On the ground of this accomplished work He now prays for these disciples. The world, which is not beyond the sphere of His love, is excluded from this part of His prayer. It can be reached only through them. These disciples, His by God's gift, are the object of the love and care of both, for whom all things are in common. He has proved His ownership by their acceptance of His message. Now that He leaves the world, where they must stay to do their work, and comes to the Father, in the light of this coming separation He prays that they may be kept in true union with God, whose holiness separates Him from the world; that they may keep their unity, even as the Father and the Son are one. While with them He kept them in touch with God, the Holy Father whose name it was His to make known, and guarded them safely. None fell away, but the son of perdition, Judas, the man of the wasted life. And that was part of God's plan as foretold in Scripture (Psalms 109:8). He asks that the joy which He has made His own, the joy of consciously accomplished work, may be fully gained by them for themselves. He gave them God's message, which must needs bring on them the world's hatred, for their acceptance has shown that, like Him, they do not belong to the world (1 John 2:15-17 *). He does not ask for their removal to safer spheres, but that they should be kept from the evil of that to which they do not belong, by being sanctified, made and kept holy as God is holy, by the truth as it is revealed in God's message which He has delivered (cf. Psalms 119:142). So they will be fit for their work to which He sends them, as He was sent. Sanctification is that which qualifies the priest to perform his office, or which gives to the victim the quality that makes it well pleasing to God. By His death He sets Himself apart (John 17:19) for God's service on their behalf, that they too may receive true setting apart for the same service, a real and not merely symbolical sanctification.
Related Commentaries of John 17:9
John 17:9-19
9 I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me; for they are thine.
10 And all mine are thine, and thine are mine; and I am glorified in them.
11 And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are.
12 While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name: those that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition; that the scripture might be fulfilled.
13 And now come I to thee; and these things I speak in the world, that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves.
14 I have given them thy word; and the world hath 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 out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil.
16 They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.
17 Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.
18 As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world.
19 And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctifieda through the truth.