I have manifested thy name to the men whom thou gavest me out of the world. They were thine, and thou gavest them me, and they have kept thy word.
Here Jesus turns from praying about His own glory to speaking about His friends. He sums up His whole life among them in one line: a name made known, people given to Him, a word kept. Each phrase raises a question. Which name? Why these people? And in what sense did they "keep" the word?
The name He made known is not a title of power. It is the name of a relationship.
"I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me." The whole of this chapter speaks of the Father's name. It is not the Almighty, Jehovah, or Most High, the names He will bear in the millennium, "most high over heaven and earth." It is the Father, putting us in the place of sons.
The verse says He manifested the name, not that He declared it. One writer draws out the difference between showing and telling.
What is manifested is meant to be seen. What is declared is meant to be heard. Jesus both manifested and declared the Father's Name. What He did showed what the Father is, making visible what His Name represents. Those in whom the Spirit has worked can appreciate the heavenly grace of God made visible in the Lord Jesus.
The verse names these people by where they came from and who they belong to. Nothing about it was accidental.
They are described as "the people whom you gave me out of the world." So from the very start they stand clearly apart from the world. The Father took them out of it and gave them to the Son. They were the Father's according to His purpose before time began. But He gave them to the Son, so that the Son might bring them to know the Father by manifesting His Name to them.
By the world's standards these men were nobodies. The Father valued them differently.
They were poor and despised and of little account in the world. People despised them all the more because they had been drawn to Christ. They were not the great and noble of the earth, but the Father considered them a good gift for His Son. Their being drawn after Jesus was no mere accident. The Father had drawn them to His Son and had given them to Him, and He had received them. He loved them and gave Himself for them, and He never intended to part company with them.
They were the Father's before they were given to the Son. That short phrase also widens the circle beyond Israel.
The revelation of all that the Father is, as expressed by His Name, and these communications, are not given to the world. Nor are they given simply to a Jewish remnant out of Israel. They are given to the men that the Father gave to Christ "out of the world." Such belong to the great company of God's elect, for the Lord can say "Yours they were." So the language He uses leaves the way open for others, besides the godly remnant of Israel, to come into all this blessedness.
That is a bold thing to say about the disciples. One writer explains what the words do and do not measure.
Though they had been the Father's possession, only the Son had made the Father known to them. Of them He says, "they have kept your word." He is not speaking of how fully they kept it, but of the fact, which is true of every believer.
Jesus ties their obedience to the Father, not to Himself.
"And they have kept" — not My, but "your word." All this is the grace that ties the disciples to the Father, and shows Him as their Servant… This was not Christ, the Son, acting apart from or separate from the Father.
There was a purpose behind all this showing and telling.
He showed the disciples the Father in all His attributes, and passed on the Father's words. His aim was to bring them into the same position before the Father that He as a Man enjoyed. So the Lord makes it possible for us to walk knowing the Father's love, revealed in the Son. He also makes it possible for us to share the mind of the Father through what the Father told the Son.
- The Name — What Jesus revealed was God as Father, not Almighty or Most High; that name places believers as sons.
- The Gift — These men were the Father's first, then given to the Son out of the world. The Father counted them a good gift, and the Son will never part with them.
- The Showing — Declaring is for the ears, manifesting is for the eyes. Jesus did both, so His life showed what the Father is.
- The Word — "They have kept your word" states a fact true of every believer, not a score for how well they did. And it is the Father's word, for the Son is never separate from Him.
- The Point — All of it brings us where the Son stood as Man: sure of the Father's love, and let in on His mind.
Now they have known that all things that thou hast given me are of thee;
At the heart of this verse is a small phrase that could look like a repetition: what the Father gave is from the Father. Commentators press on the word to show it carries the whole weight of relationship.
At first glance this looks like a repetition, but the thought is "from you" as Father. Martha had said, "even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you," but now He had declared the Father's name, and they were to know that all He had was the Father's gift: relationship was brought out.
Others watched the same life and drew other conclusions. They did not learn new facts. They learned where everything came from.
They had entered into the secret of which the world knew nothing: the Father was the source of all that was given to the Son. Some wondered at His works and His words. Others hated Him, and said that what no man could do came from Satan — a blasphemy. The disciples had learnt that all these things were from the Father, as the Son wanted them to.
Knowing Jesus as the promised King was not the whole of it.
This is more than knowing Him as Messiah. They knew the Father, and Christ the object of the Father's heart, and all the counsels of God about Him.
Darby weighs what that knowledge was worth.
They saw the Father's glory in the hands of the Son. The Father was shown to them, and that was enough. Nothing more could be, except the actual glory itself. They knew that they were really the Father's. It was glorious knowledge.
They did not work this out for themselves. It came through the words the Son passed on, and it reaches to everything Christians enjoy now.
When they received the Father's words from the Son, the disciples knew that the Father was the source of all the things given to the Son. The Son came to carry out everything for the Father. He came to carry out all the wonderful things in the Father's heart for the blessing of those the Father had given Him. All that we have been called to enjoy at the present moment springs from the Father's love; He is the source of all.
Nothing was held back. What the Father communicated to the Son in that relationship, the Son handed over.
"I have given them the words that you gave me." He had put them into the same place and relationship He Himself was in as a man on earth with the Father. So whatever the Father had told Him in that relationship, He passes on to them. He brings them into all the blessing — into all the brightness of the hope — and brings us now into the full awareness of that relationship.
The words handed on were not a set of rules.
The Lord handed over to His disciples the intimate communications of grace that the Father gave to Him. It was no longer a question of the ten commandments given through Moses — the measure of man's responsibility, given to prove his sin and ruin, which he neither admitted nor felt.
There is a gap here between what they knew and what they could say.
They were able to trace things to their source, however little they might have been able to put their knowledge into words. They had received the words that the Father had given to the Son, and had known for certain that He had come from the Father, and that the Father had sent Him. This the Lord could say of them, though they might not have been able to say it of themselves.
This was deliberate on His part, not an oversight.
