John 17

On the night before the cross, Jesus prays aloud in front of His disciples. He prays for Himself, then for the Eleven, then for everyone who will ever believe through their word. The heart of the prayer is that the Father and the Son be glorified, that believers be kept safe, holy and united, and that they come to share the love and glory of heaven.

John 17:1

Jesus looks up to heaven and calls God Father. The hour He has pointed toward all through this Gospel has arrived: the cross and the return to glory. He asks to be glorified so that the Son may in turn bring glory to the Father. His one aim is the Father’s honor.

BSA: Glorify (“exalt, honor, and praise”): To glorify is to show someone’s true worth openly, so that all can see how great He is.

Greek: δόξασον (doxason, G1392) — “glorify, give honor and weight to.” The root idea is weight or splendor. Jesus asks that the true weight of who He is be displayed, and it will be displayed most of all at the cross.

See also: John 12:23; John 13:31-32.

John 17:2

The Father has given the Son authority over all humanity. Jesus uses that authority to give eternal life to those the Father has entrusted to Him. Salvation is a gift handed from the Father through the Son, and the Son’s rule exists for the sake of that gift.

BSA: authority (“power to act, freedom to exercise”): The Son has the right and the freedom to act, and He acts to give life.

See also: Matthew 28:18.

John 17:3

Jesus defines eternal life, and it is more than endless time. It is knowing the one true God and Jesus Christ whom He sent. Life with God is a relationship of personal knowing, and it begins now.

BSA: know (“understand, recognize”): This knowing includes seeing and recognizing who God truly is, and it goes beyond facts about Him.

Greek: γινώσκωσιν (ginōskōsin, G1097) — “may know, come to know.” In the Bible, knowing someone means close personal acquaintance, as in a lasting relationship. It is an ongoing knowing, and more than a single piece of information.

See also: 1 John 5:20.

John 17:4

Jesus speaks as though His work were already done. He has honored the Father on earth by finishing the task given to Him. His whole life, with the cross just ahead, is obedience offered to the Father.

BSA: accomplishing (“completing, finishing”): The work was carried through to its end, not left half done.

Greek: τελειώσας (teleiōsas, G5048) — “having completed, brought to its goal.” This is the same root as Jesus’ cry on the cross, ‘It is finished.’ The work is carried through to its goal.

See also: John 19:30.

John 17:5

Jesus asks to return to the glory He shared with the Father before creation. This shows that He did not begin at Bethlehem. He was with the Father in eternity, and He asks to be restored to that place at the Father’s side.

See also: John 1:1-2; Philippians 2:6-11.

John 17:6

Jesus turns to His disciples. He has shown them who the Father really is. They were the Father’s own, and He gave them to the Son. Their lasting sign is that they have kept the Father’s word.

BSA: name (“character, authority”): God’s name stands for all that He is, so to reveal the name is to show His very nature.

Greek: ἐφανέρωσά (ephanerōsa, G5319) — “I made visible, I made plain.” The word means to bring something out of hiding into the open. Jesus did more than teach about God. He made the Father visible in Himself.

See also: John 1:18; John 14:9.

John 17:7-8

The disciples now see that all Jesus has comes from the Father. They received the words He gave them and were convinced that He came from God and was sent by Him. Real faith rests on receiving what God has spoken through Jesus.

John 17:9-10

Jesus now prays specially for His own people, not for the world in general. They belong to the Father, and what is the Father’s is the Son’s. Remarkably, Jesus says He is glorified in these weak, struggling followers.

BSA: glorified (“exalted and honored, given praise and recognition”): Jesus is honored and shown to be who He is through the lives of His people.

John 17:11

Jesus is leaving, but His followers remain in a hostile world. He asks the holy Father to guard them in the power of His name. The goal is that they be one, sharing a unity that reflects the unity of the Father and the Son.

BSA: name (“the authority and character You possess”): They are kept safe under the Father’s own character and authority.

Greek: τήρησον (tērēson, G5083) — “keep, guard, watch over.” This is the word for a watchman’s careful guarding. It is also used of keeping a command, so God guards His people while they guard His word.

See also: John 10:28-30.

John 17:12

While Jesus was with them, He kept every one of them safe. The one exception is Judas, called the son of destruction, whose end was foretold in Scripture. Even that loss did not catch God by surprise.

BSA: protected (“kept, watched over”): Jesus acted as a shepherd who watches over His flock and loses none of those entrusted to Him.

Greek: ἀπωλείας (apōleias, G684) — “destruction, ruin, perdition.” ‘Son of destruction’ is a Hebrew-style way to say a person marked by ruin, someone whose path leads to it.

