JOHN 17:9 — KING JAMES VERSION 0
“I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me; for they are thine.”
I am praying for them; I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, because they are yours — The pivot toward intercession for the disciples marks a transition in the prayer's focus. The statement "not for the world but for those you have given me" does not indicate lack of concern for the cosmos but rather distinction of purpose: the disciples become instruments through which salvation is offered to the world (17:20-23). Their election as those "yours" establishes divine ownership.
Church Fathers on John 17:9
As the disciples were still sad in spite of all our Lord’s consolations, henceforth He addresses Himself to the Father to show the love which He had for them; I pray for them; He not only gives them what He has of His own, but entreats another for them, as a still further proof of His love.
When He adds, I pray not for the world, by the world He means those who live according to the lust of the world, and have not the lot to be chosen by grace out of the world, as those had for whom He prayed: But for them which you have given Me. It was because the Father had given Him them, that they did not belong to the world. Nor yet had the Father, in giving them to the Son, lost what He had given: For they are Yours.
Read all 13 entries in the readerCatena Aurea · St. Thomas Aquinas, tr. J. H. Newman · public domain
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