15 I do not ask that Thou mayest take them out of the world, but that Thou mayest keep them out of the evil.
16 `Of the world they are not, as I of the world am not;
17 sanctify them in Thy truth, Thy word is truth;
18 as Thou didst send me to the world, I also did send them to the world;
19 and for them do I sanctify myself, that they also themselves may be sanctified in truth.
20 `And not in regard to these alone do I ask, but also in regard to those who shall be believing, through their word, in me;
21 that they all may be one, as Thou Father `art' in me, and I in Thee; that they also in us may be one, that the world may believe that Thou didst send me.
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,