Not that one.
Not the one regarding how we should pray, that begins, “Our father, who is in heaven . . . ,” but the one the Lord prayed for us. On the night he was to be betrayed, he prayed for himself, then for his disciples, and then for us. Those who would believe in Him throughout the ages.
This prayer reveals so much: the difficulty that all of Christ’s followers will face in a world that rejects God (14-16); that only God’s word is truth, and only God’s truth will purify man (17); and the great commission to reveal Christ to a lost world (18) — truths for all disciples of all ages.
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. 15 I 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.
But then beginning in verse 20, he prayed specifically for us, those who did not walk with him while he was alive. He prays for the intimacy of relationship we are invited into that reveals who God is and the unity of believers (21-23) and for the hope of eternal life (24).
20 “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word,
21 that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.
22 The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one,
23 I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.
24 Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.
The Lord of all creation prayed for us. Amazing.
Not the one regarding how we should pray, that begins, “Our father, who is in heaven . . . ,” but the one the Lord prayed for us. On the night he was to be betrayed, he prayed for himself, then for his disciples, and then for us. Those who would believe in Him throughout the ages.
This prayer reveals so much: the difficulty that all of Christ’s followers will face in a world that rejects God (14-16); that only God’s word is truth, and only God’s truth will purify man (17); and the great commission to reveal Christ to a lost world (18) — truths for all disciples of all ages.
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. 15 I 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.
But then beginning in verse 20, he prayed specifically for us, those who did not walk with him while he was alive. He prays for the intimacy of relationship we are invited into that reveals who God is and the unity of believers (21-23) and for the hope of eternal life (24).
20 “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word,
21 that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.
22 The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one,
23 I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.
24 Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.
The Lord of all creation prayed for us. Amazing.
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