John 17:9-16 I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which you have given me; for they are yours.… Jesus has not the same reasons to bring forward in favour of the world, not the same request to make for it. Luther justly says, "What must be asked for the world is that it may be converted, not that it may be sanctified or kept." Assuredly the statement of Jesus is no absolute one. He said on the cross, "Father, forgive them." Was not this to pray for the world? Only He did not then, as He does now, bring forward as a reason "they have known" (ver. 8), but, on the contrary, "they know not what they do"; and instead of appealing, as here, to the care of God for beings precious and belonging to Himself, He invokes His compassion for beings guilty and perishing. The saying in ver. 21, "that the world may know that Thou hast sent Me," contains an implicit prayer for the world (cf. John 2:16). The statement of Jesus, that He prays not for the world, only becomes absolute in proportion as its moral characteristic of opposition to God is fixed, and as it becomes the association of those who are not only enemies of God, but who desire to remain such. (F. Godet, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me; for they are thine. |
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