father.
Following its teachings brings 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. In Christ life and immortality are brought to light, He has opened the way to the kingdom of heaven to those who believe in Him but assigns to no one a path different from that which all must travel, He calls for unity, and unity must be had. Those bound together in Christian love are kept from the world's corruption, forgiven, drawn to God, changed from sin to holiness, and joined to one another in enduring union with Christ that brings lasting happiness outliving all earthly sinful enjoyment.
Keeping Sanctification and Mission
As Mediator and High Priest for those who come humbly and trust His saving power, He prays for His disciples for spiritual blessings, that they be kept from sin and remain loyal to God, not for riches or human favor, and this assures all who faithfully do duty that His intercession is for them. He identifies His interests with fallen humanity, and as Good Shepherd and Elder Brother He intercedes for followers whose needs and dangers He understood, seeking fresh supplies of grace from the Father to strengthen and teach them with assurance and hope. Having shared human infirmities and been tempted in every way yet without sin, His care reaches even disciples who do not recognize their dangers and are led by Satan into wrongdoing. The prayer illustrates the intercession He now makes at the Father's right hand and will continue to the end of the world for believers, prevailing to take away sin, to keep the obedient from falling, and to give all who receive Him power to become sons of God so that because He lives they shall live also. Prayed aloud in the hearing of His disciples, it is full of instruction of the highest type and is a sample on earth of His intercession carried on in heaven within the veil for all who receive Him and believe on His name, even to the ends of the earth.
In behalf of ministers and churches who stand guilty as clothed with filthy garments while humbling hearts, fasting, and praying for pardon through the atoning sacrifice, He presents His bruised hands bearing the wounds of cruel spikes and pleads that His church, the names of those who believe, are graven on His palms. Those prayed for are not the first disciples alone but all who shall afterward believe through their word, including present believers, namely those who received the words the Father gave Him and knew surely and believed He came out from the Father and was sent by Him, and for them is the privilege of being kept through the Father's name, sanctified through truth, and blended in Christ Jesus as His life is one with the Father for everyone who complies with its conditions. They become partakers of the divine nature, escaping the corruption in the world through lust, and are made one with Christ in God, changed from sin to holiness, sanctified through the truth and made one with God as He is one with the Father. That true work of grace unites believers to Christ and to one another in enduring union, and lives show purity, holiness, self-control, thanksgiving, and trust as truth sanctifies them, for receiving and daily feeding on the Word as bread from heaven forms Christ within. Believers answer by seeking sanctification through the truth and using talents to foster love and unity and press together as one rather than separating into isolated groups.
The Father loves them as He loves His Son and gives them the glory He gave Christ and the life of the Savior within, with life hid with Christ in God unto life more abundantly, eternal life, resurrection at the last day, and enduring union bringing rich eternal happiness outliving all earthly sinful enjoyment, as God's chosen children, heirs and joint-heirs redeemed by the Lamb's blood with His law in their hearts. Preserving that unity raises fallen man, saves the sinner, and glorifies God, and giving His true disciples the glory of His character He appears in their lives through the impartation of His Spirit to convince the world that God sent His Son and loves believers as He loved Christ. He is glorified in them as they follow Him in self-denial and sacrifice sharing His suffering, receiving His word and reflecting His selfless love. To glorify God is a living experience to be realized in every believer in spiritual character, receiving orders from God alone and doing as He bids, and because those long knowing the truth still need earnest thorough heart work, the prayer calls for searching the heart to expose motives of wrong words and acts and to discern sin from righteousness, giving due weight to the mystery of godliness which lifts to a higher plane of action.
The prayer belongs with His power over all flesh to give eternal life to as many as the Father gave Him, eternal life meaning to know the only true God and Jesus Christ whom He sent, after having glorified the Father on earth and finished His work and asking to be glorified with the glory He had before the world was. Laid on the Father as He was about to leave His disciples and pass through betrayal, agony in Gethsemane where the bitter cup of bearing the sins of the whole world trembled in His hand, and separation on the cross under the weight of the sins of the world, it calls every believer to hate sin with perfect hatred, to look not to weak men and women but to Christ alone who values purity and the salvation of every soul, to cast the helpless soul on Him as the only hope knowing without strength imparted by Him all is failure, and so to know eternal life by individual experience. It carries on the great process by which believers are made one with Him in this present life to be one with Him throughout all eternity, the divine antidote for sin showing the plain will of God. He binds believers to Himself in the work of saving a lost world, joining their mission to His own to carry His light beyond the church, with God working through them for the salvation of others. Those on His side under His banner, having received Him as personal Savior, purchased through His love and power at covenant cost, and pledged to keep His holy law and reveal Him, are set apart for work appointed to them as He set Himself apart for His, united with Him and one another to show the world the Father sent Him to save sinners, preaching His Word under the Spirit's working, leaving churches knowing truth to establish new churches and present truth to the ignorant, while angels preserve the world because some have not yet heard.
With earnest longing, weeping, tenderness, compassion, solicitude, and soul struggle He pleads even for erring ones and sinful rejecters ready to perish and die, not giving them up though wearied by stupidity, disobedience, and repeated rebellion but loving them still, and the same prayer appears in everyone consenting to wear His yoke in self-denial, self-sacrifice, and continual service to win souls. His intercession waits for one who has turned away to seek His face and return with assurance of pardon and call to repent. Truly converted believers value this final prayer with His disciples more highly than any worldly favor, for one soul is worth more than the world, and it calls them to love Christ and the truth and be one with Christ and the Father. It helps penitent believers in every emergency as they offer earnest petitions in faith for fresh grace, new supplies of strength, and the efficiency and power of the Holy Spirit. Showing the high value He places on those belonging to God whom He purchased at the sacrifice of His life, it requires patience, forbearance, and care in how they treat one another, not wounding or bruising them.
Living Out the Prayer
John 17 presents the plan of redemption, plainly outlines God's will, and gives the divine antidote for sin, and its lessons hold far more than is realized. It is to be studied from first verse to last, received into the treasure-house of the soul, and made the daily lesson and rule of life to learn how to pray and how to live. Its prayer calls for habits and lives to be brought into harmony with Christ's teaching, shaping balanced character and a living faith in present truth, with believers believing and practicing God's Word and thereby answering the prayer. Angels preserve the world from destruction because some have not yet heard the message of truth.
Believers answer the prayer by entire consecration, setting themselves wholly apart for God's service as the only hope for eternity. They are to obtain fitness for heaven in this world through being purified, refined, and sanctified, being brought up onto higher ground, feeling the worth of souls for whom Christ died, and realizing how perilous is the condition of those doing nothing to bring souls to Christ. Its conditions must be met to be counted among His people when He comes in glory, remaining true to principle and profession and holding fast to God, safe and hidden with Christ in God. Answering it calls for earnest effort to understand what it means to follow Jesus and for sanctified zeal directed toward God's glory, not human advancement, shaping how they live.
They are to pray for union and then live so God can answer, pressing together as one, cultivating love, being at peace, and becoming as little children. This means putting away pride, suspicion, envy, jealousy, evil thinking and speaking, spiritual pride, love of supremacy, contention, dissension, strife, alienation, faultfinding, and self-seeking. They are to encourage those who carry heavy burdens and discourage no one, appreciating, helping, and strengthening one another, speaking hope and cheer, helping one another rather than criticizing or quarreling, and loving one another because Christ died to save their brethren as surely as He died to save them. Preserving this unity raises fallen man, brings the promise that God will love believers as He loved His Son, saves the sinner, and glorifies God, opening the way for God's love and power to flow richly into them. It is to be read over and over, often repeated, and carried into practical life.
The instruction is the badge of discipleship and a present test proving who is worthy of admittance into God's family and the heavenly city. Its practice must begin in the home, for God measures church members by what they are in the home, and obedience there shapes the church's influence and helps win sinners to Christ. When Christ's words are obeyed in the home the influence extends to the church, the Spirit is not grieved away, and the brightly burning lamp gives light to those in darkness so men glorify the heavenly Father. Until the defiling rubbish of unkind talk and passing judgment and self-assured conversation that hurts souls and spoils God's work is cleansed away by the Holy Spirit, with the living coal placed on the lips to cleanse them, all counsels prove a detriment, becoming a savor of death unto death instead of a savor of life unto life, for handling such talk is handling strange fire.
