17
John
Prayer for Unity Among Believers
John 17:20-26
Key words in this passage
Cross-references
Study notes
The prayer widens its scope at once to include those who will come to trust through the first disciples’ word. Its central burden is the oneness these later believers must share, defined by the same mutual indwelling that exists between Father and Son. This unity is presented as the visible sign by which the world will recognize both the Father’s sending of the Son and the love he extends to the disciples in the same measure he loves the Son. The text then turns to a direct desire that those given to the Son may be with him to see the glory granted before the foundation of the world. The closing verses locate the continuation of this participation in the ongoing revelation of the Father’s name, so that the same love and the Son’s own presence may reside in them.
What is Prayer for Unity Among Believers about?
In John 17 Jesus addresses the Father directly while the disciples listen. Verses 20-26 extend that address beyond the circle present at the table. Jesus states that his request reaches those who will come to trust because of the word spoken by the first disciples. The immediate concern is the oneness these later believers are to share with one another and with the Father and the Son. That oneness is presented as the visible sign by which the world will recognize that the Father sent the Son and loved the disciples in the same way he loved the Son. The unit stands at the close of the prayer recorded in chapter 17. What follows immediately is the move into the garden and the arrest. By placing this petition here the narrative underscores that Jesus’ final recorded words before his suffering include an explicit request for the unity and future presence of those who have not yet believed. The passage therefore supplies the stated purpose that will govern the community formed after the resurrection.
Where does this passage sit in John?
This petition closes the recorded prayer by extending its reach from the eleven seated at the table to those who will come to trust through their word. It follows directly on the request in 17:6-19 that the Father keep the present disciples in his name and sanctify them in the truth. The same vocabulary of oneness, glory given and received, and mutual indwelling now widens to include later believers, so that the pattern already sought for the first group becomes the pattern for all. The unit ends the prayer and immediately precedes the move across the Kidron to the garden where Jesus is seized. By positioning the request here, the narrative places the concern for future unity at the last moment before the events that will scatter the disciples begin. Repeated phrases such as "you sent me" and "the glory that you gave me" tie the closing verses to the opening of the prayer in 17:1-5, where glory and sending first appear. The address "Righteous Father" in 17:25 recalls the "Holy Father" of 17:11, preserving the tone of the earlier intercession while contrasting the world's ignorance with the disciples' knowledge. The result is an escalation: what began as protection for those present becomes a completed oneness that the world itself is meant to recognize. This widening occurs before any arrest or trial, so the unity petition stands as the final note of the farewell rather than a later reflection after the fact.
How is the passage structured?
The unit opens by widening the scope of the address. Verse 20 explicitly moves from the immediate circle to those who will trust through the word spoken by the first disciples. This broadening is not a detour but the first structural step, establishing that the petitions that follow apply to an expanding company.
The core petition then unfolds through a chain of purpose clauses. Verse 21 states the request for oneness modeled on the Father’s relation to the Son, with the added result that the world may trust the sending. Verse 22 supplies the means already given—the glory received from the Father—and repeats the oneness goal, now tied directly to the unity that exists between Father and Son. Verse 23 intensifies the same movement by describing the indwelling pattern (“I in them and you in me”) and its intended outcome: the believers brought to completion toward one, so that the world may know both the sending and the love extended to them.
A fresh address in verse 24 marks a turn. The petition shifts from the present unity of the community to a future sharing in presence and sight: the desire that those given to the Son may be with him to behold the glory granted before the foundation of the world. This forward-looking request is grounded in the Father’s prior love for the Son.
The closing verses return to knowledge and revelation. Verse 25 contrasts the world’s lack of knowing with the recognition already granted to the disciples. Verse 26 then states the ongoing action of making the name known, linking that action to the indwelling of the Father’s love and of the Son himself. The sequence therefore moves from extension of the request, through repeated oneness petitions tied to visible witness, to an eschatological desire for presence, and finally to the continuing work of revelation that sustains love and mutual indwelling.
What is the historical background?
