And I do not demand for these only, but also for those who believe on me through their word;
The Lord has been praying for the eleven men in the room with Him. At this verse His prayer widens to take in everyone who would later believe through their word.
Commentators read this verse as a fresh start inside the prayer.
Verse 20 is really the start of a new paragraph. Here the Lord Jesus clearly extends His request from the eleven men before Him to all those down the ages who would believe on Him. What a mercy of God that these words occur in this prayer. We are certainly among those who later believed on Him through the words of these disciples. So — wonder of wonders — you and I clearly find a place in these words from the Son to the Father.
What follows this widening is not vague. One writer traces the shape of the rest of the prayer:
Now the Lord looks down the coming ages and embraces in His prayer all those who would believe in Him through the word of the Apostles. This leads the Lord to unfold in our hearing three further desires of His heart: firstly, that all believers may be "one in us" (v. 21); secondly, that they "may be one" in the coming Kingdom glory (vv. 22-23); thirdly, that they may be with Christ where He is (v. 24).
The Greek verb behind the Lord's request here is worth pausing on, because He never swaps it for the more ordinary word for petitioning.
Erotao, on the other hand, carries with it a certain equality or familiarity between those of whom it is used, as of king with king (Luke 14:32). The Lord uses this word of His own asking of the Father (John 14:16; John 16:26; John 17:9, 15, 20) — never aiteo. Martha uses this last word of Him (John 11:22), and so shows that she does not grasp the dignity of His Person. He never uses it of Himself.
The phrase "not for these only" reaches back over everything He has already asked.
The Lord's words, "I do not ask for these only," show that the desires He has already expressed apply just as much to all believers. And the last requests, by their very nature, must include the disciples.
Faith reaches us through a channel, and that channel now exists in writing.
When we come to John 17:20 we find this blessed Person praying for us in particular. Verses 6-19 were spoken of those who were with Him at that time. Now He adds, "I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word." The testimony the Apostles gave has come down to us in the written word. In accepting it, we have believed in the Son of God through their word.
This request leaves the door open. One writer lists who comes through it:
Those believing on Him through their word are now presented to the Father, "that they may all be one." So room is left for multitudes of believers, for all who confess His Name — Jew or Greek, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free. There is room for those who had until then clung tightly to legal forms, whose substance they refused because they would not believe in Him. There is room for those who had been almost as stubborn in holding to the dreams of the pagan world and its degrading immorality, knowing nothing of the only true God, who is truly known through Him whom He sent.
His prayer looked past the work itself to the people it would win.
He prayed, not just that apostolic labour might be successful. There was no doubt about that. He prayed for those who should believe on Him through their word. So now each truly converted soul can say, "He prayed for me." All such were included in His prayer that night. Who can count the numbers that have been saved? Who can say how many more will be brought into the one flock, before Christian testimony reaches its appointed end?
What He asks for this wider company differs from what He asked for the eleven.
This is not exactly "one as we," that is, as the Father and the Son, which verse 11 had said of the disciples… Here the saints at large are in view, those who believe through their word. What is asked for them is that they should "all be one" — not "as we," but "in us," in the Father and the Son. The Holy Spirit brings us into this communion. It rests on the Father made known in the Son, and on the Son as the object of the Father's love and delight. With the Father we share the Son; with the Son we share the Father.
- The cause. Faith comes to us through the apostles' word, now written down. Accepting it is how we came to believe in the Son of God.
- The gift. Because He asked, everything He sought earlier in the prayer belongs to all believers, not only to the eleven in the room.
- The reach. His words leave room for multitudes: Jew and Greek, slave and free, and people who knew nothing of the only true God.
- The certainty. He was not praying only that the mission would succeed. He prayed for those who would believe, so every converted person can say, "He prayed for me."
- The result. What He asks for them is not "one as we," but "one in us." The Holy Spirit brings them into the communion of the Father and the Son.
that they may be all one, as thou, Father, [art] in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us, that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.
Jesus prays here not only for the disciples with Him, but for everyone who would ever believe through their message. He asks one thing for them all: oneness. But what is this oneness? And how could it move the world to believe?
The Lord names the channel by which later believers would come to Him: the word of the apostles. One writer traces that channel down to the present reader.
When we come to John 17:20 we find this blessed Person praying especially for us. In verses 6-19 He spoke of those who were with Him at that time. Now He adds, "I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word." The testimony the apostles gave has come down to us in the written word. In accepting it, we have believed in the Son of God through their word.
Earlier in the chapter the Lord asked that the apostles be one "even as we are." Here the wording shifts.
It is not exactly "one as we," that is, as the Father and the Son, which verse 11 had said of the disciples... Here the saints at large, those who believe through their word, are in view; and the thing sought is that they should "all be one," "just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us" — not "as we," but "in us," in the Father and the Son. It is communion that rests on the Father made known in the Son, and on the Son as the object of the Father's love and delight. The Holy Spirit brings us into it. With the Father we share the Son; with the Son we share the Father.
What does this oneness look like? The Father and the Son show it.
Oneness in real fellowship of communion was His desire, and the burden of His petition. The Father is in the Son, and the Son is in the Father; so there must be full communion between Them. The thoughts, the wishes, of the Father are the thoughts and wishes of the Son. No difference of view, no conflict of opinion, can possibly exist between Them. ... People once Jews, or Gentiles, or from far-off nations, or slaves, or free, all united in one fellowship, owning and serving the same Lord — what but divine power could do this? And if divine power could do it, what a testimony that would be to the divine mission of the Son!
The stated purpose — the world believing — sets a condition on the kind of unity meant.
Here, then, the special object for which the Lord desires this oneness is that it may be a testimony to the world. No invisible unity can be this. The world can receive no evidence except what it is shown. Unless the oneness of believers is something the world can see, the testimony spoken of here is not given.
How far does that testimony reach?
It is a unity of practical life, oneness of heart and mind, such as exists between the Father and the Son... It is not, of course, that the world as a whole will believe, but it has at all times worked on people of the world... "one in Us" shows it to be a life of fellowship with the Father and the Son.
Religious effort often aims at sameness instead.
The oneness of which our blessed Lord spoke to the Father, recorded in John 17:21, is that all His own might know in present communion oneness in the Father and the Son. In contrast to this, Scripture shows again and again how completely religious-minded people fail when they try to produce uniformity... It is the living communion of persons and not the harsh uniformity of mere religion.
Believers today are divided. That is not the end of the story.
The prayer of our Lord, "that they may all be one" (John 17:21), will yet be answered in glory. Thinking about this with joy would do much to give us a longing of heart now, by God's Spirit, for the unity of God's people. It would also make us long that nothing in our spirit and ways should add to the confusion and weakness of the present.
- Prayed — Jesus prays past the disciples with Him to everyone who believes through their message. That message reaches us in the written word.
- Patterned — the model is the Father in the Son and the Son in the Father: one mind, one wish, no conflict of view.
- Shared — the prayer is not "as we" but "in us": believers drawn into the communion of the Father and the Son.
- Shown — the aim is that the world may believe, so the oneness must be visible. An unseen unity gives no testimony.
- Still coming — God will yet answer this prayer in full. Knowing that should make us long for unity now, not add to the confusion.