Living out the prayer in practical life brings unity and love among believers and unity with Christ, and this unity withstands Satan's attacks and the enemy's attacks and enables believers to stand in the shaking time and endure testing through hearing and obeying Him. Dissension and self-seeking leave weakness and show that the prayer is not being lived, and it remains unheeded and disregarded when those who have received light act blindly under unholy ambition or in the same spirit that controls the nations, allowing dissension, disorder, and strife to arise and failing to follow the light God has given. The prayer bestows great advantages on God's people and makes known the day of their visitation, holding an advantage God has bestowed that means much more than is realized. Satan understands it better than church members and heads of families do and does not want God's people to understand it, so he seeks to hide it by keeping them in discord and strife over little misunderstandings and little differences that grow into variance and hatred, that they may present before the world exactly the opposite of what God desires them to present.
As Christ's last prayer it gives the pattern for ministry now, calling for dwelling with intense earnestness on sacred testing truths beautiful in their simplicity. It calls for confining public effort to important united lines of truth on which there is clear light, for centering minds on the essential work to be done, including the work in the cities and the sacred truths regarding the binding claims of the law of God. It calls for not bringing in the daily or any other subject that will arouse controversy, reveal marked difference of opinion, cause confusion and agitation, and delay and hinder the work. Its meaning calls Christ's workers to close union with Him, and that union leaves no place for speculative theories. Believers are to strive to answer His prayer through their work and by being sanctified through the truth and speaking in agreement and being united in mind and judgment, and by doing so they become the light of the world, with the privilege of being one with Him in God, having perfect wholeness and completeness in Him while apart from Him they are deficient. In that last prayer Jesus pleads that they receive grace to walk in His footsteps and continue the work He began, using talents for love and unity.
The chapter is full of His mercy and love, which He is ready to give to those who walk before Him in obedience and humility. It presents Christ's prayer as a model for acknowledging God in every way and seeking an ever fuller knowledge of God through Christ, and it is needed by all and is to be presented in every home as a message from God showing how to receive Christ's grace. It is to be lived out in the believer's life. Giving oneself earnestly to study and live the prayer is linked with entering the city with Christ.
Christ prays for those the Father gave Him out of the world, and not for the world, because they are the Father's own. Those given to Him are those who have received His words, kept the Father's word, and believed He came from the Father, and the petition takes in not the first disciples alone but all who shall afterward believe through their word. He asks that they be kept from sin and evil and sanctified through the truth, not that they gain riches or human favor. He prays that they be one with Him as He is one with the Father, and through Him one with one another and with God, in unselfish love that witnesses to the world that God sent Him. That same intercession He offered aloud with the eleven before His suffering He now carries on in heaven for all who receive Him, to keep the obedient from falling and give them power to become sons of God.
Setting of the Prayer
This petition belongs to the farewell prayer spoken alone with the eleven after Judas left the upper chamber, when He was about to be separated from them and no longer be with them as their visible counselor. It was offered as His last prayer just before His trial, betrayal, humiliation, agony in Gethsemane where the cup of bearing the sins of the whole world trembled in His hand, separation on the cross, and crucifixion, coming in the last week together after He closed His instruction with strong hopeful words. He poured out His soul with divine love and tenderest sympathy, carrying the burden of His soul in a petition that reaches across the earth and up to heaven. The prayer was to comfort, instruct, and prepare the disciples' minds for the coming trial, separation, and wicked things they would see Him suffer, so that in fearful tests their faith would remain steadfast and His suffering and death would not overwhelm them with despair, while teaching them more definitely about His kingdom and reproving desire for temporal reign. The disciples did not fully understand these words of comfort, counsel, and prayer until after the resurrection and the descent of the Holy Spirit, though the words afterward stayed with them through disappointment and trial giving peace and hope.
Jesus prayed aloud in the hearing of His disciples as a sample on earth of His intercession carried on in heaven within the veil for all who receive Him even to the ends of the earth, joining finite humanity to God as with His human arm He embraces Adam's children and with His divine arm He reaches the throne of the Infinite as consecrated High Priest and beloved Master. The instruction in John 14-17 was given as special provision because without divine power combined with human effort their future work to bless humanity would fail, showing He knew every phase of experience, conflict, affliction, and temptation to lose faith they would meet from the world and mingling bright hopeful promises with the dark. He prayed specially for His disciples and for Himself that they might be kept from daily evil influences and His own soul might be strengthened for the duties and trials of the day, identifying with human needs, weaknesses, and failings though unsullied and a stranger to sin. He often bowed all night in retirement on the Mount of Olives with strong crying and tears while followers slept, leaving an example especially for ministers who pray little.
