David Bahn – Reflections

John 17:9-11

I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours. ¹⁰ All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them. ¹¹And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one.

Jesus prays that his disciples who are in the world would be protected from the evil one and kept in Jesus’ name, and be one with himself and each other. These are vital aspects of being kept in the faith.

Our enemy, the devil, wants to kill steal and destroy (cf. John 10:10). We need God’s protection from him and his evil intent if we are to keep the faith, for his greatest delight is to destroy our faith and with that to steal our joy, and kill our hope.

Jesus’ name is the only name by which we must be saved (cf. Acts 4:10-12). To be kept in Jesus’ name is to look to him alone for hope, life, salvation, meaning, and peace. We name Jesus as the power for our prayers, and the true north of grace and truth, life and faithfulness. This is a vital daily calling.

To be one with Jesus, the Father, and other followers of Jesus builds a powerful alliance of strength, faithfulness, joy, favor, and blessing. When we have the sense that we’re not alone in our faith and life, our pursuits and values, we are stronger for it and a greater joy fills our hearts. Surely it is worth every effort to keep this unity (cf. Ephesians 4:1-6).

In just these three verses Jesus identifies key elements of being sustained in faithfulness. What a blessing this is! This is our calling and God’s gift to embrace with all our hearts.

John 17:6-19

“I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. ⁷Now they know that everything that you have given me is from you. ⁸For I have given them the words that you gave me, and they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me. ⁹I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours. ¹⁰ All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them. ¹¹And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one.¹² While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. ¹³But now I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves. ¹⁴ I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. ¹⁵I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. ¹⁶ They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. ¹⁷ Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. ¹⁸ As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. ¹⁹And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth.