I pray for them
The keeping of the saints
I. THE PERSONS. “Those whom Thou hast given Me.” The disciples in contrast
1. With the world (John 17:9). Christ meant, not that men, as men, were excluded from His intercessions, but that they were not then the object of His pleadings; He was then acting as the Church’s High Priest, preparing to sanctify Himself as a sacrifice for His believing people. Hence the unbelieving world had no direct interest in the blessings He was asking.
2. With the son of perdition. Judas had by this time been excluded from the apostolic circle (John 13:30).
II. THE BLESSING--preservation in
1. Unity (John 17:11), such as expresses itself in one faith, one love, one body, one life (Ephesians 4:3-6). This is not only the subject of Christ’s intercession with the Father, but the object of the Father’s keeping of the saints. He keeps them, not by forcible compulsion, but by spiritual persuasion, helping them to understand the oneness of love, life, power subsisting between the Father and the Son, in such fashion that they earnestly desire and labour after such oneness among themselves; in this showing that they follow God as dear children.
2. In safety (John 17:15). One can imagine reasons why Christ should have prayed that the disciples should be taken from the world with Himself, e.g., He would rather be accompanied by those who had loved Him; and that it would be better for them than to be left exposed to the world Philippians 1:23). But He discerns grounds why it was better that they should be left
(1) For themselves, inasmuch as they were as yet imperfectly sanctified.
(2) For Christ, for the vindication of His honour, for the propagation of His truth.
(3) For the world.
They were to remain as salt to preserve it, as light to illuminate it, as leaven to work in it. Hence Christ prayed that they might be shielded from evil, from hurtful things (Mark 16:18; Luke 10:19; Acts 18:10); from wicked men (2 Thessalonians 3:2); from the evil one (1 John 5:8).
3. In felicity (verse 13).
III. THE ARGUMENTS.
1. They belonged to Him, the Father (verse 9). Believers are God’s
(1) By nature, as His creatures.
(2) By grace, as His children.
(3) By community of interest with Christ (verse 10).
2. Christ’s glory was involved in their preservation (verse 10). In them the world would behold His glorification, and the character of His religion. By them His glorification would be proclaimed, and the glory of His kingdom advanced (Acts 2:33; Acts 3:13).
3. They were about to be deprived of His presence (verse 11). Up to then Christ had shielded them; accordingly, like a dying parent, He commends them to His Heavenly Father’s care. (T. Whitelaw, D. D.)
The Divine Suppliant
The truths in this part of the prayer are
I. THAT THE SUPREME GOOD OF MAN IS SPIRITUAL AND NOT TEMPORAL. Christ prays that they may be “kept from the evil,” “sanctified,” and “be one” with themselves, Him, and the Father. He does not pray that they may be healthy in body, prosperous in circumstances, or long-lived. He does not undervalue these things, but temporal prosperity to Him was insignificant compared with spiritual. There are good reasons for this. Temporal prosperity is
1. Insufficient to satisfy the cravings of the human soul. “A man’s life [happiness] consisteth not in the abundance of things,” &c. “What shall it profit a man,” &c.
2. Often leads to spiritual adversity and ruin. How often it happens that the higher a man rises in worldly things, the lower he sinks in moral destitution. “Seek ye first the kingdom of God.”
II. THAT THERE IS A COMPLETE UNITY OF INTEREST BETWEEN CHRIST AND THE FATHER. “All Mine are Thine,” &c. This is
1. True absolutely. God is the universal Proprietor. We are only trustees, not owners.
2. True subjectively. “Thine are Mine.”
III. THAT SINCE THE DEPARTURE OF CHRIST THE PRESERVATION OF A GOOD MAN IN HIS GOODNESS DEPENDS ON THE AGENCY OF THE GREAT FATHER (verse 11). THE MEANING IS, “I have taken care of them until now; now I commend them to Thee.” Note
1. The way of keeping them. “Through Thine own Name,” i.e., His moral character. This is enough to convert them to, and to keep them in goodness.
2. The reason for keeping them, “that they may be one as we are,” i.e., in supreme purpose, inspiring spirit, moral character. What attraction is in the material world, love is in the moral.
IV. THAT AMONGST THOSE WHO ARE GIVEN BY GOD TO THE SCHOOL OF CHRIST THERE ARE BAD MEN AS WELL AS GOOD (John 17:12). There has ever been a Judas in Christian communities: tares as well as wheat; goats as well as sheep. Bad men as well as good are
1. The property of God. He can give them.
2. Under the direction of God. Judas did not go into Christ’s school by accident, but that the Scriptures might be fulfilled.
3. Employed in the service of God. Judas did a useful work.
4. Must meet with a terrible end. The “son of perdition” went to his own place. It is better for a man to fall from the level sands than from a lofty cliff; to fall into ruin from a corrupt world than from the height of Christian privilege.
V. THAT THE GRAND DESIRE OF CHRIST IS THAT ALL HIS DISCIPLES SHOULD PARTICIPATE IN HIS JOY (John 17:13).
1. Although in one sense “a Man of Sorrows,” no man had so much joy as Christ. The joy of
(1) An innocent conscience.
(2) Disinterested love.
(3) Close communion with the Father.
2. Now His desire is that His disciples should participate in this joy, and
3. At last “enter into the joy of the Lord.”
VI. THAT THE FAITHFUL CARRYING OUT OF CHRIST’S DESIRE WILL EXCITE THE WORLD’S HATRED (John 17:14). The world is ever in direct antagonism to the teaching and life of Christ. The man, therefore, who will act out the one and live the other will ever come in antagonism with the world’s passions and prejudices. The conduct of the godly acts on the sensibilities of the corrupt as the sun on diseased eyes, and music on diseased auricular nerves.
