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John 17:20-26 - That They All May Be One

16 min read

The High Priestly Prayer has already gathered the apostles into Christ’s care. He has named them as the Father’s gift, asked that they be kept in the Father’s name, and sent them into a world that will hate them. Then the prayer opens past that first circle: “I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word.”

Before later generations appear, the Son already holds them. The Church does not arrive as an afterthought. She is already inside this intercession, formed by the apostolic word, and asked for as a people who will share, by grace, the communion the Son has with the Father.

Christ’s petition is exact. He asks that they may be one in the Father and the Son, that the world may believe the Father sent Him, that His people may be brought to completion in one, and that they may be with Him where He is. Unity here is received life, truthful witness, and a hope that ends in beholding His glory.

Christ Prays for Those Who Will Believe (John 17:20-21)

20 “I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word;

21 that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me.

Jesus first widens the circle. He does not pray for the apostles alone. He prays also for those who will believe in Him through their word. Every later believer stands here: not as a late addition to the Gospel, but as already named in the Son’s prayer before His Passion.

“Through their word” is the means He names. Later faith does not invent a private Christ. It receives the apostolic witness to the crucified and risen Lord. That word is entrusted to the apostles, preserved in the Church, preached, read, prayed, and lived. A Christian who treats the Gospel as raw material for a self-made religion is standing outside the prayer that actually includes him.

Then He asks “that they all may be one.” The pattern is the Father in the Son and the Son in the Father. Believers are to be “one in Us.” Communion with God comes first, and communion among believers follows from it. The Church is not made one by sameness of temperament, identical gifts, or organizational smoothness. She is gathered into the life the Father and the Son share, and that life then becomes visible among the faithful.

The comparison “as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You” is the pattern of this communion, not a claim that creatures become equal to the Son in His divine nature. The Son is in the Father by nature. We become one in God by grace, by the Spirit’s work, by love, and by the word that forms faith.

This unity also has a public end: “that the world may believe that You sent Me.” The world is confronted by a people whose life together makes the sending of the Son visible. Division, rivalry, contempt, and suspicion darken that witness. Holy unity does not replace preaching; it confirms that the One we preach truly comes from the Father.

That missionary purpose must not be turned into pressure to perform harmony or protect appearances. The world is meant to believe because the Church is one in the Father and the Son, not because a parish has managed its image. A body that conceals abuse, punishes disclosure, silences repentance, or treats truth as a threat to reputation is not honoring this prayer. The oneness Jesus asks for can bear truth, because its source is God.

Language insight - Through their word, one in Us

“Through their word” translates διὰ τοῦ λόγου αὐτῶν (dia tou logou autōn). The preposition dia marks the apostolic word as the means through which later believers come to faith. The verse identifies that means; it does not, by itself, settle every later question of transmission. It does make the Church’s later faith historically and personally dependent on the word Christ entrusted to the apostles.

The word translated “one” is ἕν (hen), the neuter singular. It names communion without erasing persons, gifts, vocations, or local communities. In this prayer, believers are “one in Us.” Unity begins in the Father and the Son and then becomes visible among the faithful.

Gems from the Fathers 💎: The apostolic word and communion in the Spirit

St Cyril of Alexandria, commenting on this widening of the prayer, understands Christ to include not only the Twelve but also those in every age who will believe through the apostolic word. On his reading, union with God is given through the Holy Spirit rather than assembled by a faction. He therefore hears the petition as a request for love, concord, and peace among believers, because the Spirit restores human nature toward the likeness of God.1

St John Chrysostom reads the same widening as comfort for the apostles. Later people will believe through their preaching, so the first witnesses are not being left behind; they are being made a living channel of the word that brings others to salvation.2

Glory Given for Unity and Witness (John 17:22-23)

22 And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one:

23 I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me.

Jesus says He has given His disciples the glory the Father gave Him. In John, that glory cannot be separated from the Cross, the Resurrection, and the Son’s return to the Father. Glory is divine love revealed through self-giving, obedience, and communion with the Father. It is not worldly display, and it is not a promise of visible success.

