1Jesus said these things, then lifting up his eyes to heaven, he said, “Father, the time has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may also glorify you; 2even as you gave him authority over all flesh, so he will give eternal life to all whom you have given him. 3This is eternal life, that they should know you, the only true God, and him whom you sent, Jesus Christ. 4I glorified you on the earth. I have accomplished the work which you have given me to do. 5Now, Father, glorify me with your own self with the glory which I had with you before the world existed.
6“I revealed your name to the people whom you have given me out of the world. They were yours, and you have given them to me. They have kept your word. 7Now they have known that all things whatever you have given me are from you, 8for the words which you have given me I have given to them; and they received them, and knew for sure that I came from you. They have believed that you sent me. 9I pray for them. I don’t pray for the world, but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours. 10All things that are mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them. 11I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them through your name which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are. 12While I was with them in the world, I kept them in your name. I have kept those whom you have given me. None of them is lost except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. 13But now I come to you, and I say these things in the world, that they may have my joy made full in themselves. 14I have given them your word. The world hated them because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. 15I pray not that you would take them from the world, but that you would keep them from the evil one. 16They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. 17Sanctify them in your truth. Your word is truth. 18As you sent me into the world, even so I have sent them into the world. 19For their sakes I sanctify myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth.
20“Not for these only do I pray, but for those also who will believe in me through their word, 21that they may all be one; even 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. 22The glory which you have given me, I have given to them, that they may be one, even as we are one, 23I in them, and you in me, that they may be perfected into one, that the world may know that you sent me and loved them, even as you loved me. 24Father, I desire that they also whom you have given me be with me where I am, that they may see my glory which you have given me, for you loved me before the foundation of the world. 25Righteous Father, the world hasn’t known you, but I knew you; and these knew that you sent me. 26I made known to them your name, and will make it known; that the love with which you loved me may be in them, and I in them.”
John would have been about 90 years old at the time of the writing of this letter. He has hammered home the faith's big ideas in his epistle. Jesus is God in the flesh. He continually forgives us. We should walk the talk. Love of God and others is paramount. Notice that the word “truth” is echoed again and again in this passage. Truth is centerpoint for the believer. The world tries to tell us that as Christians, we need to be tolerant of everything, but the reality is that what we believe is more important than what we tolerate in others. We must be centered in biblical truth. The most loving thing you can do is to tell someone the truth. Of course, we’re to do so in love. John mentions truth five times in this section of scripture. John could have been speaking to a literal woman, or he could have been referring to the Church as the “bride of Christ”. Sometimes these writers referred to churches as “she” or in a feminine sort of way.
John is speaking to those who know the truth and who abide in the truth. “Truth” in Greek (alétheia)1 can also refer to Jesus Himself or the Word of God. (Your Word is truth. John 17:17). In Greek, the word means “revealed” or "not hidden”. In common everyday Greek literature, it was synonymous with "reality" as the opposite of illusion, i.e., fact. I like that because it reminds us that knowing Jesus and knowing the truth of the Gospel is SPIRITUAL REALITY. There is no illusion here. When we have Jesus, we have that which is real. We hear a lot these days about different truths. One person will say, “Well, my truth is such and such.” Another will claim to have yet another truth. There is really no truth in any of this. There is one truth. The only truth that exists is what is called “objective truth.” Objective truth is truth based on facts rather than things that are imagined or invented.
The problem is that people often ignore the facts, even when they are right in front of them. In John 18, Jesus appears before Pontius Pilate. Jesus, THE TRUTH, was standing before Pilate, and yet Pilate did not recognize Jesus for who He was.
38 Pilate said to Him, “What is truth?” And when he had said this, he went out again to the Jews, and said to them, “I find no fault in Him at all. (John 18:37-38)
People still don’t see the truth when it is standing before them. As believers, we can be so comforted to know and understand that God’s Word is truth. The Bible is truth. We don’t have to be knocked off balance by a world gone mad. This is a great source of peace to all believers. Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life, no man cometh to the Father but by me.” (John 14:6) John adds that this reality will be in us forever. Reader, take hold of the truth. Rejoice in the truth. And today, live in the truth!
https://www.biblehub.com/greek/225.htm truth, but not merely truth as spoken; truth of idea, reality, sincerity, truth in the moral sphere, divine truth revealed to man, straightforwardness. ↩︎