John 17:20-26

Jesus prays for the union of believers with Himself and among themselves.

ADDITIONAL NOTES BY THE AMERICAN EDITOR.

Vv. 20-26.

1. John 17:20-24. The prayer now turns to the great company of believers in all coming time. These will become believers through the word, spoken or written, of the apostles. The prayer for them is, that they may be one. This was presented in John 17:11 with reference to the apostles themselves, as the end for which Jesus asked that the Father would keep them. The unity here referred to is set forth more fully in the following words and verses. It is evidently such a unity as would, by its natural influence, lead the world to believe in the divine mission of Christ (John 17:21); it was one which was in correspondence, in some sense, with that which exists between the Father and the Son (John 17:20 b, John 17:22); it was one which was founded upon an indwelling of Christ in them, answering, in some sense, to the indwelling of the Father in Christ (John 17:23 a); it was a perfected unity, which should, by its very existence, prove that the Father loved them after a similar manner to that in which He loved Christ (John 17:23 b). These points, taken together, show that the unity is something more than the unity of love mentioned in John 13:34-35. In addition to the principle of love to one another which makes the company of believers one, there is here a common life-principle which they gain from the revelation and teaching, and also from the spirit of Christ. The spirit of Christ dwells in them and makes their spirits life (Romans 8:10). As Christ lives on account of and in the Father, so they live on account of and in Christ.

2. In John 17:24 there is a further request for these believers, which reaches out into their future life in heaven. There is no determination in this verse as to the time when this future union will begin, but, if John 14:3 can be interpreted as in Note 35.3, above, it will begin immediately after the death of each believer; and, whether this interpretation be given to that particular verse or not, a union with Christ from that time onward is indicated in other passages in the New Testament. The full blessedness of the believer, however, and the most perfect beholding of the glory of Christ, may perhaps not be enjoyed until after the Parousia. The perfection of unity in and among themselves on earth, and the union with Himself in a dwelling together in heaven, are the two gifts which Jesus asks for all His followers in all ages.

3. The glory spoken of in John 17:24 is apparently that which is referred to in John 17:1; John 17:5 the glory which is bestowed upon Christ as the reward of His earthly work, and which involves a restoration to that glory which He had with the Father even before the creation of the world. It is spoken of as given to Him, because it is viewed as the reward of His work. As it is, however, the glory mentioned in John 17:5, there can be no reason for doubting that the words thou didst love me before the foundation of the world involve the idea of Christ's pre-existence, which is clearly set forth in John 17:5.

4. John 17:25-26. These verses form a kind of conclusion of the whole prayer, and the thought seems to turn back to Himself and the apostles, with a declaration that they stand apart from the world, and an appeal to the righteousness of God to grant the requests because of this fact. There is evidently a contrast in these verses, not merely between the world and the apostles, but between the world, on the one side, and Himself and the apostles on the other. Jesus, however, places Himself here, as elsewhere in the chapter, not in precisely the same position in which He places them. He has the knowledge of the Father in and of Himself; they reach the possession of it through Him. The καί following δικαιε is quite difficult of explanation. It seems to the writer of this note that Meyer's view is probably correct the words being uttered with a pause after δίκαιε, and the suggested thought being: Yes, Thou art righteous; (the καί thus meaning and yet;) and yet the world has not known Thee, but I have known thee, and these who are here with me on this last evening of my life have known Thee. Decide between the two parties according to Thy righteousness, and grant the petitions which I have offered. The objection which Meyer and Weiss make to the view of those who, with Bengel and Ebrard, regard the two καί as equivalent to the Latin et...et, seems decisive namely, that it is inconsistent with “the antithetic character of the conceptions and with the manifest reference of the second καί to ἐγὼ δέ.”