John 17 is sometimes called the high priestly prayer of Jesus. It concludes the farewell discourse. Jesus came to this earth so that humanity might be restored, ultimately, to its original personal relationship with God. He faithfully performed the signs that God gave Him to do. In words and acts, He communicated God to the people.
Jesus would soon be leaving this earth. He desired to share once again His love for His disciples. He wanted them to understand the close relationship between Himself, the Father, and the Holy Spirit. And He wanted to bring them into the same personal relationship with God the Father and the Spirit that He Himself had.
Read John 17:1–26. What words or phrases in this chapter express the desire of Jesus for a close relationship of love between Himself, the Father, and His disciples?
Many read John 17 to mean that the only thing that matters is unity and love. No question, God’s purpose is to restore us to a personal relationship with Him and with all people. But a more careful reading suggests a much more vital connection between love and truth.
“ ‘This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God’ ” (John 17:3, NKJV), not God, whoever we think He is. “ ‘I have made your name known to those whom you gave me, . . . and they have kept your word . . . and know in truth that I came from you’ ” (John 17:6, 8, NRSV). “ ‘Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth’ ” (John 17:17, NKJV).
Christ came to reveal the Father. This revelation was important because of the many misconceptions about God. The Gospel of John shows how seriously Jesus took this mission. He rightly represented God’s Word and actions. If truth did not matter, why go to such lengths?
Jesus lived a life of great difficulty ultimately to be rejected by the religious authorities. He suffered indifference from the people and even, at times, from His own disciples. One of His disciples betrayed Him, and another denied Him three times. He went through an unremitting trial and died on a cross at the hands of the very ones He came to save.
How can you better reflect the love of God, such as exists between Jesus and the Father, in your own life?
Supplemental EGW Notes
I urge our people to cease their criticism and evil-speaking, and go to God in earnest prayer, asking Him to help them to help the erring. Let them link up with one another and with Christ. Let them study the seventeenth of John, and learn how to pray and how to live the prayer of Christ. He is the Comforter. He will abide in their hearts, making their joy full. His words will be to them as the bread of life, and in the strength thus gained they will be enabled to develop characters that will be an honor to God. Perfect Christian fellowship will exist among them. . . .
When you as individual workers of the church love God supremely and your neighbor as yourself . . . there will be oneness in Christ. . . . The members of the church will cherish love and unity and be as one great family. Then we shall bear the credentials to the world that will testify that God has sent His Son into the world. Christ has said, “By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.”—Reflecting Christ, p. 200.
We must open our hearts to the power and influence of the Holy Spirit. . . . We want to become so sensitive to holy influences, that the lightest whisper of Jesus will move our souls, till he is in us, and we in Him, living by the faith of the Son of God. . . .
Then we shall delight to do the will of God, and Christ can own us before the Father and before the holy angels as those who abide in Him, and he will not be ashamed to call us brethren.
But we shall not boast of our holiness. As we have clearer views of Christ’s spotlessness and infinite purity, we shall feel as did Daniel, when he beheld the glory of the Lord, and said, “My comeliness was turned in me into corruption.” . . .
But if we constantly seek to follow Jesus, the blessed hope is ours of standing before the throne of God without spot or wrinkle, or any such thing; complete in Christ, robed in his righteousness and perfection.—Selected Messages, book 3, p. 355.
The church is to reflect light into the moral darkness of the world, as the stars reflect light into the darkness of the night. These who have a form of godliness, but deny the power thereof, do not reflect light into the world, and will not have power to reach the hearts of the unsaved. . . . But if Christ is formed within, the hope of glory, his saving grace will be manifested in sympathy and love for perishing souls.
Every soul truly converted to God will be a light in the world. Bright, clear rays from the Sun of Righteousness will shine forth through human agents who use their intrusted ability to do good; for they will cooperate with heavenly agencies, and labor with Christ for the conversion of souls. They will diffuse the light which Christ sheds upon them. The Sun of Righteousness shining in their hearts will shine forth, enlightening and blessing others.—Signs of the Times, September 11, 1893, par. 1, 2.
The above quotations are taken from Ellen G. White Notes for the Sabbath School Lessons, published by Pacific Press Publishing Association. Used by permission.