John 17 - CSB Study Bible for Women

17:1-26 This prayer truly is the “Lord’s Prayer”—for Himself, His disciples, and for all those who would believe in Him (vv. 6-8,20). His personal petitions consisted mainly of requests to help Him finish His mission. He spoke plainly of His preexistence and of the glory He had before the creation of the world (v. 5). He also clearly defined eternal life.

Jesus’s main concern for His disciples was that they be protected from the enemy (v. 15). He prayed that they not be overpowered by the devil but that they become sanctified, growing in the grace and knowledge of God (v. 17). Although some suggest disparagingly that Jesus was not praying for the world in this context, one must remember that this section was part of the Upper Room discourse, where Jesus was primarily concerned with preparing the Twelve for life after His departure. Therefore, these verses must be interpreted in this light. Jesus was concerned for the lost since other contexts demonstrate that clearly (see Lk 15:7,10,23,32; 19:10). His main concern in these verses, however, is for the Twelve, that those who believe His message might dwell in unity. In some profoundly mysterious way, the church reflects (or ought to reflect) the divine triunity. Believers must, by the power of the Holy Spirit, dwell in unity.

Eternal life has several dimensions—purchased in the past through the Lord’s atonement, keeping believers in the present from day to day, and securing the future when faith is consummated for eternity in the presence of the Lord (vv. 2-3). Jesus affirmed the completion of His mission and work assigned to Him by the Father, knowing that through His obedience the Father had been glorified (v. 4). Because He had been obedient to the Father’s will, Christ would be exalted in the glories of heaven (v. 5).

A precious promise contained in Jesus’s prayer is the assurance that not one of them is lost (v. 12). Some suggest that Jesus failed in the case of Judas, the son of destruction, but Judas perished because he rejected Christ. Even then, God’s plan was accomplished and the Scripture fulfilled. Judas made his own choice, but God in His omniscience knew what that choice would be in eternity past, and that choice had personal consequences for Judas and eternal significance in God’s plan for redemption.

Christians are in the world. Jesus recognized that they could live in the world without being bound to its mind-set (v. 16). Jesus did pray for the protection of His children from the evil one, a reference to the devil (v. 15). The disciples were needed in the world to share the good news of the gospel.

Sanctification is linked with truth (i.e., the word of God), which provides a sure and unchanging standard for life. Jesus knew the importance of His disciples being sanctified (Gk hagiason, “dedicated, purified”) or set apart unto the Lord, and the only way to that goal was through the working of God’s word in their lives (vv. 17-19).

Jesus not only stressed the importance of the love of believers one for the other (13:34), but He also admonished them to achieve unity (17:21-22), not in the sense of seeking sameness but becoming like-minded in order to present the gospel to the world in the best possible way.