Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of John 17:25

O righteous Father, the world hath not known thee: but I have known thee, and these have known that thou hast sent me.

25, 26. Summary

25. righteous Father ] The epithet (comp. Joh 17:11) harmonizes with the appeal to the justice of God which follows, which is based on a simple statement of the facts. The world knew not God; Christ knew Him; the disciples knew that Christ was sent by Him. ‘Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?’

hath not known ] Better, knew not. So also ‘have known’ should in both cases be knew, and ‘hast sent’ should be didst send. The verbs are all aorists. The conjunction kai before ‘the world’ may be rendered ‘indeed,’ meaning ‘it is true the world knew Thee not, but yet &c.’ Translate; the world Indeed knew Thee not, but I knew Thee.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

Hath not known thee – See the notes at Joh 17:3.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Joh 17:25-26

O righteous Father, the world hath not known Thee

The amen to the sublimest of all prayers

I.

GOD AND THE WORLD.

1. God.

(1) His relationship–Father. No relationship is more intelligible, attractive, morally assimilating. It means causation, affection, resemblance. Christs God was not a cold King upon the throne, but a loving Father whose heart yearns for His prodigal children.

(2) His character–righteous.

(a) His existence is the foundation of all right.

(b) His will is the standard of all right.

(c) His works and Word the revelation of all right.

(3) His character is not opposed to His relationship. Righteousness is love resisting all that will injure the moral universe: love uprooting weeds out of the paradise of virtue.

2. The world–unregenerate humanity. This ignorance is

(1) Most universal.

(a) The barbarian world hath not known Thee. It is sunk in idolatry, superstition, and sensuality.

(b) The civilized world. When this was said, Egypt, Greece and Rome had done their best; but even in Athens God was unknown.

(c) The conventionally Christian world. Its science denies; its literature, politics and commerce ignore; its creeds and Churches misrepresent God.

(2) Most inexcusable. Men may have just excuses for not being scholars, &c., but no excuse for this. Nature is made to reveal God and the soul. The blindness of the man who shuts his eyes to the sun is not more inexcusable than this.

(3) Most ruinous. The man ignorant of God is in moral midnight–the blackness of darkness.

II. CHRIST AND HIS SCHOOL,

1. Christ, I have known Thee. From any lips but His how presumptuous would this sound! Who among the worlds geniuses or sages could say it?

(1) No one had the opportunity of knowing God that Christ had. He was in the bosom of the Father. He knew the motive that prompted the creative act, and the plan on which the whole was organized.

(2) None the capacity. What is the greatest intellect to His.

(3) None the heart–the true organ of knowledge. Christ and His Father are one in heart, spirit and purpose.

2. Christs School they have known

(1) By the mighty works which Christ wrought.

(2) By the sublime doctrines He propounded.

(3) By the matchless purity of His character.

III. THE PREACHER AND HIS MISSION (Joh 17:26). What Christ did is the genuine work of every true preacher. What was it?

1. A persistent declaration of the Divine character. To declare self, or theories and speculations about God is what some do: but to declare His Name, His moral character, the essence of which is love, is Christs work.

2. A persistent declaration of the Divine character in order to transfuse Divine love into human souls. (D. Thomas, D. D.)

Gods Fatherhood

Our Lord first addresses God as Father, then as Holy Father, and lastly as Righteous Father. Note that holiness and righteousness flow from the Fatherhood of God. Note also that the manifestation of the Divine fatherhood is consummated in the manifestation of the Divine righteousness. (W. H. Van Doren, D. D.)

The righteous Father known and loved

The text speaks of

I. A KNOWLEDGE OF INFINITE VALUE AND ITS TEACHER.

1. What is that knowledge?

(1) Thy name. God has made man, and naturally man ought to know his Maker: the subject should know the name of his king; but men say, we desire not the knowledge of thy ways. Yet it is evident that a man can never be in a proper state till he knows his God. He cannot be happy, holy, or safe. Christ therefore, in coming to save us, makes it a part of His office to reveal the Father to us.

(2) A testing name is given to God, O righteous Father. If you know Him aright you know what is comprehended under those two words, so remarkable in combination. How can the Judge and the Father be found in one? There is but one answer, and that is found in the sacrifice of Jesus, which has joined the two in one.

(3) This knowledge is

(a) Peculiar–The world hath not known Thee. The heathen world knew nothing of a righteous Father. Their gods were generally monsters of iniquity. The Christian world does not know God as a righteous Father. Sceptics labelled as thinkers reject the evangelical idea of God, and the atonement which that idea involves. It knows an effeminate, indiscriminate fatherhood, but not the righteous Father. It will not bow before the majesty of His justice.

(2) Distinctive, for it reveals the condition of the mind which receives it. When we see in a man an unconditional submission to the justice of God, and yet a trustful hopefulness in His boundless love, we may be sure that he is a renewed man.

(3) Consolatory. For a man to know that God is his Father is delightful beyond measure, to feel that God forgives him as the father forgave the prodigal; but when we further learn that all this is done without the violation of justice, then are we full of wondering love.

(4) Causes its possessor to enjoy much fellowship with Jesus. I have known Thee. This grand character of God as righteous Father was so dear to our Lord, that He died to maintain it. Herein we have fellowship with Christ, for we know the righteous Father too in Christ, and love and bless Him, and wonder at Him every day more and more.

2. This knowledge comes to us by a Teacher. Christ declared the righteous Father

(1) In His life, for in His life He incarnated truth and grace.

(2) In His death, however, most gloriously illustrated this beyond everything else.

(3) By the work of His Holy Spirit.

II. THE OBJECT OF THE KNOWLEDGE IS THE INFUSION OF A LOVE UNRIVALLED IN VALUE.

1. This discovery of love is inward, may be in them, i.e., that they may know it, be persuaded of it, believe it and enjoy it; that they, through knowing the righteous name, may come to perceive the love of God towards them. When the Divine Father gives up His best Beloved for guilty man we may well say, Behold how He loved Him!

2. This love was of a most extraordinary kind. He loves you as He loves His best Beloved. It must be altogether boundless and unspeakable. Now, if you fully know the righteous fatherhood of God, as Christ would have you know it, you will learn that God loved you as He loved His Son. If He had not loved you as He loved the Son, He would have spared His Son.

3. It was a love of complacency and delight. Remember those words at Christs baptism and at two other occasions. Always draw a distinction between the love of benevolence with which God loves all His creatures and the love of complacency, which is reserved for His own. The Eternal Father views us in Christ, and in Him He takes delight in us as a father does in his children.

4. God the Father loves His Son infinitely. How could He do less? Without beginning has He loved Him, and without an end will He love Him, and also without change, without limit, and without degree: in the same way doth He love His people, whose hope is fixed in Him as the righteous Father.

5. This love wherever it reigns in the heart creates a return love to God.

6. This love comes through an indweller, and I in them.

(1) Through His Spirit.

(2) By faith.

(3) In a real, vital sense.

(4) Producing likeness to Christ. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell

Verse 25. The world hath not known thee] Has not acknowledged me. See on Joh 1:11-12.

And these have known] Here our Lord, returning to the disciples, speaks: 1st. Of their having received him as the Messiah; 2dly. Of his making the Father known unto them; 3dly. Of his purpose to continue to influence them by the Spirit of truth, that they might be perfectly united to God, by an indwelling Saviour for ever.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

It is observed, that the servants of God, in holy writ, have used in their prayers to give unto God such compellations as have been suitable to the things which they have begged of God in their prayers, and proper to express their faith in God, for the hearing of such their prayers: Christ here calls his Father by the name of

righteous, with relation to the argument which he here useth, which is from his disciples knowledge of him; under which term (as very often before) is comprehended their acceptance of him, believing in him, love to him, &c. Father, saith he, thou art righteous; it is a piece of thy righteousness to render to every man according to his work, Job 34:11; Psa 62:12; Pro 24:12.

The world hath not known thee; the men of the world hate thee, are ignorant of thee, rebellious against thee;

but I have known thee; I have known thee, and have made thee known, and I have been obedient to thy will; and these my disciples have known me, and known, that is, received, embraced me, as one sent by thee, as the Messiah.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

25. O righteous Father, the worldhath not known theeknew thee not.

but I have known theeknewthee.

and these have knownknew.

that thou hast sentsentest

meAs before He said”Holy Father,” when desiring the display of thatperfection on His disciples (Joh17:11), so here He styles Him “Righteous Father,”because He is appealing to His righteousness or justice, to make adistinction between those two diametrically opposite classes”theworld,” on the one hand, which would not “know theFather, though brought so nigh to it in the Son of His love, and, onthe other, Himself, who recognized and owned Him, and evenHis disciples, who owned His mission from the Father.

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

O righteous Father,…. God is righteous in all the divine persons: the Father is righteous, the Son is righteous, and the Holy Spirit is righteous: he is so in his nature; righteousness is a perfection of it; he is so in all his purposes and promises; in all his ways and works of providence and grace; in predestination, redemption, justification, pardon of sin, and eternal glory. Christ makes use of this epithet, as containing a reason why he might justly expect that all his petitions and claims, on behalf of himself and people, would be regarded:

the world hath not known thee; the unbelieving Jews, and idolatrous Gentiles, wicked men, one or another, know not God: as not the Father, so neither the Son, nor Spirit; though deity may be known by them, or that there is a God, yet they know not God in Christ, nor as the Father of Christ, or as their Father in him, nor what it is to have communion with him; nor do they know any of the things of God in a spiritual way; which shows the darkness and blindness of men by nature, the necessity of a divine illumination, and the miserable state of men without one:

but I have known thee; his nature, perfections and glory, his secret thoughts, purposes and designs, his covenant, promises and blessings, his love, grace and good will to his people, his whole mind and will; as he needs must, since he was one with him, and lay in his bosom;

and these have known that thou hast sent me; meaning his disciples and apostles, whom he distinguishes from the world; these knew the Father that sent him, and that he was sent by the Father; they knew the love of the Father in sending of him, the manner in which he was sent, and the end, man’s redemption, for which he was sent; and acknowledged all this, and which laid them under an obligation to trust in him, love him, and magnify his grace; and is used by Christ as an argument with the Father to be concerned for them.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

O righteous Father ( ). Nominative form with used as vocative (cf. Joh 20:28), but vocative form . Then the righteousness of God is appealed to like God’s holiness in verse 11.

The world ( ). The translations usually slur over the as untranslatable in English. Westcott suggests “while” as a sort of correlative. It is quite possible that here is almost concessive like “though” and =yet: “though the world did not know thee, yet I knew thee, and these knew thee.” See Robertson, Grammar, p. 1182 for —- and various other uses of in John’s Gospel.

Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament

1) “0 righteous Father,” (pater dikaie) “0 (you) righteous Father,” in all His nature, attributes, and deeds, to be hallowed or held in reverence, Mat 6:9. His justice is now appealed to by His own Son.

2) “The world hath not known thee:” (kai ho kosmos se ouk egno) “The world certainly has not known you,” or recognized you, Joh 8:19; Joh 8:54-55. It has not recognized your righteousness and its corollary, justice.

3) “But I have known thee,” (ego de se egnon) “Yet I knew and have known you,” Joh 8:55; and came from you, Joh 17:4-5.

4) “And these have known that thou hast sent me.” (kai houtoi egnosan hoti su me apesteilas) “And these (my church-disciples) have known, have known and do know, that you did send and have sent me,” Luk 19:10; Joh 3:17; Joh 3:4-5; Mat 14:33; Mat 16:16; Joh 6:69; Joh 11:27.

Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary

25. Righteous Father. He compares his disciples to the world, so as to describe more fully the approbation and favour which they had received from the Father; for it is proper that they who alone know God, whom the whole world rejects, should be distinguished above others, and most properly does Christ plead with peculiar warmth for those whom the unbelief of the world did not prevent from acknowledging God. By calling him Righteous Father, Christ defies the world and its malice; as if he had said, “However proudly the world may despise or reject God, still it takes nothing from him, and cannot hinder the honor of his righteousness from remaining unimpaired.” By these words he declares that the faith of the godly ought to be founded on God, in such a manner that, though the whole world should oppose, it would never fail; just as, in the present day, we must charge the Pope with injustice, in order that we may vindicate for God the praise which is due to him.

But I have known thee, and these have known that thou hast sent me. Christ does not merely say that God was known by the disciples, but mentions two steps; first, that he has known the Father; and, secondly, that the disciples have known that he was sent by the Father But as he adds immediately afterwards, that he has declared to them the name of the Father, he praises them, as I have said, for the knowledge of God, which separates them from the rest of the world. Yet we must attend to the order of faith, as it is here described. The Son came out of the bosom of the Father, and, properly speaking, he alone knows the Father; and, therefore, all who desire to approach God must betake themselves to Christ meeting them, and nmst devote themselves to him; and, after having been known by the disciples, he will, at length, raise them to God the Father.

Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary

(25) O righteous Father, the world hath not known thee.Better, . . . the world indeed knew Thee not. In these closing words of His prayer, our Lord again solemnly appeals to the Father (comp. Notes on Joh. 17:1; Joh. 17:5; Joh. 17:11), but now with the special thought of the Fathers righteousness. This thought follows upon the prayer that those whom the Father had given Him may be where He is, and behold the divine glory; and the connection seems to be in the thought that sinful humanity cannot see God and live. The world, indeed, knew not God (comp. Joh. 15:21; Joh. 16:3), but the Son knew God, and the disciples had recognised that He had been sent by God, and in their knowledge of Him had passed through a moral change, by which they were no longer of the world, but were sons of God (Joh. 1:12).

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

25. O righteous Father He addresses his Father in his stern aspect of righteousness, and his subject is the world in its contrast with his disciples and himself. Yet is its tone the awfulness of reserve. He utters no condemnation, pronounces no sentence. Note that God is not a mere Father, but also a righteous Father. He has not only his parental, but his judicial and governmental aspect. He is not only living Father, but stern Judge and absolute Sovereign.

The world hath not known thee This is his final brief word of appeal to the just God against a rejecting world. It is not passively and innocently and with no means of knowledge, that the world does not know thee. But, after all I have done to reveal thee, the guilty voluntary world has persistently ignored thee! I

and these I have, spite of and in contrast with this world, determinately known thee, and have made thee known to these. He has no more to say of the world; his heart and speech catch and fasten upon the brighter topic.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

“Oh righteous Father, the world did not know you, but I knew you, and these knew that you sent me. And I made known to them your name and will make it known, that the love wherewith you loved me may be in them, and I in them.”

In all our dealings and thoughts concerning the Father we have to recognise that He is the righteous Father. That was what the world failed to recognise about Him. They were unaware of His true righteousness, and therefore did not realise their need for atonement, or their need to become truly righteous. They thought that they could get away with being religious. But the Father is a righteous Father, and all hypocrisy collapses in His presence. Righteousness and truth are branches from the same stem.

‘The world did not know you.’ He had come to His own world but even His own people did not receive Him (Joh 1:11). God in Christ was unrecognised and unwanted by the world with its distorted aims and motives, and by ‘His people’ because He was not what they wanted. The world may to some extent have gained a general perception of a rather insipid ‘Father’ above, but they do not have a conception of a ‘righteous Father’, a Father Who in His love requires strict adherence to His word, His laws and His ways, a Father Who requires obedience. The truth is that the Father requires of us that which is good, and those who are His will therefore be obedient to His ways, and will work them out in their lives with great care. They know that God is at work in them and they therefore respond fully from the heart (Php 2:12-13).

The world neither knows nor heeds a Father like this. They are not subject to His ways. But Jesus knew Him fully, and knew and revealed Him in this way, and those who are His know that Jesus was sent from God and has made known to them His name, and will continue to make it known. Thus through Him they too come to a true knowledge of God and of His righteous requirements. It is fallen and unredeemed man who makes the grace of God an excuse for carrying on sinning.

‘Made known to them your name’. In other words Jesus had revealed what the Father essentially is as the ‘Holy’ and ‘Righteous’ Father. We note that Jesus does not here address Him as ‘loving Father’. It is true that that love has been revealed, but it is no sentimental or maudlin love. It is a loving response to those who have recognised their need to be made righteous and holy. It is true that God ‘loved the world’ (Joh 3:16) but that love is only experienced by those who come to the light to have the truth about themselves revealed, that their deeds are wrought in God (Joh 3:21).

‘And will make it known’. His work of making His Father known will continue into unborn generations. In the presence of the Holy Spirit Jesus is also present with us. Compare Joh 14:16-17. The Holy Spirit cannot be present in us without Jesus being with us.

‘That the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.’ The love that the Father has for His Son is also manifested in His people. They acknowledge that He is the beloved of the Father, and that He dwells within them. Thus do know that they dwell in the Father’s love (see 1Jn 3:1).

‘And I in them’. This is the Christian’s final glory, that Christ dwells in his heart by faith (Eph 3:17; compare Gal 2:20). God Himself possesses His people, and dwells in them (2Co 6:16-18). Thus do they know that they are rooted and grounded in love and that the love of God and of Christ is shed abroad in their hearts by the Holy Spirit Who is given to them (Rom 5:5; Eph 3:16-21).

In this regard we may have been noted that in John 17 there has been no mention of the Spirit. In the most important prayer ever made He is not mentioned, even though His work is everywhere in mind. The giving of ‘the life of the coming age’ (v. 2 compare Rom 8:2; Rom 8:10; Joh 3:5-6), the treasuring of His word (Joh 17:6; Joh 17:8 compare 1Co 2:10; 1Co 2:12; Eph 1:17; Eph 6:17), the essential unity ( v. 11; v. 21 – 23 compare Eph 4:3), preservation from evil (v. 15 compare 1Pe 1:2), the joy of Christ (v. 13 compare Gal 5:22), being set apart by His word (v. 17 compare 1Co 2:10; Eph 1:17; Col 1:9) and the divine love within (v. 26 compare Rom 15:30; Gal 5:22; Col 1:8; 2Ti 1:7) are all elsewhere described as the work of the Spirit. Thus if Jesus could pray like this without mentioning the Spirit, we need to be careful about passing judgment on praying men because they do not pray or speak as we do about the Spirit. We must remember that to be in touch with God is to activate the Spirit, for He is the Spirit  of God.

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

The conclusion of the prayer:

v. 25. O righteous Father, the world hath not known Thee; but I have known Thee, and these have known that Thou hast sent Me.

v. 26. And I have declared unto them Thy name, and will declare it, that the love wherewith Thou hast loved Me may be in them and I in them.

It is the righteous Father whom Christ is addressing, and therefore He who fulfilled all righteousness may well expect from Him the hearing of a prayer based upon the complete redemption of the world. The unbelieving world does not know the Father, and will not know the Father. But the fact that the Son knows Him will effect the granting of this petition, and the fact that the believers place their trust in the Son’s mission and atonement places them in a position which will insure the hearing of the prayer. Their faith and their understanding is of the right kind and results in the intimate relationship upon which they base their hope. The teaching of Christ by which He revealed the name, the Word, and the will of the Father has not been in vain. This work of Christ will continue also in the state of exaltation, through the preaching of His disciples, until the end of time. And wherever the name of God is preached, there His honor and glory will be exalted.. “And mark that He not only says: I have declared unto them Thy name, but also adds: And I will declare it, that is, I not only want to have a beginning and let it go at that, but I want to continue always, and do that same thing without ceasing, both through Word and: Spirit, that people seek nothing else or higher, but always have enough to do to grasp it better and more strongly. For therein lies the power that we learn to know the Father well through faith, in such a way that the heart full of consolation and with happy trust in all mercy will stand before Him, and fear no wrath. ” In this way only will the final object of Christ’s salvation be realized, namely,. that the love of the Father in Christ dwells in the believers, and Christ Himself is united with them for all eternity. The entire prayer of Christ is a wonderful expression of His love.

Summary. Christ ,

in His sacerdotal prayer, prays first of all for His own glorification, then for His present disciples, and finally for the future believers, asking that the gracious power of God may be manifested for their union here on earth an d

in the final consummation of glory and bliss in heaven.

Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann

Joh 17:25-26. O righteous Father, &c. “O Father, who art the Author of all righteous designs, and the lover of righteous men; nay, and from whose very righteousness flows the admission of believers to thee; though the world, wilfully ignorant of thy nature and perfections, and of thy gracious counsels for man’s salvation, has rejected me, I have notwithstanding every where demonstrated that I am fully acquainted with thy counsels; and my apostles knowing that thou hast sent me, and that I am one with thee, have believed in me as the Messiah; which is the reason I am so solicitous, that they should behold the glory thou hast given me: and for this reason I have, with the greatest care, taught them thy nature, perfections, and counsels, Joh 17:26. Nevertheless, being now incapable, by reason of their prejudices, of receiving full information in these points, I will instruct them afterwards by the illumination of my Spirit, that the love which thou hast borne to me, as thy most divine messenger, may be shewn to them, as thy messengers likewise; and that, being inspired by my Spirit, and enjoying, in their hearts, a revelation of my divine nature, they may have me dwelling within them, so as always to act by my authority, and always to be happy in my love.”

Inferences. With what pleasure should we behold our gracious Redeemer in this posture of humble adoration,lifting up his eyes to his heavenly Father with a solemn devotion, and pouring forth his pious and benevolent spirit in those divine breathings which are here recorded. From his example we may learn to pray, and, from his intercession, to hope. We know that the Father heareth him always (ch. Joh 11:42.) and singularly did he manifest that he heard him now, by all that bright assemblage of glories, which shone around him in the concluding scenes of his abode upon earth, and in those which attended his removal from it: and in all these did the blessed Jesus manifest his zeal for the glory of the Father. May we emulate the same holy temper! And, when we pray, even for our own consummate happiness in the heavenly world, may we consider that happiness as ultimately centering in the honour and service of God!

And well may we be encouraged to hope for this happiness, when we reflect that Christ has an universal power over all flesh, and over spirits superior to those who dwell in flesh; with which he is invested on purpose that he may accomplish the salvation of all his faithful people. We see the certain way to life eternal, even the knowledge of God in Christ. Let us bless God, that we have so many opportunities of obtaining it; and earnestly pray, that he who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, would, by his divine rays, shine also forth on our benighted souls; and so animate us in his service, from the noblest principles of gratitude and love, that we may be able to say, even in our dying moments, with somewhat of that spirit which our Lord expressed, Father, we have glorified thee on earth, and finished the work which thou gavest us to do; and now, being no more in the world, we come unto thee. Then may we hope, in our humble degree, to partake of that glory to which he is returned, and to sit down with him on his victorious throne.

In the mean time may our faith see, and our zeal confess Christ! May we acknowledge his divine authority, as having come out from the Father, and as being in his Godhead with him from everlasting! May we be united in love to him and to each other, and be kept by that divine Word to eternal life! Let the fearful instance of the son of perdition, who perished even from among the apostles, the chosen of God, teach us a humble jealousy over our own hearts, whatever external privileges we may enjoy; and engage us to maintain a continual regard to him, who is able to keep us from falling, and to present us faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy! Jude, Joh 17:24.