He gives this glory for a purpose: “that they may be one just as We are one.” Isolated selves, competing parties, and rival ministries are the opposite of the gift. The life He shares draws a people into one Body.

Then He names the shape of that unity: “I in them, and You in Me.” The Church is not assembled from below by agreement and then blessed from above. Christ dwells in His people, and the Father is in the Son. The faithful are made one because the Son gives Himself to them and brings them into His own communion with the Father.

“Made perfect in one” means brought to completion or maturity in unity. Instant sentiment is not the point. Pride, suspicion, resentment, and self-will have to be healed. A believer may be doctrinally precise and still immature if contempt rules the tongue. A parish may be busy and still immature if service becomes a contest. Christ prays for a unity that reaches faith, love, speech, worship, and shared mission.

The last clause is almost too great to measure: the world may know that the Father sent the Son “and have loved them as You have loved Me.” Jesus is not saying that the Father loves the Church apart from the Son, or that creatures become the Son by nature. He is saying that believers are drawn into the love with which the Father loves the Son. The Church is loved in Christ.

This same verse must not be used to shame wounded or marginalized people as if their pain caused the Church’s fractures. Rivalry, contempt, gossip, and factional service should be called to repentance. The wounded are not the problem the prayer is trying to erase.

Language insight - Made perfect in one

“May be made perfect in one” renders τετελειωμένοι εἰς ἕν (teteleiōmenoi eis hen). The perfect participle of teleioō speaks of a brought-to-completion reality: finished, matured, fulfilled. “Into one” gives the direction of that completion. The wording lets a teacher speak of unity as Christ’s work in a people, not as a demand for superficial uniformity, and not as permission to deny truth or harm for the sake of appearances.

Gems from the Fathers 💎: Unity by grace, not equality of nature

St Athanasius supplies the doctrinal guardrail for the comparison “just as We are one.” On his reading of these verses, the Son is one with the Father by nature, while believers become one with one another by looking to that divine unity as a pattern and by receiving grace. The comparison teaches an example to follow, not identity or equality of nature. The Word remains uniquely one with the Father; the faithful become one body and one spirit through Christ’s incarnation and saving work.3

St John Chrysostom makes the same distinction pastorally. Treating the petition “that they all may be one,” he refuses to read the comparison with the Father and the Son as exact equality for human beings; the likeness is only as far as human nature can receive it.4 He also treats division as a missionary wound: discord scandalizes those who watch the Church, and Christ therefore provides for believers to be one.5 Later in the same homily he argues that peace draws people more strongly than a wonder, because strife drives them apart while concord binds them together.6

With Him Where He Is (John 17:24-26)

24 “Father, I desire that they also whom You gave Me may be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory which You have given Me; for You loved Me before the foundation of the world.

25 O righteous Father! The world has not known You, but I have known You; and these have known that You sent Me.

26 And I have declared to them Your name, and will declare it, that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them.”

Jesus does not end with an earthly strategy. He ends with desire: “Father, I desire that they also whom You gave Me may be with Me where I am.” The final hope of the Church is not merely that Christians cooperate better, suffer less, or become morally improved. It is to be with Christ and behold His glory.

That hope consoles the sufferer and the dying. It must not be reduced to worldly success, and it must not become an excuse to neglect present love, repentance, and faithfulness. Beholding His glory is the Church’s end; it is not permission to treat this life as a waiting room.

This glory is not newly invented. The Father loved the Son before the foundation of the world. The Son’s prayer opens a window into eternal love. Salvation is not God’s emergency response to human failure. It is the gift of being brought, through the incarnate Son, into the love that is before creation.

Jesus calls the Father “righteous Father” because the world has not known Him, but the Son knows Him. The world’s ignorance is not equal to the Son’s knowledge. The Son alone knows the Father perfectly and makes Him known. The disciples know that the Father sent Him because He has revealed the Father’s name.

The last words are intimate: “that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them.” Christ does not merely command believers to imitate divine love from far away. He declares the Father’s name and dwells in His people so that the Father’s love for the Son may be in them. We do not first create love and then ask Christ to bless it. He reveals the Father, gives Himself, and plants divine love in the Church. Unity is the fruit of Christ in us.

