John 17:23Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Thus He has said that they will be safe, that they will not be led astray, that they will be holy, that many will believe through them, that they will be counted worthy of great glory, and that not only He Himself loved them, but also the Father...

Though He existed with the Father from eternity and from the beginning, He accepts this abasement with the flesh, with this earthly and mortal covering. He accepts it with the human form considered according to its own nature, apart from its union with the divine nature in Christ. This form necessarily asks, as though by grace, for what belongs to Him by divine nature, for He was and is in the form and equality of the Father.

The flesh from the Woman, or the whole temple from the Virgin, is not consubstantial with God the Father and is not identical with Him by nature. Yet once it was received into the body of the Word, and once it had been made the body of the Word, it is thereafter counted as one with Him. For there is one Christ and one Son, even when He became man.

For this reason Christ is understood as having received unity with God and the Father, being received into this unity even with the flesh, which does not by itself have one being with God. If it must be said more briefly and clearly, the Only-begotten says that what was given to His flesh was given to Himself. This was given, of course, from the Father, through Him, in the Spirit.

For the form of unity with God has no other path, even when considered in relation to Christ, inasmuch as He appeared and was called man. Through union with the Spirit, the flesh is sanctified by an ineffable mode of conjunction. Thus it ascends to an unconfused union with God the Word and, through Him, with the Father, clearly by position, that is, by union with the Word, and not by nature.

This grace and glory, He says, given to Me by Thee, Father, clearly the grace and glory of being one with Thee, "I have given to them, that they may be one as We are one."

We are united with one another in the ways already described. But we are also united with God. The Lord gave us the clearest explanation of how this happens. Setting forth the benefit of His teaching, He says: "I in them, and Thou in Me, that they may be perfected into one."

The Son abides in us bodily as man, communicating Himself and uniting Himself with us through the mystical blessing, the Eucharist. He also abides in us spiritually as God, recreating our spirit for new life by the grace and activity of His Spirit, and making us partakers of His divine nature.

Therefore Christ is the bond of our unity with God and the Father. As man, He has bound us to Himself. As God, He unites us to God, being by nature in His Begetter.

It would otherwise have been impossible to raise to incorruption a nature subject to corruption. The Nature that stands above all corruption and change had to descend into it. In some manner it raises to its own good what is always falling downward. By communion and union with itself, it draws what belongs to created nature out of its proper limits, transforming into itself what is not such by itself.

Thus we are brought to unity with God and the Father through the Mediator Christ. We receive into ourselves, bodily and spiritually, as we have just said, Him who is by nature and truly Son, having essential unity with God the Father. Thereby we become glorious communicants and partakers of the Nature that surpasses all.

Yet in desiring that we be received into unity with God and the Father, Christ both conveys to our nature the benefit from the Father through Himself and shows that this power of grace must serve as a clear rebuke to those who think He is not from God.

Indeed, what place can remain for such slander if, through Himself, He raises to unity with the Father those who have been joined to Him through faith and true love?

Thus He says: When they obtain unity with Thee, Father, through Me, then "the world will know that Thou hast sent Me." That is, by Thy good pleasure I come to help the earth and to bring the divine economy of salvation to those who wander upon it.

Moreover, and no less, He says that those who have received such greatly desired grace will know that "Thou hast loved them as Thou hast loved Me." For He received into unity with Himself One who is like us and from us, that is, Christ, and counted Him worthy of such great love. Here again we speak of Him as man. Since He also gave us the ability to reach this, did He not equally accomplish the work of love?

Let this trouble no one who has understanding. It is evident and beyond dispute that a servant can in no way be equal to his Master. God the Father could not love His Son in the same measure as creatures.

Yet we must keep in mind that we see Him who was loved from eternity as though having a beginning of love when He became man. Therefore, having received what He had, He must be seen as having received it not for Himself, but for us.

He rose to life, destroying the dominion of death, not arranging resurrection for Himself, since He is the Word and God. Rather, He gave this to us through Himself and in Himself, because in Christ there was the whole nature of man, trampling down the bonds of death.

