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Scott's Reference Library
John 17:6 through John 17:19 (NIV)
6“I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were
yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word. 7Now they know that
everything you have given me comes from you. 8For I gave them the words you gave
me and they accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came from you, and
they believed that you sent me. 9I pray for them. I am not praying for the
world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours. 10All I have is
yours, and all you have is mine. And glory has come to me through them. 11I will
remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming
to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name—the name you gave
me—so that they may be one as we are one. 12While I was with them, I protected
them and kept them safe by that name you gave me. None has been lost except the
one doomed to destruction so that Scripture would be fulfilled.
13“I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world,
so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them. 14I have given
them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any
more than I am of the world. 15My prayer is not that you take them out of the
world but that you protect them from the evil one. 16They are not of the world,
even as I am not of it. 17Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. 18As
you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. 19For them I
sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified.
Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary on the Whole Bible
VERSES 6-10
Christ prays for those that are his. Thou gavest them me, as sheep to the
shepherd, to be kept; as a patient to the physician, to be cured; as children to
a tutor, to be taught: thus he will deliver up his charge. It is a great
satisfaction to us, in our reliance upon Christ, that he, all he is and has, and
all he said and did, all he is doing and will do, are of God. Christ offered
this prayer for his people alone as believers; not for the world at large. Yet
no one who desires to come to the Father, and is conscious that he is unworthy
to come in his own name, need be discouraged by the Saviour’s declaration, for
he is both able and willing to save to the uttermost, all that come unto God by
him. Earnest convictions and desires, are hopeful tokens of a work already
wrought in a man; they begin to evidence that he has been chosen unto salvation,
through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth. They are thine;
wilt thou not provide for thine own? Wilt thou not secure them? Observe the
foundation on which this plea is grounded, All mine are thine, and thine are
mine. This speaks the Father and Son to be one. All mine are thine. The Son owns
none for his, that are not devoted to the service of the Father.
VERSES 11-16
Christ does not pray that they might be rich and great in the world, but that
they might be kept from sin, strengthened for their duty, and brought safe to
heaven. The prosperity of the soul is the best prosperity. He pleaded with his
holy Father, that he would keep them by his power and for his glory, that they
might be united in affection and labours, even according to the union of the
Father and the Son. He did not pray that his disciples should be removed out of
the world, that they might escape the rage of men, for they had a great work to
do for the glory of God, and the benefit of mankind. But he prayed that the
Father would keep them from the evil, from being corrupted by the world, the
remains of sin in their hearts, and from the power and craft of Satan. So that
they might pass through the world as through an enemy’s country, as he had done.
They are not left here to pursue the same objects as the men around them, but to
glorify God, and to serve their generation. The Spirit of God in true Christians
is opposed to the spirit of the world.
VERSES 17-19
Christ next prayed for the disciples, that they might not only be kept from
evil, but made good. It is the prayer of Jesus for all that are his, that they
may be made holy. Even disciples must pray for sanctifying grace. The means of
giving this grace is, “through thy truth, thy word is truth.” Sanctify them, set
them apart for thyself and thy service. Own them in the office; let thy hand go
with them. Jesus entirely devoted himself to his undertaking, and all the parts
of it, especially the offering up himself without spot unto God, by the eternal
Spirit. The real holiness of all true Christians is the fruit of Christ’s death,
by which the gift of the Holy Ghost was purchased; he gave himself for his
church, to sanctify it. If our views have not this effect on us, they are not
Divine truth, or we do not receive them by a living and a working faith, but as
mere notions.