Meaning of Them and World
In this petition He prays for those the Father gave Him out of the world, not for the world, because they are the Father's own. The distinction is deliberate and focused, a special prayer for the disciples given to Him rather than a prayer for the world as a whole. The prayer in John 17 gives lessons believers are to study and practise, shaping their habits and conduct, and His care for His disciples in it belongs to His work of saving people from sin and turning them to righteousness. He is glorified as they follow Him in self-denial and sacrifice, sharing in His suffering.
What is His is the Father's and what is the Father's is His, a shared belonging of Father and Son affirmed in the very act of praying for those who belong to the Father. Father and Christ are presented as distinct persons in relation to one another, even while united in ownership and purpose. Their unity becomes the pattern for the unity prayed for, yet without erasing distinct personality. United with Him, the disciples are to show the world that God sent His Son to save sinners, reflecting His unity with the Father while remaining distinct persons themselves.
Those given are those to whom He manifested the Father's name, who kept the Father's word, who know that all things given to Christ are from the Father, who received the words the Father gave to Christ, who knew surely that He came out from the Father, and who believed the Father sent Him. Their experience is one of learning and trusting in God, kept by the Father as Christ's own, and these words are to have due weight on hearts at all times and in all places as the mystery of godliness lifting to a higher plane of action. The prayer belongs with His power over all flesh to give eternal life to as many as the Father gave Him, eternal life meaning to know the only true God and Jesus Christ whom He sent, after He glorified the Father on earth and finished the work given Him and asked to be glorified with the glory He had before the world was. It was poured out to prepare their minds for coming trial and separation and the wicked things they would see Him suffer, and is to be studied from the first verse to the last for understanding of its meaning.
The prayer is not for the first disciples alone but takes in all who shall afterward believe through their word, including present believers. It reaches those seeking salvation in the perils of the last days, who are to cling to Christ who gave His life that they may become children of God and gain victory over sin, with lives showing sanctification in purity, holiness, self-control, thanksgiving, and trust. Its possibilities strengthen faith and show what Christians may become as they strive to answer it. The signs promised to believers belong to all who believe, not to the first Christians only, with no division between the apostles and those who believe on their word.
They stand on Jesus' side under His banner, having received Him as personal Savior and pledged to keep His holy law and reveal Him in life and conduct in church and world. He purchased them through His love and power, manifest on their behalf, and set Himself apart for His appointed work so they may be set apart for theirs, united with Him and with one another to show the world the Father sent Him to save sinners. The Father gave the Son those who would remain true and loyal, and Christ covenanted to redeem them from Satan's power at the cost of His life, with the Holy Spirit gathering God's people into one family. So high is the value He places on those belonging to God, purchased at the sacrifice of His life, that they are to be treated with patience, forbearance, and care, not wounded or bruised.
These followers remain in the world but are not of it, hated by the world because they are not of it, kept from evil, sanctified by the truth of God's word, and sent into the world as Jesus was sent. They serve a different Master from the world and cannot unite in fellowship with those who do not serve God. The church therefore must not conform to the world's practices, love of display, and love of fashion which weaken it, but needs the Holy Spirit's reviving influence and sanctifying truth put into practice. Christ's prayer calls believers to be united with Him and with one another while remaining separate from the world.
Unity Christ Prays For
The prayer asks that believers be blended together in Christ Jesus in the same oneness that the Son shares with the Father, so that they are one with Christ and through Him one with one another and with God, with no one called to walk alone. Its concern for those the Father gave to the Son belongs to their unity with Christ and the Father, including unity in faith and in understanding of God's word. That unity is to be carried into practical life by putting away pride, and preserving it is joined to God loving them as He loved His Son, to the sinner being saved, and to God being glorified. The prayer pictures the true work of grace by which those for whom He prays become partakers of the divine nature, escape the corruption in the world through lust, are made one with Christ in God, and are changed from sin to holiness. It is a lesson to be lived out by seeking the disciples' unity with one another as Christ is one with the Father, by encouraging those who carry heavy burdens and discouraging no one.
