John 17:6

John 17:6. I manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world. Jesus now passes to the thought of those disciples who had been led to rest on Him in faith. His work was over: theirs was to begin; and it involved a struggle and needed strength, similar to His own. In tenderest pity and love, therefore, He now prays for them, that they may be preserved as He has been. Yet not their preservation (for its own sake), but the glory of the Father, is still the leading thought. Jesus is glorified in them (John 17:10), and we have already seen that when He is glorified the glorification of the Father is secured. First of all their position is described; they have so entered into and embraced the ‘word' of Jesus that the great purpose of His coming has been answered in them, and they are fitted to take His place in the world. That ‘word' had been especially the ‘name' of God, His name as ‘Father,' including His character, His attributes, His saving will as revealed in Jesus. The whole purpose of God's Fatherly love had been embraced by them as tidings of great joy both for themselves and for the world. They had been given to the Son by the Father ‘out of the world;' that is, they were no longer in the world as the element of their existence. The position is exactly His own (John 17:14), so that even already we see how closely they are identified with Him, and are fitted, as taking His place, to lift men up into their own higher sphere. It is not enough, however, to say this, for the completeness with which the end has been attained has to be further brought out from two sides, the Divine and the human.

Thine they were, and to me thou gavest them. That is the Divine side. The change of order from the same words as used in the earlier part of the verse ought to be noticed. The emphasis is now directed to ‘Me,' and the meaning is that they were now by Divine appointment the Son's, that they might take up His work.

And they have kept thy word. This is the human side. They, on their part, had answered the purpose of the Father: they had kept the ‘word' of God; not the general revelation of His will, but, if we may so speak, the revelation of the Logos, of the ‘Word,' in the soul. In the Word of God they have God's word in them. How completely are they put into the position of Him who is now ‘going away'!