20 “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 21 that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: 23 I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.
John 17:20-23
On the night that Jesus ate the last Passover meal with His apostles, He prayed a prayer that is recorded in John chapter 17. This was sometime before crossing the Kidron Valley John 18:1 “When he had finished praying, Jesus left with his disciples and crossed the Kidron Valley. On the other side there was a garden, and he and his disciples went into it.” to go to Gethsemane Matthew 26:36 “Then Jesus went with his disciples to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to them, “Sit here while I go over there and pray.” to pray before His arrest.
One of the many points that Jesus prayed about was the unity of those who would believe in Him through the message or preaching of the good news of the gospel by His disciples. John 17:20 “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message…” This prayer was for those of His church starting with the book of Acts to the time of the rapture of His church and possibly after.
The next point of Jesus’ prayer is that those who believe would be “one” which, applies to His Church of yesterday, today and tomorrow. John 17:21 “…that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you.” Jesus does not tell us specifically what this oneness or unity is. However, in verse 22 Jesus does tell us the source of this oneness or unity. “I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one” John 17:22.
The commentator Warren Wiersby explains an important fact about “the glory” that that every true believer in Jesus has received. “All true believers have God’s glory within, no matter what they may look like on the outside. Christian harmony is not based on the externals of the flesh but the internals and eternals of the Spirit in the inner person. We must look beyond the elements of our first birth – race, color, abilities, etc. – and build our fellowship on the essentials of our new birth.”
Even though Jesus does not specifically state what “the glory” is we receive from Him, such as faith, divine strength, hope or wisdom, etc., He does give us a hint that can be recognized by those who love Him and have an intimate relationship with Him. Is “the glory” that Jesus refers to His Love in us?
For example when you are in an intimate relationship with someone, you know through experience certain unique characteristics about him or her. One of the primary characteristics that Jesus refers to which displays to the world who Jesus is in us, is His love in us as we love one another. John 13:34-35, 34 “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35 By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
The “new command” of Jesus is for us to “Love one another”, the natural result of loving Jesus is the love we have for one another and our unity with one another. The experiential model for the believer in Christ of how to Love another is the way we are loved by Him. “As I have loved you, so you must love one another.” Is Jesus’ love in us and how we love one another “the glory” that Jesus is referring to in John 17:22? “I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one”.
In John 15:9-10 Jesus says, 9 “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. 10 If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father’s commands and remain in his love. We see in these two verses that Jesus is comparing the Father’s love and His love for us as believers who obey His commands.
In the portion of scripture we are studying John 17:20-23, Jesus also compares twice His relationship with the Father and ours with theirs, ver. 21 “Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us”; ver. 22, “I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one”. Is “the glory” that we have received from Jesus that unity or oneness of love that Jesus has with the Father?
The lost world cannot see God, but they can see Christians; and what they see in us is what they will believe about God. If they see love and unity, they Will believe that God is love. If they see hatred and division, they will reject the message of the Gospel.
Unity with one another is just an empty or a word without meaning if our unity is not from and based on our love for Jesus. When our love is expressed to one another which comes from the love of Jesus, this will be the love and unity the world will notice. Jesus mentions this twice in His prayer. John 17:21b, “May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.” John 17:23b, “May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.”
What Jesus says in John 17:26 is not a prayer or a supplication to the Father, but a proclamation that ties in with the paragraph of John 17:20-23. “I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.” The words of Jesus in this verse really make me think. How am I experiencing or recognizing and expressing this truth in my own life?
Pastor John
