John 17

Not for these only do I pray, but for those also who will believe through their word. Wesley: for them who will believe—in all ages. The circle expands by believing the apostolic word. Future believers are defined by faith through the word, not by a prior hidden list named apart from believing.

Arminian interpreters take v. 20 as the reason v. 9 cannot mean Jesus never cares for those still in the world: some who now stand in that world will believe. This petition is still for the church-to-come; it proves the earlier “not for the world” was this-prayer-for-believers, while the world remains the field of the word.

Calvin: a wider range, to all disciples of the gospel to the end of the world. If we believe through that doctrine, we are already gathered with the apostles into his protection, so that not one shall perish. A safe harbour. Faith is directed to him; “through their word” means faith springs from hearing—God the Author, men the ministers.

Particular intercession now explicitly includes the rest of the elect not yet converted. “Those also who will believe” are not an open maybe; they are those who will, in fact, believe—the given still to be gathered by the apostolic word. Jesus prays that none of them will perish.

That they all may be one, as the Father is in the Son and the Son in the Father; that they may be one in us; that the world may believe the Father sent the Son. Wesley: similitude, not sameness or equality. “That the world may believe—Here Christ prays for the world.” Sum of the prayer: receive me into glory; let the apostles share; and all other believers; and let all the world believe.

Unity is missionary. The oneness of those who have believed is aimed at a world still invited to believe. Do not flatten v. 9 into a denial of this petition. The world is not the church; it is still addressed, still capable of the faith v. 20 names.

Unity is the end of our happiness; the ruin of the race is alienation and scattering. Restoration is being one body. Calvin cautions: “one with the Father” here is mediatorial and headship language, not a detached speculation on hidden deity. The power of that unity must be diffused through the whole body of believers.

Reformed accent on “the world may believe”: some take “world” as elect still dispersed; Calvin refuses, because world in this chapter denotes the reprobate. “Believe” is used for perceiving—unbelievers may be convinced of Christ’s glory yet, believing, not believe; the conviction does not penetrate the heart. The given are one; the world may see, and still not be given.

The glory given him he has given them, that they may be one as the Father and Son are one. Wesley: the glory of the only begotten shines in all the sons of God. How great is the majesty of Christians. Participated glory is for unity, not for private display.

Shared high Christology, Arminian voice: this is not equality of essence (Wesley already guarded v. 21). It is the Son’s given glory shared with believers so that the world has something to see (v. 21, 23). Oneness has a source: his glory, not our talent for getting along.

Christ had nothing that belonged peculiarly to himself; he was rich in order to enrich believers. Our happiness is the restored image of God. The likeness of the Father’s glory is engraved even on his human nature, to form his members to that resemblance. No one should be reckoned a disciple unless that glory is impressed on him as with a seal.

The given glory is the bond of the given people. “Even as we are one” is the pattern; the gift is from the Son who already had glory with the Father before the world existed (v. 5). Unity is glory shared, not a committee result.

I in them, you in me: perfected oneness, so that the world may know the sending and the love. Wesley paired “believe” (v. 21) and “know” (v. 23)—the world is the intended audience of the church’s unity. Loved as the Father loved the Son: staggering, and held out as what the world should come to recognize.

This is the second time the world is named as the aim of oneness. The given are in the Son; the world is not thereby written off. Knowing that the Father sent the Son, and that he loves believers as he loves the Son, is still a true errand toward the world.

Fullness concealed in God is manifested in Christ and imparted to his people, as water from a fountain. Calvin: the world is compelled to feel, whether it will or not, the love of God toward believers when the Spirit sends forth rays of holiness. “As thou hast loved me” means because: the title Well-beloved belongs to Christ alone, and that love is extended to the members; he loves none but in Christ.

“the world may know” does not convert the world into the given. It is the public pressure of holiness on those not given. The love with which the Father loves the church is the love with which he loves the Son—particular, in Christ, before we were born, and now manifested.

He desires that those given him be with him and see the glory given because the Father loved him before the foundation of the world. Wesley: he returns to the apostles; “Will” as a Son with a right to be heard; beholding that glory is heaven’s happiness. Pre-existent love and glory are shared high Christology, not a Reformed exclusive.

“Given” still means those who believe—the apostles, and by v. 20 those who will believe through their word. The hope of seeing his glory is the believers’ hope. Before-the-foundation love is the Father’s love of the Son, the ground of the life offered to faith—not a roll-call that makes believing a mere symptom.

“Will” is desire, prayer not command. Calvin: he will not be satisfied until they are received into heaven; they now see glory as through small chinks, and he wants the full brightness. “For thou lovedst me” fits the Mediator: the Father loved him before creation that he might be the person in whom the Father would love his elect.

Particular eschatology of those given (vv. 2, 6, 9). They will be with him. The glory they see is the glory of v. 5, loved into the Son before the world was. Election’s end is not a chart; it is this sight, this presence, this beloved Son.

Righteous Father: the world does not know him; the Son does; these know the sending. Wesley: the admission of believers to God through Christ flows even from God’s justice. The split is knowledge of the Sent One—believers versus the unknowing world.

The world that does not know is the same world of vv. 21 and 23 that may believe and know. Present ignorance is true and culpable; it is not a decree that the world must stay ignorant. “These” are those who have received the word (v. 8) and those who will (v. 20).

He compares the disciples with the world to show the Father’s favor more fully. Those who know God, whom the whole world rejects, are rightly distinguished. “Righteous Father” defies the world’s malice: proud rejection takes nothing from him. Faith must be founded on God so that, though the whole world oppose, it does not fail.

Two steps—the Son knows the Father; the disciples know he was sent. Given-versus-world is knowledge granted, not a temporary misunderstanding. The world does not know; these do—because they were given, and the Name was efficaciously made known.

He made the Name known and will make it known; that the Father’s love for the Son may be in them, and he in them. Wesley: the new, best name of love—that the Father and his love, and the Son and his love, may be in them, that they may love him with that love.

Ongoing making-known is the church’s life in the world. Love is meant to dwell in believers, and through their unity (vv. 21–23) to be seen. The prayer that began with pre-existent glory ends with the Son in his people—high Christology at both ends, and a world still in view of that love.

He taught efficaciously, not by voice alone but by the Spirit’s secret revelation. Calvin: their faith was then weak, so he promises greater progress and more abundant grace. The only way we are included in that love is that Christ dwells in us. Apart from him we are hated; the Father begins to love us as children when we are united to the beloved Son’s body.

He was loved on our account that we might be partakers of the same love forever. The Father cannot look on his Son without seeing the whole body; if we wish to be beheld in him, we must be actually his members. The given end in his indwelling, not in a bare decision.