John 17:13

John 17:13. But now I come to thee. These words are to be connected with what follows rather than with what precedes. The thought of His immediate departure leads Jesus to pray that His disciples may be filled with a joy independent of His personal presence, ‘in themselves.'

And these things I speak in the world, that they may have the joy that is mine fulfilled in themselves. The words ‘these things I speak' refer to more than the fact that Jesus is at present praying, to more even than the actual petition at present on His lips. He has in view the substance of His prayer, continually taught by Him. His ‘joy' was fulfilled in this, that the name of His Father had been given Him, that He realised the unity with His Father in which He stood. He had led the disciples to the consciousness that they too were in that name of the Father, and by that means the joy that was His had become theirs, it was ‘fulfilled' in them. In answering this His prayer the Father will only be accomplishing His own plan, and securing His own glory through the glorification of the disciples in the Son. ‘In the world' does not mean merely ‘upon earth,' but in the midst of the efforts of the world to defeat the purpose of Jesus.