VII. THAT IT IS POSSIBLE SO TO LIVE IN THE WORLD AS NOT TO BELONG TO IT (John 17:16). (D. Thomas, D. D.)
Why Christ prayed for the disciples
Before proceeding to the more special petitions Jesus reproduces the two principal claims of the disciples to the Divine interest.
I. THOU HAST GIVEN THEM TO ME--watch over Thine own gift; and the more since, in becoming Mine, they have not ceased to belong to Thee, but have even become more than ever Thine. For what I receive from Thee; I receive only to restore to Thee, and to ensure to Thee its possession. The present “are Thine” is purposely substituted for the imperfect “we’re Thine” (John 17:6), to express the idea that the gift of them to the Son has only confirmed their being God’s.
II. THEY HAVE BECOME DEPOSITARIES OF THE SON’S GLORY. Notwithstanding His form as a Servant, Jesus had appeared to their hearts in all His beauty as the Son of God. Even before restoration to His glory, He had regained it in them by the fact that they had recognized Him for what He truly was (John 17:7-8). (F. Godet, D. D.)
Why Christ did not pray for the world
Jesus has not the same reasons to bring forward in favour of the world, not the same request to make for it. Luther justly says, “What must be asked for the world is that it may be converted, not that it may be sanctified or kept.” Assuredly the statement of Jesus is no absolute one. He said on the cross, “Father, forgive them.” Was not this to pray for the world? Only He did not then, as He does now, bring forward as a reason “they have known” (John 17:8), but, on the contrary, “they know not what they do”; and instead of appealing, as here, to the care of God for beings precious and belonging to Himself, He invokes His compassion for beings guilty and perishing. The saying in John 17:21, “that the world may know that Thou hast sent Me,” contains an implicit prayer for the world (cf. John 2:16)
. The statement of Jesus, that He prays not for the world, only becomes absolute in proportion as its moral characteristic of opposition to God is fixed, and as it becomes the association of those who are not only enemies of God, but who desire to remain such. (F. Godet, D. D.)
The mediatorial plea
I. A GRACIOUS ANNOUNCEMENT “I pray for them.”
1. The words which follow seem at first startling. Does He mean that the world had no place in His desires and formed no object of His supplications? No, for He had said, “God so loved the world,” &c., and was so soon to pray on the cross for His murderers. It is simply as if He had said, “I am not now at this moment praying for the world at large,” or else, “I pray not in this way for the world.” For the world He does pray (John 17:20-21), but He prays in another manner, viz., that it may cease to be what it is, attain to knowledge which it does not possess, and realize a life which it does not know, while in praying for His disciples He asks that they may be perfected in what they have received, confirmed in their faith and so prederved from forgetting or losing that which they know.
2. “I pray for them.” The word pray here is a word which Christ Jesus alone uses in relation to His prayers. The Saviour never uses the word ordinarily used to express prayers by man, but one which has the sense of authority in it, and which therefore it is not proper for us to use. How much, then, is involved in this announcement! Frequently in the course of social intercourse we say to a friend in difficulty or affliction, when we feel that our poor thoughts, counsels, or help can be of little or no avail, “I will pray for you.” Does that not include the highest thought, and the most effective aid that we can reach? What magnitude and depth of meaning, then, must there be in our Saviour’s words, “I pray for you”! The Lord who prayed for these disciples intercedes for His people now. There is not a single day of our life, how full soever of duty, difficulty, or darkness, in which we may not derive encouragement and comfort from this gracious word of Christ.
II. AN EXPLANATION. The disciples
1. Belong to God “They are Thine,”
(1) He had created them, selected them out of the many thousands of Israel, to be trained by His Son. The preparation they received under the minister of Jesus was altogether of God; and the variety of their dispositions, qualifying them for varied service and duty, was due to His wisdom and power. It is one thing to be God’s creatures, made originally in His image; it is much higher and grander to be God’s men, created anew in Christ Jesus.
(2) This interest was reciprocal: “All Mine are Thine, and Thine are Mine.” In the Father’s interest the Son had an interest, and in the Father’s property the Son has an equal right (chap.
V. 19). No language could more impressively show the Godhead and glory of Jesus than this claim of kindred interests.
2. Christ, as Mediator and Saviour, had an interest in these disciples peculiar to Himself: “I am glorified in them.”
(1) It may well excite our wonder and adoration that He, “withoutwhom was not anything made that was made,” should have glory in feeble, ignorant, and imperfect men, and only in the little band was He glorified. The life and attractiveness of the vine are in its branches, foliage, and fruit; and as Jesus said, “I am the Vine, ye are the branches,” His honour was essentially connected with them, as the first-fruits of a multitude of followers.
(2) How was Jesus glorified? To draw men to Himself, to secure their devotedness for God, that they might be redeemed from sin, and be made partakers of the Divine nature, was the very purpose for which He came into the world; and in these disciples, who were lovingly drawn around Him as the first-fruits of His advent, was He glorified. There is a depth and breadth of meaning in these words which we cannot fully comprehend. When the hero of many battles receives the thanks of a grateful country, and says in reply “that he could have nothing but for the bravery and devotion of the troops under his command,” we can appreciate his modesty and admire his candour. But when the strong Son of God says, “I am glorified in them” these My disciples, few and weak we cannot refuse our admiration and our love. (J. Spence, D. D.)