Commentaries:
Deuteronomy 6:4 states, "The LORD our Elohim is one LORD." In John 17:5, Jesus establishes that there was a time when He was alongside the Father, but now He says that He is with, alongside of, His disciples. He is not alongside of the Father, and in this context, He asks the Father, "that they [the apostles] may be one as we are." What kind of oneness is this, if it is not being "alongside of"? John 17:21 shows this unity is actually "inside of"!
John W. Ritenbaugh
The Nature of God: Elohim
He refers to God's name three times in this brief and exceedingly important prayer! The name represents what He spent His ministry revealing to us about God. He keeps us through His name both by our trusting in what it means and our obedience to how it shows we should live.
He defines eternal life as "to know God." "Know" suggests a very close intimacy, just as a husband and wife are intimate in marriage (Genesis 4:1). It indicates experiential knowledge, not theoretical. In Amos 5:4, God exclaims, "Seek Me and live!" He is saying, "Turn to Me and My way of life; seek to know Me," not "Search for Me," because He has already revealed Himself to us. He is saying, "Seek to know Me by living the same way I do." That is how experiential knowledge of Him becomes an intimate knowing of Him. He will walk with such people (Amos 3:3).
Aionis, the word translated "eternal," deals less with duration of life (although it is included), than it does with quality of life. Living endlessly is not necessarily good. Would anyone want to live forever with a demon's quality of life? True eternal life is the life of God. To possess it means experiencing now some of its splendor because it is being lived and producing its glorious fruits.
Psalm 9:10 adds, "And those who know Your name will put their trust in You; for You, Lord, have not forsaken those who seek You." Those living by faith do not trust in what He is called, for that would be mere superstition. Their faith is in what He is, His character and nature, which they have experienced by seeking to live His way.
John W. Ritenbaugh
The Third Commandment
Related Topics:
We become caught in and must endure this world's wars, economic swings, prejudices, social unrest, natural disasters, and accidents. We are exposed to the same diseases as everybody else. All these can and do strike us with fear and trouble our hearts, destroying peace. In this world it is very easy to anticipate that a disaster can occur at any moment.
John W. Ritenbaugh
The Fruit of the Spirit: Peace
Jesus said that He and His "Father" are "one" (John 10:30; 17:11), yet it is plain that the Father is greater in authority (John 14:28; I Corinthians 11:3). The Father and Son are one in purpose and attitude, but the Father is greater in authority since Christ?the "Word," or Logos?made all things by His authority. The Father has always been in supreme command in the Family or Kingdom of God?long before the Word became a human being.
What It Means to Be Born Again
Related Topics:
Was the Son literally inside of the Father so that they were one? Was the Father and His body inside the Son? Of course not—They were separated by how millions of miles of distance between where the Son was on earth and where the Father was in heaven. They were in union with one another in mind, in will, in purpose.
What were They doing? They were joined together in the accomplishment of the same purpose, and now Jesus prays that we might be one with Them in the accomplishment of the same purpose, having the same will, the same mind, the same character, the same hopes, the same goals, the same end in life.
John W. Ritenbaugh
Image and Likeness of God (Part 4)
Related Topics:
Other commentary entries containing this verse:
Matthew 11:12
Matthew 13:44
Matthew 13:44
John 10:30
John 17:11
1 Corinthians 5:12-13
Library resources that contain this verse:
E-mail this page
