That They May All Be One the prayer for all who believe · unity like the Father and the Son · 'that the world may believe' · 'that they may see my glory'
The high-priestly prayer reaches outward across all of history. Having prayed for himself (17:1–5) and for the apostles he is about to leave (17:6–19), Jesus now prays for everyone who will ever believe in him through the apostolic word — including the church today. He asks that they all be one, with a unity modeled on and drawn from the oneness of the Father and the Son, so that the world may believe and know that the Father sent him and loved them. He has given them his glory. And the prayer climbs to its summit: he wills that those the Father gave him be with him to see his glory, the glory grounded in a love that was his before the foundation of the world. The prayer closes where it must — on the indwelling love of the Father in his people, and Christ in them.
Greek Text (SBLGNT)
The Greek text below is the Society of Biblical Literature Greek New Testament (SBLGNT), edited by Michael W. Holmes — © 2010 SBL and Logos, released CC BY 4.0. These seven verses form the final movement of the high-priestly prayer: the petition for all future believers and the great prayer for their unity, glory, and presence with Christ.
Working Translation
An original literal rendering, not borrowed from any copyrighted translation. Brackets mark phrases added for English clarity.
Note on v. 20: the present participle τῶν πιστευόντων ("those who believe") gathers all future believers under one settled description — the believing church across history. Note on v. 24: ὃ δέδωκάς μοι ("that which you have given me") is a neuter singular collective — the whole company of the redeemed seen as one gift; θέλω renders "I will / I desire" — the Son's authoritative will in harmony with the Father. Note on v. 23: τετελειωμένοι εἰς ἕν ("perfected into one") is a perfect passive participle — a completed, God-wrought bringing-to-one.
Passage Structure
These seven verses are the third and widest circle of the high-priestly prayer. Jesus has prayed for himself (vv. 1–5) and for the eleven (vv. 6–19); now the prayer opens to embrace the whole future church. The movement falls into four steps:
- v. 20 — The widening petition. "Not concerning these only, but also concerning those who believe in me through their word." The prayer explicitly reaches past the apostles to all who will come to faith through the apostolic testimony — the foundation on which the church is built.
- vv. 21–23 — The prayer for unity. Three times the petition rings: ἵνα … ἓν ὦσιν ("that they may be one"). The pattern is the Father-and-Son oneness (καθώς, "just as"); the ground is the believers' being "in us"; the goal is twofold — "that the world may believe / may know" that the Father sent the Son and loved his people. Into this Jesus folds the gift of glory (v. 22) and the indwelling "I in them and you in me" (v. 23).
- v. 24 — The will that they be with him. The prayer rises to its peak: θέλω ἵνα … ὦσιν μετ’ ἐμοῦ — "I will that they be with me," to behold the glory given the Son out of the Father's love "before the foundation of the world." This is the ultimate goal of redemption: to be with Christ and to see his glory.
- vv. 25–26 — The closing address and the indwelling love. "Righteous Father": the world did not know God, but the Son knew him and the disciples knew that the Father sent the Son. Jesus made the Father's name known and will make it known — so that the Father's own love for the Son may be in believers, and Christ in them. The prayer ends on indwelling love.
Three words carry the paragraph. ἕν ("one") sounds again and again in vv. 21–23 — the keynote of the unity prayer. δόξα ("glory," vv. 22, 24) marks both the present gift and the future vision. And ἀγάπη / ἀγαπάω ("love," vv. 23, 24, 26) frames the whole: the Father loved the Son before the world began, loves the people the Son redeems, and pours that very love into them. The repeated purpose-conjunction ἵνα ("that, so that") stacks the petitions and their goals one upon another, while καθώς ("just as") keeps anchoring the church's unity and the Father's love in the eternal relation of the Father and the Son.
Verse-by-Verse Notes
John 17:20 — Οὐ περὶ τούτων δὲ ἐρωτῶ μόνον, ἀλλὰ καὶ περὶ τῶν πιστευόντων διὰ τοῦ λόγου αὐτῶν εἰς ἐμέ.