That oneness is to appear in unselfish love for one another, meekness, Christlike sympathy, love, loyalty to Christ, appreciation, brotherly fellowship, helping and strengthening one another, and words of hope and cheer that make hearts glad. It gives no glory to man and leaves no place for self-seeking, dissension, strife, human kingly power, faultfinding, backbiting, criticizing, or weakening one another's hands. God's standard of unity must be believed and practiced until every thread of selfishness is taken out, with hearts emptied of selfishness and accusation, others esteemed better than self, and the transforming grace of Christ and the Holy Spirit received to do the work appointed to each one. When believers are thus united they may expect God's love and power to flow richly into their lives.
This perfect oneness, as close as the union between the Father and the Son, gives success to God's workers and is the evidence given to the world that God sent His Son to save sinners and loves believers as He loved Christ. The unity of Christ's people is to convince the world that Christianity is genuine, bearing witness so that many are converted. It is God's plan for His people working together as a church rather than breaking into separate groups, for disorganization and division would hinder the church's work. United believers join their interests together in brotherly sympathy and love, and the result of the influence of the grace of God upon human hearts helps bring more people to conversion.
The oneness comes when anything standing between a person and God or between a person and brethren is taken out of the way by confessing and forsaking sin, making the blood of Jesus Christ efficacious in their behalf. It requires emptying hearts of selfishness and accusation and taking out every thread of selfishness until God's standard is reached. It calls for removing barriers of selfishness, color, caste, and territorial distinction.
Difference and disunion dishonor God, pulling apart is contrary to the prayer and displeasing to God, and division among believers dishonors Him. The prayer is to serve as the church's creed. Believers at variance with one another cannot live as branches of the True Vine.
The prayer lays the foundation of unity for the church. The spiritual gifts were Heaven's appointed means to secure that state of unity for His people and to bring them to the oneness He prayed for as He was one with His Father.
Following its teachings brings 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. In Christ life and immortality are brought to light, He has opened the way to the kingdom of heaven to those who believe in Him but assigns to no one a path different from that which all must travel, He calls for unity, and unity must be had. Those bound together in Christian love are kept from the world's corruption, forgiven, drawn to God, changed from sin to holiness, and joined to one another in enduring union with Christ that brings lasting happiness outliving all earthly sinful enjoyment.
Keeping Sanctification and Mission
As Mediator and High Priest for those who come humbly and trust His saving power, He prays for His disciples for spiritual blessings, that they be kept from sin and remain loyal to God, not for riches or human favor, and this assures all who faithfully do duty that His intercession is for them. He identifies His interests with fallen humanity, and as Good Shepherd and Elder Brother He intercedes for followers whose needs and dangers He understood, seeking fresh supplies of grace from the Father to strengthen and teach them with assurance and hope. Having shared human infirmities and been tempted in every way yet without sin, His care reaches even disciples who do not recognize their dangers and are led by Satan into wrongdoing. The prayer illustrates the intercession He now makes at the Father's right hand and will continue to the end of the world for believers, prevailing to take away sin, to keep the obedient from falling, and to give all who receive Him power to become sons of God so that because He lives they shall live also. Prayed aloud in the hearing of His disciples, it is full of instruction of the highest type and is a sample on earth of His intercession carried on in heaven within the veil for all who receive Him and believe on His name, even to the ends of the earth.
In behalf of ministers and churches who stand guilty as clothed with filthy garments while humbling hearts, fasting, and praying for pardon through the atoning sacrifice, He presents His bruised hands bearing the wounds of cruel spikes and pleads that His church, the names of those who believe, are graven on His palms. Those prayed for are not the first disciples alone but all who shall afterward believe through their word, including present believers, namely those who received the words the Father gave Him and knew surely and believed He came out from the Father and was sent by Him, and for them is the privilege of being kept through the Father's name, sanctified through truth, and blended in Christ Jesus as His life is one with the Father for everyone who complies with its conditions. They become partakers of the divine nature, escaping the corruption in the world through lust, and are made one with Christ in God, changed from sin to holiness, sanctified through the truth and made one with God as He is one with the Father. That true work of grace unites believers to Christ and to one another in enduring union, and lives show purity, holiness, self-control, thanksgiving, and trust as truth sanctifies them, for receiving and daily feeding on the Word as bread from heaven forms Christ within. Believers answer by seeking sanctification through the truth and using talents to foster love and unity and press together as one rather than separating into isolated groups.