So also He must not be understood as having received love from the Father for Himself, since He was always and unceasingly beloved. Rather, to bring us the love of the Father, He receives it from Him also when He became man.

Therefore, as we shall be, and already have become, conformed to His Resurrection and glory in the firstfruits of the race and in the first one, Christ, so we have also received a likeness of love. We give the primacy in all things to the Only-begotten and rightly marvel at the incomparable mercy toward us of the divine nature. It grants His own blessings to creatures and communicates to created beings what belongs to Him and to Him alone.

Indeed, they become one not only by nature, in which all mortals become equal to the angels, but also by unity of will.

In perfect agreement, they labor for one and the same blessedness, burning with the fire of love toward one spirit.

Then He added: "I in them, and Thou in Me, that they may be made perfect in one."

Here He spoke briefly of Himself as Mediator between God and men.

This was not said as though the Father does not dwell in us, or as though we do not dwell in the Father. Elsewhere He also says, "We will come to him and make Our dwelling with him" (Jn 14:23).

And a little earlier in this chapter He did not say, "I in them, and Thou in Me," as He has just said. Nor did He say, "They in Me, and I in Thee."

Rather He said, "Thou in Me, and I in Thee, and they in Us" (cf. Jn 17:21).

Therefore what He now says, "I in them, and Thou in Me," is spoken in the person of the Mediator. It is like the Apostle's words: "You are Christ's, and Christ is God's" (1 Cor 3:23).

But when He added, "that they may be made perfect in one," He shows that the reconciliation effected through the Mediator leads us to the enjoyment of perfect blessedness.

Nothing can be added to that blessedness.

Therefore the words that follow, "that the world may know that Thou hast sent Me," should not, I think, be understood as if He again said, "that the world may believe."

One might think this, because the verb "to know" is sometimes used for "to believe." Thus He says a little above: "They have truly known that I came forth from Thee, and they have believed that Thou hast sent Me" (Jn 17:8).

When He later said "they have believed," He said the same thing as He had earlier said by "they have known."

But since here He is speaking about the attainment of perfection, "knowing" must be understood as it will be by sight, not as it now is by faith.

For the order seems preserved. A little earlier He said, "that the world may believe," and here, "that the world may know."

There He said, "that all may be one," and "may be one in Us." Yet He did not say, "that they may be perfected in one."

Instead He added, "that the world may believe that Thou hast sent Me."

Here, however, He says, "that they may be made perfect in one," and afterward He does not add, "that the world may believe," but, "that the world may know that Thou hast sent Me."

For while we believe what we do not see, we are not yet as perfect as we shall be when we are found worthy to see what we believe.

Thus He said very rightly there, "that the world may believe," and here, "that the world may know."

Yet both there and here He said, "that Thou hast sent Me." By this we may know how much is given by the inseparable love of the Father and the Son.

It is given that we now believe what we strive to understand through faith.

If He had said, "that they may know that Thou hast sent Me," this would have had the same meaning as His words, "that the world may know."

For they themselves are the world. They are not the world that remains hostile, as the world predestined to condemnation is hostile.

They are the world that has been made friendly from hostile, for which God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself (2 Cor 5:19).

Therefore He said, "I in them, and Thou in Me," as though saying: "I am in those to whom Thou hast sent Me, and Thou art in Me, reconciling the world to Thyself in Me."

For this reason He says the words that follow: "and hast loved them as Thou hast loved Me."

That is, the Father loves us in the Son, since He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world (Eph 1:4).

For whoever loves the Only-begotten undoubtedly loves His members also, whom He adopted in Him through Him.

Yet we are not equal to the Only-begotten Son, through whom we were created and recreated, because it is said, "Thou hast loved them as Thou hast loved Me."

One who says, "This is as that," does not indicate constant equality. Sometimes it means only, "Since this is so, that also is so," or, "Since this is so, that also will be so."

Who would say that the Apostles were sent by Christ into the world in exactly the same way as He Himself was sent by the Father?

To pass over other differences, which would take long to enumerate, they were sent as men already existing. He was sent in order to become man.

And yet He said above: "As Thou hast sent Me into the world, so I have sent them into the world" (Jn 17:18).