Οὐ περὶ τούτων … ἐρωτῶ μόνον ("I ask not concerning these only"). The verb ἐρωτάω ("ask, request") is the prayer-verb of this chapter (cf. 17:9, 15). τούτων ("these") points back to the eleven apostles for whom Jesus has just prayed (vv. 6–19). The μόνον ("only") with the adversative ἀλλὰ καί ("but also") opens the petition outward: the apostles are not the limit of his intercession.
περὶ τῶν πιστευόντων … εἰς ἐμέ ("concerning those who believe in me"). The present participle τῶν πιστευόντων describes those who believe — and, set against the future horizon of the whole sentence, it embraces all who will yet come to faith. Jesus is praying, in the upper room, for believers not yet born — for the church of every century. This includes us. The prayer of the great High Priest in John 17 is not a relic addressed only to the first generation; it reaches across history to every person who will trust in Christ.
διὰ τοῦ λόγου αὐτῶν ("through their word"). Here is the appointed means: future believers come to faith through the word of the apostles. The genitive αὐτῶν ("their") refers back to the apostles of v. 20a — it is their testimony, the apostolic word, the gospel they were commissioned to preach (cf. 17:14, "I have given them your word"). Faith comes by hearing this word (cf. Rom 10:17). The church is built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ himself as cornerstone (Eph 2:20); there is no Christianity that bypasses the apostolic testimony now inscribed in the New Testament. Jesus does not pray for believers gathered by private visions or by a word other than the apostles', but for those brought to faith through their word — the same word we read today.
John 17:21 — ἵνα πάντες ἓν ὦσιν, καθὼς σύ, πάτερ, ἐν ἐμοὶ κἀγὼ ἐν σοί … ἵνα ὁ κόσμος πιστεύῃ ὅτι σύ με ἀπέστειλας.
ἵνα πάντες ἓν ὦσιν ("that they all may be one"). The content of the petition: ἕν is the neuter "one" — not "one person" but "one thing, one reality." πάντες ("all") gathers the whole company of future believers. This is the famous prayer for the unity of the church.
καθὼς σύ, πάτερ, ἐν ἐμοὶ κἀγὼ ἐν σοί ("just as you, Father, [are] in me and I in you"). The καθώς ("just as") supplies the pattern. The unity prayed for is modeled on the mutual indwelling of the Father and the Son — the deepest, most intimate oneness conceivable, the very life of the triune God. This is no merely human alliance; the church's oneness is to be a created reflection of the uncreated oneness of Father and Son.
ἵνα καὶ αὐτοὶ ἐν ἡμῖν ὦσιν ("that they also may be in us"). The ground of the unity is stated: believers are "in us" — drawn by the Spirit into communion with the Father and the Son. The church's oneness is not first an organizational achievement but a participation: because believers are in the Father and the Son, they are one with one another. The union is real and Spirit-wrought, not contrived.
ἵνα ὁ κόσμος πιστεύῃ ὅτι σύ με ἀπέστειλας ("so that the world may believe that you sent me"). The goal: the visible oneness and love of believers is to be a sign to the world that the Father sent the Son. The present subjunctive πιστεύῃ ("may believe") names the intended effect — a witnessing unity. The church's love and togetherness are evidence the world can see; a divided, quarrelsome church obscures the gospel it proclaims. (See the dedicated note on Christian unity below.)
John 17:22 — κἀγὼ τὴν δόξαν ἣν δέδωκάς μοι δέδωκα αὐτοῖς, ἵνα ὦσιν ἓν καθὼς ἡμεῖς ἕν.
τὴν δόξαν ἣν δέδωκάς μοι δέδωκα αὐτοῖς ("the glory which you have given me I have given to them"). Two perfect tenses (δέδωκάς, δέδωκα, from δίδωμι, "give") set side by side: the glory the Father has given the Son, the Son has given to his people. What this glory is John leaves resonant rather than narrow — it is bound up with the Son's relationship to the Father, his mission, and the glory he prays to receive again (17:5). Believers are not mere spectators of Christ's glory; they are made sharers in it. The astonishing claim is that the Son has handed over to his people the very glory the Father gave him — so that they should be one. The shared glory is the means and bond of their oneness.
