New Testament · Gospel

John 17

Jesus Prays

You get to overhear Jesus praying to the Father. He prays for His disciples — and then He prays for you.

Berean Standard Bible BSB KJV

Tap any verse number for what that verse means.

1When Jesus had spoken these things, He lifted up His eyes to heaven and said, “Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son, that Your Son may glorify You.

2For You granted Him authority over all people, so that He may give eternal life to all those You have given Him.

3Now this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom You have sent.

4I have glorified You on earth by accomplishing the work You gave Me to do.

5And now, Father, glorify Me in Your presence with the glory I had with You before the world existed.

6I have revealed Your name to those You have given Me out of the world. They were Yours; You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word.

7Now they know that everything You have given Me comes from You.

8For I have given them the words You gave Me, and they have received them. They knew with certainty that I came from You, and they believed that You sent Me.

9I ask on their behalf. I do not ask on behalf of the world, but on behalf of those You have given Me; for they are Yours.

10All I have is Yours, and all You have is Mine; and in them I have been glorified.

11I will no longer be in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to You.

12While I was with them, I protected and preserved them by Your name, the name You gave Me. Not one of them has been lost, except the son of destruction, so that the Scripture would be fulfilled.

13But now I am coming to You; and I am saying these things while I am in the world, so that they may have My joy fulfilled within them.

14I have given them Your word and the world has hated them. For they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.

15I am not asking that You take them out of the world, but that You keep them from the evil one.

16They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.

17Sanctify them by the truth; Your word is truth.

18As You sent Me into the world, I have also sent them into the world.

19For them I sanctify Myself, so that they too may be sanctified by the truth.

20I am not asking on behalf of them alone, but also on behalf of those who will believe in Me through their message,

21that all of them may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I am in You. May they also be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me.

22I have given them the glory You gave Me, so that they may be one as We are one—

23I in them and You in Me—that they may be perfectly united, so that the world may know that You sent Me and have loved them just as You have loved Me.

24Father, I want those You have given Me to be with Me where I am, that they may see the glory You gave Me because You loved Me before the foundation of the world.

25Righteous Father, although the world has not known You, I know You, and they know that You sent Me.

26And I have made Your name known to them and will continue to make it known, so that the love You have for Me may be in them, and I in them.”

Understand This

John 17, explained

What John 17 is saying

Jesus' High Priestly Prayer—the longest recorded prayer in the Gospels—intercedes first for himself (glorification through the completed work), then for his disciples (protection, sanctification, and unity), and finally for all future believers (that they may be one as Father and Son are one). The prayer's climax is Jesus' desire that believers behold his pre-creational glory and that the Father's love for the Son dwell in them.

The background behind it

This prayer functions as the theological climax of the Farewell Discourse and the hinge between Jesus' ministry and his passion. The high-priestly language echoes the Day of Atonement, when Israel's high priest interceded for the people in the Holy of Holies. Jesus prays as both priest and sacrifice. The petition for unity has been central to ecumenical theology since the patristic period.

Themes running underneath

The prayer reveals the trinitarian relations as the model and source of Christian community: believers are drawn into the love between Father and Son. Sanctification ('make them holy in the truth') is corporate, not merely individual. Jesus' definition of eternal life—'to know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent'—is relational rather than temporal. The repeated emphasis on the world as the context (not escape destination) of discipleship challenges otherworldly spirituality.

Why it still matters

Christian unity is not organizational uniformity but participation in the divine love between Father and Son—a unity that serves as the world's primary evidence for Christ's mission. Jesus' prayer for his followers' sanctification in truth anchors spiritual formation in Scripture and honest engagement with reality.

This is one chapter. BibleKey does all 1,189.

Tap any verse for its meaning, any word for its Hebrew or Greek root, and follow every cross-reference without losing your place.

Get BibleKey

All 21 chapters of John · Every book of the Bible · Browse by topic

Scripture text: Berean Standard Bible — used by permission, Bible Hub.