What perpetual reason of thankfulness have we, that our gracious Master delivered these words in the world, and recalled them thus exactly to the memory of his beloved disciple so many years after, that we, in the most distant ages of his church, might, by reviewing them, have his joy fulfilled in us! Let us also with pleasure recollect, that Christ not only prayed for his apostles, but for all that should believe on him through their word; and therefore for us, if we are real, and not merely nominal believers. For us doth he still pray, not that God would immediately take us out of the world, though for his sake we may be continually hated and injured in it; but that he would keep us from the evil to which we are daily exposed. For our sakes also did he sanctify himself, as a propitiation for our sins, that we also might be sanctified through the truth: for He gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works. Tit 2:14.

O may these wise and gracious purposes of his love be fulfilled in us!May we be one with each other, and with him! May that piety and love appear in the whole of our temper and behaviour, which will evidently shew the force of our religion, and reflect a conspicuous honour upon its great Founder!

It is the declared will of Christ,and let us never forget it, that his faithful saints should be with him where he is, that they may behold his glory which the Father has given him. And there is an evident congruity, as well as mercy, in the appointment, that where he is there also should his faithful servants be. The blessed angels do undoubtedly behold the glory of Christ with perpetual congratulation and delight: but how much more reason shall we, if faithful, have to rejoice and triumph in it, when we consider it as the glory of one in our own nature,the glory of our Redeemer and our Friend! O let us often be lifting up the eyes of our faith towards this glory, breathing after heaven in this view; and in the mean time, with all due zeal, and love, and duty, acknowledging the Father and the Son; that so the joy of heaven may be anticipated in our souls, while the love of God is shed abroad there by his Spirit, which is given unto us, even something of that love, wherewith he hath loved Jesus, our incarnate Head!

REFLECTIONS.1st, Our Lord having finished his discourse, closes it with a prayer: for those to whom we preach we should also pray. In this chapter Christ recommends his faithful saints to the care and keeping of the Father of mercies; and the blessed effects of it they continue to reap to this hour, and shall to the end of time.

1. He addresses his prayer to the Father, whom, as Mediator and Head of his church, he regarded as his superior, and in whose love he herein expresses his confidence. He approaches him as a Son with reverence and godly fear, lifting up his eyes to heaven, the place where he peculiarly manifests his transcendent glory. Note; (1.) The object of prayer is God only. (2.) Christ lifted up his eyes to heaven to sanctify this gesture to us, and to justify it against the ridicule of scoffers. (3.) None can possibly belong to Christ, who do not shew, in a course of habitual and constant prayer, their dependence upon the Father of Mercies.

2. He prays for himself; that he may be glorified, and enabled, in the completion of the work that he had undertaken most eminently to exalt his Father’s glory. Father, the hour is comefor his death according to the will of God; and though it approached with horrors unspeakable, he welcomed its arrival, because he saw that the salvation of his faithful people would be the happy fruit thereof: glorify thy Son; as man and Mediator, he looked for support under his sufferings, that some beams of glory might gild that gloomy scene; that, triumphant over death and hell, he might rise the third day, ascend into heaven, and sit on the throne prepared for him; where angels, principalities, and powers, should be made subject unto him; and thence he should send down his Spirit, effectually to establish his kingdom in the earth; and should execute his judgments on the Jewish people, destroying their city and nation; that thy Son also may glorify thee, by suffering in the stead of sinners, and thereby bringing the highest glory to all the divine perfections; as also by the discharge of his mediatorial office, when, exalted to the throne of glory, by the mission of his Spirit, and the ministry of his servants, his gospel should be spread abroad, and God’s name made great among the Heathen. Note; God’s glory should always be the great end we propose in all our prayers and services.

3. He pleads the power, with which, in consequence thereof, he was invested, as an argument to enforce his request: As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him: all the concerns of fallen man were put into the Redeemer’s hand, that he might be glorified in the salvation of all the faithful. (See the Annotations.) Note; (1.) Man in his mere fallen state, is become flesh and not spirit, brutish in his appetites, passions, and pursuits. (2.) Christ has all human affairs under his mediatorial government, and as such is not only King of saints, but King of kings, and Lord of lords. He manages all the temporal affairs of men as is most subservient to the salvation of his faithful saints, and shall at last be the judge of quick and dead. (3.) Eternal life is the gift of Jesus Christ; he hath purchased the title to it; and has, in virtue of his obedience unto death, a right to bestow this inestimable privilege on all his faithful followers. May I be of that blessed number!

4. He explains wherein this eternal life consists, and what is the way to it. This is life eternal, the earnest and foretaste of it, that they might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent; not a speculative knowledge merely, but such as engages fiducial confidence in God, as the only worthy object of our trust and worship, in opposition to all idols; and such a full persuasion of the divine mission of Jesus, as leads us to him as the only Mediator between God and Man, and satisfies the soul in the clear views of his fulness and all-sufficiency to save to the uttermost all who come to God by him.

5. He pleads what he had done to glorify God upon earth, as the reason and ground of his prayer and confidence that the Father would glorify him with himself in heaven. I have glorified thee on the earth, in my doctrines, miracles, and life; I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do; of most perfect sinless obedience to death, even the death of the cross, for the redemption of sinners. He was now on the very point of concluding this most grand undertaking; and, being fully purposed to go through with it, he speaks of it as already accomplished. And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self, with the glory which I had with thee before the world was. Having finished his great atoning work, he became entitled to the promised reward, and confidently expects to be exalted to the mediatorial throne; and to return to heaven again, there to make a display of his own eternal and uncreated glory, which, during his humiliation, he suffered to be obscured by the veil of flesh. Note; They who by grace, through faith, are experimentally interested in this glorious redemption, having the same mind which was in Christ Jesus, desire to live only to glorify God upon earth.

2nd, Having offered up his prayer for himself, he proceeds to enlarge on the behalf of his apostles. I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world; have particularly revealed to them thy glorious perfections, and designs of grace displayed in my gospel; thine they were, not only by creation, but by faith in thee under an inferior dispensation; and thou gavest them me, by causing them, in a way consistent with thy moral government of the world, to believe in me; (see the Annotations) and they have kept thy word, embracing faithfully the doctrines which I have delivered unto them, publicly professing, and zealously propagating the gospel of the kingdom. Now, of late their minds have been more clearly enlightened, and they have known that all things, whatsoever thou hast given me, are of thee; that what I have taught them has the seal of heaven upon it, and that I have acted in all things in perfect conformity, as Mediator, to the commission I have received. For I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me; all the doctrines of gospel-grace relative to man’s everlasting peace; how pardon, peace, righteousness, and salvation may be attained through me; and they have received them, in the light and love of them, and have known surely that I came out from thee; and they have believed that thou didst send me, as the promised and true Messiah, invested with divine authority to seek and save lost souls, and to accomplish the full salvation of all his faithful saints. I pray for them, that they may be preserved and kept, and that the work begun may be perfected in them; I pray not [just now] for the world in general, but for them which thou hast [already] given me [out of it] for they are thine, having thee for their Father, by their own voluntary choice and surrender, through thy divine grace and Spirit. And all mine are thine, and thine are mine; our interests are inseparably the same, as we are one in nature, essence, and operation; and the faithful saints are alike indebted to both for all the blessings of the covenant of grace; and I am glorified in them, by the miracles done by them in my name, and by the converts they make to the true faith in me. Whence we learn, (1.) Those who are here called the world, are they whose joys, desires, pursuits, and aims, centre in worldly things. They live after the fashion of the world, and, if they continue impenitent, will be condemned with the world. (2.) Keeping Christ’s word, holding fast his doctrine, and adorning it by a good conversation, is the substantial evidence of our belonging to him. (3.) The study and delight of all genuine believers is to exalt the name of Jesus, and to ascribe entirely to him the glory of that rich and free salvation, of which he has made them partakers.

3rdly. Our Lord proceeds in his prayer for his dear disciples, whom he was going to leave; and therefore, as man and mediator, commends them to his Father’s care and keeping. And now I am no more in the world, ready to depart, and return to my radiant throne in glory; but these are in the world, left to conflict awhile with temptations, afflictions, and persecutions; and I am going from them, so that they will be deprived of the comfort of my bodily presence, when I come to thee. Holy Father, essentially holy in thyself, and the Author and Source of all holiness to thy creatures; keep, through thine own name, those whom thou hast given me; by thy almighty power, and for thy own glory, preserve them from sinking under their trials; strengthen them against their spiritual foes, Satan, the world, and sin; keep them by thy grace, till thou shalt bring them to thy glory; that they may be one as we are, united in affection and labours, and having the same interests and designs. While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name, according to the commission with which I was invested, and by the influences of thy grace: those that thou gavest me to be my apostles, I have kept in the faith and hope of the gospel; and none of them is lost, and left to perish, but the son of perdition, that traitor Judas, that the scripture might be fulfilled (Psa 41:9; Psa 109:8.) And now come I to thee, having finished my work, and returning to my glorious rest: and these things I speak in the world, and offer these requests on their behalf, that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves, happy in the present experience of my love; in the quickening, guiding, and comforting influences of my Spirit; and in the hope inspired by the great and precious promises that are in me; so that their joys on earth may increase, and be growing up into consummate glory in heaven. I have given them thy word, have put them in trust with thy gospel, and will furnish them with gifts to publish it through the world; and, because they have embraced the truth and boldly confessed it, the world hath hated them, unable to bear the reproofs of their preaching and practice; because they are not of the world, in their principles, tempers, and conduct, opposite to the carnal minds and conversation of natural and sensual men, who mind earthly things; even as I am not of the world; and my example and doctrine have they faithfully observed. I pray not that thou shouldst take them out of the world, deliver them at once from all the power of their enemies, and put an immediate period to all their trials and troubles; but that thou shouldst keep them from the evil, supporting them under all their sufferings, preserving them from falling into sin, and bruising the wicked one, Satan, under their feet; thus causing them to triumph over all opposition. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world; therefore they will be sorely thrust at, as I have been: and, as thou hast supported me, let them experience the like protection, and share thy care and love. Note; (1.) The prospect of going to be with God in glory, cannot but make it pleasing to quit a world of wretchedness: the hour of dismission will be to the faithful the beginning of their endless felicity. (2.) The world is the Christian’s grand enemy; and the victory that overcometh it, is our faith; and this is the gift of God to the soul that yields to his drawings. (3.) Christ’s believing people have work to do for him in the world; and however desirable it is to be with him, they must not be in haste to go before his time; but patiently take up their cross, fight the good fight of faith, and hope to the end. (4.) No man’s profession, privileges, gifts, or apparent attainments, where the heart is not right with God, will stand him in any stead; when the hour of trial comes, he will be proved, like Judas, a son of perdition. (5.) The Lord will have his faithful disciples walk joyfully, not mournfully, before him; and he has for this end left them the exceeding great and precious promises, and ever lives to make intercession for them. (6.) The faithful servants of Jesus, who keep his word, and refuse to be conformed to the ways and manners of this wicked world, may expect to be hated by those, against whom their words and works cannot but testify that their deeds are evil.

4thly, Our Lord, having prayed for his disciples’ preservation, prays in the next place for their sanctification.

Sanctify them through thy truth; consecrate them for their sacred office, and let them be under the powerful influences of thy word and Spirit, that in their own souls they may experience increasing purity, and be enabled for the propagation of the truth of the gospel through the world: thy word is truth, infallibly certain in itself, and the great means of purifying the heart. As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world, with the same gospel, and on the same errand, to advance thy glory, and promote the salvation of immortal souls. And for their sakes I sanctify myself, am now ready to offer up myself a sacrifice, and to enter on my mediatorial office in glory, as their great High Priest, to be the eternal advocate of all my faithful saints: that they also, in virtue of my intercession for them, and by the mission of the Holy Ghost into their hearts, might be sanctified through the truth, enabled for the practice of all true godliness, and strengthened and made successful in propagating the glad tidings to the ends of the earth. Note; (1.) All Christ’s people must be made partakers of true holiness: he saves none whom he does not sanctify. (2.) What was his prayer for his apostles must be ours daily for ourselves, that God would carry on the blessed work of his grace in our hearts, and perfect that which he hath begun. (3.) The word of God is the great means of our sanctification; and by it, through the quickening influences of the Holy Ghost, are we enabled to grow up into him in all things, who is our Head, even Christ. (4.) The real ministers of Jesus are his peculiar concern; and they who are truly his, prove it by the practical influence his word has on their own hearts, and the zeal with which they preach the truth to others. (5.) They who go into the ministry under a divine mission and call, may confidently expect the divine assistance and blessing.