It is as though He said: "Since Thou hast sent Me, I have sent them."

So also in this place He says, "Thou hast loved them as Thou hast loved Me." This is nothing other than, "Thou hast loved them because Thou hast loved Me."

For He who loves the Son cannot fail to love the members of the Son.

And what other reason is there for loving His members, except love for Him Himself?

But He loves the Son according to the Godhead, for He begot Him equal to Himself. He also loves Him according to His being man.

For the Only-begotten Word became flesh (Jn 1:14), and because of the Word, the flesh of the Word is dear to Him.

He loves us because we are members of Him whom He loves. And that we might become such, He loved us before we became such.

Therefore the love with which God loves is incomprehensible and unchangeable.

He did not begin to love us from the time when we were reconciled to Him through the blood of His Son.

Rather, He loved us before the foundation of the world, so that we, together with His Only-begotten Son, might also become His children before we received any existence.

Therefore, that we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son must not be understood in this way.

It must not be received as though the Son reconciled us to Him so that He might begin to love those whom He had hated.

That would be like an enemy reconciled to an enemy, so that afterward they become friends and love one another, though before they hated each other.

Rather, we were reconciled to Him who already loved us, with whom we were at enmity because of our sin.

Let the Apostle bear witness whether I have spoken the truth in this case: "God proves His love toward us, in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us" (Rom 5:8).

Thus He had love for us even when, by showing enmity toward Him, we were committing iniquity.

Yet it was truly said to Him: "Thou hatest, O Lord, all who work iniquity" (cf. Ps 5:6).

Therefore in a wondrous and divine manner He loved us even when He hated us.

For He hated us as we were when He had not made us. Since our iniquity did not utterly destroy His works, in each of us He both hated what we had made and loved what He had made.

Indeed, both may be concluded about Him to whom it was most truly said: "Thou loathest nothing that Thou hast made" (Wis 11:25).

For He would never have willed that something begin to exist which He would hate. Nor would anything ever have begun to exist whose coming to be the Almighty had not willed.

This is true unless even in what He hates there is something that He loves.

To be sure, He justly hates and reproves vice as alien to the order of His creative work.

Yet in relation to those who have fallen away, He loves both His mercy, by which He heals, and His judgment, by which He punishes.

Thus God hates nothing of what He has made. As Creator of essences and not of vices, He did not create the evil which He hates.

Indeed, from this very evil arise the good things which He creates, either by healing in mercy or by setting in order through condemnation.

Since He hates nothing of what He has made, who could worthily express how much He loves the members of His Only-begotten Son?

How much more does He love the Only-begotten Himself, in whom all things visible and invisible are ordered, which He loves according to the order of their creation?

For by the abundance of His grace He made the members of the Only-begotten Son equal to the holy Angels.

Since the Only-begotten Son is Lord of all, He is undoubtedly Lord also of the Angels.

By the nature according to which He is God, He is not equal to Angels, but to the Father.

By the grace according to which He is man, does He not surpass the splendor of every Angel, since flesh and Word in Him are one Person?

There are, however, not a few who set us above the Angels because, as they say, Christ died for us and not for Angels.

But what is this except a desire to glory in impiety?

For Christ, as the Apostle says, died at the appointed time for the ungodly (Rom 5:6).

Here our merit is not affirmed, but the mercy of God.

How impious is the one who praises himself because he was so weakened by his vice that he could not be healed except through the death of the Physician?

This is not praise of our merits, but the healing of diseases.

Or are we above Angels because, when Angels also sinned, no such thing was given to heal them?

As though something lesser had been given to them, and something greater to us.

Even if this were so, one could still ask whether it was done because we were placed higher, or because we were in a more desperate condition.

Since we know that the Creator of all good things offered no grace for the restoration of the evil angels, why should we not conclude that the guilt of those whose nature is higher deserved greater punishment?

For they ought to have sinned so much less than we, as they were higher than we.

Having insulted the Creator, they showed themselves all the more ungrateful for His mercy, the greater the mercy with which they were created.

Nor was it enough for them to fall away from Him. They also wished to become our deceivers.

Therefore He who loved us as He loved Christ brought us a great good.