ἵνα ὦσιν ἓν καθὼς ἡμεῖς ἕν ("that they may be one just as we [are] one"). Again the pattern (καθώς) is the oneness of the Father and the Son — "we are one" echoes 10:30. The shared glory serves the shared unity. The terse ἡμεῖς ἕν ("we [are] one"), with the verb left to be supplied, presses the comparison: the church's oneness is to image the oneness of God.
John 17:23 — ἐγὼ ἐν αὐτοῖς καὶ σὺ ἐν ἐμοί, ἵνα ὦσιν τετελειωμένοι εἰς ἕν, ἵνα γινώσκῃ ὁ κόσμος ὅτι σύ με ἀπέστειλας καὶ ἠγάπησας αὐτοὺς καθὼς ἐμὲ ἠγάπησας.
ἐγὼ ἐν αὐτοῖς καὶ σὺ ἐν ἐμοί ("I in them and you in me"). The chain of indwelling is spelled out: the Father in the Son, the Son in believers. This is how the church is "in us" (v. 21) — through the Son who indwells his people and is himself in the Father. The unity is grounded in a real, organic, mutual indwelling, not in mere agreement or association.
ἵνα ὦσιν τετελειωμένοι εἰς ἕν ("that they may be perfected into one"). The perfect passive participle τετελειωμένοι (from τελειόω, "complete, bring to its goal, perfect") pictures the unity as something brought to completion — a finished, God-wrought work, not a human project. "Into one" (εἰς ἕν) marks the goal toward which they are perfected. The passive points to the agent: it is God who perfects them into one.
ἵνα γινώσκῃ ὁ κόσμος … καὶ ἠγάπησας αὐτοὺς καθὼς ἐμὲ ἠγάπησας ("so that the world may know … that you loved them just as you loved me"). The second statement of the goal (cf. v. 21) deepens the first: from "that the world may believe" to "that the world may know." And the content grows: the world is to know not only that the Father sent the Son, but that the Father has loved believers "just as" (καθώς) he loved the Son. The same astonishing καθώς that anchored unity in the divine oneness now anchors the Father's love for the church in his love for his own Son. The verb ἠγάπησας (aorist of ἀγαπάω) names a settled, gracious love.
John 17:24 — πάτερ, ὃ δέδωκάς μοι, θέλω ἵνα ὅπου εἰμὶ ἐγὼ κἀκεῖνοι ὦσιν μετ’ ἐμοῦ … ὅτι ἠγάπησάς με πρὸ καταβολῆς κόσμου.
ὃ δέδωκάς μοι ("that which you have given me"). The relative is neuter singular — ὅ, "that which," not "those whom." Jesus gathers the whole company of the redeemed into a single collective gift from the Father (the same way of speaking appears in 6:37, 39; 17:2). The people given to the Son are seen as one whole, the Father's gift to the Son.
θέλω ἵνα … ὦσιν μετ’ ἐμοῦ ("I will that they be with me"). The verb is no longer the requesting ἐρωτάω but θέλω — "I will, I desire, I want." On the lips of the Son this is striking: it expresses his own authoritative will, voiced in perfect harmony with the Father, not over against him. The petition is that those given to him be "with me" (μετ’ ἐμοῦ) "where I am" (ὅπου εἰμὶ ἐγώ) — that is, with the Son in the Father's presence and glory. This is the ultimate goal of redemption: to be forever with Christ (cf. 14:3; Phil 1:23; 1 Thess 4:17). The whole work of salvation aims here — at the eternal presence of the redeemed with their Lord.
ἵνα θεωρῶσιν τὴν δόξαν τὴν ἐμήν ("so that they may behold my glory"). The purpose of being with him: to see his glory. θεωρέω ("behold, contemplate, gaze upon") describes a full, contemplative seeing. Here is the church's hope often called the beatific vision — to look upon the glory of Christ unhindered (cf. 1 John 3:2; Rev 22:4). What believers now share by faith (v. 22) they will then behold by sight.
ὅτι ἠγάπησάς με πρὸ καταβολῆς κόσμου ("because you loved me before the foundation of the world"). The glory the Son has rests on a love older than creation. πρὸ καταβολῆς κόσμου ("before the casting-down/founding of the world") names eternity past, before anything was made (the phrase recurs in Eph 1:4; 1 Pet 1:20). The Father loved the Son before the world existed — proof that the Son is no creature but the eternally beloved, eternally pre-existent Son, and that the love within the Godhead is without beginning. This is the deep spring from which the love poured out on believers (v. 23) flows.
