Commentary - John 17:20-26

Bird's-eye view

In this final portion of His High Priestly Prayer, the Lord Jesus Christ expands the scope of His intercession beyond the immediate circle of His eleven disciples. He looks down through the corridors of time and prays for every single person who would ever come to believe in Him through the apostolic testimony. This is a prayer for the entire Christian Church, for all of us. The central petition of this prayer is for a profound, supernatural unity among believers. This is not a plea for a top-down, institutional, bureaucratic oneness, but rather a Spirit-wrought, organic unity that mirrors the very unity of the Godhead. The Father is in the Son, and the Son is in the Father, and Jesus prays that His people might be brought into that same circle of divine fellowship. This unity has a potent evangelistic purpose: it is the primary apologetic to a watching world, the evidence that will convince them that the Father did indeed send the Son. Jesus grounds this unity in the glory He shares with His people, a glory given by the Father before the foundation of the world. The prayer concludes with the ultimate goal of our salvation: to be with Christ, to see His glory, and to be filled with the very same love that the Father has for the Son from all eternity.

This is not simply a wish or a pious hope; it is the effective prayer of the Son of God, and therefore it is a prayer that has been and is being and will be answered. The unity of the church is not a project we must construct, but a reality we are commanded to maintain. It is a spiritual reality, rooted in the triune life of God, purchased by the blood of Christ, and applied by the Holy Spirit. Our task is to live in a manner worthy of this high calling, demonstrating to a fractured and alienated world the unifying power of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Outline

Context In John

John 17 is the Holy of Holies in the Gospel of John. After the Last Supper and the extensive farewell discourse of chapters 13-16, Jesus turns His face toward heaven and prays. This is the true Lord's Prayer. He has finished His work of teaching His disciples, and now, on the threshold of His passion, He commits them, and all who will follow, into His Father's hands. The prayer is structured in three parts. First, Jesus prays for Himself, for His own glorification through the cross, so that He might glorify the Father (17:1-5). Second, He prays for the disciples who are with Him, asking for their preservation in the world, their sanctification in the truth, and their unity (17:6-19). This final section (17:20-26) logically extends that prayer to the universal Church. It is the capstone of His earthly ministry of intercession, looking forward to the fruit of the cross: a vast, unified, glory-sharing, and eternally loved people from every tribe and tongue and nation.

Key Issues

The Great Evangelistic Apologetic

One of the most striking things about this prayer is the reason Jesus gives for our unity. Twice He says that our oneness is so that the world might believe or know that the Father sent Him. This means that the primary apologetic, the central proof that Christianity is true, is the observable love and unity among Christians. It is not our clever arguments, our political influence, or our impressive buildings. It is the supernatural, Spirit-wrought fellowship of the saints. When a watching world, torn apart by strife, envy, and division, sees a community of people from different backgrounds, ethnicities, and social statuses loving one another with humility, patience, and forgiveness, they are seeing something that cannot be explained by natural means. They are seeing a reflection of the triune God Himself. This is why our personal sins of bitterness, gossip, and factionalism are so heinous; they are not just personal failings, they are acts of vandalism against God's chosen billboard to the world. We are marring the very picture that is meant to draw the world to Christ. The unity Jesus prays for is not institutional uniformity, but a deep, genuine, love-driven oneness that transcends our denominational labels. A Baptist and a Presbyterian who love each other as brothers in Christ are a more powerful witness than two members of the same denomination who cannot stand each other.

Verse by Verse Commentary

20 “I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word;

Jesus now broadens His vision. His prayer is not just for the eleven men in the room with Him. It is for every single person who would come to faith down through the ages. And how do they come to faith? Through their word. This establishes the absolute centrality of the apostolic testimony. The Christian faith is not a mystical experience we invent for ourselves; it is a faith that comes by hearing the word of God, the gospel that was once for all delivered to the saints by the apostles and recorded for us in the New Testament. If you are a believer today, it is because the message that started with them has, through a long chain of proclamation, reached you. Jesus was praying for you on the night He was betrayed.

21 that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me.

Here is the central request: that they may all be one. And the standard for this unity is nothing less than the unity within the Godhead. The Father is in the Son, and the Son is in the Father. This is a perichoretic unity, a mutual indwelling, a perfect harmony of will, love, and being. Jesus is not praying that we become God, but that our unity would be analogous to that divine unity. And notice the result: that they also may be in Us. True Christian unity is not just horizontal, between believers; it is vertical. We are brought into the very fellowship of the Trinity. This is what it means to be "in Christ." And the purpose of this visible, loving unity is evangelistic. When the world sees this kind of supernatural community, it serves as compelling evidence that Jesus is who He said He was, the one sent from the Father.