The prayer recorded here follows patterns found in Jewish farewell addresses and testamentary prayers, where a leader speaks directly to God on behalf of those who will continue after him. Such addresses often extend petitions beyond the immediate circle to later generations who will receive the tradition through spoken testimony. The language of those who come to trust because of the word spoken by the first disciples fits this chain of transmission, a common social mechanism in both Jewish and broader Mediterranean settings for preserving teaching across time.
The repeated appeal to oneness draws on longstanding Jewish convictions about the unity of God’s people under his covenant, yet the comparison to the mutual indwelling of Father and Son moves beyond typical communal language. In the cultural world of the text, such intimate reciprocity language appears more often in descriptions of divine wisdom or the relationship between God and Israel’s representative figures. The granting of glory functions similarly: in Jewish Scripture glory frequently denotes the visible honor or presence associated with God’s chosen agents, and here it is presented as something transferred so that the same visible unity may be displayed.
The reference to love existing before the foundation of the world employs phrasing familiar from Jewish creation and wisdom traditions, where divine purposes are described as established prior to the ordering of the cosmos. This temporal marker underscores the claim that the love in view is not a recent development but belongs to the Father’s original relation to the Son. Likewise, the making known of the divine name continues a scriptural motif in which God’s name is revealed progressively through authorized spokesmen, a process expected to continue so that the same love may reside in later believers.
No significant textual variants affect the wording of these verses in the earliest manuscripts, so the passage stands as transmitted without requiring special explanation of transmission history.
What does this passage teach about God?
The prayer extends the circle of concern from those seated at the table to later believers who will trust because of the word spoken by the first disciples. This move presents the relationship between Father and Son as inherently open rather than closed. The oneness sought is defined by the same mutual indwelling that already exists between the Father and the Son, so that those who believe may also be in them. The text therefore treats participation in divine life as the source and pattern for human unity rather than a secondary result of it.
That unity carries a public dimension. The world is to come to trust that the Father sent the Son precisely by seeing the completed oneness among believers. The same observation is meant to reveal that the Father has loved these later disciples with the identical love he has for the Son. Glory functions here as the means: the glory the Father gave the Son is given again so that the oneness already present between Father and Son may be realized among those who receive it. Completion toward one is therefore both gift and goal.
Jesus further states his desire that these believers be with him wherever he is, so they may see the glory that belongs to him because the Father loved him before the foundation of the world. The love that predates creation is to be present in them now, accompanied by the continuing presence of the Son himself. The address to the Righteous Father acknowledges that the world has not known this love, yet the Son has made the Father’s name known and will continue to do so. In this way the passage locates the mission of revelation in the ongoing communication of divine love rather than in new information alone.
What are the interpretive difficulties?
The extension of the prayer to those who have come to trust because of their word directed toward me raises a question the text itself does not answer: how that word reaches later generations and whether every subsequent believer stands in the same relation to the original disciples. The request for oneness is framed by the mutual indwelling of Father and Son, yet the passage supplies no further definition of what that oneness looks like in practice or how it differs from simple agreement. Verse 23 links the completion of that oneness to the world’s recognition that the Father sent the Son and loved the disciples just as he loved the Son, but it does not indicate whether this recognition is expected within the lifetime of the first disciples or remains a future prospect.
The glory given to the disciples in verse 22 is presented as already transferred, yet the text offers no additional description of its content beyond its connection to the oneness that follows. Likewise, the desire that the disciples be with Jesus wherever he is, so that they may see the glory that is mine, leaves the timing of that presence unspecified. The reference to love before the foundation of the world establishes a relationship that precedes creation, but the prayer does not spell out how that prior love now operates in the indwelling described at the close.
The shift to the address Righteous Father in verse 25 draws attention to the world’s continued lack of knowledge even while the disciples have come to know that the Father sent the Son. This contrast is stated without any resolution inside the prayer. The closing statement that the name will continue to be made known so that the love with which you loved me may be in them, and I in them, points to an ongoing activity, yet the passage does not identify the means by which that activity will occur after the prayer ends.