John 17:25 — Πάτερ δίκαιε, καὶ ὁ κόσμος σε οὐκ ἔγνω, ἐγὼ δέ σε ἔγνων, καὶ οὗτοι ἔγνωσαν ὅτι σύ με ἀπέστειλας.
Πάτερ δίκαιε ("Righteous Father"). The address shifts. At v. 11 Jesus prayed "Holy Father"; here it is "Righteous Father" (δίκαιε, "just, righteous"). The justice of the Father fits what follows: a right discrimination between the world that did not know him and those who did. God's righteous dealing distinguishes between unbelief and the knowledge of God granted to the disciples.
ὁ κόσμος σε οὐκ ἔγνω, ἐγὼ δέ σε ἔγνων, καὶ οὗτοι ἔγνωσαν ("the world did not know you, but I knew you, and these knew"). Three aorists of γινώσκω ("know") set the contrast. The world did not know the Father — the tragic verdict of the prologue (1:10). The Son knew the Father — the perfect, native knowledge of the one who is from him (cf. 1:18; 10:15). And these (the disciples, οὗτοι) knew "that you sent me" — they received, through the Son, true knowledge of the Father's mission. The chain of knowing runs from the Father, through the Son who knows him, to the disciples who come to know him in the Son.
John 17:26 — καὶ ἐγνώρισα αὐτοῖς τὸ ὄνομά σου καὶ γνωρίσω, ἵνα ἡ ἀγάπη ἣν ἠγάπησάς με ἐν αὐτοῖς ᾖ κἀγὼ ἐν αὐτοῖς.
ἐγνώρισα … τὸ ὄνομά σου καὶ γνωρίσω ("I made known your name, and I will make it known"). Two tenses of γνωρίζω ("make known, reveal"): an aorist (ἐγνώρισα, "I made known") for the revelation accomplished in Jesus' earthly ministry (cf. 17:6), and a future (γνωρίσω, "I will make known") for the ongoing revelation still to come — through the Spirit and the apostolic word, and on to the consummation. The Son's making-known of the Father's "name" — his revealed character and self — is not finished; it continues. The revelation of God in Christ is a living, expanding thing.
ἵνα ἡ ἀγάπη ἣν ἠγάπησάς με ἐν αὐτοῖς ᾖ ("so that the love with which you loved me may be in them"). The purpose of the ongoing revelation, and the goal toward which the whole prayer has been moving: that the Father's own love for the Son may be in believers. This is the love of v. 24, the love "before the foundation of the world" — and the prayer is that this very love would dwell in the church. Not merely that believers would be loved by God, but that the Father's eternal love for the Son would be the love that animates them.
κἀγὼ ἐν αὐτοῖς ("and I in them"). The prayer ends on the indwelling Christ. The last word of the high-priestly prayer is not a command or a doctrine but a presence: the Son in his people. The love of the Father and the presence of the Son together fill the believer — this is the consummation toward which the prayer has reached. Where the prayer began with the Son and the Father's mutual glory (vv. 1–5), it ends with that same divine love and presence lodged in the hearts of the redeemed.
A Note on Christian Unity (vv. 21–23)
Few verses are quoted more often — and more often misused — than Jesus' prayer "that they may all be one." Because the words are easily pressed into the service of an agenda the text does not authorize, they repay careful reading. Four things must be held together.
First, the unity is real, organic, and Spirit-wrought — not mere organizational merger. Jesus prays "that they also may be in us" (v. 21) and unfolds it as "I in them and you in me" (v. 23). The oneness he asks for is grounded in the believers' shared participation in the Father and the Son. It is a living union, the fruit of the Spirit who joins believers to Christ and so to one another — not a unity manufactured by treaty, committee, or institutional consolidation. A merger of denominations is not, as such, the unity Jesus prayed for; nor is the absence of such a merger, as such, its denial. The unity is first a spiritual reality before it is anything visible.