5thly, Christ’s prayer is not limited merely to requests for his apostles, but, in the next place, includes all his faithful people to the latest ages.

Neither pray I for these alone, my first ministers or apostles, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word, in all succeeding generations; that they all may be one in faith and love, by the preaching of the gospel collected together, and united in one body under the same living Head; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee; that they also may be one in us, animated by the same Spirit; one in judgment, disposition, designs, desires, and admitted into the nearest fellowship with the Father and his Son Jesus Christ; that the world may believe that thou hast sent me, beholding the powerful effects of my grace upon them: and the glory which thou gavest me, I have given them; that is to say, the gospel, with all its inestimable blessings; and, to many of them the power of working miracles by my Spirit; that they may be one, even as we are one, in strictest union with us and with each other through the same Spirit; I in them, as the head of vital influences to them; and thou in me, by thy Spirit given without measure unto me; that they may be made perfect in one, be united in the most cordial love, without any jarring affection, or the least mixture of sorrow and complaint: and that the world may know these thou hast sent me, convinced by the present power of thy grace, displayed in their concord, unity, and mutual love. And it shall then appear that thou hast loved them, as thou hast loved me, by the mission of thy Holy Spirit, and by all the gracious, miraculous, and glorious fruits issuing therefrom. Note; (1.) The ministry of the word is the great instrument that Christ is pleased to make use of, in order to beget faith in the souls of men. (2.) All true Christians are one in Christ Jesus: he is their living Head: they are by faith and love united to him, and joined in one Spirit to each other. (3.) They who despise, insult, and ridicule the followers of Jesus, will shortly be convinced, to their confusion, how highly these are the objects of his love.

6thly, Our Lord concludes his prayer with a holy but humble demand, as the eternal Son of the everlasting Father, for the eternal salvation of his eleven apostles.

Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am. It is my demand, and I claim it as my right, that they be brought to my eternal kingdom, and may behold my glory which thou hast given me, transformed into the same image, adoring and rejoicing; for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world, and therefore wilt grant all my requests. O righteous Father, whose will is most just, and whose promises are all faithful and true; the world hath not known thee, thy perfections, councils, or designs; but I have known thee most intimately and perfectly; and these my present disciples and apostles have known that thou hast sent me, the promised Messiah. And I have declared unto them thy name, thy nature, attributes, and designs of grace; and will declare it, by farther discoveries to them of thy mind and will, after my resurrection, and by the mission of the Spirit; that the love wherewith thou hast loved me, may be in them; and they, knowing it, may, by experience of the same love, be made unutterably blessed and happy; and I in them, taking up my residence in their hearts, and thus preparing them for the fruition of eternal felicity with me in glory. Note; The world lieth in ignorance and wickedness: happy are they who are enlightened by Jesus, and through his grace are come out of the world.

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

Joh 17:25-26 . Conclusion of the prayer: Appeal to the justice of God, for, after that which Jesus here states of Himself and of the disciples in opposition to the world, it becomes the righteous Father not to leave ungranted what Jesus has just declared, Joh 17:24 , to be His will ( , , . . .). Otherwise the final recompense would fail to come, which the divine justice (1Jn 1:9 ) has to give to those who are so raised, as expressed in Joh 17:25 , above the world; the work of divine holiness , Joh 17:11 , would remain without its closing judicial consummation and revelation .

, . . .] The apparent want of appropriateness of the , from which also its omission in D. Vulg. et al. , is to be explained, is not removed by placing, with Grotius and Lachmann, only a comma after Joh 17:24 , and allowing to run with what precedes, since this thought does not fit into this logical connection, and the address , according to the analogy of Joh 17:11 , leads us to recognise the introductory sentence of a prayer. According to Bengel and Ebrard, , et et , correspond to one another, which, however, does not allow either of the antithetic character of the conceptions, or of the manifest reference of the second to . Following Heumann, De Wette, Lcke, Tholuck make correspond to the following , so that two relations occurring at the same time , but of opposite , kinds, [204] would be indicated: “whilst the world knew Thee not, yet I knew Thee.” Not to be justified on grammatical grounds; for (Khner, II. p. 418; Hartung, Partikell . I. p. 92 f.; Klotz, ad Devar . p. 741 f.), but never , is thus employed, and the passages of that kind adduced by Lcke from Plato, Menex . p. 235 E (where means also others), and Eryx . p. 393 E (where is only even the least), are not in point; in other passages (as Soph. Ant . 428) is the simply connective and , without reference to the subsequent . The in the present passage is rather the and serving to link on an antithetic relation ( and notwithstanding ), and is of very frequent occurrence, particularly in John, see on Joh 7:28 . Had Jesus said: , , , . . ., then would have been free from any difficulty. Nevertheless, the connection and its expression is the same. Christ is, in the address , absorbed in the thought of the justice of God now invoked by Him, the thought, therefore, of this self-revelation of God, which was so easily to be recognised (Rom 1:18 ff.), in spite of which the world, in its blinded security, has not known Him (comp. Rom 1:28 ), and gives expression to this latter thought in painfully excited emotion (Chrysostom: ), immediately connecting it by with the address. After . we may suppose a pause, a break in the thought: Righteous Father (yea, such Thou art!) and (and yet) the world knew Thee not! [205] Luthardt also, with Brckner’s concurrence, takes as and yet , but so that it stands in opposition to the revelation of God through Christ previously (see Joh 17:22 ) stated. Too indefinite, and leaving without reason the characteristic out of reference.

] namely, from Thy proofs in my words and deeds; , on the other hand (Nonnus: ), refers to the immediate knowledge which the Son had in His earthly life of the Father moving in Him, and revealing Himself through Him. Comp. Joh 8:54-55 . Not without reason does Jesus introduce His between the and the disciples, because He wills that the disciples should be where He is (Joh 17:24 ), which, however, presupposes a relative relation of equality between Him and them, as over against the world.

] Glancing at the disciples.

]. The specific element, the central point of the knowledge of God, of which the discourse treats; , , Chrysostom. Comp. Joh 17:8 ; Joh 17:23 ; Joh 16:27 , et al .

Joh 17:26 . Whereby this has been effected (comp. Joh 17:7 ), and will be completely effected ( , through the Paraclete: , both and also ), that (purpose of the ) the love with which Thou hast loved me (comp. Joh 17:24 ) may be in them, i.e . may rule in their hearts, [206] and therewith for Christ, communicating Himself through the Spirit, is the supporter of the divine life in believers (Joh 14:20 ff.; Rom 8:10 ; Gal 2:20 ; Eph 3:17 ),

I in them . On , see on Eph 2:4 . So rich in promise and elevating with the simply grand “ and I in them ,” resounds the word of prayer, and in the whole ministry and experience of the apostles was it fulfilled. As nothing could separate them from the love of God in Christ (Rom 8:39 ), Christ thus remained in them through the Spirit, and they have conquered far and wide through Him who loved them.

[204] Hence also the reading: . . , , . . ., which is found not merely in Hippolytus, but also in the Constitt. Rev 8:1Rev 8:1 . 1.

[205] This interpretation is followed also by Hengstenberg. But Ewald places to , ver. 26, in a parenthesis, and then takes , . . ., still as the contents of , ver. 24. How broken thus becomes the calm, clear flow of the prayer! According to Baeumlein, the parallel clauses would properly be ; but there is interpolated before the first clause an opposite clause, which properly should have , so that then the main thought follows with . Alike arbitrary, but yet more contorted, is the arrangement of Godet.

[206] Comp. Rom 5:5 . Bengel aptly remarks: “ ut cor ipsorum theatrum sit et palaestra hujus amoris ,” namely, , Rom. l.c. According to Hengstenberg (comp. also Weiss, p. 80), Jesus merely intends to say: “that Thou mayest love them with the love with which Thou hast loved me.” But this does not suit the expression , neither in itself nor in the parallel relation to . An inward efficacious presence must be thereby intended.

NOTE.

The originality of the high-priestly prayer stands upon the same footing with that of the longer discourses of Jesus generally in the Evangelist John. The substance of the contents is original, but the reproduction and vivid remodelling, such as could not come forth from the Johannean individuality, with which the recollection had grown up, otherwise than with quite a Johannean stamp. Along with this, however, in reference to contents and form, considering the peculiarly profound impression which the prayer of this solemn moment must necessarily have made upon the spirit and memory of that very disciple, a superior degree of fidelity of recollection and power of reddition must be assumed. How often may these last solemn words have stirred the soul of John! To this corresponds also the self-consciousness, as childlike as it is simple and clear in its elevation, the victorious rest and peace of this prayer, which is the noblest and purest pearl of devotion in the whole of the N. T. “For so plainly and simply it sounds, so deep, rich, and wide it is, that none can fathom it,” Luther. Spener never ventured to preach upon it, because he felt that its true understanding exceeded the ordinary measure of faith; but he caused it to be read to him three times on the evening before his death, see his Lebensbeschr . by Canstein, p. 145 ff. The contrary view, that it is a later idealizing fiction of a dogmatic and metaphysical kind (Bretschneider, Strauss, Weisse, Baur, Scholten), is indeed a necessary link in the chain of controversy on the originality of the Johannean history generally, but all the more untenable, the more unattainable, the depth, tenderness, intensity, and loftiness, as is here sustained from beginning to end, must have been for a later inventor. But to deny the inward truth and splendour of the prayer (see especially Weisse, II. p. 294), is a matter evincing a critically corrupt taste and judgment. The conflict of soul in Gethsemane , so soon after this prayer which speaks of overcoming the world and of peace, is indeed, considering the pure humanity of Jesus (which was not forced into stoical indifference), psychologically too conceivable, not, indeed, as a voluntarily assumed representation of all the horrors of death from the sin of the world (Hengstenberg), but rather from the change of feelings and dispositions in the contemplation of death, and of such a death, to be made to pass as an historical contradiction to chap. 17 See on Matt., note after Mat 26:46 . John himself relates nothing of the crisis of the conflict of soul; but this is connected with his peculiarity in the selection of the evangelical material in general, and he might be determined in this matter particularly by the account already given of the similar fact, Joh 12:23 ff., which he only adduces, whilst that conflict of soul was already a common property of Scriptural tradition (comp. also Heb 5:7 ), which he as little needed to repeat as the institution of the Lord’s Supper and many other things. That that conflict of soul had not for John the importance and historic reality which it had for the Synoptics, is considering the free selection which he has made out of the rich material of his recollection, a hasty conclusion (in answer to Baur, in the Theol. Jahrb . 1854, p. 224). The historic reality of the Gospel facts, if nothing essential is otherwise opposed to them, is not affected by the silence of John.

Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary

25 O righteous Father, the world hath not known thee: but I have known thee, and these have known that thou hast sent me.

Ver. 25. O righteous Father ] God’s righteousness is either, 1. Of equity, to punish offences. Or, 2. Of fidelity, to make good his promises. In which respect it is no arrogance nor presumption (said Master Glover, martyr) to burden God, as it were, with his promises; and of duty to claim his aid, help, and assistance.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

25, 26. ] is connected with the final clause of Joh 17:24 . The Righteousness of the Father is witnessed by the beginning ( . .) of Redemption, and ( ) by the glorification of the elect from Christ; but also by , the final distinction made by His justice between the world and His.