The Father loves them as He loves His Son and gives them the glory He gave Christ and the life of the Savior within, with life hid with Christ in God unto life more abundantly, eternal life, resurrection at the last day, and enduring union bringing rich eternal happiness outliving all earthly sinful enjoyment, as God's chosen children, heirs and joint-heirs redeemed by the Lamb's blood with His law in their hearts. Preserving that unity raises fallen man, saves the sinner, and glorifies God, and giving His true disciples the glory of His character He appears in their lives through the impartation of His Spirit to convince the world that God sent His Son and loves believers as He loved Christ. He is glorified in them as they follow Him in self-denial and sacrifice sharing His suffering, receiving His word and reflecting His selfless love. To glorify God is a living experience to be realized in every believer in spiritual character, receiving orders from God alone and doing as He bids, and because those long knowing the truth still need earnest thorough heart work, the prayer calls for searching the heart to expose motives of wrong words and acts and to discern sin from righteousness, giving due weight to the mystery of godliness which lifts to a higher plane of action.
The prayer belongs with His power over all flesh to give eternal life to as many as the Father gave Him, eternal life meaning to know the only true God and Jesus Christ whom He sent, after having glorified the Father on earth and finished His work and asking to be glorified with the glory He had before the world was. Laid on the Father as He was about to leave His disciples and pass through betrayal, agony in Gethsemane where the bitter cup of bearing the sins of the whole world trembled in His hand, and separation on the cross under the weight of the sins of the world, it calls every believer to hate sin with perfect hatred, to look not to weak men and women but to Christ alone who values purity and the salvation of every soul, to cast the helpless soul on Him as the only hope knowing without strength imparted by Him all is failure, and so to know eternal life by individual experience. It carries on the great process by which believers are made one with Him in this present life to be one with Him throughout all eternity, the divine antidote for sin showing the plain will of God. He binds believers to Himself in the work of saving a lost world, joining their mission to His own to carry His light beyond the church, with God working through them for the salvation of others. Those on His side under His banner, having received Him as personal Savior, purchased through His love and power at covenant cost, and pledged to keep His holy law and reveal Him, are set apart for work appointed to them as He set Himself apart for His, united with Him and one another to show the world the Father sent Him to save sinners, preaching His Word under the Spirit's working, leaving churches knowing truth to establish new churches and present truth to the ignorant, while angels preserve the world because some have not yet heard.
With earnest longing, weeping, tenderness, compassion, solicitude, and soul struggle He pleads even for erring ones and sinful rejecters ready to perish and die, not giving them up though wearied by stupidity, disobedience, and repeated rebellion but loving them still, and the same prayer appears in everyone consenting to wear His yoke in self-denial, self-sacrifice, and continual service to win souls. His intercession waits for one who has turned away to seek His face and return with assurance of pardon and call to repent. Truly converted believers value this final prayer with His disciples more highly than any worldly favor, for one soul is worth more than the world, and it calls them to love Christ and the truth and be one with Christ and the Father. It helps penitent believers in every emergency as they offer earnest petitions in faith for fresh grace, new supplies of strength, and the efficiency and power of the Holy Spirit. Showing the high value He places on those belonging to God whom He purchased at the sacrifice of His life, it requires patience, forbearance, and care in how they treat one another, not wounding or bruising them.
Living Out the Prayer
John 17 presents the plan of redemption, plainly outlines God's will, and gives the divine antidote for sin, and its lessons hold far more than is realized. It is to be studied from first verse to last, received into the treasure-house of the soul, and made the daily lesson and rule of life to learn how to pray and how to live. Its prayer calls for habits and lives to be brought into harmony with Christ's teaching, shaping balanced character and a living faith in present truth, with believers believing and practicing God's Word and thereby answering the prayer. Angels preserve the world from destruction because some have not yet heard the message of truth.