For the sake of Him whose members He willed us to become, we are made equal to the holy Angels (cf. Lk 20:36).

In comparison with them we were created lower even by nature. Because of sin, we became still more unworthy to attain in any way the communion with them for which we are destined.

If they begin to question the words "You have loved them as You have loved Me," supposing that a comparison is implied here, then they should seek a comparison also in the words, "Be merciful, as your Father is merciful" (Lk 6:36). And again elsewhere, "Be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect" (Mt 5:48). If He is perfect in the fullness of His glory, then we are perfected by growth in virtues. The Father loves the Son according to the unchanging fullness of love. In us, growth in virtues is counted worthy of God's love. Therefore, seeing what grace God has given to men, why do you wish to divide the natural and indivisible love of the Father and the Son? Why do you do this by nullifying the words in which you notice mention of the unity of majesty?

"And You have loved them as You have loved Me." The proof of God's love for men was that He did not spare His Son for them. Here also "as" does not indicate equality, but only a certain likeness, as was shown before. Jesus Christ often repeats this word to give the disciples some consolation through such a comparison and to inspire greater boldness. Up to this point Jesus Christ has spoken of love and concord. Next He will speak of the rewards and crowns prepared after this present life, so as to encourage His followers still more.

They say that "we have two eyes of the soul, and the benefit of vision through them is not the same. With one sight we see what is hidden in natural things, that is, God's power, His wisdom, and His providence for us, perceived through the greatness of His guidance of us. With the other sight we see the glory of His holy nature, when God is well pleased to bring us into the spiritual mysteries."

Since both are sight, what is seen by them is light. Since the benefit of the two kinds of sight is not the same, a certain duality appears in the vision of light.

By each sight a different light is seen, which is not seen by the other sight.

The divine Isaac explained to us what each of them is. He called one the apprehension of God's power, wisdom, and providence, and in general the knowledge of the Creator drawn from created things.

The other he called the vision, not of God's nature, lest slanderers again find a pretext for attack, but of "the glory of His nature."

This is the vision which the Lord gave to His disciples, and through them to all who have believed in Him and have shown their faith in deed. This is what He willed them to have.

"I desire," He says to the Father, "that these may behold My glory, which Thou hast given Me, having loved Me from the foundation of the world" (Jn 17:24).

And again: "Glorify Me, O Father, with Thyself, with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was" (Jn 17:5).

Thus He gave the glory of divinity also to human nature, but He did not give the divine nature itself. Therefore the divine nature is one thing, and its glory another, though they are not separated from one another.

At the same time, although the glory is distinct from God's nature, it cannot be numbered among things that exist in time. It surpasses existence and belongs ineffably to the nature of God.

God granted this glory, which surpasses all that exists, not only to the composite hypostatically united to Him, but also to the disciples.

"The glory which Thou hast given Me, O Father," says the Lord, "I have given them, that as We are one, so they may be one, I in them and Thou in Me, that they may be perfected in one" (Jn 17:22-23).

He also willed that the disciples should behold it. This glory is that by which we acquire God within ourselves and see Him in the proper sense of the word.

But how do we acquire and behold this glory of the divine essence? Is it by examining the laws of beings and through them grasping knowledge of divine wonderworking, wisdom, and providence?

No. All such things belong to the other sight of the soul. By it one cannot see the divine light, "the glory of His nature," according to what was said above by Saint Isaac and all the other Fathers.

Therefore the divine light is not the same as the light that shares its name with knowledge.

For this reason, God does not dwell in everyone who possesses knowledge of beings, or who sees by means of such knowledge. Such a person has only knowledge of creatures, from which he conjectures about God by probable reasoning.

By contrast, the mystical possessor of the divine light sees no longer from probability. He sees in true contemplation, which raises him above every creature.

He knows and possesses God within himself, because God is not separated from His eternal glory.

One need only not be troubled, nor lose hope because of the greatness of this benefaction. Rather, believing Him who became a partaker of our nature and imparted to it the glory of His own nature, one must seek how the gift of this vision is acquired.

And how is it acquired? By keeping the commandments. To the one who keeps them, the Lord promised His divine manifestation.