Second, the unity is patterned on and derived from the Trinity. The repeated καθώς ("just as") anchors the church's oneness in the oneness of the Father and the Son — "just as you, Father, [are] in me and I in you" (v. 21), "just as we [are] one" (v. 22). This is an ontological, loving unity: the Father and the Son are one in being and one in love, and the church's unity is meant to be a created participation in and reflection of that uncreated communion. It is therefore as deep as the love of God and as personal as the life of the Trinity — never a flattening uniformity, but a unity-in-love among persons. (On the oneness of the Father and the Son, see The Trinity.)
Third — and this is decisive — the unity is bound to the truth. Just verses earlier Jesus prayed, "Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth" (17:17), and the believers of v. 20 are precisely those who come to faith "through their word" — the apostolic gospel. The oneness Jesus prays for is unity in the truth and in Christ, not a unity purchased by setting the truth aside. This text therefore gives no warrant for an ecumenism that sacrifices the gospel or sound doctrine for the sake of institutional togetherness. A "unity" that requires silence about justification by faith alone, the deity of Christ, or the authority of Scripture is not the unity of John 17; it is its counterfeit. The Spirit who makes believers one is the Spirit of truth (cf. 16:13), and he never unites the church against the word through which they believed. True unity grows up into the truth, never away from it. (On the gospel that this unity must guard, see Soteriology.)
Fourth, the prayer rebukes needless sectarianism and calls for real, visible love among true believers. If the first three points guard against a truth-indifferent ecumenism, this one guards against the opposite error — treating Christ's prayer as merely invisible and abstract, with no claim on how Christians actually treat one another. The goal clause is unmistakable: "so that the world may believe … may know" (vv. 21, 23). The unity is meant to be seen. Jealousy, faction, contempt, and a quarrelsome spirit among those who hold the one gospel grieve the Spirit and obscure the very testimony the church exists to give. Where believers share the apostolic faith, the prayer summons them to real love, real fellowship, and visible togetherness — not endless division over matters that do not touch the gospel.
So the two must be held together without collapse: unity and truth. Unity without truth is betrayal; truth without love is a different betrayal. Jesus prays for a church that is one in the truth and visible in love — a oneness so grounded in the life of God and so evident in the world that it testifies the Father sent the Son and has loved his people with the very love he bears his Son.
Key Greek Words and Phrases
| Greek | Translit. | Meaning | In context |
|---|---|---|---|
| ἐρωτῶ | erōtō | "I ask, request" (present of ἐρωτάω) | v. 20 — the prayer-verb of John 17; here it widens past the apostles to all future believers |
| τῶν πιστευόντων | tōn pisteuontōn | "of those who believe" (present participle of πιστεύω) | v. 20 — the believing church across all history; Jesus prays for us |
| διὰ τοῦ λόγου αὐτῶν | dia tou logou autōn | "through their word" | v. 20 — the apostolic word/gospel; the appointed means of faith; the foundation of the church |
| ἓν ὦσιν | hen ōsin | "may be one" (ἕν, neuter "one") | vv. 21, 22 — the petition for the church's unity; "one thing," not "one person" |
| καθώς | kathōs | "just as, according as" | vv. 21, 22, 23 — anchors the unity and the Father's love in the Father-Son relation |
| ἐν ἡμῖν | en hēmin | "in us" | v. 21 — believers' participation in the Father and the Son; the ground of unity |
| τετελειωμένοι εἰς ἕν | teteleiōmenoi eis hen | "perfected into one" (perfect passive of τελειόω) | v. 23 — a completed, God-wrought bringing-to-one; the passive points to God as agent |
| δόξα | doxa | "glory" | vv. 22, 24 — the glory the Son shares with believers now and they will behold then |
| θέλω | thelō | "I will, I desire, I want" | v. 24 — the Son's authoritative will, in harmony with the Father, that his people be with him |
| μετ’ ἐμοῦ | met' emou | "with me" | v. 24 — the goal of redemption: to be forever with Christ where he is, to see his glory |
| πρὸ καταβολῆς κόσμου | pro katabolēs kosmou | "before the foundation of the world" | v. 24 — the Father's love for the Son in eternity past; the pre-existent, eternally beloved Son |
| Πάτερ δίκαιε | pater dikaie | "Righteous Father" | v. 25 — the just Father who rightly distinguishes the unbelieving world from those who know him |
| ἐγνώρισα … γνωρίσω | egnōrisa … gnōrisō | "I made known … I will make known" (γνωρίζω) | v. 26 — the revelation of the Father's name, accomplished and still ongoing |
Grammar and Syntax that Affect Interpretation
- Present participle τῶν πιστευόντων — v. 20. A general, timeless description ("those who believe") that, in this future-facing sentence, gathers all who will yet come to faith. The prayer reaches across history to the whole church, including believers today.