Believers answer the prayer by entire consecration, setting themselves wholly apart for God's service as the only hope for eternity. They are to obtain fitness for heaven in this world through being purified, refined, and sanctified, being brought up onto higher ground, feeling the worth of souls for whom Christ died, and realizing how perilous is the condition of those doing nothing to bring souls to Christ. Its conditions must be met to be counted among His people when He comes in glory, remaining true to principle and profession and holding fast to God, safe and hidden with Christ in God. Answering it calls for earnest effort to understand what it means to follow Jesus and for sanctified zeal directed toward God's glory, not human advancement, shaping how they live.
They are to pray for union and then live so God can answer, pressing together as one, cultivating love, being at peace, and becoming as little children. This means putting away pride, suspicion, envy, jealousy, evil thinking and speaking, spiritual pride, love of supremacy, contention, dissension, strife, alienation, faultfinding, and self-seeking. They are to encourage those who carry heavy burdens and discourage no one, appreciating, helping, and strengthening one another, speaking hope and cheer, helping one another rather than criticizing or quarreling, and loving one another because Christ died to save their brethren as surely as He died to save them. Preserving this unity raises fallen man, brings the promise that God will love believers as He loved His Son, saves the sinner, and glorifies God, opening the way for God's love and power to flow richly into them. It is to be read over and over, often repeated, and carried into practical life.
The instruction is the badge of discipleship and a present test proving who is worthy of admittance into God's family and the heavenly city. Its practice must begin in the home, for God measures church members by what they are in the home, and obedience there shapes the church's influence and helps win sinners to Christ. When Christ's words are obeyed in the home the influence extends to the church, the Spirit is not grieved away, and the brightly burning lamp gives light to those in darkness so men glorify the heavenly Father. Until the defiling rubbish of unkind talk and passing judgment and self-assured conversation that hurts souls and spoils God's work is cleansed away by the Holy Spirit, with the living coal placed on the lips to cleanse them, all counsels prove a detriment, becoming a savor of death unto death instead of a savor of life unto life, for handling such talk is handling strange fire.
Living out the prayer in practical life brings unity and love among believers and unity with Christ, and this unity withstands Satan's attacks and the enemy's attacks and enables believers to stand in the shaking time and endure testing through hearing and obeying Him. Dissension and self-seeking leave weakness and show that the prayer is not being lived, and it remains unheeded and disregarded when those who have received light act blindly under unholy ambition or in the same spirit that controls the nations, allowing dissension, disorder, and strife to arise and failing to follow the light God has given. The prayer bestows great advantages on God's people and makes known the day of their visitation, holding an advantage God has bestowed that means much more than is realized. Satan understands it better than church members and heads of families do and does not want God's people to understand it, so he seeks to hide it by keeping them in discord and strife over little misunderstandings and little differences that grow into variance and hatred, that they may present before the world exactly the opposite of what God desires them to present.
As Christ's last prayer it gives the pattern for ministry now, calling for dwelling with intense earnestness on sacred testing truths beautiful in their simplicity. It calls for confining public effort to important united lines of truth on which there is clear light, for centering minds on the essential work to be done, including the work in the cities and the sacred truths regarding the binding claims of the law of God. It calls for not bringing in the daily or any other subject that will arouse controversy, reveal marked difference of opinion, cause confusion and agitation, and delay and hinder the work. Its meaning calls Christ's workers to close union with Him, and that union leaves no place for speculative theories. Believers are to strive to answer His prayer through their work and by being sanctified through the truth and speaking in agreement and being united in mind and judgment, and by doing so they become the light of the world, with the privilege of being one with Him in God, having perfect wholeness and completeness in Him while apart from Him they are deficient. In that last prayer Jesus pleads that they receive grace to walk in His footsteps and continue the work He began, using talents for love and unity.
The chapter is full of His mercy and love, which He is ready to give to those who walk before Him in obedience and humility. It presents Christ's prayer as a model for acknowledging God in every way and seeking an ever fuller knowledge of God through Christ, and it is needed by all and is to be presented in every home as a message from God showing how to receive Christ's grace. It is to be lived out in the believer's life. Giving oneself earnestly to study and live the prayer is linked with entering the city with Christ.