The first is in the quasi-disjunctive usage so common with our Evangelist, see ch. Joh 16:32 , note, and contrasts with the immediately following: the more classical construction would be (Lcke). The second merely couples the preceding to the following, as depending upon it: see Mat 11:27 .

This , , , , shew that our Lord spoke here of the then present time and disciples again, at the close of His prayer.

The is by the whole work and testimony of the Spirit completed in the Kingdom of God. This promise has been in fulfilment through all the history of the Church. And the great result of this manifestation of the Father’s name is, that the wonderful Love wherewith He loved Christ, may dwell in (not the Apostles merely the future has again thrown the meaning onward to the great body of believers) them, i.e. the perfect, living knowledge of God in Christ, which reveals, and in fact is, this love. And this can only be by Christ dwelling in their hearts by faith, and renewing and enlightening them by His Spirit. He does not say, ‘ Thou in them’ but I in them and Thou in Me: see Joh 17:23 .

Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament

Joh 17:25 . , “Righteous Father”. The appeal is now to God’s justice; “ut tua bonitas me miserat servandsn si qua fieri potuisset, omnibus; ita tui, justitia non patietur ob quorundam iacredulitatem frustrari vota credentium”. Erasmus. The Father’s justice is appealed to, that the believing may not share the fate of the unbelieving world Elsner translates “quamvis,” and Lampe says all difficulty thus disappears. But Elsner’s examples are irrelevant. Meyer renders “Righteous Father (yea, such Thou art!) and (and yet) the world knew Thee not.” Simcox suggests that the first is correlative not to the immediately following , but to the second , the effect being something like: “While the world knew Thee not, though I knew Thee, these on their part knew”. Similarly Westcott; “it serves to coordinate the two main clauses. The force of it is as if we were to say: Two facts are equally true; it is true that the world knew Thee not; it is true that these knew that Thou didst send me.” May the not be intended to connect this clause with the preceding , and to mark the contrast between the love that was in God before the foundation of the world and the world’s ignorance of Him, and especially of His love? But “I knew Thee and these knew,” etc. They did not know God directly as Christ did, but they knew they could accept Him as the Revealer of God. And to them who were willing to receive my message, because they knew I was sent by Thee, I made known Thy name and will make it known by my death (Weiss) and by sending the Spirit of truth (Westcott). The end in view in this manifestation by Christ was that the love with which the Father had loved the Son might rest on the disciples. . The construction is found in Eph 2:4 , and is frequent in the classics; , Lysias; , Arrian. See Kypke. . This is the end and crown of all. That He should desire this intimate communion with men, and should seek above all else to live in and through His disciples, is surprising proof of His love.

Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson

John

THE HIGH PRIEST’S PRAYER

Joh 17:20 – Joh 17:26 .

The remainder of this prayer reaches out to all generations of believers to the end. We may incidentally note that it shows that Jesus did not anticipate a speedy end of the history of the world or the Church; and also that it breathes but one desire, that for the Church’s unity, as though He saw what would be its greatest peril. Characteristic, too, of the idealism of this Gospel is it that there is no name for that future community. It is not called ‘church,’ or ‘congregation,’ or the like-it is ‘them also that believe on Me through their word,’ a great spiritual community, held together by common faith in Him whom the Apostles preached. Is not that still the best definition of Christians, and does not such a conception of it correspond better to its true nature than the formal abstraction, ‘the Church’?

We can but touch in the most inadequate fashion the profound words of this section of the prayer which would take volumes to expound fitly. We note that it contains four periods, in each of which something is asked or stated, and then a purpose to be attained by the petition or statement is set forth.

First comes the prayer for unity and what the answer to it will effect Joh 17:21. Now in this verse the unity of believers is principally regarded as resulting from the inclusion, if we may so say, of them all in the ineffable union of the Father and the Son. Jesus prays that ‘they may all be one,’ and also ‘that they also may be in us’ Rev. Ver.. And their unity is no mere matter of formal external organisation nor of unanimity of creed, or the like, but it is a deep, vital unity. The pattern of it is the unity of the Father and the Son, and the power that brings it about is the abiding of all believers ‘in us.’ The result of such a manifestation in the world of a multitude of men, in all of whom one life evidently moves, fusing their individualities while retaining their personalities, will be the world’s conviction of the divine mission of Jesus. The world was beginning to feel its convictions moving slowly in that direction, when it exclaimed: ‘Behold how these Christians love one another!’ The alienation of Christians has given barbs and feathers to its arrows of scorn. But it is ‘the unity of the Spirit,’ not that of a, great corporation, that Christ’s prayer desires.

The petitions for what would be given to believers passes for a moment into a statement of what Jesus had already given to them. He had begun the unifying gift, and that made a plea for its perfecting. The ‘glory’ which He had given to these poor bewildered Galilaeans was but in a rudimentary stage; but still, wherever there is faith in Him, there is some communication of His life and Spirit, and some of that veiled and yet radiant glory, ‘full of grace and truth,’ which shone through the covering when the Incarnate Word ‘became flesh.’ It is the Christ-given Christ-likeness in each which knits believers into one. It is Christ in us and we in Christ that fuses us into one, and thereby makes each perfect. And such flashing back of the light of Jesus from a million separate crystals, all glowing with one light and made one in the light, would flash on darkest eyes the lustre of the conviction that God sent Christ, and that God’s love enfolded those Christlike souls even as it enfolded Him.

Again Joh 17:24 comes a petition with its result. And here there is no mention of the effect of the answer on the world. For the moment the thoughts of isolation in, and a message to, the world fade away. The partially-possessed ‘glory’ seems to have led on Christ’s thoughts to the calm home of perfection waiting for Him who was ‘not of the world’ and was sent into it, and for the humble ones who had taken Him for Lord. ‘I will that’-that is a strange tone for a prayer. What consciousness on Christ’s part does it involve? The disciples are not now called ‘them that should believe on Me,’ but ‘that which Thou hast given Me,’ the individuals melt into the great whole. They are Christ’s, not merely by their faith or man’s preaching, but by the Father’s gift. And the fact of that gift is used as a plea with Him, to ‘perfect that which concerneth’ them, and to complete the unity of believers with Jesus by bringing them to be ‘with Him’ in His triumphant session at the right hand. To ‘behold’ will be the same as to share His glory, not only that which we beheld when He tabernacled among us, but that which He had in the pouring out on Him of God’s love ‘before the foundation of the world.’ Our dim eyes cannot follow the happy souls as they are lost in the blaze, but we know that they walk in light and are like Him, for they ‘see Him as He is.’

The last statement Joh 17:25 – Joh 17:26 is not petition but vow, and, to our ears, promise. The contrast of the world and believers appears for the last time. What made the world a ‘world’ was its not knowing God; what made believers isolated in, and having an errand to, the world, was that they ‘knew’ not merely ‘believed,’ but knew by experience that Jesus had been sent from God to make known His name. All our knowledge of God comes through Him; it is for us to recognise His divine mission, and then He will unveil, more and more, with blessed continuity of increasing knowledge, the Name, and with growing knowledge of it growing measures of God’s love will be in us, and Jesus Himself will ‘dwell in our hearts by faith’ more completely and more blessedly through an eternity of wider knowledge and more fervent love.

Fuente: Expositions Of Holy Scripture by Alexander MacLaren

NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Joh 17:25-26

25″O righteous Father, although the world has not known You, yet I have known You; and these have known that You sent Me; 26and I have made Your name known to them, and will make it known, so that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them.”

Joh 17:25 “righteous Father” This title only appears here in the NT. It is parallel to “Holy Father” in Joh 17:11. comes from a Hebrew word for “measuring reed.” God is the standard of judgement! See Special Topic at 1Jn 2:29.

“the world has not known You” The world, human society organized and functioning apart from God (John’s unique usage), does not know God (cf. Joh 17:25) nor His Son (cf. Joh 1:10). It is evil and wicked (cf. Joh 3:19-20; Joh 7:7).

“yet I have known you” Jesus is the highest and purest source of information about God (cf. Joh 1:18; Joh 3:11).

Joh 17:26 “I have made Your name known to them” This is referring to Jesus’ revelation of the Father’s character and plan of redemption for mankind (cf. Joh 17:6; Joh 17:11-12; Act 2:23; Act 3:18; Act 4:28). The term “known” is used five times in Joh 17:25-26.

“and will make it known” This either refers to (1) the continuing revelation of Jesus through the Spirit who clarifies His teachings or (2) the salvation (Passion Week) events about to occur. The context of the passage implies #1. Salvation involves a person and a message, a decision and a lifestyle, an initial faith and a continuing faith. It involves both the Greek connotation of “know” and the Hebrew connotation of “know.”

Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley

righteous Father. See on Joh 17:11.

hath not known Thee = knew Thee not. See Joh 8:55. Rom 1:18-32. 1Co 1:21; 1Co 2:8.

have known = knew.

hast sent = didst send.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

25, 26.] is connected with the final clause of Joh 17:24. The Righteousness of the Father is witnessed by the beginning ( . .) of Redemption, and ( ) by the glorification of the elect from Christ; but also by ,-the final distinction made by His justice between the world and His.

The first is in the quasi-disjunctive usage so common with our Evangelist, see ch. Joh 16:32, note,-and contrasts with the immediately following: the more classical construction would be – (Lcke). The second merely couples the preceding to the following, as depending upon it: see Mat 11:27.

This , , , , shew that our Lord spoke here of the then present time and disciples again, at the close of His prayer.

The is by the whole work and testimony of the Spirit completed in the Kingdom of God. This promise has been in fulfilment through all the history of the Church. And the great result of this manifestation of the Fathers name is, that the wonderful Love wherewith He loved Christ, may dwell in (not the Apostles merely-the future has again thrown the meaning onward to the great body of believers) them,-i.e. the perfect, living knowledge of God in Christ, which reveals, and in fact is, this love. And this can only be by -Christ dwelling in their hearts by faith, and renewing and enlightening them by His Spirit. He does not say, Thou in them-but I in them and Thou in Me: see Joh 17:23.

Fuente: The Greek Testament

Joh 17:25. , Righteous Father) It is from His righteousness that the admission of believers, as contrasted with the world, to God through Christ flows: , , both, and.

Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament

Joh 17:25

Joh 17:25

O righteous Father, the world knew thee not,-The world had been created by God; but it lost sight of him and turned from him. And the light shineth in the darkness; and the darkness apprehended it not. (Joh 1:5).

but I knew thee; and these knew that thou didst send me;-While the world did not know him, Jesus who had been with him did know him, and the disciples through his works and teaching had come to know that God had sent him and was with him.

Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary

world

kosmos = mankind. (See Scofield “Mat 4:8”).

Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes

Environment and Character

I pray not that thou shouldest take them from the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil one.Joh 17:15.

1. The last words of Christ to His disciples, clustered round Him in that solemn hour when He took leave of them before He died, were words of prayer. It was a prayer, as reported to us, which threw into pregnant words the meaning of His whole work, but it was also steeped in the tender thought which fills the heart of one who parts from those he has long loved. As He prayed for those around Him, who were to spread among men the good news of God, commending them to His Fathers care, every word was touched with the human tenderness of separation. Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be oneone in love, one in that will of God which is the bond of love. Keep them from the world, not from the outward world, but from the evil of the world. With that prayer, Christ defines the position of His followers in their life among men, and the meaning of it is our subject.

2. This does not mean that Christ wished His followers never to diealways to be in the world. It is appointed for us all to die. But our Lord did not wish His followers to die before their time. The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away. All, indeed, do not reach this fulness of years; and Christians as well as others are cut off by illness and accidents. Death claims all ages for his own. Many also die from loyalty to duty and to love. Blessings dearer than life may be in danger; evils worse than death may be threatened to our country and ourselves. Now Christians, like others, may have to fight even to the death for national life and liberty. And loyalty to love and loyalty to duty may bring an early death on the followers of Christ as well as on others. They may see dear ones sinking into a watery grave, or surrounded by consuming fires, and they may risk and sacrifice their lives in seeking to rescue them from death.

