Joh 17:9-19 | PNT | STEP | I pray for them . The apostles. The prayer of is for these. I pray not for the world . Not at this time; he came into the world to save it, and we are not to conclude that he would never pray for its conversion and welfare, Now, however, his petition is confined to the apostles, the little band who are hanging upon his words.

John 17:9-19

I pray for them. The apostles. The prayer of Joh 17:9-19 is for these.

I pray not for the world. Not at this time; he came into the world to save it, and we are not to conclude that he would never pray for its conversion and welfare, Now, however, his petition is confined to the apostles, the little band who are hanging upon his words. I am glorified in them. Christ's glory here upon the earth is manifested by his disciples. 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. 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 Ps 41:9. 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. 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. 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 sacrifice" (Ro 12:1).