It is true that before they received the Holy Spirit they gained little from what He told them about the Father. But what they might have gained from was there in front of them. Sadly, they never once understood what the Lord said to them. He does not speak here of how little they understood. He speaks of the revelation itself that He had made to them, and He credits them with all its value.
- Source. The verse turns on one word. What the Son holds is from the Father — a gift inside the Father-Son relationship, not a general gift of God.
- Secret. The world watched the same works and either wondered or blasphemed; only the disciples traced them home to their source.
- Beyond Messiah. Knowing Him as the promised King is less than this — they knew the Father, and knew the Son as the object of the Father's heart.
- Passed on. They learned it through the words the Son gave them, so that everything Christians enjoy today still springs from the Father's love.
- Credited. The Lord says of them what they could not say of themselves, speaking of the revelation given rather than of how little they grasped.
for the words which thou hast given me I have given them, and they have received [them], and have known truly that I came out from thee, and have believed that thou sentest me.
On the night before the cross, Jesus tells the Father what He did with what He was given. The Father's own words He passed straight on to His disciples — and they received them, even though within hours they would fail Him.
The verse says "words," in the plural. The "word" and the "words" are not the same thing.
Not only had the Lord declared the Father, but He had given to His disciples the "words" which the Father had given Him. He shared with them the messages He had received from the Father. So they learn not only who the Father is in all His love and holiness. Through the "words" they also learn the Father's mind. If the "word" reveals who He is, the "words" reveal His mind and thoughts.
These sayings came to the Son inside His own relationship with the Father. He did not treat them as private property.
Notice in verse 8 how far He goes with us. "I have given them the words that You gave Me." That is, He had put them into the very place and relationship He Himself was in as a man on earth with the Father. So whatever the Father had told Him in that relationship, He passes on to them. He brings them into all the blessing — into all the brightness of the hope. He brings us now into the full awareness of that relationship.
"They have received them" sounds like a report of complete success. Kelly reads it as grace counting what is real, not how much was grasped.
Since He had given them the words the Father gave to Him, the disciples did receive the truth, though no doubt imperfectly. So they came to know for certain that Christ the Son came out from the Father. And they believed as well that the Father sent Him. This is how grace reckons: it does not measure degrees, but makes much of what is real. He can well do this, for His love gives, deepens, and secures from first to last.
Within hours these same men would show cowardice and deny Him. That makes the Lord's description of them all the more striking.
This was very touching, for think what these men had been, how slow, how dull, how unresponsive! And think what they were on the point of showing themselves to be. What cowardice, what denials, in a few hours! But the Son saw them in the light of God's purpose. He knew that the Father had power in the end to bring about in them all that He had purposed. So He credited them with having in fullness what they as yet realized only in a very feeble measure. And does He not treat His saints today, and pray for them, in just the same way?
The verse names knowing and believing as separate steps, with different objects. Grant hears two sides of one truth in them.
They had received them. In some cases this came with confusion and questions, yet they had done so in real, living faith. That gave them absolute confidence that Christ had come out from the Father (v. 8). Notice that this wording shows the Son's own energy and initiative in coming forth. Then He adds, "they have believed that You sent Me," and this shows the Father's initiative. Both are true, for Father and Son are One.
Kelly adds why the second half matters.
To know for certain that the Son came out from the Father does not satisfy His heart. That alone would prove no more than His own love in coming. But the disciples believed the further truth that the Father sent Him — the proof of His own love to them.
Everything the Lord goes on to ask for His people rests on one simple thing.
It is most comforting to us that our Lord bases all these glorious desires for the saints on one thing alone. They had received the Son's testimony about the Father, and they had firmly believed in the Father's love.
What began as sharing words does not stop there.
Our blessed Lord would have us share with Himself "the words" — the divine communications — which the Father gave Him. He also gives us His own peace — that calm, untroubled state which always flowed from confidence in the Father's love… And, to crown it all, He will share His glory with us.
- Given. The Father gave the Son words; the Son gave those same words away rather than keeping them.
- Opened. The "word" shows who the Father is. The "words" open His mind and thoughts, so that the disciples stand where the Son stands.
- Received. Faith took them in — imperfectly, but really. Grace makes much of what is real and does not measure degrees.
- Credited. He describes men who would deny Him hours later by what the Father purposed for them. He treats His people the same way now.
- Result. On that reception alone He bases all He asks — and the sharing widens from His words to His peace, His joy, and His glory.
I demand concerning them; I do not demand concerning the world, but concerning those whom thou hast given me, for they are thine,
Jesus is about to leave His disciples in a hostile world. In this verse His prayer turns into requests, and what He leaves out is startling: He passes over a whole world and names only one group before the Father. Has He given up on the rest?
The verb here is not the language of someone begging for a favour.
If we study the word "pray" in this verse, we will see its force. It is the word of someone wanting or demanding something from another who is His equal. In the prayer of this chapter we are listening to a Divine Person, the Son, addressing the Father.
The Greek preposition sharpens the same point. Kelly notes it is not the word used later in the chapter for acting "on behalf of" someone:
"I request for them." The preposition is peri, not huper, "on behalf of"... which occurs in verse 19. It is not intercession, but the Lord putting forth a claim.
He leaves the world out on purpose. One writer sets this against a prayer Christ will pray one day, in Psalm 2.
Had He no interest in the world? The deepest interest — He died for it. But at that time He did not want the world as the place to display His power and rule as Son of Man. That will come in due time. This is the very opposite of a prayer He will yet pray, in answer to God's decree: "Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession" (Ps. 2:8).
So the silence has an end. One writer ties the change to the moment Christ takes His people home:
His priestly work now will one day end. That is, He will first receive His own to Himself in glory. Then He will ask for the world and receive the kingdoms of this world.
Jesus gives a reason for His asking: these people belong to the Father. One writer traces three motives behind the prayer.
First, the Lord says the Father has given them to Him. Even so, He can say to the Father, "they are Yours." He is praying to the Father concerning those who belong to the Father. Secondly, the Lord can plead, "I am glorified in them."... Thirdly, the Lord pleads, "and I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to You."... The first motive concerns the Father. The second has the glory of the Son in view. The third is the safety of believers.