When Jesus followers give up their lives either in loyalty to duty or in loyalty to love, they give them up in accordance with the will of God; but Jesus knew there was a real danger that Christians would be taken out of the world when they should continue to live in it, and it was not His wish that this should be. The danger arose both from the hatred of Christs enemies and from the mistaken beliefs and actings of Christs followers themselves.

I

The Sphere

The world was to be their sphere. I pray not that thou shouldest take from the world.

What is Christs meaning for the term world? It is this passing scene of time, with its transient pleasures and sorrows, pursuits and loves; and the mass of men that live for these alone. There is the world of men, of business, of politics, of labour for wealth and famethe storm of life in which we sail. Pray, men say, to be taken out of that; out into the deserts or the quietude of our retired rooms; in solitary meditation to live the life of God. I do not pray, said Christ, that you should be removed from thatonly from its evil.

1. Christ could not ask that they might be taken out of the world, for that was the scene of their witnessing and labour. However keenly they might wish to escape from its hate and opposition, it was necessary for themselves, for the world, and for their Master, that they should stay as the salt and leaven of human society. But He prays that God would keep them from the evil one. Divine grace is to surround these simple souls so that Satans fingers may not defile their lives. They also must learn to say, He hath nothing in me. This is a great thing to ask, but it is the path to victory. The problem of the necessity of living in the midst of earthly influences and yet of escaping from their evil is difficult with an exceeding difficulty. Yet it is not without solution. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego in the court of Nebuchadnezzar, Daniel in the court of Darius, are the likenesses of the small transfigured band whom the world cannot tame.

Some devout men in spite of the prayer of Jesus, thought it best to renounce the world, and lived in dens and caves of the earth. The Pillar Hermits of Syria lived long years on the tops of pillars set up in the open air. The earliest and most famous of this class of solitaries, whose example the others followed as well as they could, was Simeon, a Syrian monk. In his boyhood Simeon had been a shepherd. He spent nine years of his youth in a Syrian monastery, without ever moving outside the walls of his narrow cell. After this he became dissatisfied with the convent, as giving him too few means of self-denial, and presently invented the new form of penitence which has become associated with his name. He withdrew about the year 423 a.d. to a mountain near Antioch, and fixed his abode upon the top of a pillar which he caused to be erected for himself. The height of it was at first six cubits, but this was gradually increased to thirty-six, or nearly sixty feet. The diameter of the top was only four feet; but it was surrounded with a railing which secured the poor man from falling off, and allowed him the relief of leaning against it. Here Simeon spent the last thirty or more years of his life. He clothed himself with the skins of beasts, and wore also an iron collar round his neck. He preached twice a day to the crowds that gathered at the foot of the column to witness his persevering devotions. Simeon died on his pillar at the age of seventy-two, and was buried with great solemnity at Antioch.

Lord Tennyson has a poem about him with the title, Saint Simeon Stylites, that is Saint Simeon of the Pillar. It consists of a solemn prayer to God and address to the people by the hermit on the last day of his life. The words which the poet puts into his mouth show a curious mixture of deep penitence for sin and great spiritual pride in his long career of penance. Here are some of them,

Bethink Thee, Lord, while Thou and all the saints

Enjoy themselves in heaven, and men on earth

House in the shade of comfortable roofs,

Sit with their wives by fires, eat wholesome food,

And wear warm clothes, and even beasts have stalls,

I, tween the spring and downfall of the light,

Bow down one thousand and two hundred times,

To Christ, the Virgin Mother, and the saints;

Or in the night, after a little sleep,

I wake: the chill stars sparkle; I am wet

With drenching dews, or stiff with crackling frost.

I wear an undressd goatskin on my back;

A grazing iron collar grinds my neck;

And in my weak, lean arms I lift the cross,

And strive and wrestle with Thee till I die:

O mercy, mercy! wash away my sin.1 [Note: C. Jerdan, For the Lambs of the Flock, 122.]

(1) We are in the world for our own sake. We are placed here to be trained for another and a higher life. A certain time and certain trials upon this earth are necessary to develop us into the likeness of Gods character.

The aloe takes a hundred years to make a flower, the primrose a few spring days; some trees reach maturity in half a century, others weave their strength of folded fibres out of the rain, and wind, and sunshine of a thousand years. Each has its own period. It is so, also, with us, the planting of the Lord. A few trials, a few years, and some of us flower into all the perfection we can attain on earth. Many long years bitter and protracted trials are the lot of others, before a single blossom can spring upon their lives; butand it is a law which ought to console usin proportion to the length of time and the greatness of the trial is the fitness of the character for work, and the greatness also of the work that it has to do. The primrose is beautiful and cheers the heart of the passing traveller, and rejoices the Maying children who weave it in a wreath for their queenand that is useful and lovely work and has its place. But the oak shelters a thousand herds, and plants a forest; and builds the bulwark of the coast, and the fleets that unite the nations. We have no right to be impatient if God is making us into the heart of oak, which will, when the woodman, death, has felled us, give shelter and bring blessing to thousands in the other world. Not an hour of the time, not a single agony of the trial is lost; everything that we suffer here is transmuted otherwhere into strength and usefulness, into greatness and beauty of character.2 [Note: S. A. Brooke, The Ship of the Soul, 43.]

(2) It is Christs mind that His people should abide for a season in the world for the sake of others. He has purposes to accomplish in His people, and by them, which render it necessary that they should, in all ordinary cases, pass a time of sojourn amid the cares and temptations of the world. We are not left in doubt as to the reason of our Lords declining to pray that His saints should be taken out of the world. He explains it Himself in Joh 17:18 : As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world. We know what Christ was sent into the world to do. It was that He might save it. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world. In like manner Christs people are sent into the world for the worlds good. In the humbler fashion, which alone is competent to men, Christs people are like Christ Himself, the light of the world. Christs plan is to do the work of His Kingdom on the earth by means of His own people. He does not send angels from heaven to preach the Gospel, or to minister food and raiment to the poor, or to comfort mourners, or to put evildoers to shame by their holy life. These honourable functions it is His will and pleasure that His own people should discharge. When the world shall have been converted to Christ, it will be found that the instruments employed have been men of like passions with others. And this being so, it is easy enough to understand why Christ does not desire that His people should be at once taken out of the world. The world needs their example, their prayers, their good deeds, their instructions; and, for the worlds sake, they must abide here for a season, and not only abide on the earth, but throw themselves heartily into the throng and turmoil of life in the world, according as God may call them.

For thousands of years there lay before man all the possibilities of insulating an electric current, and so of confining it within certain bounds, and of directing its energy into a definite channel, and yet the thing never dawned upon his mind until the time of Stephen Gray. And since his day the development of electrical science has been proportionate to the progress made in the knowledge of insulation. In all the advance made in the arts and sciences by the nations of antiquity, we have no evidence that any one of them ever discovered that a wire could be so covered that it would be insulated, and so retain and transmit a current; and without this knowledge of insulation no progress in electricity was possible. An induction coil could not be constructed, and so there could be no dynamo or electric motor. In short, there could be no transmission of electrical energy in any form. Insulation is as much a matter of necessity in things spiritual as in things electrical. This does not mean, however, the insulation which is found in isolation so much as that which is the product of life. It is not secured by separating ones self from his fellows, whether in the cell of the monastery or in the religious retreat. It is rather the possession of life that shields a man from his hostile environment, and enables him to triumph over it.1 [Note: C. H. Tyndall, Electricity and its Similitudes, 114.]

2. The spirit of Christs prayer was the habit of His life. If He was not of this world, it was not because He left it to itself, or wrapped Himself in any mystery, or was without sympathy for any human condition, or untouched by any cry of emotion. He lived as a man among men. He assumed no special sanctity, no signs of separation. He sat at rich mens tables. He associated with those of evil repute and of no repute. He said of Himself that He came eating and drinking. It was charged against Him that He was gone to be guest with a man that is a sinner. He gave currency Himself to the coarse reproach that He was a gluttonous man and a wine-bibber, not fearing to take it up, and only adding, Wisdom is justified of all her children. For he who cannot pass blamelessly through the common conditions of our life, taking them as they are, and evading none of them, is no saint of God and no saviour of men. It is not being above any human necessity, but meeting it fully and purely, that tests spiritual power. If the Son of Man was not of the world, it was not because His spirit was not large enough to take in both earth and heaven; it was because this earth was a sacred place where God was unfolding His providence and men were fulfilling their preparatory destinies; and when He looked upon them in the light of their immortality, His tenderness flowed out even in tearsnot the tears that lie near to the eyes, but out of the anguish of His spiritfor those who, in the crisis of the worlds opportunity, were rejecting the counsel of God against themselves, not knowing the time of their visitation.

It is said of every painting that has no clear outlook to the sky, that it leaves a stifling impression on the mind of confinement and limitation. And so of every human life that has no natural outlet to the infinite: it is then of the world, and of the world only. Yet we have no external measurements for such states of the spirit. Only the individual conscience, and He who is greater than the conscience, can tell where worldliness prevails, with the heavenly outlook closed. Each heart must answer for itself, and at its own risk. That our souls are committed to our own keeping at our own peril, in a world so mixed as this, is the last reason why we should slumber over the charge, or betray the trust. If only that outlet to the infinite is kept open, the inner bond with eternal life preserved, while not one movement of this worlds business is interfered with, not one pulse-beat of its happiness repressed, with all natural associations dear and cherished, with all human sympathies fresh and warm, we shall yet be near to the Kingdom of heaven, within the order of the Kosmos of God in the world, but not of the worldnot taken out of it, but kept from its evil.1 [Note: J. Hamilton Thom, Laws of Life after the Mind of Christ, 311.]

If It was a true inspiration of the artist who depicted a monk at his desk in the monastery cell, with pen in hand, and eyes looking upward for illumination, and the Holy Spirit descending in the form of a dove to bring the light and guidance he sought. That was a true inspiration; but it was equally true to depict a foul spirit speaking from beneath, seeking to engage the monks attention, that he might whisper in his ear the corrupt and corrupting counsel of the world. In convent and in the busiest highway the two voices call, and no withdrawal of the body will deliver us from the subtle and ensnaring influence of the evil world.2 [Note: J. H. Jowett, Apostolic Optimism, 57.]

3. The more we make of this life, the more credible another life becomes. The greater this life is made, the easier to believe in the next. No one would infer Paradise from the vast African desert. It is when the traveller visits European zones, sees their magnificence of verdure and bloom and the grand creations of man, that the soul readily believes in God and eternity.

A noted novelist has said that when the great and pure souls of earth were beheld it was easy to believe in immortality. We have suffered from two causesfrom religious zealots disparaging this world, and from infidel minds underrating the next. The former take from this beautiful world its purpose, while the latter deprive it of the mystery and the hope of Heaven. Christ has delivered us from both. For He stood forth emphasizing the value of this life and assigning to His disciples their place in it as His servants. He taught them their obligation to ornament and develop this world. This earth is the first stage in the souls career. Only a grand human life can bear any adequate testimony to the truths of Christs Gospel. Here it is given to those accepting it to show its relation to the State; to the social charities human misery makes so needful; to the school, with its eager young life to be trained; to the home, wherein are to blossom the graces and amenities that alone can perpetuate it and make it sweet home; to politics, that they may be cleansed and reveal the spirit of that patriotism whose renaissance is the hope of the hour. It is at such points as these, where Christianity has touched this earth and made it better, that it finds its protection from the ice of unbelief and the attacks of ridicule.1 [Note: M. M. G. Dana.]

