John 17

     This is the prayer of Jesus on the way to Gethsemane, in which he prays for himself (1-5), for his disciples (6-19), and for the church (20-26).

    John 17, 18

     17:1-5.  Jesus has been given authority over all flesh, and authority to give eternal life to those given to him by the Father (2-3).  He speaks of their redemption as already accomplished (4), because what he came to do was settled between the Father and the Son in eternity before the world was (5), and all for God’s glory (1).

     17:6-19.  The unity of these that Jesus leaves in the world is based on the unity found in the trinity.  This unity is a gift of the Father through the Son by which they share the identity (name) of God in the world.  They belong to him and he to them in a bond of grace and love that also binds believers to one another (11).

     17:12.  Just as the eleven are chosen and preserved unto eternal life (2), so is the lost one, the son of perdition, chosen to fulfill his predestined role (Luke 22:22; cf. Ro.9:14-18).

     The Scripture alluded to is (among others) Ps.41:9; cf. John 13:18.

     17:17-19.  They are sanctified (i.e. set apart to a holy purpose).  Jesus set himself apart from the world and did his work on the cross for the sake of God’s word of truth.  They are sanctified to carry on this truth, sent by Christ into the world as the Father sent him.  In Paul’s odd sounding words, they are to fill up “that which is lacking in Christ’s afflictions.”  (Col.1:24).  Nothing was lacking, of course, except them taking the truth into a lost and hostile world (18).

     17:20-26.  In these verses Jesus prays also for us, that the church may be one in the truth once delivered.  Unity has two parts.  The first is commitment to the truth, apart from which there can be no unity.  Secondly, love for the brethren, which includes forbearance and forgiveness of the weaknesses and frailties of others, just as God forgives and bears with us.  But we must never compromise the truth.  Apart from God’s grace, we can never resolve the tension between these two things, though it is a false dichotomy.  It will not exist in that day when we shall all join with Christ to share the love that unites the holy trinity in truth and love.