John 17:8

17:6-10. Christ prays for those that are his. Thou gavest them me, as sheep to the shepherd, to be kept; as a patient to the physician, to be cured; as children to a tutor, to be taught: thus he will deliver up his charge. It is a great satisfaction to us, in our reliance upon Christ, that he, all he is and has, and all he said and did, all he is doing and will do, are of God. Christ offered this prayer for his people alone as believers; not for the world at large. Yet no one who desires to come to the Father, and is conscious that he is unworthy to come in his own name, need be discouraged by the Saviour's declaration, for he is both able and willing to save to the uttermost, all that come unto God by him. Earnest convictions and desires, are hopeful tokens of a work already wrought in a man; they begin to evidence that he has been chosen unto salvation, through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth. They are thine; wilt thou not provide for thine own? Wilt thou not secure them? Observe the foundation on which this plea is grounded, All mine are thine, and thine are mine. This speaks the Father and Son to be one. All mine are thine. The Son owns none for his, that are not devoted to the service of the Father.

John 17:8 . ὅτι τὰ ῥήματα … ἀπέστειλας . The result achieved, John 17:7 , was due to the fidelity of the messenger, τὰ ῥήματα … δέδωκα αὐτοῖς , and to the receptiveness of those prepared by God, αὐτοὶ ἔλαβον , etc. cf. John 16:30 . ἐγὼ περὶ αὐτῶν ἐρωτῶ . He desires solemnly to commit to the Father’s keeping those who have believed. He prays for them in distinction from the world, and for the present sets the world aside, οὐ περὶ τοῦ κόσμου . The petitions now presented are only applicable to disciples, not to the world. Melanchthon says: “vide horrendum judicium Christi de mundo, cum negat se orare pro mundo, damnatque quicquid est mundi, quantumvis speciosum”. But Luther more justly says: “To pray for the world, and not to pray for the world, must both be right and good. For soon after He says Himself: ‘Neither pray I for those alone, but for them also who shall believe on me’.” He prayed too for His crucifiers, Luke 23:34 . His reason for praying for those who have received Him is ὅτι σοί εἰσι , “because they are Thine”. God’s interest in them and work upon them have already been manifested, and are the promise of His further operation.

The words (τὰ ῥήματα) Compare thy word (λόγον), John 17:6. That signified the gospel message in its entirety. This, the message considered in its constituent parts. See on Luke 1:37. Compare John 5:38, John 5:47; John 6:60, John 6:63, John 6:68; John 8:43, John 8:47, John 8:51; John 12:47, John 12:48; John 15:3, John 15:7.

Our Lord here doth both justify himself, and commend those whom in this former part of his prayer he is commending to his Father. He justifieth himself that he had not delivered any thing to them but what he had from his Father; thereby teaching all those who claim the name of his ministers what is their duty, viz. to give to their hearers no word but what God hath given them. If Christ confined his discourses to words which his Father had given him, certainly we ought to do so also. We are not to speak what we list, nor what men would have us we are tied up to God’s word. He commendeth these his disciples, that they had received them; not only the sound of them in their ears, not only the notion of them in their understandings, but they had embraced and believed them; and had, from the force and, authority of them, given credit to him as the true Messias, who came out and was sent from God.

Though they were not yet come up to a perfect faith in him as the eternal Son of God, yet they believed him one that came from God, and was sent of God as the promised Messiah; which seemeth to have been that degree of faith which Christ most insisted upon as to his disciples, until by his resurrection from the dead he declared himself to be the Son of God with power; though all along this Gospel, his discourses, and the miracles which he wrought, had a particular tendency to prove himself one with the Father, and the eternal Son of God; and the disciples had some weak persuasion of this also.

John 17:8 . Ἔλαβον , they have received ) by faith.— ἐπίστευσαν , they have believed ) Thrice in this prayer faith is mentioned; that of the apostles in this place; that of those who are about to believe through their word, in John 17:20 ; that of the world, John 17:21 . John 17:8

8 . the words ] Or, the sayings (see on John 5:47 ). This is not the plural of ‘word’ ( logos ) in John 17:6 ; but the other noun ( rhemata ), the singular of which is not used by S. John. It means the separate utterances as distinct from the doctrine as a whole. they have received … have known … have believed ] Better, they received … recognised … believed . See on John 17:4 . came out from ] Better, came forth from (see on John 16:28 ). They recognised that His mission was Divine: they believed that He was sent as the Messiah. They had proof of the first point; the second was a matter of faith.

(8) For I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me. —Our Lord explains in this verse how the disciples attained to the knowledge He had spoken of in John 17:7 , and lays stress in the first place on His own work in teaching them, “I, on My part, have given unto them,” and on the matter taught as that which the Father had committed unto Him ( John 12:49 ). And they have received them.—Not less emphatic is the work of the disciples themselves. “They on their part received them.” Others had been taught, and did not receive. The teaching was the same; the varying effect was in the heart of the hearer. (Comp. John 1:12; John 1:18.) He has spoken of the teaching and the reception. He proceeds to the two-fold result. And have known (better, and knew) surely that I came out from thee.—Comp. Notes on John 3:2; John 16:30. And they have believed (better, and they believed) that thou didst send me.—The addition of this clause is in part to be explained as the Hebrew fulness of expression, and in part as an advance on the truth, “I came out from Thee.” That He came from God they knew by the harmony of His doctrine with the voice of God, which was already speaking in their consciences. But more than this, they believed Him to be the sent One, the Messiah, whom they expected (John 17:3).