Language insight - Desire, and the love placed in them

“I desire” translates θέλω (thelō): active willing. Christ wants those given to Him to be with Him and to behold His glory. The Christian hope has a personal center. Improved earthly relations are not the destination.

John 17 ends with the ἀγάπη / ἀγαπάω (agapē / agapaō) word family: the Father loved the Son before the foundation of the world, and Jesus prays that this love may be in His disciples. The point is not a general wish that believers be nicer. Christ prays that the Church participate by grace in the divine love revealed between the Father and the Son.

The Church’s Voice in Worship ⛪

In the Holy Fifty Days, the Coptic Church hears John 17:22-26 as the Liturgy Gospel on Friday of the fifth week. The Son’s prayer for completed unity, His indwelling, and the Father’s love is therefore heard in the Resurrection season as the Church approaches Pentecost. Unity here belongs to risen life in Christ, ordered toward witness and fulfilled in communion with Him.

The session is also divided across adjacent Holy Fifty Days Liturgy readings: John 17:18-21 on Thursday of the fifth week, and the larger John 17:14-26 on Saturday of the seventh week. John 17:20-26 is not one standalone annual reading. No named feast, saint, named Sunday, or wider Orthodox title is established for this session. Public-edition provenance for these placements requires verification.

Spiritual Fruit 🍇

Receive the comfort that Christ prayed for you before you knew Him. If you came late, if your faith feels secondhand, if you live far from the first witnesses, you are still inside “those who will believe in Me through their word.” Treasure that word. Read it, hear it in the Church, and refuse the habit of inventing a more convenient Christ.

Repent of casual division. Rivalry for recognition, contempt for another servant, gossip that dresses itself as concern, and ministry that treats the parish as a stage all contradict the prayer of Christ. Name these things in confession. Ask for a tongue that can bless the person you have used as a rival. The wounded and the overlooked are not the cause of the Church’s fractures; they are often the first to suffer them.

Seek a unity that can bear truth. Holy oneness is not denial, pressure, or the hiding of sin. If disclosure of harm is needed, if repentance is required, if a weaker person must be protected, do not invoke John 17 as a reason to keep quiet. Pray instead for the communion that can face the light because it lives in the Father and the Son.

Let Christ mature your love. “Made perfect in one” is not a slogan for faster agreement. It is grace healing the pride that cannot share honor, the fear that cannot trust a brother, and the self-will that will not be corrected. Ask for the indwelling the Lord names: “I in them, and You in Me.” Practice that prayer in the Liturgy, in reconciliation, and in unnoticed service.

Set your hope on being with Christ. The Father loved the Son before the foundation of the world, and the Son desires that you behold His glory. Do not shrink salvation into moral improvement or earthly cooperation. Do not use that hope as an escape from present mercy. Receive the love with which the Father loves the Son as love given to you in Christ, and let that love become the way you remain in His people.

The night before the Cross, the Son speaks your name without speaking your name. He looks past the first circle and asks the Father for those who will believe through their word. He asks that you be one in Them, that you be brought to completion in one, that you be with Him where He is. Stand inside that prayer. Let it judge your rivalries. Let it guard the wounded. Let it teach you to want what He wants: His glory seen, His love in you, and He Himself in you.

Footnotes

  1. St Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on John, Book XI, Chapter III, on John 17:20-21, Tertullian.org ↩

  2. St John Chrysostom, Homilies on John, Homily LXXXIV, on John 17:20, CCEL ↩

  3. St Athanasius of Alexandria, Discourses Against the Arians, Discourse III, sections 20-22, CCEL ↩

  4. St John Chrysostom, Homilies on John, Homily LXXXIV, on John 17:21, CCEL ↩

  5. St John Chrysostom, Homilies on John, Homily LXXXIV, on John 17:21, CCEL ↩

  6. St John Chrysostom, Homilies on John, Homily LXXXIV, on John 17:23, CCEL ↩

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