- The genitive διὰ τοῦ λόγου αὐτῶν — v. 20. "Through their word" — the apostles' testimony, the means by which future faith comes. It locates the church's foundation in the apostolic word, not in private or alternative revelations.
- Neuter ἕν ("one") — vv. 21, 22. Not masculine ("one person") but neuter ("one thing, one reality"). The prayer is for a oneness, a unity, not the merging of the believers into a single individual.
- The repeated καθώς ("just as") — vv. 21, 22, 23. Anchors the church's unity, and the Father's love for the church, in the eternal relation of the Father and the Son. The pattern (and source) of the unity is the Trinity itself.
- Purpose-conjunction ἵνα stacked — vv. 21–23. Layered ἵνα-clauses ("that they may be one … that they may be in us … that the world may believe") distinguish the content of the petition from its further goal (the world's believing and knowing). The unity is for a witnessing end.
- Perfect passive τετελειωμένοι — v. 23. "Having been perfected into one" — a completed work with abiding result, and a divine passive: God perfects them. The unity is God-wrought, not self-generated.
- Two perfects δέδωκάς … δέδωκα — v. 22. "You have given … I have given." The glory the Father gave the Son, the Son has given believers — a real, abiding gift, the bond of their oneness.
- θέλω rather than ἐρωτῶ — v. 24. The verb shifts from "I ask" to "I will / I desire." The Son voices his own authoritative will in perfect accord with the Father — neither presumption nor a will at odds with the Father's.
- Neuter singular ὃ δέδωκάς μοι — v. 24. "That which you have given me" — the redeemed seen as one collective gift from the Father to the Son (cf. 6:37, 39), then resumed by the plural κἀκεῖνοι ("they also").
- Aorist ἠγάπησάς με πρὸ καταβολῆς κόσμου — v. 24. The Father's love for the Son set "before the foundation of the world" — eternity past. The grammar attests the eternal pre-existence and belovedness of the Son.
- Aorist + future ἐγνώρισα … καὶ γνωρίσω — v. 26. "I made known … and I will make known." The revelation of the Father's name is both accomplished and ongoing; the disclosure of God in Christ continues toward its consummation.
Theological Significance
The interceding Son prays for the whole church. Verse 20 lifts the high-priestly prayer out of the upper room and into every century. Jesus prays, by name and intention, for "those who believe in me through their word" — for believers not yet born, the church of all the ages, including us. The intercession of Christ is not exhausted by the first generation; the great High Priest "always lives to make intercession" for his people (Heb 7:25). To open John 17:20 is to find oneself prayed for by the Son of God on the night before he died.
The church's unity is grounded in the life of the Trinity. The oneness Jesus prays for is patterned on (καθώς) and derived from the mutual indwelling of the Father and the Son, and it is real because believers are "in us." This is the deepest possible foundation for the unity of the church: not human consensus but participation in the triune God, the Son in believers and the Father in the Son. (See the dedicated note above, and The Trinity.)
Believers share in Christ's glory. "The glory you have given me I have given to them" (v. 22). The Son has handed over to his people the glory the Father gave him — a present share now, by faith and the Spirit, and a future vision then, by sight. The redeemed are not merely forgiven; they are glorified in union with the glorified Son.
The goal of redemption is to be with Christ and to see his glory. Verse 24 names the end of all God's saving work: "I will that they be with me where I am, so that they may behold my glory." Salvation is not finally about benefits but about a Person — to be forever with Christ and to gaze upon his glory (the hope the tradition calls the beatific vision; cf. 1 John 3:2). This is the summit toward which the whole prayer, and the whole gospel, ascends. (On the person whose glory we shall see, see Christology.)