Movement by movement
Extending the Prayer to Future Believers17:20-21
The prayer moves outward at once by declaring that the request reaches not only the disciples seated at the table but also those who have come to trust because of their word directed toward me. This widening is presented as a single continuous petition rather than a separate topic. The oneness sought for the later believers is defined by the same relation already named between Father and Son: just as you, Father, are in me and I in you. The text then adds that they also may be in us, so that the visible result of this shared life is the world’s trust that you sent me. The purpose clause therefore ties the internal pattern of indwelling directly to an external recognition. No further description of the word or the mechanism of transmission is supplied; the verse simply places later believers inside the same request already made for the first group. The effect is to treat the chain of testimony as the ordinary means by which the circle of concern expands while the goal of oneness remains unchanged.
Glory Given to Produce Oneness17:22
The glory the Son received from the Father is given directly to those who will trust through the first disciples’ word. Verse 22 states the transfer without qualification: the same glory that came from the Father to the Son now belongs to the later believers. The stated purpose is not visibility or power in itself but the production of oneness that matches the relation already existing between Father and Son. The clause “just as we are one” anchors the comparison in the mutual indwelling already described in verse 21, so the unity sought is not an additional achievement but the extension of that prior relation. In the flow of the prayer this verse supplies the concrete means after the request for oneness has been voiced; the giving of glory therefore functions as the instrument by which the larger company is brought into the same pattern of relation that the Son shares with the Father. The text leaves open how that glory is recognized or exercised, yet it insists that the oneness it produces carries the same character as the oneness between Father and Son.
Indwelling That Brings Completion17:23
The phrase “I in them and you in me” stands at the center of the sentence and supplies the condition for everything that follows. This mutual indwelling does not describe a finished state but supplies the movement by which the believers are brought to completion toward one. The wording “brought to completion toward one” keeps the goal in view as a directed process rather than an achieved agreement. The same indwelling then produces the double recognition stated in the second purpose clause: the world comes to know both that the Father sent the Son and that the Father loved the disciples in the same manner he loved the Son. Earlier petitions in the prayer named only the sending as the object of the world’s trust; here the love receives equal place, so that the visible unity testifies to affection as well as mission. The sentence structure places the indwelling as the single hinge between the completion of the believers and the world’s knowledge, without supplying any further definition of how that indwelling appears in practice or how the completion differs from simple unanimity.
Desire for Shared Presence and Sight of Glory17:24
The petition in verse 24 turns from the chain of purpose clauses that have shaped the preceding requests to a direct statement of Jesus’ desire. What the Father has given him—those who have come to trust—Jesus now wills to be with him wherever he is. The aim is not merely proximity but sight: that they may see the glory that is his, the same glory given him because the Father loved him before the foundation of the world. This grounds the request in a relationship that precedes creation itself. The movement therefore widens the horizon from the present oneness sought among believers to their future participation in the Son’s own glory. The text leaves unspecified how that seeing will occur, yet it presents the desire itself as the expression of the Father’s prior love now extended through the Son to those given him. In the flow of the prayer this sentence stands apart by its use of “I desire” rather than the earlier “I ask.” The shift marks a personal will that aligns with the Father’s giving. The glory in view is not something newly acquired but one already possessed by the Son and now to be beheld by those brought into his company. Because the love that gave this glory is dated before the world’s foundation, the presence requested reaches beyond any immediate historical moment. The verse therefore ties the believers’ future to the eternal relation between Father and Son without detailing the manner of its fulfillment.
Continued Revelation of the Name17:25-26
The address shifts to “Righteous Father” precisely when the text sets the world’s ignorance against the knowledge already granted to the disciples. Verse 25 states the contrast without softening it: the world has not known the Father, yet Jesus has known him and the disciples have recognized the sending. That recognition becomes the ground for what follows. The next sentence turns from acknowledgment to action. Jesus declares that he has made the name known and will continue making it known, the future tense marking an unfinished work that reaches beyond the moment of the prayer. The purpose clause ties this ongoing disclosure directly to the love the Father has for the Son. That love is to take up residence in the disciples, and with it the Son himself. The movement therefore does not add a new petition but extends the earlier requests for oneness and glory by locating their source in continued revelation of the name. The disciples’ present knowledge opens the way for deeper participation in the relation between Father and Son, so that what the world does not know may yet be present in them through the Son’s abiding presence.
Notes accompany the Anselm Project Bible, an AI translation from the original languages. Tap any verse above for the committee's word-level decisions.
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