II

The Enemy

1. The Greek word that ends the text is an adjective, preceded by an article, and being in the genitive case the custom is to supply a substantive. Hence the rendering: that thou shouldest keep them from the evil one. The statement then points to the prince of this world, the author and embodiment of evil. Not that the word Satan, or the word Devil, must always be taken to mean one spirit in the Scriptures: I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven, means that Christ saw evil spirits discomfited. The devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour, means, not one fallen spirit merely, but many fallen spirits seeking whom they may influence for evil.

2. What, then, is this evil (or evil one, as the R.V. has it) from which our Lord prays we should be kept? Does it consist in outward tribulation, in the trials and troubles of life, in poverty, bereavements, bodily sufferings? Obviously not. Christ knew that man is born to trouble as the sparks fly upward. He Himself, as Perfect Man, underwent all these, leaving us the one perfect example of patient submission to Gods will. It was indeed for this purpose that He left His Fathers throne to come and live amongst us on this earth, that there might be no thorny path or barren wilderness of trouble which He as our great Leader had not passed through before us, no fierce temptation which He as Perfect Man had not experienced and triumphed over, thus leaving us an example that we should follow His steps, and in all these things be more than conquerors. So then this evil from which He prays God to keep us is not an outward one, but one far more deadly and subtlean inward and spiritual enemy. He prays that we may be kept from the wiles of the evil one, who, as a roaring lion, goeth about seeking whom he may devour, from any indulged sin that would come between us and God, from any earthly care or pleasure that may deaden our spiritual faculties and separate the soul from the enjoyment of Gods love.

(1) There is virtue in environment. In the region of the Natural Sciences we find the botanist and the biologist arguing that any peculiar formation or growth in plant or animal which maintains itself and becomes persistent must be accounted for by something in its environment. There must be something there to justify it, to make it worth while that it should exist, otherwise it would not have maintained itself, at least in vigour. They argue thus from the organism to its environment, and set to work to verify their argument by finding that hitherto unsuspected element or process in external nature with which the peculiar formation brings the plant or animal into advantageous correspondence. There is no reason why the argument should not apply with equal force to the invisible spiritual faculties and developments of human nature; the only difference is that in this region it does not from the nature of the case admit of ocular verification.

You have seen a lily floating in the black sullied waters of a foul bog in the country. All about it are foulness and impurity; but amid all the vileness the lily is pure as the white snowflakes that fall from the winter clouds. It floats on the surface of the stained waters, but never takes a stain. It ever holds up its pure face towards Gods blue sky, and pours its fragrance all about it, like the incense from the censer of a vestal priestess. So it is possible for a true soul to live in this sinful world, keeping itself unsullied, and breathing out the fragrance of love.1 [Note: J. R. Miller, Glimpses through Lifes Windows, 186.]

(2) But there is peril in environment. Christ does not make light of the dangers which beset His disciples in this world. He had met the tempter and defeated him, but He knew the craft and cunning with which he lies in wait to deceive, and this prayer is a cry of warning. St. Paul does not underrate our peril: For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world-rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. The noble and the good of former days unite in declaring that this world is to the servant of Christ an enemys country. There are the god of this world, the powers of this world, the men of this world, the things of this worldall in their degree fighting against the man who believes in Jesus. As an old writer has said, this world is like a chess-board, you cannot make a move in any direction but the devil instantly sets out some creature to attack you.

Long ago I made a change of habitat from the hill country of western Carolina to what was regarded as a malarious district near the eastern coast. I was warned of the probable consequences to my health, but I laughed at the fears of my friends. I protested that there was nothing in the world the matter with the air. Was I not a chemist? At least, I was so accounted in those days when I filled that chair in a humble college. The air had just the same constituents as were to be found in the hill countryoxygen, nitrogen, vapour of water, and a trace of carbonic acid. And so for two years I laughed at chills and fevers, and then I shook for two months. There was something baneful in the air, even though chemical analysis failed to detect its presence.1 [Note: P. S. Henson, The Four Faces, 233.]

III

The Keeper

That thou shouldest keep them. What a wealth of quiet experience there is in the phrase, The Lord shall preserve thy going out. It is worth while at the beginning of any day to pause to gather so precious a promise. But like many another fair promise it is at the same time a challenge. The God who waits at the door with the offer of companionship, scrutinizes our going forth. We have, as it were, to pass Him to get into the street. He is the sentry who must know our business, and why we go out, before He can give us safe conduct. The assurance of protection can be tasted only by the man whose daily purpose is in accordance with the will of God, who can give the answer of his Master, that he is about the Fathers business.

In China men have conceived of a sleeping Deity. There, lying on his side, with calm face, closed eyes, and head resting upon his hand, is a gilded wooden figure, 30 feet long, and well proportioned. But he does not mind his worshippers. His left arm is resting upon his body, and his bare feet are placed one upon the other. This Buddha is sleeping, while the world goes on. Standing about him are twelve crowned and beautifully dressed images, and in front are the symbols of sacrifice and incense. How unlike Him who neither slumbers nor sleeps!

O strange and wild is the world of men

Which the eyes of the Lord must see

With continents, islands, tribes and tongues,

With multitudes bond and free!

All kings of the earth bow down to Him,

And yetHe can think on me.

For none can measure the mind of God

Or the bounds of eternity,

He knows each life that has come from Him,

To the tiniest bird and bee,

And the love of His heart is so deep and wide

That it takes in even me.1 [Note: Mary E. Allbright.]

1. The disciple cannot keep himself.The Saviour did not turn to those who stood round Him and bind them by strong vows to remain faithful when He was gone. He knew their weakness, and He looked away from them to Gods strength. It is well for us to know our weakness. We cannot keep ourselves. We have no strength to meet the attack, and no skill to evade it. How will you do? Will you resolve sternly to resist when next you are tempted? Such resolves have been made, as in a souls agony they have been made, and they have gone down before the fierce onslaught like lead before the blow-pipe, or they have yielded to the gentle wooings and insinuations of the evil one. Be not too confident, that is, not self-confident. St. Peters brave challenge to man or devil to make him desert his Master was but the prelude to his fall.

2. We are kept by outward restraints, by commands and prohibitions and providences. It is told of one of the great painters of Italy, that, being engaged upon a fresco inside the dome of a lofty cathedral, and standing on a platform hung more than a hundred feet from the floor, he paused to look at the effect of his work, and, absorbed in his art, kept walking backward for a better view, till, forgetful of danger, he had almost reached the platforms edge, unconscious that two more backward steps would hurl him down to death. A brother artist seeing his danger, but afraid to speak lest a sudden shout should precipitate the fall he was anxious to prevent, seized a brush full of paint and hurled it against the face of the brilliant figure on the dome, completely spoiling the labour of many days. But that saved the painters life; for, resenting what he thought an insult, and springing forward with a cry, he only then discovered that that had been a friendly act to save him from an awful death. And when God, with a seemingly cruel hand blots out our beautiful visions, and spoils the life-picture that we thought so fair, till we cry out in surprise and anger too, He may be saying with a tender voice, It was to keep you from falling.

Dont you think, sir, said a very sincere but simple man, to me, one Sunday, as I was leaving the pulpit of a chapel filled chiefly by the poor, dont you think that you repeat the Lords Prayer the wrong way? Dont you think you had better repeat it as our minister repeats it? He always says, Leave us not in temptation. You dont think that God ever leads us into temptation, sir, do you? Had you not better follow our ministers way, sir? No, I replied; I dont think I had better follow your ministers way. I think he had better follow Christs way and repeat the prayer as Christ taught it. Listen, my friend, I said; the prayer is clear enough and forcible enough if you will read it through. But you are like some other people that I know, you insist on reading the Bible with your thumb-nail instead of your brains. You stick your thumb-nail into one word on a page and will not see any other word, even on the same page. When you read any other book you allow it to explain itself. You read all adjoining passages, as well as the immediate context; and, above all, you do not ignore the context. You let the book explain itself. Do the same with the Lords Prayer. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil; that is, lead us not into temptation that shall overpower us, expose us not to overmuch trial, trial under which our weakness may sink. Christ does not mean that we are to pray never to be tempted, but only that we may be shielded from temptations too great for our strength; and that we may be delivered from the sin of yielding to the temptation.1 [Note: T. Cooper, Plain Pulpit Talk, 205.]

3. We are kept by the vision of pure things.In ascending the lofty peaks of the Jungfrau and Monte Rosa, the guides are said to resort not infrequently to the artifice of endeavouring to interest the traveller in the beauty of the lovely flowers growing there, with a view to distract his attention from the fearful abysses which the giddy path overhangs. By a similar device of wisdom and love are the saints preserved as they pursue their perilous way. God establishes their steps by charming their eye with things of beauty, interest, and delectableness, and by filling their heart with the love of them. Home, sweet home, with its pleasantness and pathos; the charm of literature, the miracles of science, the spell of music, the visions of art; the daily round, with its ever fresh solicitudes and satisfactions; the calls of patriotism, the demands of duty, the glow of love, the pleasures of friendship, social service, the abandon of pastimesthese, and many other similar things pertaining to the natural life, when accepted, exercised, and enjoyed in the sunshine of the Lord, constitute our strength and guarantee our peace, despite all the visions of sin, all the allurements of world, flesh, and devil. We are not saved by some unknown magic, but God draws our heart to Himself through the sanctified gifts, situations, and activities which go to the making up of human life.

4. We are kept by Gods strengthening grace in our hearts.Not abstraction from the world, but protection from the evil! The deliverance is to be effected, not by the removal of the body, but by the reinforcement of the spirit. Our redemption is to be accomplished, not by changing our locality, but by changing the condition of the heart. The purpose of our Saviour is to perfect us in holiness, not by withdrawing us from all infection, but by making us proof against all disease in the endowment of invincible health. The ideal of aspiring discipleship is to be found not in innocence, with an environment destitute of temptation, but in holiness, despite the menacing advances of infection and disease. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world. I pray not that thou shouldest take them from the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil one.

As the diver in his bell sits dry at the bottom of the sea, and draws a pure air from the free heavens far above him, and is parted from that murderous waste of green death that clings so closely round the translucent crystal walls, which keep him safe, so we, enclosed in God, shall repel from ourselves all that would overflow to destroy us and our work, and may by His grace lay deeper than the waters some courses in the great building that shall one day rise stately and many-mansioned from out of the conquered waves.

A writer tells of going with a party into a coal mine. On one side of the gangway grew a plant which was perfectly white. The visitors were astonished that there, where the coal dust was continually flying, this little plant should remain so pure and white. A miner took a handful of black coal dust and threw it upon the plant but none adhered. The visitors repeated the experiment, but the coal dust would not cling. There was a wonderful enamel on the folds of the white plant to which the finest perceptible speck would not adhere. Living there, amid clouds of black dust, nothing could stain its snowy whiteness.

5. We must co-operate with God.Indeed the Apostle Jude says, Keep yourselves in the love of God. Gods love to usthat is the element within which the keeping of ourselves becomes real keeping, safe keeping, happy keeping. That is the overarching firmament, with its height and breadth of bright infinitude, within which our keeping is kept. We ourselves are to abide within our own poor keeping: yes, and our own poor keeping is to abide within Gods tender might of love. The flower is to be environed by the frail globe of glass: the frail globe is to be environed and to be penetrated by the sweet warm sunlight, that comes across the tracks of worlds to illumine our dark atmosphere with safety and life.

If I feel that I am enclosed by the strong ramparts of a fortress-home, there is animating reason why I should guard myself from the lesser hazards that may still encompass me within that home; my keeping of myself is not at an end, but is only reduced to manageable dimensions. If I be on board a steam-liner, which holds her head before the wildest weather with undaunted majesty, and only fills the air above her bows with the smoke of billows she is shattering in the strong tremor of her power, I have still to care how I mount the companion-way, and pace the deck, and stow my valuables in my cabin. Indeed, it is only when I am secure from wreck or foundering, that all this minor care is of much account.1 [Note: J. A. Kerr Bain, For Heart and Life, 85.]

