1 These things spake Jesus; and lifting up his eyes to heaven, he said, Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that the son may glorify thee:
2 even as thou gavest him authority over all flesh, that to all whom thou hast given him, he should give eternal life.
3 And this is life eternal, that they should know thee the only true God, and him whom thou didst send, `even' Jesus Christ.
4 I glorified thee on the earth, having accomplished the work which thou hast given me to do.
5 And now, Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.
6 I manifested thy name unto the men whom thou gavest me out of the world: thine they were, and thou gavest them to me; and they have kept thy word.
7 Now they know that all things whatsoever thou hast given me are from thee:
8 for the words which thou gavest me I have given unto them; and they received `them', and knew of a truth that I came forth from thee, and they believed that thou didst send me.
9 I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for those whom thou hast given me; for they are thine:
10 and all things that are mine are thine, and thine are mine: and I am glorified in them.
11 And I am no more 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, even as we `are'.
12 While I was with them, I kept them in thy name which thou hast given me: and I guarded them, and not one of them perished, but the son of perdition; that the scripture might be fulfilled.
13 But now I come to thee; and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy made full in themselves.
14 I have given them thy word; and the world hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.
15 I pray not that thou shouldest take them from the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil `one'.
16 They are not of the world even as I am not of the world.
17 Sanctify them in the truth: thy word is truth.
18 As thou didst send me into the world, even so sent I them into the world.
19 And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth.
20 Neither for these only do I pray, but for them also that believe on me through their word;
21 that they may all be one; even as thou, Father, `art' in me, and I in thee, that they also may be in us: that the world may believe that thou didst send me.
22 And the glory which thou hast given me I have given unto them; that they may be one, even as we `are' one;
23 I in them, and thou in me, that they may be perfected into one; that the world may know that thou didst send me, and lovedst them, even as thou lovedst me.
24 Father, I desire that they also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world.
25 O righteous Father, the world knew thee not, but I knew thee; and these knew that thou didst send me;
26 and I made known unto them thy name, and will make it known; that the love wherewith thou lovedst me may be in them, and I in them.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on John 17
Commentary on John 17 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 17
This chapter is a prayer, it is the Lord's prayer, the Lord Christ's prayer. There was one Lord's prayer which he taught us to pray, and did not pray himself, for he needed not to pray for the forgiveness of sin; but this was properly and peculiarly his, and suited him only as a Mediator, and is a sample of his intercession, and yet is of use to us both for instruction and encouragement in prayer. Observe,
Jhn 17:1-5
Here we have,
Jhn 17:6-10
Christ, having prayed for himself, comes next to pray for those that are his, and he knew them by name, though he did not here name them. Now observe here,
Jhn 17:11-16
After the general pleas with which Christ recommended his disciples to his Father's care follow the particular petitions he puts up for them; and,
Now the first thing Christ prays for, for his disciples, is their preservation, in these verses, in order to which he commits them all to his Father's custody. Keeping supposes danger, and their danger arose from the world, the world wherein they were, the evil of this he begs they might be kept from. Now observe,
Jhn 17:17-19
The next thing he prayed for for them was that they might be sanctified; not only kept from evil, but made good.
Jhn 17:20-23
Next to their purity he prays for their unity; for the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable; and amity is amiable indeed when it is like the ointment on Aaron's holy head, and the dew on Zion's holy hill. Observe,
Jhn 17:24-26
Here is,