Afterward He also called this manifestation His own and the Father's dwelling, saying: "If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word, and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our dwelling with him."

And again: "I will manifest Myself to him" (Jn 14:21, 23).

It is clear that by "word" here He means His commandments. Above, instead of the "word" mentioned here, He said "commandments."

"He who has My commandments and keeps them," He says, "it is he who loves Me" (Jn 14:21).

From this too it is clear, and precisely in direct relation to the philosopher's arguments and teachings, that the gracious vision of God is in no way knowledge of beings, however displeasing this may be to him.

Only one must remember that we do not call such vision knowledge because it surpasses knowledge. Likewise, we do not call God a being, for we believe that He is above being.

How then does it follow, against the philosopher's will, from his own arguments that the divine light is not the same as knowledge?

He says that the darkness of ignorance cannot be driven from the soul by keeping the commandments. He says that only learning and persistent study can do this.

What does not drive out ignorance can in no way give knowledge. Yet precisely what, according to him, does not give knowledge leads, according to the Lord's word, to the vision of God.

Therefore this vision of God is not knowledge.

It should be reckoned and called not merely non-knowledge or unknowable, except by loose usage and equivocation, or perhaps properly, but as something unique.

I say that this vision should be reckoned not only as scarcely knowledge, but as incomparably surpassing every knowledge and every knowing contemplation.

This is true if nothing is higher than God's indwelling and manifestation in us, and if nothing is equal or even close to it.

We know that the fulfillment of God's commandments also supplies knowledge, and true knowledge. For only in this way does health come.

How can the rational soul possess rationality if its faculty of knowledge is diseased?

Thus we know that God's commandments supply knowledge, but not knowledge alone. They also supply deification.

We receive this deification when we fully acquire and behold within ourselves, by the Spirit, the glory of God, whenever God is well pleased to bring us into His spiritual mysteries, according to the saint named above.

Since the saint mentioned Fathers who say the same thing, we too shall pass over all who lived after him. Let us see what the saints before him said about the glory of God.

Only the initiated behold this glory mysteriously and ineffably. First among them are the eyewitnesses and Apostles of the one God and Father of our Jesus Christ.

Through Him "every fatherhood" is named in the fullness of the Holy Church (Eph 3:15). Before the Apostles stands again their chief, Peter.

He says: "We did not follow cunningly devised fables when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of His majesty" (2 Pet 1:16).

What glory of the Lord Jesus Christ did he witness? Let another Apostle show us: "When they were awake," he says, "Peter and those with him saw the glory of Christ" (Lk 9:32).

What was this glory? Let another Evangelist come forward and bear witness: "His face shone like the sun, and His garments became white as light" (Mt 17:2).

The Lord showed them that He is God, "clothing Himself with light as with a garment," according to the psalmist (Ps 103:2).

For this reason, after saying that he saw the glory of Christ "on the holy mountain," he speaks of the light that, wondrous to say, illumined even hearing.

For they saw there a luminous cloud sounding with words. After the vision of this glory of Christ, he says, "We have the prophetic word made more sure."

What prophetic word made more sure did you receive after the contemplation of the light, O seers of God? What could it be, except that God "clothes Himself with light as with a garment"?

"And you do well," says the Apostle, "to hold fast to this prophetic word, as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns."

What day? Surely the day that shone on Tabor.

"And the morning star rises." What morning star? Surely the one that shone there upon Peter, James, and John.

"Until this morning star rises." Where? "In our hearts" (2 Pet 1:18-19).

Is it not clear that this light now shines in the hearts of the faithful and perfect?

Is it not clear that it immeasurably surpasses the light of knowledge?

It surpasses not only the knowledge acquired from Hellenic learning. Such knowledge is unworthy even to be called knowledge, since it is entirely false or mingled with falsehood.

It is closer to darkness than to light. I say that the light of this vision differs not only from this knowledge, but also from knowledge of the divine Scriptures.

The difference is so great that the light of knowledge may be compared to a lamp shining in a dark place. The light of mystical vision is like the morning star shining by day, that is, like the sun.