Darby reads the same logic as two arguments pressed on the Father at once:
If You care for Your own, You must keep them. And if You care for My glory, You must keep them, for He adds, "and I am glorified in them."
The Father gave believers to the Son, and He lost nothing by giving them. They belong to both at once.
They were His Father's gift to Him and so are we. "You gave them to Me," He said, but in giving them to His beloved Son the Father did not give them away or lose them... The Father and the Son have this mutual interest in all who are Christ's... They are more precious to the Lord than crowns and kingdoms and far-reaching fame.
In the next breath Jesus says this ownership runs both ways — words no creature could ever use:
A mere man may say, "All mine are Yours." But no mere man could say, "All Yours are mine." If he did, he would be guilty of unforgivable and blasphemous presumption. But the Son could so speak with fitness and truth; for He is One with the Father.
The first circle is the eleven disciples. Later in the chapter the prayer reaches further.
Then He prays, and first for the eleven. Further on He says, "I do not ask for these only" — all Christians are the gift of the Father to Christ... Intercession is only for those who actually believe... It is in this verse that He begins to pray.
Another writer asks who these people are, and answers from what they face right now:
And who are these? ...Believers, children of God, Christians. They are passing through this sinful world now, and they can fail and become defiled at every step of the way. These are the subjects of Christ's priestly ministry. He died to make them clean. He lives to keep them clean.
- Claim, not plea. The word has the force of one equal asking another. Kelly calls it a claim the Lord puts forward, not intercession.
- Given. Jesus names the people He prays for as the Father's gift to Him. That gift is the ground of the prayer.
- Kept. The Father gave them away and lost nothing. "They are yours" still stands, and Father and Son share one interest in them.
- Delayed, not denied. Christ leaves the world out for now. He "died for it," and Psalm 2 is the prayer for the nations still to come.
- Continuing. The circle widens beyond the eleven to all who believe — He died to make them clean and lives to keep them clean.
(and all that is mine is thine, and [all] that is thine mine,) and I am glorified in them.
Jesus is praying aloud to His Father about the disciples the Father gave Him. He gives two reasons why they deserve the Father's care. They belong to the Father, and He is glorified in them. Between the two He makes a claim about Himself that no other man could make.
The Lord names the disciples as the Father's before He names them as His own. One writer explains how the Father can give them away and still keep them:
And though they were given by the Father to the Son, they were still the Father's, yet the Son's as well. What a revelation for them! Then, too, the Son was glorified in them. How clearly that showed in later years when they preached Christ! They must be precious to the Father, for they were His. Precious to the Son too, for they were His Father's gift to Him. Men on earth give, but they do not keep what they give. The Father gave them to the Son, yet they remained the Father's. The Father can never drop them. The Son will never relax His grasp of them.
The verse has two halves, and they are not equal. Any man could say the first half to God. The second half is another matter.
"All mine are yours, and yours are mine." Think about these words. An ordinary man may say, "All mine are Yours." But no ordinary man could say, "All Yours are mine." He would be guilty of unpardonable and blasphemous presumption. But the Son could say it, and it was fitting and true, for He is One with the Father.
The Father and the Son share everything. So believers do not pass from one owner to another.
He prays for them as His own possession that no one can take away. His Father gave them to Him, and they still remain the Father's. For all that the Son has is the Father's, and all that the Father has is His. Think about that great fact for a moment. It brings out His equality with the Father. It shows the perfect oneness of mind, interests, and affections between the Father and the Son. And we too are Their joint possession!
The Lord gives a second reason for the prayer, and it comes with a measure attached.
Then, as a second great reason for praying for His disciples, the Lord adds, "I am glorified in them." We are left in this world to represent the One who has gone to glory. How much people see Christ in His people is how much He is glorified before the world.
The wording is exact about whose glory is at stake in His people.
"I am glorified in them." He does not say the Father is glorified in them; it is Christ, whose character we bear, who is to be glorified in us. We have the Father's word and the Son's place on earth... He has brought them into the intimacy of all those things He received from the Father as a man. He puts them into His place as sons by redemption. So He gives them the Father's testimony to carry back into the world — the place where they are set. Christ was the perfect expression of what the Father is, and in the same way a faithful person is the perfect expression of the One he speaks for.
There is a warning in this too:
Jesus says, "I am glorified in them"; and those who do not show Him do not glorify Him.
What the Father enjoys now will one day be on public display.
How wonderful that we belong to the Father! But He has given us to the Son, and now the Son says, "They are Yours." What joy for us to know the place of affection we have in the heart of the Son and the heart of the Father! All the features of this blessed Man come out in the company the Father has given Him. In a coming day, all the traits of the Son will be on public display in those the Father has given Him. But even now the Father finds pleasure in seeing the features of His Son in those who are His own. This is how the Son is glorified in those He loves.
- Given, not lost. The Father handed the disciples to the Son, yet they stayed the Father's. When people give, they no longer keep what they gave. God's giving is not like that.
- Owned by both. The Father and the Son share all things. Believers belong to Them both, and no one can take them away.
- A word for Christ alone. "Yours are mine" would be blasphemy from any man. The Son says it truly, because He is one with the Father.
- Glorified in them. Christ's honour is now tied to His people. How much He is seen in them is how much He is honoured before the world.
- Seen now, displayed then. The Father already enjoys seeing His Son's features in His own. One day those features will be on public show.
And I am no longer in the world, and these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep them in thy name which thou hast given me, that they may be one as we.
Hours from the cross, Jesus prays aloud: He is leaving the world, the disciples stay in it, and He hands them into the Father's keeping. The verse turns on two things — the Name that guards them, and the oneness that Name is meant to produce.
One writer traces three motives behind the prayer:
First, the Lord says they are given to Him, but He can still say to the Father, "they are yours." Second, the Lord can plead, "I am glorified in them"... Third, the Lord pleads, "I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you." The Lord had kept them while He was with them. Now the time had come when He would no longer be with them. The first motive concerns the Father, the second has the glory of the Son in view, and the third the safety of believers.