The eternally beloved, pre-existent Son. "You loved me before the foundation of the world" (v. 24) discloses the eternal intra-trinitarian love: the Father loved the Son before anything was made. The Son is no creature and no latecomer; he is the everlasting object of the Father's love, sharing the divine life from eternity. The love poured out on the church (v. 23) is the overflow of this beginningless love.
The prayer ends on indwelling love. The final petition (v. 26) asks that "the love with which you loved me may be in them, and I in them." The high-priestly prayer closes not with an institution or a program but with a presence — the Father's eternal love and the indwelling Christ lodged in the hearts of his people. This is the consummation of the whole prayer: the love of God within us, and Christ himself within us.
Common Misreadings and Careful Corrections
- The unity (vv. 21–23) as a mandate for truth-indifferent ecumenism. Jesus prays for a unity grounded in being "in us" and bound to "your word is truth" (17:17) and "their word" (v. 20). The oneness is unity in the truth and in Christ. It gives no warrant for institutional unity bought by sacrificing the gospel or sound doctrine. (See the note on Christian unity above.)
- The unity as merely invisible or abstract, with no visible claim. The opposite error. The goal clauses — "so that the world may believe … may know" (vv. 21, 23) — require the unity to be seen. Christ's prayer rebukes needless sectarianism and calls for real love and visible togetherness among those who hold the one apostolic faith.
- "That the world may believe" makes church unity the cause of salvation. The unity is the appointed witness, not the saving cause. The world's believing and knowing follow from a visible oneness that testifies the Father sent the Son; but salvation is God's work through the gospel, not a product the church's harmony manufactures.
- θέλω ("I will," v. 24) as presumption against the Father. The Son's "I will" is not a creature's demand but the authoritative will of the eternal Son, voiced in perfect harmony with the Father. It expresses, not asserts against, the one divine will shared by Father and Son.
- The shared glory (v. 22) as making believers divine. The Son gives believers a real share in his glory and a future vision of it, but this is gift and participation, not deification of the creature. They behold and reflect his glory; they do not become a fourth person of the Godhead or cease to be creatures.
- "Before the foundation of the world" (v. 24) read as mere foreknowledge or poetic flourish. The clause attests a real, eternal relationship: the Father loved the Son before creation. It establishes the Son's pre-existence and eternal belovedness, ruling out any view that the Son began to exist or to be loved in time.
- "No one knew the Father" (v. 25) flattened into universalism or fatalism. "Righteous Father" frames a just distinction: the world did not know God, the Son knew him, and the disciples came to know him through the Son. The verse neither says all will be saved nor that knowledge is arbitrary — it describes the world's culpable ignorance and the gracious knowledge granted in Christ.
Cross-References
- John 17:1–5 — the Son prays for the glory he had with the Father "before the world existed"; the source of the glory shared in vv. 22, 24 and the love of v. 24.
- John 17:6–19 — the prayer for the apostles and "your word is truth" (17:17); the immediate context and the truth to which the unity of vv. 20–23 is bound.
- John 10:30; 14:9–11 — "I and the Father are one"; the mutual indwelling that is the pattern of the church's unity (καθώς, vv. 21–23).
- John 14:3 — "that where I am you may be also"; the promise behind the will of v. 24 that the redeemed be with him.
- John 1:18; 10:15 — the Son's unique knowledge of the Father; behind "I knew you" (v. 25).
- Ephesians 2:20; Romans 10:17 — the church built on the apostolic foundation; faith comes through the word — the "through their word" of v. 20.
- Ephesians 1:4; 1 Peter 1:20 — chosen/foreknown "before the foundation of the world"; the same phrase as v. 24, the eternal love behind redemption.
- Philippians 1:23; 1 Thessalonians 4:17 — "to depart and be with Christ"; "so we will always be with the Lord" — the hope of being "with me" in v. 24.
- 1 John 3:2; Revelation 22:4 — "we shall see him as he is"; "they will see his face" — the beholding of the Son's glory promised in v. 24.
- Hebrews 7:25 — the Son who "always lives to make intercession"; the continuing reality of the intercession begun in this prayer for all believers.
- Romans 5:5 — "God's love poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit"; the indwelling love prayed for in v. 26.
Preaching / Teaching Summary
John 17:20–26 is the last movement of the greatest prayer ever prayed, and it widens until it includes everyone reading it. Three lines preach.