The glory of God is as transcendent above all that exists as God Himself. Dionysius the Areopagite calls God "non-existing" because He surpasses every kind of existence (Mystical Theology 5: PG 3, 1048A).

In the apocryphal Acts of the Apostles, expressions concerning the second Person of the Trinity include "Merciful Father, Savior Christ" and "I am the Father of all these ages."

Melito of Sardis also calls Christ Father in his Homily on the Passion of Christ, 9.

Theodoret of Cyrus speaks of the saving title of Jesus Christ, saying that He is "Father of the age to come, because as Adam is called father of the present age, so He is Father of the age to come" (Commentary on Isaiah 9:6).

The name Father for Christ also occurs in certain works ascribed to Saint Macarius of Egypt, and in ascetical and mystical writings of later centuries. Yet it is not found in the great teachers of the Church.

Its basis in Holy Scripture is Isa 9:6: "For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given; the government is upon His shoulders, and His name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Father of eternity."

Foreseeing all this, Jesus knew that victory would not come easily to His disciples. Without special support from above, they could not even emerge victorious from the struggle before them. Therefore, after giving them all His final farewell instructions, He turns in supplication to His Father. He asks Him to preserve their faith from every temptation and wavering. He asks Him to sanctify them by His truth. He asks Him to make them worthy, after completing their earthly contest, to be where He, Christ, will be. He prays that not only they, but all who believe through their word, may be united by self-sacrificing love for one another. He prays that they may abide in constant union with Him, Jesus Christ, and with the Father who sent Him.

This is the same idea that the holy Apostle Paul expressed contemplatively in his words about Jesus Christ: God highly exalted Him, "that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that the Lord Jesus Christ is to the glory of God the Father" (Phil 2:10-11). In this glorified body of the Church, the unbelieving world will also be convinced, whether willingly or not, that You, Father, have loved them, that is, the believers, as You loved Me. This is the same fatherly love with which You loved Your only-begotten Son as Redeemer of the world (Jn 3:16; Eph 1:5). This same thought, concerning the union of all believers in the glorious Kingdom of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, the Lord expresses clearly in the following words:

It is the glory by which believers, even on earth, are being transformed more and more into the image of the glory of the Lord Jesus, by the power of the Holy Spirit (2 Cor 3:18). Such is the privilege of those who believe in Christ Jesus. O my listeners, let us treasure the lofty dignity of the Christian in ourselves and in others. Let us take care not to lower our calling in any way. What are all earthly advantages in comparison with the glory with which we are clothed in Christ? Each neighbor of ours, as a Christian, must be for us an inviolable and exalted person. May the heavenly light enlighten the eyes of our heart, "that we may see what is the hope of God's calling, and how rich is His glorious inheritance for the saints" (Eph 1:18). The purpose for which the Savior clothed believers with such glory is the same purpose for which He asked the protection of the heavenly Father for believers (v. 21). The purpose is threefold: the unity of believers in living faith, their union with Christ and God, and the world's knowledge of the Son of God. May the God of grace and mercy be with us all. Amen.

As Chrysostom indicates, it is "the glory of miracles, the glory of teaching, and the glory of the disciples' mutual love and unanimity." Such glory was incomprehensible to the self-loving world of Jews and Gentiles, which knew no higher aims than narrow earthly calculations. All the words spoken by the Lord in His prayer refer not only to the bearers of the gospel, the Apostles, but also to those who were to receive from them the words and gifts of the Holy Spirit by faith. The Lord beholds the whole universe in space and time. The Lord sees the Church of Christ already possessing the world, though not yet embracing the whole world in our time, so long as there remain in it the unenlightened and unbelieving. But we know that the Lord's love also spoke of other sheep: "They will hear My voice, and there will be one flock and one shepherd" (Jn 10:16). This Shepherd is Christ, the second Hypostasis of the Holy Trinity, who assumed human flesh. He is the single link joining humanity to the Godhead, for, as He Himself said, "I am the door" (Jn 10:7). Through Him alone can we draw near to God, rise to the knowledge of God, and come to union with Him. "I in them, and You in Me." "You sent Me, and You loved them as You loved Me."