The phrase "keep them in your name" draws on a picture the Old Testament already used:
He is thinking of the uncleanness, the impurity of the world where He would leave the disciples — the world we live in... In Proverbs the writer says, "The name of the LORD is a strong tower; the righteous man runs into it and is safe." For Israel the name of the LORD, the God of Israel, was a refuge. When they were in it they were kept: guarded and safe. The Father's Name is the Name of the One who has made us His children. That Name keeps the believer, who will not be lost.
Both words in the address matter.
Then Jesus shows the name by which the Father was to keep them: "Holy Father" — to keep them with the affection of a Father, and according to the holiness of His nature. He had kept them Himself in this name while He was here. Now He gives them over to the direct care of the Father... Christ was here below the Son of the Father, and as such He answered to the Father's holiness in all His ways and thoughts. The Father's will was shown in His life; He revealed the Holy Father in Himself.
Later in the same prayer, when the Lord speaks of the world, He changes the address:
In this prayer in John 17, when He speaks of the world He says, "O righteous Father, the world does not know you"... When He prays about the saints, He says, "Holy Father." He wants the holy character and affections of the Father Himself to surround them.
Older translations read "keep those whom you have given me," making the disciples the gift. The ESV, like several of these writers, makes the Name the gift.
The comparison is startling. One writer names the oneness in view:
He hands them over to the care of His Father to keep. "Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one" — that is, in counsel, aim, and object. Kept in the Father's name — and there is but one Father — that would result.
This prayer was answered. One writer points to the twelve apostles themselves — men with well-known faults:
Yes, they were men with the same passions as ourselves or anyone. Yes, they showed serious weaknesses even under their Master's own eyes and teaching on earth. Yes, from first to last they betrayed petty prejudices, narrow hearts, and no small jealousy of each other. All this only adds to the wonder of what God worked in these very men by His Spirit, in answer to the Lord's asking. The power of the Father's name, which the Lord knew so well while here, showed in them. The twelve were one even as the Father and the Son.
Jesus asks for oneness more than once in this chapter. One writer keeps the three apart:
First there is the apostolic, essential unity. They were of one mind and purpose, as the Father and the Son, by the Holy Spirit (John 17:11). Second comes the unity of divine fellowship, and the witness to the world around that flows from it in grace (John 17:21). This was seen at the first moments of the church's history, at Pentecost. Third comes the perfected unity of glory, still to come.
- Departure. Christ goes to the Father; His own stay behind. The care He gave them in person now becomes prayer.
- Name. The Father's Name is the shelter. Israel ran into the name of the LORD and was safe; that refuge is now held out to His children.
- Holy. He asks the Holy Father, so the keeping carries a Father's tenderness and the purity of His nature. Of the world He says "righteous Father" instead.
- One. The oneness sought is agreement in counsel, aim and object — the very harmony of the Father and the Son.
- Answered. Men full of jealousy became one — proof that the Name keeps what it holds. Writers set this first unity apart from the unity of fellowship seen at Pentecost, and from the unity of glory still to come.
When I was with them I kept them in thy name; those thou hast given me I have guarded, and not one of them has perished, but the son of perdition, that the scripture might be fulfilled.
Near the end of His prayer, Jesus tells the Father how He cared for the men given to Him. Two questions follow: what keeps them now that Christ has gone, and how did Judas perish if the Son loses no one?
The verse looks back on what Christ did while He was on earth. He says it aloud so that we may hear it. One writer draws out what changes when He goes to the Father.
While He was in the world He had kept His disciples in the Father's name, and guarded them from all the power of the enemy. Now that the Lord was going to the Father, He permits us to hear His words so that we may know His guardianship does not cease, though its method is changed. Before He goes to the Father He would have us know that we are put into the Father's loving care.
The word behind "kept" carries the sense of a guard set over something valuable. One writer, quoting an older translation, brings that out.
In verse 12 we read, "While I was with them in the world, I kept them." The word is "guarded them" — guarded them "in Your name." He laid His preserving hand upon them. His preserving presence was always with them. But now He was going away. He was leaving them, but He leaves them in the care of the Father up there, and in the care of the Spirit down here.
The verse also shifts tense, and one commentator draws out what each half is doing:
In verse 12 you have the difference of the preterite (imperfect) and "have." "I kept" is historical. "I have kept" up to now, so that none (save Judas) is lost.
The one loss looks like a break in the promise Jesus has just made. Commentators answer that Judas never belonged to the group Jesus describes. Older wording calls him "the son of perdition."
He was not one of those given to Christ by the Father, though called to be an Apostle: of those so given He had lost none. Judas was an apparent, not a real, exception, as he was not a child of God, but the son of perdition. What an awful lesson! Even the constant presence of Jesus fails to win a person where the Spirit does not bring the truth home to the conscience.
"That the Scripture might be fulfilled" is not an excuse tacked on. It answers the doubt that Christ lost a man He could not hold. It also clears God of making that man what he was.
Had He failed them in His care? Had He not been able to keep that miserable man? Was it any question of His failing? Not for a moment. It was no failure on Christ's part, but "that the Scripture should be fulfilled." It was not that God made that miserable man what he was. He never made any man bad. He made men, not sinners. But Judas, going on in sin so near to Christ and against Him, becomes a son of perdition. And this is what all men would be but for the grace of God.
Judas heard the teaching and travelled with the Lord for years. His case stands as a warning next to a real believer's failure.
It makes a tremendous difference what you do. If you do not behave yourself, it shows that you are not a real Christian. I know that a real Christian may fail, but the difference can be seen in Peter and Judas. Peter failed, and he failed badly. But he was genuine, and one look from Jesus sent him out weeping bitterly. But Judas kept company with the Lord for almost three and a half years, and he was a devil the whole time. At last remorse overtook him, not genuine repentance.
The same sentence that records one loss records that Christ kept all the rest. One writer reads it as the Good Shepherd's pledge for the whole flock.
