Biblion Bible Commentary
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I Pray for Those You Gave Me
John 17:6-19
6 “I revealed your name to the people whom you have given me out of the world. They were yours, and you have given them to me. They have kept your word. · WEB
He prays for eleven men by describing them far more generously than the evening warrants.
"I revealed your name to the people whom you have given me out of the world. They were yours, and you have given them to me. They have kept your word" John 17:6.
The description is startling. They have kept your word is said of men who have spent the evening arguing about rank, misunderstanding every figure of speech, and being told they will scatter within hours.
It is not flattery and it is not inaccurate; it is a judgment made on the whole rather than the moment. He is describing them to the Father the way a man describes people he is fond of, and the next twenty-four hours will not change it.
"I pray for them. I don't pray for the world, but for those whom you have given me" John 17:9.
The limitation has troubled readers and it is a limitation of this prayer rather than of his concern. The same chapter prays that the world may believe John 17:21 and may know John 17:23, and the same book says God loved it John 3:16. What is being prayed here is for the eleven, because in an hour they will be on their own.
"Holy Father, keep them through your name which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are" John 17:11.
The first petition for them is preservation, and the second is unity — and the measure of the unity is the relation between Father and Son, which is the highest standard in Scripture applied to a group of frightened men.
"While I was with them in the world, I kept them in your name. I have kept those whom you have given me. None of them is lost, except the son of destruction" John 17:12.
The exception is stated without evasion, and this book has been honest about Judas from chapter six John 6:70. Nothing here suggests he was a device; he is described as lost, which is a word about a person.
"I don't pray that you would take them from the world, but that you would keep them from the evil one" John 17:15.
The petition rules out the obvious solution. Removal is available and is not asked for. What is asked is protection inside the danger, which sets the shape of Christian life in the world for good — neither withdrawal nor assimilation.
"They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world" John 17:16. Belonging and location are separated: in it, not of it.
"Sanctify them in your truth. Your word is truth" John 17:17.
To sanctify is to set apart for a purpose — the word used of vessels dedicated to the temple's service. And the means named is the word, which this chapter has already said they received and kept.
Your word is truth is stated as a bare fact in the middle of a prayer, and it is one of the strongest things said about Scripture anywhere.
"As you sent me into the world, even so I have sent them into the world" John 17:18.
The sending is the reason they are not being taken out of it. And the comparison is exact — as you sent me — which makes their errand the same kind of thing as his, on the same terms.
"For their sakes I sanctify myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth" John 17:19.
He sets himself apart, and the language is sacrificial. The setting apart he is describing is the walk to a garden and everything after it, and it is done for their sakes — which is the last thing he says about the eleven before he starts praying for everyone who will believe because of them.
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