15 My prayer is not that you will take them out of the world, but that you will keep them from the Evil One.
In the measure of my strong hope and belief that in nothing will I be put to shame, but that without fear, as at all times, so now will Christ have glory in my body, by life or by death. For to me life is Christ and death is profit. But if I go on living in the flesh--if this is the fruit of my work--then I do not see what decision to make. I am in a hard position between the two, having a desire to go away and be with Christ, which is very much better: Still, to go on in the flesh is more necessary because of you. And being certain of this, I am conscious that I will go on, yes, and go on with you all, for your growth and joy in the faith; So that your pride in me may be increased in Christ Jesus through my being present with you again.
For the underworld is not able to give you praise, death gives you no honour: for those who go down into the underworld there is no hope in your mercy. The living, the living man, he will give you praise, as I do this day: the father will give the story of your mercy to his children.
But the man from whom the evil spirits had gone out had a great desire to be with him, but he sent him away, saying, Go back to your house and let them have news of all the great things which God has done for you. And he went away, giving word through all the town of the great things which Jesus had done for him.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on John 17
Commentary on John 17 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 17
This chapter is a prayer, it is the Lord's prayer, the Lord Christ's prayer. There was one Lord's prayer which he taught us to pray, and did not pray himself, for he needed not to pray for the forgiveness of sin; but this was properly and peculiarly his, and suited him only as a Mediator, and is a sample of his intercession, and yet is of use to us both for instruction and encouragement in prayer. Observe,
Jhn 17:1-5
Here we have,
Jhn 17:6-10
Christ, having prayed for himself, comes next to pray for those that are his, and he knew them by name, though he did not here name them. Now observe here,
Jhn 17:11-16
After the general pleas with which Christ recommended his disciples to his Father's care follow the particular petitions he puts up for them; and,
Now the first thing Christ prays for, for his disciples, is their preservation, in these verses, in order to which he commits them all to his Father's custody. Keeping supposes danger, and their danger arose from the world, the world wherein they were, the evil of this he begs they might be kept from. Now observe,
Jhn 17:17-19
The next thing he prayed for for them was that they might be sanctified; not only kept from evil, but made good.
Jhn 17:20-23
Next to their purity he prays for their unity; for the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable; and amity is amiable indeed when it is like the ointment on Aaron's holy head, and the dew on Zion's holy hill. Observe,
Jhn 17:24-26
Here is,