Here the Good Shepherd pledges Himself and the honour of His glorious name. The weakest sheep in the flock can never perish, by any means at all. So, speaking to His Father about His twelve disciples, He says, "Those that you gave me I have kept, and none of them is lost (same Greek word) but the son of perdition."
- Kept — the word means guarded; Christ set His preserving hand and presence over the men given to Him.
- Kept in a Name — Christ guarded them in the Father's name, a name the Father gave Him.
- Kept, then handed over — His care does not stop when He leaves. Its method changes: they pass into the Father's keeping.
- Kept, except one — Judas is only an apparent exception. He was never among those the Father gave, and closeness to Christ never made him a child of God.
- Kept, and not by accident — Scripture foretold the loss, so no one can charge Christ with failure. Every man the Father gave Him is still safe in His hand.
And now I come to thee. And these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in them.
Jesus prayed John 17 out loud, on the edge of the cross, with the disciples listening. So why did He let His own hear Him speak to the Father about them? And what is the joy He wants filled up in them?
The opening words are easy to misread as meaning that Jesus is now turning to the Father in prayer. One writer describes changing his mind:
For a long time I thought that this meant the Lord Jesus Christ was coming to the Father in the prayer. But a careful look at the passage makes it clear that this is not what He means. He means: "These are in the world, but I am leaving the world and I am coming to You, back to the place I left." So it was very important that before He left the world He should leave on record such words as these. They are the very last thing that is to be said.
He speaks "in the world" — to the Father, but where men can hear. The gift is not only what He asked, but that He let them hear Him ask it:
John 17 brings us, as it were, into the council chamber of heaven. There we listen to the innermost secrets of the heart of God… Out of the resource of His love He wants His disciples to know not only what He said to them, but what He said to the Father about their happiness.
This joy is His own, and it comes with the Father's name He passes on to His people:
Here Jesus speaks of the relationship of love, the Father's name which He had given Him. No man had ever known or received that name until the Son became Man. Now, leaving the world, He hands it over to His own. He prays the Holy Father to keep them in its power, and He speaks that name in the world. His aim is that the joy which was His own alone — impossible to any being but Himself — might be fulfilled in us.
Sharing His joy also means gladness at His own gladness, not only at what He has done for us:
Further, they had the right to joy in His joy. That is, they could rejoice because He Himself was happy, not only because He had made them happy. It is a high and blessed privilege. It shows how He wants us to be one in heart with Himself.
His joy never came from the world. It came from the Father, and that is the joy we are called to share:
The love with which the Father had loved Christ should be in the disciples. They should enjoy it… This is what we are called to: to enjoy in this world the love that Christ knew here below — His Father's love… He was walking in the world, but while He was here His place and character were those of the Son of the Father. There was His joy; not from the world, no more than He was of it, but from the Father.
The Father's words kept His joy full — and He hands those same words to us:
He has been as a Son away from home in this heartless world before us… His joy was full, not because of His circumstances, but despite them. What was the power of it? His Father's words held Him up, keeping Him in the unclouded awareness of His love… Think of a child away from home. He watches for the letters from home and treasures them. They keep him going, because they remind him that his place in the family's love has not changed. Just so the Lord Jesus meets our need. He leaves us the words that made everything bright for Him. Without them, that place would have been at its darkest.
The joy comes with a task. He puts them where He stood:
Now, as going out of the world, He puts the disciples in His own place, as verse 13 shows. He had been here in His Father's name, finding His joy in serving His interests. From now on they were to be here in His Name. They would have that same joy fulfilled in themselves as they served the Father and represented the Son.
- Departure. "Now I am coming to you" means He is leaving the world. First He puts these words on record, as the last thing to be said.
- Overheard. He prays out loud, so His own hear what He tells the Father about their happiness. The council chamber of heaven stands open to them.
- His joy. What He hands over is the joy peculiar to Himself as Son, so that we rejoice in His gladness and not only in His gifts.
- Its source. That joy came from the Father's love, never from the world — so circumstances could not empty it.
- Its supply. He leaves us the Father's words that kept Him bright in the dark. He gives us the place He held too, so His joy fills us here and now.
I have given them thy word, and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world, as I am not of the world.
Near the end of His prayer before the cross, Jesus tells the Father two things about the men He is leaving behind. He has given them the Father's word. The world has already turned against them. Then He gives the reason, and He measures it by Himself.
Earlier in the same prayer Jesus speaks of "the words" the Father gave Him. Here the term changes, and commentators treat the change as deliberate.
This is not, as in verse 8, "the words" the Father gave to the Son, which the Son passed on to the disciples. Those were the communications of love. By them the disciples knew truly that He came from the Father, and believed to their joy that the Father sent Him. It is here (as in verse 6) the Father's "word," the expression of His mind. … In the world they were to be witnesses of Him, and He has given them the Father's word. The world hated them — not only for that word, offensive as it is to the world, but because the disciples who had it were not of the world, just as their Master is not. This is the true measure of unworldliness. The world cannot bear it, and the religious world least of all.
Up to this point Jesus has set the disciples before the Father. Now He places them in relation to the world — in His own place.
And now He puts them in His own place, not with the Father, but in respect of the world. … It is in the same place of testimony that He had been in. … There I learn that He has made their place what His was, and has given them His testimony, the Father's word — not words here. The world will not bear it. If you get into this place the world will not stand it. The world will bear a great deal of religion, but not the Father.
What the Father gave the Son now belongs to them — the cost included.
The Father's name is revealed to them. The Father's word is given to them. The Father's care is assured to them. Christ's joy is their joy. Christ's reproach and Christ's place as a stranger are their portion in this world.
The world's hatred does not come from rude behaviour or from argument. It comes from their presence.
Now this is what drew upon them the hatred of the world. Their presence represented the Father in testimony. It told the world that not everything belonged to it — that what was of God did not. There were men in relationship with the Father. But the result was that they were not of the world. No judgment was carried out, but the separation was made.
The verse states what believers are, and it names the measure.
We are left in the world on the distinct understanding that we are not of it. We are not part of the world-system that surrounds us, and for that reason the world hates the Christian. Notice that the Lord here makes Himself the standard. We are identified with Him in this.