22 The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one;

How is such an impossible unity possible? Jesus provides the basis for it here. He has given us the very glory that the Father gave to Him. This is a staggering statement. The glory of Christ is His essential nature, His perfect character, His authority, His Sonship. In our union with Christ, we are made partakers of that glory. He does not give us His deity, but He shares His standing, His inheritance, and His character with us. This shared glory is the fuel and the foundation of our oneness. We are one because we all partake of the one Christ and His one glory. Our unity is not something we manufacture through ecumenical committees; it is something we receive as a gift when we receive the glory of Christ through faith.

23 I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me.

Jesus elaborates on this mutual indwelling. He is in us, and the Father is in Him. This creates a chain of divine life that brings us to a state of being perfected in unity. This is the goal toward which the Spirit is working in the church. And again, the evangelistic purpose is stated, but with a breathtaking addition. The world will not only know that the Father sent the Son, but they will also know that the Father has loved them, believers, even as You have loved Me. The way the Father loves the Son from all eternity is the pattern and measure for the love He has for His adopted children in Christ. The visible unity of the church is what makes this incredible truth plausible to a skeptical world. They see our love for one another and conclude that we must be loved by a great God.

24 Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am, so that they may see My glory which You have given Me, for You loved Me before the foundation of the world.

The prayer now shifts from our witness in this world to our ultimate destiny in the next. Jesus expresses His sovereign will, His desire. And what is it that He wants? He wants His people to be with Him. The ultimate goal of salvation is not just deliverance from hell, but fellowship with Christ. He wants us where He is, in the immediate presence of God. And why? So that we may see My glory. We are given a measure of His glory now, but one day we will see it in its unveiled fullness. This glory is not something He earned, but something He had eternally, rooted in the Father's love for Him before the foundation of the world. Before creation, before time, the Father loved the Son, and the glory of Christ is the radiance of that eternal love. Our final beatitude is to be ushered into that inner sanctum as eternal observers and participants.

25 O righteous Father, although the world has not known You, yet I have known You; and these have known that You sent Me;

Jesus addresses His Father as righteous Father. This is significant because He is about to go to the cross, where the righteousness of God will be most fully displayed in judging sin. He draws a sharp contrast. The world, in its rebellion, does not know God. But Jesus knows Him with a perfect, intimate, and eternal knowledge. And His disciples, through His revelation, have come to know the central truth: that the Father sent the Son. This is the great dividing line of humanity: those who know this truth and those who do not.

26 and I have made Your name known to them, and will make it known, so that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them.”

Jesus summarizes His earthly ministry: He has made the Father's name known. In Scripture, a name represents character and reputation. Jesus has revealed who the Father truly is. And this work of revelation is not over; He will make it known through the ongoing ministry of the Holy Spirit in the church. And what is the ultimate purpose of this revelation? It is so that the very love the Father has for the Son might be in them, in us. This is the pinnacle. The Christian life is not just about being forgiven, or following rules. It is about being filled with the Trinitarian love of God Himself. And the final phrase brings it all together: and I in them. Christ dwelling in His people is the means by which this divine love is poured into our hearts. He is the conduit of eternal love.

Application

This prayer of Jesus is not a museum piece for us to admire. It is a declaration of what is, and a summons to live accordingly. First, we must take our unity seriously. This does not mean we abandon our theological convictions for the sake of a lowest-common-denominator ecumenism. It means we recognize that all who are in Christ by faith are our brothers and sisters, and we must treat them as such. We must be ruthless in putting to death the sins that disrupt fellowship: pride, envy, slander, bitterness, and party spirit. We must pursue peace, extend forgiveness, and show love in tangible ways. Our unity is our mission.

Second, we must be captivated by the glory of Christ. Jesus has given us His glory. This means we are to live as children of the King, reflecting His character to the world. We are not to be drab, fearful, or apologetic Christians. We are clothed in the glory of the Son of God, and we should walk with the quiet confidence that this brings. This glory is what makes us one, so the more we fix our eyes on Christ, the more we will find ourselves drawn together with all who love Him.

Finally, we must rest in the Father's love. The same love that flows from the Father to the Son from all eternity is the love that is now in us through Christ. This is the bedrock of our assurance and our identity. We are not loved because we are lovely; we are loved because we are in the Beloved. When we grasp this, it frees us from the need to perform, to prove ourselves, or to seek our worth in the approval of men. We can love others freely because we are secure in the ultimate love. This prayer teaches us that the Christian faith, from beginning to end, is about being swept up into the glorious, loving, unified life of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.