See also: Psalm 41:9; John 13:18.

John 17:13

Jesus speaks these things aloud, in the hearing of His disciples, so that they will take them in. He wants them to share His own joy in full. It is the joy of the Son who knows the Father, and it can be theirs even in a hard world.

BSA: joy (“deep happiness, divine delight”): This is the gladness Jesus Himself has in the Father, offered to His followers.

See also: John 15:11.

John 17:14

The disciples have the Father’s word, and that sets them apart from the world. Because they no longer belong to its ways, the world hates them, as it hated Jesus. Opposition is not a sign that something has gone wrong with them.

BSA: world (“the system of humanity opposed to God”): Here ‘world’ means human society organized against God, which is different from the world as creation.

See also: John 15:18-19.

John 17:15-16

Jesus does not ask the Father to pull His people out of the world. He asks that they be kept safe from the evil one while they live in it. They are in the world but do not belong to it, just as He did not.

BSA: keep (“protect, watch over, and preserve”): God guards His people within the danger, so they need not be removed from it.

Greek: πονηροῦ (ponērou, G4190) — “evil, wicked (the evil one).” The word can mean either evil in general or the evil one personally. Most readers take it as the devil, who is behind the world’s opposition.

See also: Matthew 6:13.

John 17:17

Jesus asks the Father to make His people holy, set apart for God, by means of truth. That truth is God’s own word. Holiness grows as the word of God shapes the mind and life.

BSA: Sanctify (“make holy, set apart”): To be sanctified is to be set apart for God and made fit for His use.

Greek: ἁγίασον (hagiason, G37) — “make holy, set apart.” It carries two ideas together: being set apart for God’s purposes and being made clean and godly in character.

See also: Psalm 119:142.

John 17:18

The disciples are not meant to hide from the world. Just as the Father sent Jesus into it, Jesus now sends them. Their mission carries on His, and they go among people with His message.

See also: John 20:21.

John 17:19

Jesus sets Himself apart for the Father’s purpose, and this looks ahead to His offering of Himself on the cross. He does it for His people, so that they too may be truly set apart by the truth. Their holiness rests on what He has done.

BSA: sanctify (“set apart, make holy”): Jesus gives Himself wholly to the Father’s purpose, and that includes dying for others.

See also: Hebrews 10:10.

John 17:20

Jesus now looks beyond the Eleven to every future believer, including us. They will believe through the message of the apostles. He had the readers of all later ages in mind when He prayed, and He prayed for them by name before the Father.

See also: Romans 10:17.

John 17:21

He prays that all believers be one, in the likeness of the oneness of the Father and the Son. This is more than agreement. It is a shared life in God. Such unity is also a witness, helping the world believe that the Father sent Him.

BSA: one (“united, in harmony”): The unity asked for is a real union of hearts among believers, rooted in their life in God.

See also: Ephesians 4:3-6.

John 17:22

Jesus has given His people the glory the Father gave Him. Christians differ on exactly how to describe this glory. All agree it is a real share in what belongs to Christ, and that it binds believers together as one.

See also: 2 Corinthians 3:18.

John 17:23

Christ is in believers and the Father is in Christ, so they are brought into complete unity. The result is that the world may recognize that the Father sent Jesus, and that the Father loves His people with the same love He has for His Son.

BSA: perfectly united (“into one, in complete harmony”): The unity is brought to full completion, which goes beyond mere cooperation.

Greek: τετελειωμένοι (teteleiōmenoi, G5048) — “brought to completion, made complete.” This is from the same root as ‘finish’ in verse 4. The unity of believers is meant to reach its full goal.

John 17:24

Jesus states what He wants most for His people: that they be with Him and see His glory. That glory is the Father’s gift, born of a love that existed before the world began. The final hope is to be with Christ.

BSA: see (“behold, experience”): This is a steady, wondering gaze, not a passing glimpse.

See also: 1 John 3:2; John 14:3.

John 17:25

Jesus calls the Father righteous. The world has not known Him, but Jesus does, and His followers know that the Father sent Him. Knowing God is possible only through the Son who has made Him known.

John 17:26

Jesus has made the Father’s name known and will keep doing so. His purpose is that the same love the Father has for the Son would fill His people, and that Christ Himself would dwell in them. The prayer ends with love and with Christ’s presence in His people.

BSA: love (“unconditional, divine affection”): The very love that flows between the Father and the Son is meant to dwell in believers.

See also: Romans 5:5.