That standard is absolute, though daily life may lag far behind it.
It is much to be feared that few grasp the depth and meaning of our Lord's words, "They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world." … The measure of a believer's separation from the world is nothing less than Christ's — that is, the principle of it. In practice, sadly, it is quite another thing. But in principle there is no difference.
The word that draws the hatred also shapes the one who receives it.
What joy it must have brought to the heart of Jesus when His own received the Father's word from Him! That word shaped them after Christ. It also drew the world's hatred upon them, as it had drawn that hatred upon the Son. They received the Father's word in their hearts, and that is what separated them from the world. The world could not stand it. The more room the Father's word has in our hearts, the more we shall be apart from the world and its ways in daily life.
- The word — "your word" here is not the separate sayings of verse 8. It is the Father's whole mind, given to the Son and passed on. It is testimony, and testimony is what the world cannot bear.
- The line — receiving that word does the separating. Their presence announced that not everything belongs to the world. The line was drawn, and no judgment fell.
- The hatred — hostility is not a sign that something went wrong. It is the same treatment the Son received, passed on with the same place of testimony. The world will put up with a great deal of religion, but not with the Father.
- The standard — the measure of a believer's separation is Christ's own. Daily practice often falls short of it. The principle itself does not shrink.
- The outcome — the word that costs you the world's favour is the word that forms you after Christ. Give it more room in the heart, and the practical distance from the world grows with it.
I do not demand that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them out of evil.
Jesus is about to leave the world. He prays for the disciples He leaves behind in it. His prayer is striking for what it does not ask: not rescue out of the world, but protection inside it.
One writer explains what this world is, and why disciples are left standing in it.
The disciples were taken out of the world in order to represent God in it. They were to walk in His ways, not the world's ways. They were to draw their life and all their conduct from Him, and to live as Christ did. The world is an immense system that Satan built around fallen man, to keep man unaware of his ruin. The Lord does not pray we should be taken out of it, but kept from the evil.
The two halves of the verse ask for different things. One is about place. The other is about the state of the heart. Mixing them up leads to real error. (Older translations read "keep them from the evil"; the ESV reads "the evil one.")
Some confuse two different thoughts. Being kept from or out of the evil is a moral thought. Being kept out of the world is a physical thought. There is no difficulty here. The disciples were physically in the world, as real men. But their spirits were to be kept from the corrupting influences around them.
So should Christians escape the world? One writer answers that plainly, and then draws a picture.
Someone may say, "What are we to do? Are we to go out of the world?" Not at all. Our Lord says plainly, "I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one." In it, but not of it, is the true principle for the Christian. To use a figure, the Christian in the world is like a diver. He is surrounded by an element that would destroy him. He survives only because he is protected from its action, and sustained by unbroken contact with the scene above.
Christ's own longing pointed the other way. Why, then, does He leave them here?
He longed deeply to have us out of the world with Himself. But the time for that had not come, and He would be, as always, subject to the Father's will — "but that you keep them from the evil one." Our business here was now to fill the place of the Lord Jesus in testimony for God. We spoil and ruin this to the degree that we give place to the flesh or the world.
One writer counts what this prayer rules out — and what it asks for instead.
This is not just physical keeping. He does not ask for a hedge of outward separation from the world to be put around them. He does not ask for them to be taken out of it. He asks instead that the truth sanctify them — the truth His word contains, which shows Christ set apart. Christ is set apart from the world for His people, so that we too might be separate from it in heart.
Keeping is God's work. But does it work no matter how we live? One writer adds a caution.
We do not think the promise, "The LORD will keep you from all evil," applies apart from the state of the soul. As said before, faith is the living link between the soul and God. God works through it to bless and protect the believer... How careful we should be, then, to answer to His mind in this. And all the more, because both His love and His power are engaged to keep us undefiled as we walk in His ways.
- Kept, not removed. Christ did not ask for His people to be taken out. He asked for them to be kept where they are.
- Kept from evil. The keeping is moral, not physical. The danger is a defiled spirit, not the simple fact of being in the world.
- Kept for a purpose. They stay to fill Christ's place of testimony for God. Giving place to the flesh or the world ruins it.
- Kept by truth. He asks for no protective hedge. The answer comes through the word that sanctifies, setting the heart apart to a Christ who is Himself set apart.
- Kept through faith. Faith is the living link with God, and His love and power are engaged to keep us undefiled as we walk in His ways.
They are not of the world, as I am not of the world.
Jesus said these same words two verses earlier, and now He says them again to His Father. So is He describing what His people must achieve, or what is already true of them?
The words are a statement about what believers already are. One writer sets fact against duty, and shows what it costs to blur the two.
They are not of the world, as Christ is not of the world. It is a fact, not just a duty — though it is the firmest ground of duty. They are not of the world; it is not merely that they ought not to be. And if they are not, it is a serious inconsistency even to look as if they belong to the world. That is being false to our relationship, for we belong to the Father and are given to the rejected Son, who is finished with the world.
So how did it become a fact? One writer points away from behaviour to where the believer came from.
Notice these words of our Lord about His people: "They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world!" He is not giving them a command to try to be heavenly. He says, "they are not of the world!" By birth, by being, they are heavenly — "born from above!" ... The man who receives this breath of heaven is made a heavenly person. Jesus often said to the Jews, "I am from above," "I am not of this world," "you do not know where I come from." He knew where He was from and where He was going. Others did not. So it is with the saints.
The short phrase "just as I" sets the scale for the whole sentence. One writer notes that the Lord says it twice to emphasise it.
Even more plainly He says, "They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world." To emphasise this He repeats it twice (verses 14 and 16). His separation from the world — and who can measure how deep it goes — is the measure of ours.
Another writer weighs that measure against how believers live, and separates principle from practice.
I am afraid that few really grasp the true nature and practical results of their position as joined to the crucified and risen Jesus. Few really enter into the depth and meaning of our Lord's words, "They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world." ... The measure of the saint's separation from the world is nothing less than Christ's — that is, the principle of it. In practice, sadly, it is quite another thing; but in principle there is no difference.