First, you were prayed for. "I ask not concerning these only, but also concerning those who believe in me through their word" (v. 20). On the night before he died, the Son of God prayed for believers not yet born — for the church of every century, for you, brought to faith through the apostles' word now written in your Bible. Christianity is not a self-help project; it begins with the High Priest's intercession, and that intercession has not stopped (Heb 7:25). When you pray, you pray to a Savior who first prayed for you.
Second, our oneness preaches — when it is one in the truth and visible in love. Jesus prays "that they all may be one … so that the world may believe." The unity he asks for is real and Spirit-wrought, patterned on the oneness of the Father and the Son, and bound to the truth of the word through which we believed. So it is no warrant to trade the gospel for institutional togetherness — unity without truth is a counterfeit. But it is also no excuse for cold, quarrelsome division among those who hold the one faith — truth without love is its own betrayal. Hold both. A church that is one in the truth and visible in love is itself an argument the world can see: that the Father sent the Son and has loved his people with the love he bears his Son.
Third, the end of it all is to be with him and to see his glory. "I will that they be with me where I am, so that they may behold my glory" (v. 24) — a glory grounded in a love older than the world. Salvation does not finally aim at a place or a benefit but at a Person: to be forever with Christ and to gaze on his glory. And the prayer ends where it must, with the Father's eternal love and the indwelling Son lodged in our hearts (v. 26). The love that was the Father's for the Son before the foundation of the world is poured out into us — and Christ himself is in us. That is the consummation, and it begins now.
Memory and Review Questions
- For whom does Jesus pray in v. 20, and through what means do they come to faith?
For all future believers — "those who believe in me through their word." The means is the apostolic word/gospel; the church is built on the apostolic testimony (Eph 2:20), and this includes believers today. - What is the model and pattern of the unity Jesus prays for (vv. 21–22)?
The mutual indwelling oneness of the Father and the Son — "just as (καθώς) you, Father, are in me and I in you," "just as we are one." The church's unity is patterned on and derived from the oneness of the Trinity. - What is the stated goal of the church's unity?
"So that the world may believe / may know that you sent me and loved them" (vv. 21, 23). The visible oneness and love of believers is a God-appointed witness to the world. - What kind of unity is — and is not — being prayed for (the dedicated note)?
A real, organic, Spirit-wrought union grounded in being "in us," patterned on the Trinity, and bound to the truth ("your word is truth," 17:17). It is not a warrant for truth-indifferent ecumenism that sacrifices the gospel for institutional merger; nor is it merely invisible — it should be seen in love. Hold both unity and truth. - What does Jesus mean by "the glory you have given me I have given to them" (v. 22)?
The Son shares with believers the very glory the Father gave him — a present share by faith and the Spirit, and a future vision by sight. The shared glory is the bond of their oneness. - Why does the verb change from ἐρωτῶ to θέλω in v. 24, and what does it express?
From "I ask" to "I will / I desire." It expresses the Son's own authoritative will, in perfect harmony with the Father — not presumption against him. - What is the ultimate goal of redemption according to v. 24?
That those given to the Son be "with me where I am" to "behold my glory" — the eternal presence of the redeemed with Christ and the vision of his glory (the beatific vision; cf. 1 John 3:2). - What does "you loved me before the foundation of the world" (v. 24) teach about the Son?
It attests the eternal intra-trinitarian love and the pre-existence of the Son: the Father loved the Son before anything was made. The Son is the eternally beloved, not a creature. - Why is the address "Righteous Father" (v. 25) fitting in context?
It frames the just distinction that follows: the world did not know God, the Son knew him, and the disciples knew the Father sent the Son. The righteous Father rightly discriminates between unbelief and the knowledge granted in Christ. - On what note does the high-priestly prayer end (v. 26)?
On indwelling love and presence: that the Father's own love for the Son may be in believers, and Christ in them. The prayer climaxes not in a program but in the love of God and the indwelling Christ. - What do the two tenses ἐγνώρισα … γνωρίσω ("I made known … I will make known," v. 26) indicate?
That the Son's revelation of the Father's name is both already accomplished in his ministry and still ongoing — through the Spirit and the apostolic word, toward the consummation.