John 17

      11. I am no more in the world, but these are in the world. He now goes to the Father; these are left behind to preach the gospel, establish his kingdom, manifest his glory. Hence, he pleads that he may "keep them through his name," or power and love. He especially pleads that they may be kept "one," united as the Father and the Son.

      12. None of them is lost, but the son of perdition. God had given him twelve; he had kept them in the name of the Father, and only one was lost, Judas, the traitor, the son of perdition, which the Scripture had predicted. See Psa. 41:9 .

      15, 16. I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world. The world had hated the Master and was about to slay him, because he was not of the world. So it would hate the apostles, who were not of the world, and seek to slay them; he does not pray that they should be taken out of the world, for they have a work to do, but that the Father would keep them from the power of the evil one.

      17, 18. Sanctify them through thy truth; thy word is truth. To sanctify is to render holy, or to consecrate. Those sanctified are saints. The means of canonization is not a Pope, but the truth; and, lest some should mistake, Christ adds, "Thy word is truth." He prays for their consecration by the power of the word in their hearts. Every disciple should be thus consecrated, but the means is not a miraculous work of grace, but the reception of God's word into our hearts and the complete surrender to his will spoken in his word.

      19. For their sakes I sanctify myself. He did this when he came into the world, when he made it his meat to do the Father's will, and when he gave himself to death. We sanctify ourselves when we "present our bodies as living sacrifices."

      20. Neither pray I for these alone. We enter upon the third section of the prayer, that for all disciples in every age.

      21. That they all may be one; . . . that they may be one in us. This is a prayer for the unity of the saints. The Lord all through this discourse has shown the intimate union between the Father and himself. The Father is in him and he in the Father, all that is the Father's is his, and his is the Father's. They have no separate will, kingdom, or interests. Such a union is demanded among the disciples of Christ. Such union is impossible while they are divided into various denominations, with separate work, property and interests, separate churches, colleges, papers and missions. Denominationalism is utterly opposed to this prayer, and every apologist for it is disloyal to the spirit of the prayer. Nor is it fulfilled in any church where there are factions, where "all are not perfectly joined together, of the same mind and the same judgment." If Christ abides in the heart, the one life will draw all who have Christ formed within them into one family. This unity is needful, and for it the Lord prays, That the world may believe that thou hast sent me. It must be a union that the world can see and recognize. It is therefore an organic union, one Body as there is one Lord. There is no other source of skepticism so fruitful as church quarrels and sectarian divisions.

      22, 23. The glory which thou gavest me I have given them. God gave Christ the glory of Sonship and this resulted in their unity. So Christ gives to his disciples the glory of becoming the sons of God ( John 1:12 John 1:1 1 John 3:1 ). This glory, the adoption and gift of the Spirit, ought to effect that they be one as we are one. We cannot pray this prayer of Jesus and have the party spirit or labor to build up sectarianism. In the spirit of love we should oppose it, and labor to destroy sectarian names, creeds, organizations and interests. As the Son and the Father are one, have one work, one kingdom, one spirit, one interest, so must all that are Christ's. We must "keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace." There is "one body" and "one Spirit," as there is "one Lord."