Being not of the world does not mean leaving it. One writer shows how that worked in Christ's own life, and what kind of place the world is.
The world was not Christ's aim. Through His whole life, though He had not left the world, He was no more of the world than if He had been in heaven. When practice is in question, He says, "They are not of the world, as I am not of the world. Sanctify them through your truth." Truth is not of the world: this world is a vast lie.
Why say it twice? One writer reads the repeat as the ground for what the Lord asks next.
He repeats this thought as the basis of their position here below. "They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world." What then were they to be? By what rule, by what model, were they to be formed? By the truth, and the Father's word is truth. Christ was always the Word, but the living Word among men. In the Scriptures we have it, written and settled: they reveal Him, bear witness to Him.
- Born, not built. Believers are not of the world by birth and being, not by effort. They are heavenly because they were born from above.
- Measured by Him. "Just as I" sets the scale: Christ's own separation from the world. The Lord repeats the sentence twice to press it home.
- Stationed, not removed. Christ lived His whole life in the world. Yet He was no more of it than if He were in heaven. That is the pattern for those He leaves here.
- Formed by the word. The fact comes first. Then comes the question of what shapes them: the Father's truth, which is His word.
- Owned in practice. It is a fact, not just a duty. So even looking as if we belong to the world is being false to the relationship we already have.
Sanctify them by the truth thy word is truth.
In this prayer the Lord asks the Father to set His disciples apart. Two questions follow. What does it mean to be set apart? And why does the Lord name the Father's word as the means?
Sanctification has two sides, and the word works both of them.
Sanctification implies that we are, not only set apart from evil, but set apart in heart and life for Christ. The Lord's words show us that this devoted life of practical sanctification to Christ comes about in two ways. First, by the truth... On the one hand, the word exposes and judges our words, our ways and our walk. It judges even the secrets of our hearts, all that may spoil a life of devotion to Christ. On the other hand, the Father's word reveals to us the Father in all His love and grace and holiness as set forth in Christ.
This setting apart follows from knowing what is real.
The root idea of sanctification is setting apart. The Son has given the Father's word, which introduces us to all His love, His thoughts, His purposes, His glory. All this is truth; that is, reality of the most divine kind. The world lives so much in a region of unreality and make-believe. It works to set up systems that have no solid ground and that must pass away in the end. If we know divine realities, we must stand apart from the world's unrealities.
The Lord is speaking to the Father, so "your word" means the Father's word. Commentators warn against narrowing this prayer to a setting apart for service.
It is easy for people to misunderstand the Saviour's words, as those do who lower and narrow them to a setting apart for ministry. But He had at heart a deeper, more personal desire. He wanted the disciples themselves to be filled with the truth, shaped and formed by it... "Your word," the Father's word, "is truth." Truths had been made known before, but never the truth itself, until Jesus came, for He is the truth. He was the first, and He alone, to show openly what everyone and everything really is: God, man, even Satan; heaven, earth, hell, and all things in them.
The Lord did not name the law as the means of holiness. He named the word. The difference is the difference between a rule and an object the heart can love. (Older translations read "sanctify them through your truth".)
"Sanctify them in the truth." It is the word of God applied to judge every thought and feeling in me. He does not say, "Sanctify them by the law," but by the word. Persons take the law as a rule, but you want power; you want an object that seizes your affections. What object does the law give you? Where is the thing, the One, you are to love? Where is He? Who is He? The law tells me of nothing but a Judge. It sets no object before my soul to give me blessed and holy affections. The Father's word does give me this.
Because the word is the means, it is also the measure. We do not get to decide for ourselves what a set-apart life looks like.
This is a saying much to be remembered. It teaches us that we are not the judges of what sanctification or holiness is. God's word decides that. Holiness is the character, or mind, that God's word — the truth — forms in us.
That same word also lights up a world that is otherwise unreadable.
Christ is the truth: the word of God is truth about everything. Do I want to know what my heart is? The Word tells me. Do I want to know what God is? The Word tells me. What Christ as a Saviour is? What Satan and his schemes are? The Word will tell me. And therefore I have the Word to make all plain, when I want to go through the world, which is a labyrinth for anyone else.
Sanctification here is not an effort to squeeze the world out. It is a heart occupied with something better.
All the Scriptures are truth. But one truth in particular makes the child of God separate from the world: the revelation of the Father's name to his heart. That revelation sanctifies him, or sets him apart, to the love of the Father... he has, in the infinite kindness of God, the love that Christ dwelt in for his portion. So long as that love is filling his heart, there is not room in him for the world.
- Word given — the Lord asks the Father to set His people apart by the word, not by the law.
- Word reveals — it works two ways. It exposes what spoils devotion to Christ, and it shows the Father in His love and grace.
- Word defines — we do not decide what holiness is; the character formed by God's word is holiness.
- Word separates — if you know what is real in God, you cannot be at home in the world's make-believe.
- Word fills — when the Father's love fills the heart, there is no room left for the world. That is sanctification in practice.
As thou hast sent me into the world, I also have sent them into the world;
In the verse just before, the Lord asked the Father to set His disciples apart by the truth. Now He gives them the same commission the Father gave Him. What does such a sending involve? What do they carry, who is fit for it, and how far does it reach?
John's Gospel presents Jesus as the One the Father sent. Here that title stretches to cover His followers. One reference work traces the word "apostle" back to its root meaning:
The Greek word apostolos means "a messenger," "one sent"... It is also used in a much higher and stronger sense. It implies a divine commission in the one sent — first of the Lord Himself, and then of the twelve disciples He chose to be with Him during His ministry here... He was the Sent One.
One writer notes how often this Gospel returns to the theme, and where it lands:
It is remarkable how many times this Gospel calls the Lord the One whom the Father sent into the world. In slightly different words it says this more than forty times... He was, therefore, not native to the world, as though He sprang out of it. He came from above, and all that He was He brought with Him... Now something new comes about. In setting it up, the Lord was fulfilling His own words in His prayer to the Father — see John 17:18. He was departing, and they now were to be sent as from Him.
