John 17:6-8 I have manifested your name to the men which you gave me out of the world: your they were, and you gave them me… We now come to the second part of this prayer, the intercessory portion of it. But before offering any special petition Christ states several preliminary pleas. These pleas are contained in the text. We have here: — I. THE SCHOLARS. The Lord's words regarding them express a threefold relationship. 1. To the world. "The men whom Thou gavest Me out of the world." Originally these disciples, as they came into the world, belonged to it, with tastes, desires, and modes of thinking, &c, like the men around them. But they had been given "out of the world" to Christ, so that their position in it and their relationship to it were alike changed. So it is with all the people of God; they are given to Christ "out of the world," to be taught and trained for service here and glory hereafter. But, alas I what a commentary does the conduct of myriads supply on these words, when the world seems to bound their ambition and contain their all. 2. To God "Thine they were." They were His by the law of their original creation, by the ties of providential preservation and blessing, and by all the bonds of moral obligation. 3. To Christ. "Thou gavest them Me." By giving them to the Son, the Father did not part with His property or His pleasure in them, for they were given to Christ in pursuance of a gracious purpose, and by the arrangements of an all-wise providence. This was the first small instalment of the promise that Jesus as mediatorial King should have the heathen given Him as His inheritance, &c. II. THE INSTRUCTION GIVEN. This, generally, was the manifestation of the Divine name. The name of God is often put for God Himself (Proverbs 18:10; Exodus 34:5, 7). How often in aspects of attraction and grace is the name of God put before men in His Word. There he presents Himself as Jehovah-jireh, ever ready to provide for the wants of His people; as Jehovah-nissi, ever willing to defend them and lead them to victory; as Jehovah-tsidkenu, working out and bringing near to them an all-sufficient righteousness for their salvation; as Jehovah-shammah, blessing with His presence every spot to which His providence may bring them. But it was Jesus who manifested the Divine name in all its fulness of glory How did He do it? 1. By what He was. He came to be the representative amongst men of the infinite God. He was "the brightness of His glory," &c. Every element of the Divine glory had its perfect and practical embodiment in Him, so that in His personal history we have a living map of the boundless expanse of the Divine perfections reduced to the scale which our humanity can contemplate and study. 2. By what He said. (ver. 8). Every considerable human teacher has some theme or some aspect of a subject with which he is more especially familiar to which his own taste inclines him, and on which he loves chiefly to dilate Christ Jesus was master of all truth, but especially did He dwell on the glory and excellence of the Father's character. 3. By that which He did. He went about doing good. As His words were not His own, but His Father's, so also were His works (John 10:37; John 5:17). III. THE ATTAINMENTS MADE BY THEM. 1. They accepted Christ's words. "They have received them." If His words commanded the attention and admiration of His foes, much more might be expected of His disciples; they devoutly received His words. Attention was not enough, nor admiration, nor mere assent: the words of Jesus dropped into the souls of these disciples as Divine seeds of thought, germs of higher life and hope. 2. They had some apprehension of the Divine glory of Christ — "They have known," &c. They recognised — (1) The Divinity of His doctrine. They felt that His words were the truth of God; for they had in them the glow and glory of Divinity. (2) The Divinity of His person: "That I came out from Thee." He that could teach such truth about God, and do such works, and produce such impressions, must have come out from the Father (John 6:69). (3) The Divinity of His mission — "That Thou didst send Me." They mistook, indeed, for a long time its true nature and glorious design; but they recognized its Divinity. This apprehension of the glory of Christ is the highest attainment for men on earth, even as the contemplation of it will be the blessedness of heaven. To discover Christ and trust in Him is the triumph and turning-point of any human life here. 3. They clung to Christ; they maintained adherence to His truth. "They have kept Thy Word." Continuance was essential as it is still. To keep God's word was to obey it, walk in it, and abide by it. They were neither stony-ground hearers nor wayside hearers. Christ will not acknowledge any as His disciples who do not keep His word and endure unto the end. (Hebrews 3:14) (J. Spence, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world: thine they were, and thou gavest them me; and they have kept thy word. |
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