John 17:11 Commentary and Bible Study

Verse eleven is of the same character. I am no longer with them to care for them and to protect directly and personally. ‘Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me.’ This is all in the context of our being in the world. There is something very dangerous about the world, there is something tremendously ominous about the world, there is something potentially so damaging about the world. This is all about the world. The world is ungodly and it is wracked with wickedness, and it will contaminate us and distract us and draw us aside and sap out of us our concern for the service of the Lord, and yet, so many Christians today love the world. The disciples are not looking at the prayer of Christ – I am leaving these in the world. It is a dangerous place. I am no longer with them to protect them. Keep them, Holy Father, keep them, guard them, protect them. This becomes a prayer to keep the people separate from the world. It is one of the dominating features of the prayer of Christ.‘Holy Father,’ second part of verse eleven, ‘keep through thine own name.’ That is a wonderful expression. Do not forget that the name of God stands for his attributes. ‘Keep them by thy mighty power, keep them by thy infinite knowledge, keep them by great loving kindness. Oh Lord, may all our divine attributes be engaged in the protection of the church from the world.’ That is the sense of the verse. It is very powerful.‘That they may be one’ does not mean that they may be all in the same super-church. That would be a disaster. That they may be all together under one earthly banner as the such-and-such united church of God throughout the world, the ecumenical movement – people as opposite as Roman Catholics and evangelicals, one believing in works, the other believing in grace; one believing in human tradition, the other believing in the word of God – groups that have nothing in common all get together in one organisation. That is not something for which Christ prayed. The prayer of Christ is that we all may be one in character, that true believers may share the likeness of Christ, may believe the same things – the shed blood of Christ alone for salvation, the inspired inerrancy of the word of the living God. These precious truths: that they may be one in what they believe, that they may be one in bearing the fruit of the Spirit, that they may be one in putting the service of Christ before everything else in their lives, that they may be one in character and witness and service and love and understanding and belief. Not that cheap and tawdry nonsensical interpretation that they may be one in the sense of all having their names written in the same earthly denominational book. What an unspiritual and nonsensical interpretation. That is the ecumenical movement.