A sending needs a message. One commentator names it in a single line:
To carry what? Christ made known by the Father's word. I cannot be sent into the world if I am in it and of it. And I can only go there as sent by Christ if I am fully joined with Him in the spirit of my mind.
The pattern runs in two links. The Son makes the Father known, and the disciples make the Son known:
As the holy and perfect One, Jesus had been sent into the world by the Father, that He might represent Him and make Him known. Now He sends His disciples into the world in similar manner. They were to represent Him and make Him known. What qualified them for this was the sanctification of which the previous verse had spoken. If His plan had been to shut them away from the world, no such mission could have happened. It also could not have happened if the truth had not sanctified them.
There is no contradiction here. Being taken out of the world by grace is what makes the sending into it possible:
It flowed from One apart from the world and above it, whom the Father had sent into it on an errand of infinite love for the Father's glory... So the Son sent the disciples, joined with Himself in heaven and charged with the Father's testimony to the world. Had they been of the world, they could not be sent into it; but, as taken out of it by grace in Christ, they were not of it, and could be sent.
So the Christian's place has two movements: taken out of the world, then sent back into it:
Notice here again that He, Christ Himself, is the standard. Our separation from the world matches Christ's own separation from it. And our being sent into the world, in verse 18, follows that same standard. The Lord takes us out, breaks our links with this world, and then sends us back that we may be here for Him.
The word "world" also fixes how far the errand reaches:
He does not merely say, "Sanctify them in your truth"... but further He says, "As you sent Me into the world, so I have sent them into the world." It was no question of the land of Judea now. The world was before them. So, if there was the intimacy of setting apart to the Father, there is also a universality of mission.
Being set apart is not an end in itself. It gives the disciples a standing in two directions:
This separation from evil, and sanctification to God, is in view of the disciples' service — that they may be morally fit to carry out their mission... Already the Lord has viewed the disciples as in His position before the Father; now He views them as having His place before the world.
- Sent — the Lord is the Sent One of the Father, and He hands that same commission on: they are sent as from Him.
- Carrying — what they bear into the world is Christ made known, as He made the Father known.
- Separated — being not of the world is not withdrawal from it, but the one qualification for being sent into it.
- Everywhere — the field is no longer one land but the whole world.
- Fitted — being set apart by the truth is what makes them fit to hold His place before the world.
and I sanctify myself for them, that they also may be sanctified by truth.
In this prayer Jesus has just asked the Father to set His disciples apart by the truth. Now He turns to something He does Himself, and He does it for them. But how could the sinless Son need any setting apart at all?
The ESV says "I consecrate myself." Older translations, which the writers quote, use the word "sanctify" for the same thing. The word does not mean becoming purer. It means taking a separate position, and the writers press that this is the only sense that fits a holy Person.
The basic idea of sanctification is "to set apart." The only way we can understand it here is this: the Lord Jesus Christ set Himself apart from the world by being present in heaven in His body. "For their sakes I sanctify Myself" — I am taking a position so that I can be the object their whole heart is set on. The more we learn of our oneness with Him in that place, and of our shared life with the Father and the Son, the more we will be set apart in heart, mind and spirit from the evil world we live in.
after
Other places where Scripture uses the word point the same way.
Things without life — altar, basin, vessels — were sanctified under the law. No inward change happened in them, and no increase in holiness. But they could be put in a separate position, given over completely to the service of God. The Lord Jesus Himself was "sanctified, and sent into the world" (John 10:36). And again, as He left the world, He said, "I sanctify Myself" (John 17:19). There could be no inward change in Him, no sanctification in the sense of growth. Holiness of the most intense kind, divine and absolute, was always His.
In verse 17 He asks the Father to sanctify them. In verse 19 He asks no one. He acts Himself.
He is holy in Himself, holy as God is holy. So the only sanctification possible for Him was a setting apart like this. And notice: according to this verse, He does it Himself. That is another witness to His Deity, for no mere man could set himself apart in the glory of heaven!
The whole act is aimed away from Himself. He had no evil to leave behind. They did.
He was in the world as Surety for His people. So it is for their sakes that He separates Himself from the world, by death and resurrection. Our Lord was holy, innocent, undefiled and separate from sinners. He needed no moral separation from the evil in the world. But His own people, who were in the world, needed the practical sanctification that nothing but His grace could give.
Which moment do the words point to? Ridout ties the setting apart to death and resurrection. Kelly rules out two other readings:
The Lord does not sanctify Himself for them simply by becoming man. Nor does He do it by dying as a sacrifice, as Chrysostom and Cyril of Alexandria taught, and many after them. For on the cross God made Him, who knew no sin, to be sin for us. It is as glorified, after death and resurrection, that He becomes the pattern of His own.
Verse 17 gave the word; verse 19 gives a Person. The two work together.
Now I get something more than the word; it is Christ Himself who is the substance of all that the word speaks about... He has gone up to glory, and there sets Himself apart as the object for our hearts... I have now got an object: it is the truth, which will judge everything that is in my heart. This it is that sanctifies me, by showing me the One whom I love, and who has said that I am going to be like Him.
The place He has taken sets the measure for daily life.
He is set apart to God as the pattern Man in heavenly places, so that the Holy Spirit may take it and apply it to us here. I see this perfect Christ set apart for me in heaven, and I say I must walk according to that pattern. I will walk in love, because Christ also has loved us, and given Himself for us... The starting-point of all my measure of conduct is the place in which I am already set in Christ.
- Set apart — Here "sanctify" means to take a position, not to grow purer. He was always holy, so no other sense fits Him.
- Set apart by Himself — He asks the Father to sanctify the disciples. He sanctifies Himself. No mere man could do that in the glory of heaven.
- Set apart for them — He needed no separation from evil. They did. Grace alone moves Him to take this place for their sakes.
- Set apart as Object — The word reveals God's mind. Christ in glory is the living Person that word describes, so the heart has someone to fix on.
- Set apart as pattern — Looking at Him where He now is sets the measure of daily life. I walk according to the place I am already given in Christ.