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.