John 17:14 - Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible

I take more to be understood here, by Christ's giving his word unto his disciples, than his preaching the gospel in their ears: otherwise Christ had no more given these his disciples his word, than he had given it to many thousands of others who were yet in the world, and whom the world hated not. The sense therefore is, I have not only preached thy word in their ears, but I have opened their hearts to receive and believe it and bowed their wills to a compliance with it; so as the word dwelleth in their hearts, is ingrafted in them, and they are turned into the likeness of it. And here it is observable, that when any soul is given to Christ by his Father, Christ will most certainly, first or last, give unto that soul his word in that sense; that is, so as it shall receive, believe it, and be turned into the likeness of it. And for this the world hath hated them, for thy word hath made them to be of another spirit from carnal, loose, and worldly men; they have other affections, other inclinations, other designs and studies; they are not of the world in that respect as I am not of the world: though in other respects not so; for Christ, as to his original, was not of the world, which they were, of the earth, earthy.