Prayer for the Disciples

Jesus says he has made the Father’s name known to those given to him out of the world. They have kept the word, received his words, and believed that the Father sent him.

I⁶ have revealed Your name to those You have given Me out of the world. They were Yours; You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word. ⁷Now they know that everything You have given Me comes from You. ⁸For I have given them the words You gave Me, and they have received them. They knew with certainty that I came from You, and they believed that You sent Me.

Jesus prays on behalf of those given to him, not the world. He says all he has belongs to the Father, all the Father has belongs to him, and he has been glorified in them.

⁹I ask on their behalf. I do not ask on behalf of the world, but on behalf of those You have given Me; for they are Yours. ¹⁰All I have is Yours, and all You have is Mine; and in them I have been glorified.

Jesus says he is leaving the world while the disciples remain in it. He asks the Holy Father to guard them in the Father’s name so they may be one, and he recalls having kept them himself, with only the son of destruction lost to fulfill Scripture.

¹¹I will no longer be in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to You. ¹²Holy Father, protect them by Your name, the name You gave Me, so that they may be one as We are one. While I was with them, I protected and preserved them by Your name, the name You gave Me. Not one of them has been lost, except the son of destruction, so that the Scripture would be fulfilled.

Jesus speaks these things while still in the world so his joy may be made complete in them. He has given them the Father’s word, and the world has hated them because they do not belong to it.

¹³But now I am coming to You; and I am saying these things while I am in the world, so that they may have My joy fulfilled within them. ¹⁴I have given them Your word and the world has hated them. For they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.

Jesus does not ask that the Father remove them from the world, but that he keep them from the evil one. He repeats that they do not belong to the world.

¹⁵I am not asking that You take them out of the world, but that You keep them from the evil one. ¹⁶They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.

Jesus asks that the Father sanctify them by the truth, since the Father’s word is truth. As the Father sent the Son into the world, the Son sends them, and he sanctifies himself so they too may be sanctified by the truth.

¹⁷Sanctify them by the truth; Your word is truth. ¹⁸As You sent Me into the world, I have also sent them into the world. ¹⁹For them I sanctify Myself, so that they too may be sanctified by the truth.