I rest on Thy unwearied mind;

Thy planning and Thy love go on,

Nor dost Thou leave me far behind;

Im carried to another dawn.

The new day breaks. From earths old mould

Fresh flowers grow along my way.

New life is flashed on problems old;

On ancient life new forces play.

O wondrous, wakeful Warden! When

The last great nightfall comes to me,

From that deep slumber rouse me then,

That I Thy tireless child may be.2 [Note: Archibald Haddon.]

IV

The Intercessor

I pray.Jesus assumes the rle of Advocate. To St. Peter He said, I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not. And He says the same to every disciple who is being sifted by the wicked one. Our great High Priest lifts up the voice of continual intercession for us. His own Passion is His Plea. Those five red-lipped wounds plead eloquently with the Father; and nothing that they ask is ever refused.

Look, Father, look on His Anointed Face,

And only look on us as found in Him;

Look not on our misusings of Thy grace,

Our prayer so languid, and our faith so dim.

For lo! between our sins and their reward

We set the Passion of Thy Son our Lord.

I remember a wonderful mural painting. It depicts the Jews brought into subjection to the heathen. To the left stands Pharaoh, exquisite, effeminate, deadly cruel. In one hand he lifts the scourge, and with the other he grasps the hair of the captives. On the right is the Assyrian king, duller, heavier, with knotted limbs. He presses down the yoke on the poor prisoners. But supplicating hands are raised up to heaven, and Jehovah lends His ear to the cry of His people. The cherubim fly before Him, their wings a glowing crimson. They hide His face; but from behind the wings issue His arms. The slender Pharaoh He represses by the mere impact of His fingers. The brute force of the Assyrian He holds in a grasp of tremendous power. Fear not, O trembling heart: when Jesus presents your prayers before the throne, no enemy can prevail against you.1 [Note: A. Smellie, In the Secret Place, 34.]

Environment and Character

Literature

Alexander (S. A.), The Mind of Christ, 418.

Benson (R. M.), The Final Passover, ii. (pt. ii.) 457.

Binnie (W.), Sermons, 171.

Bramston (J. F.), Fratribus, 164.

Brooke (S. A.), The Ship of the Soul, 31.

Carter (T. T.), Meditations on the Public Life of our Lord, ii. 298.

Cooper (T.), Plain Pulpit Talk, 196.

Dods (M.), Footsteps in the Path of Life, 70.

Gibson (J. M.), Glory of Life on Earth, 1.

Gray (W. H.), The Childrens Friend, 202.

Gregg (D.), Individual Prayer as a Working Force, 125.

Hiley (R. W.), A Years Sermons, iii. 234.

Jerdan (C.), For the Lambs of the Flock, 121.

Jowett (J. H.), Apostolic Optimism, 47.

Lidgett (J. S.), Apostolic Ministry, 215.

Rainsford (M.), The Lords Prayer for Believers, 286, 301.

Spurgeon (C. H.), Christs Relation to His People, 351.

British Weekly Pulpit, iii. 473.

Cambridge Review, i. No. 21.

Christian Age, xlvi. 13; liii. 325.

Christian World Pulpit, li. 316 (Gibson); lv. 136 (Jowett); lxxi. 268 (Rushbrooke).

Fuente: The Great Texts of the Bible

righteous: Joh 17:11, Isa 45:21, Rom 3:26

the world: Joh 8:19, Joh 8:55, Joh 15:21, Joh 16:3, Mat 11:27, Luk 10:22, Act 17:23, Act 26:18, Rom 1:28, Rom 3:11, 1Co 1:21, 1Co 15:34, 2Co 4:4, Gal 4:8, Gal 4:9, 2Th 1:8, Heb 8:11, 1Jo 5:19, 1Jo 5:20, Rev 13:8

but: Joh 1:18, Joh 5:19, Joh 5:20, Joh 7:29, Joh 10:15

these: Joh 17:8, Joh 6:19, Joh 16:27, Joh 16:30, Mat 16:16

Reciprocal: Psa 79:6 – not known Jer 10:25 – that know Zec 2:11 – thou Joh 1:10 – knew Joh 1:26 – whom Joh 7:28 – whom Joh 8:42 – for Joh 11:42 – that thou Joh 17:3 – this Joh 20:17 – I ascend Eph 1:17 – in the knowledge Eph 4:13 – the knowledge 1Jo 1:3 – declare 1Jo 3:1 – the world

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

5

The world in general did not know God in the sense of recognizing and obeying the divine law. These means the apostles, who had learned of the Father through their association with the Son and the teaching that he gave unto them.

Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary

Joh 17:25. Righteous Father, both the world learned not to know thee,but I learned to know thee,and these learned to know that thou didst send me. Not in the last clause of Joh 17:24, but now, we have the ground upon which Jesus prays that the glory of which He has spoken may be conferred upon His people; and it connects itself not so much with the love as with the righteousness of God. It is just and right that those who have been prepared for the glory to be beheld should at last obtain it. Hence Righteous (not as in Joh 17:11, Holy) Father. For God as Father is not merely love, but love resting on perfect rectitude,is One who will see that what befalls His creatures corresponds to what they are. The word both here perplexes commentators, but is to be explained by what seems to be the usage of this Gospel (comp. chap. Joh 15:24), in which propositions subordinate to the principal statement are thus introduced; while, at the same time, like a dark background, they bring out the main thought with greater force. In the present instance this thought is contained in the last clause of the verse, and it is made more noteworthy by the fact stated in the first. The intermediate clause, again, but I learned to know Thee, appears to be designed to lead us up to the main proposition following. It was because Jesus knew the Father that He had been able to communicate that knowledge to His people. Because they had received this knowledge, therefore, it was fitting that the love into which, along with the knowledge, they had entered, should bring to them its full reward, and should shine upon them as it shone upon the Son in whom they had renounced the world and the worlds ways. It may, indeed, at first sight startle us to find Jesus using such words of Himself as that He learned to know the Father. But (1) it has to be borne in mind that learned to know is not in every respect a perfectly satisfactory translation of the original; it only approaches much more nearly to the truth than knew. The proper meaning would be got knowledge, or came to know. (2) There is nothing more startling in the statement than in that of the Epistle to the Hebrews (chap. Joh 5:8), Yet learned He obedience by the things which He suffered. There, indeed, we have another and a separate word for learned; but a process, a progress, is also implied in the word of the verse before us. The writer to the Hebrews speaks of an experimental learning of obedience by One who was possessed of a truly human, as well as of a Divine nature,not the will to obey becoming more perfect, but actual obedience being practically more and more learned in the varying duties and trials of life. So here, He who was human as well as Divine learned, practically and experimentally, to know the Father; and it was because He so learned that He was able to communicate that knowledgeHis own knowledgeto His people. Knowledge such as that spoken of can be acquired by us in no other way; and we have repeatedly seen, in considering this prayer, that what Jesus bestows upon His disciples is first His own.

Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament

Observe here, 1. The appellation given to God: O righteous Father. This is the sixth time that Christ in this prayer has called God, Father, it being so sweet a relation, and producing all love, delight, joy, and confidence in God, by him that practically reproves it.

But observe, that at verse 11, Joh 17:11, when Christ prayed for his people’s sanctification, he said, Holy Father, making use of that attribute which is the cause of all holiness in the creature; but now praying for their glorification, he says, O Righteous Father; righteous in making good thy promises both to me and them.

Observe, 2. What it is that our Saviour affirms concerning the wicked and unbelieving world, that they have not known God; The world hath not known thee; not as if the world hath not known him at all, but not known him aright; the unbelieving and unsanctified part of the world having no saving knowledge of God, not living answerably to what they know to be their duty.

Observe, 3. What Christ affirms concerning himself: But I have known thee, and these have known thee. Intimating thus much unto us, that Jesus Christ knows God immediately, and all others know him by the means of Christ; Christ is the original and fontal cause of all the saving knowledge that believers have of God. There is not the least ray of saving illumniation that doth not descend from Christ and the Spirit of Chirst: I have known thee, and these have known that thou didst send me.

Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament

Joh 17:25-26. O righteous Father Faithful and just, as well as merciful. When he prayed that believers might be sanctified, he called him holy Father: but now, praying that they might be glorified, he terms him righteous Father: for it is a crown of righteousness which the righteous Judge will give, and the admission of believers into the presence of God, through Christ, flows, not only from the mercy, but even from the justice of God. The world hath not known thee The world, being ignorant of thy nature and perfections, and of thy gracious counsels for the salvation of mankind, has rejected me; yet I have known thee Have been perfectly acquainted with thy counsels and designs, and have accordingly directed the whole of my ministrations to thy glory. And these have known that thou hast sent me And therefore have believed in me as the Messiah, a truth which they will courageously assert at the expense of their lives; which is the reason I am so solicitous that they should behold the glory thou hast given me. And I have declared to them thy name Have made them acquainted with thy nature, perfections, and counsels, and especially thy new best name of love; and I will declare it Still more fully, both by my word and by my Spirit; that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them That their graces and services may be more eminent, as an evidence of thy unspeakable love to them; and that I also may take up my constant residence in them by my spiritual presence, when my bodily presence is removed, as it will quickly be.

Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Vv. 25, 26 have as their aim to justify this last will of Jesus, not only from the standpoint of grace, but even from that of righteousness, precisely that one of the divine perfections which might seem opposed to the petition of Jesus in behalf of His own.

Fuente: Godet Commentary (Luke, John, Romans and 1 Corinthians)

Joh 17:25 f. reviews, after the authors wont, the main points of the whole, in a final appeal to the Fathers justice on behalf of the disciples against the world, the refusal of the world to accept the message which gives knowledge of God, Christs own knowledge, and the disciples knowledge at least of His Divine mission, His making known to the disciples the true nature of God, a process not yet completed, and the indwelling of the Fathers love, which is the true source of real union.

Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible

Jesus concluded His prayer as He began it, by addressing His Father by name (cf. Joh 17:1; Joh 17:11). By calling God His righteous Father Jesus was affirming His belief that God would do what was right in granting the petitions that He was presenting. This included glorifying the Son and bringing believers safely to heaven where they would behold His glory.

Jesus’ mission had not resulted in the whole world coming to know God experientially. Nevertheless Jesus Himself knew the Father, and the Eleven had come to believe that Jesus was the revelation of the Father. Jesus would continue to reveal the Father so the Father’s love would remain in them. It would do so because Jesus Himself would remain in them.

So concludes Jesus’ great intercessory prayer for His believing disciples. This was an important part of His private ministry of preparing His disciples for what lay ahead of them. We could summarize its main points as follows. Jesus asked for Himself glorification (Joh 17:1; Joh 17:5) that the Father might be glorified (Joh 17:1). He asked for the Eleven (and their successors) faithfulness (Joh 17:11). The results of their faithfulness would be their unity (Joh 17:11) and their joy (Joh 17:13). The means to their faithfulness would be their safety (Joh 17:15) and their sanctification (Joh 17:17). He asked for future believers unity (Joh 17:21-23) in the present that the world might believe (Joh 17:21; Joh 17:23) and heaven (Joh 17:24) in the future that believers might see His glory (Joh 17:24) and fully experience God’s love (Joh 17:26).

This section of Jesus’ ministry began with a call for present humility (Joh 13:1-12) and ended with an assurance of future glory (Joh 17:24-26). In between, Jesus gave revelations of the importance of love, the ministry of the coming Holy Spirit, the promise of answers to prayer, and instruction about the importance of abiding in Christ.

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)