⁹ “I ask on their behalf; I do not ask on behalf of the world, but of those whom You have given Me; for they are Yours …”

Popular religion would have us believe that, “We are all God’s children,” emphasizing our commonality and unity with all people. If by this it is meant that all humans are created in God’s image, there may be a measure of truth to the saying. However, Jesus in His Upper Room prayer clearly delineates between His disciples and the rest of humanity (“the world”). In His eyes a person is either a follower of His or not, there is no in-between. In fact, biblically, not all people are “children of God,” as is clear from John’s earlier record, “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name” (John 1:12). Only believers, those who “receive” Christ are children of God.

Even the term “disciple” must be understood correctly. In biblical terminology, there are not two kinds of Christians, as though certain kinds of Christians are more committed to the disciplines of the Christian life, and therefore are “disciples” Conversely, it is thought that those who are not so committed, while being Christians, are not necessarily disciples. The Bible, however, does not use the term disciple in this way. In NT times, a disciple was simply one who followed the teachings of Jesus, at least identifying with Jesus outwardly. Judas, for example, was initially identified as a disciple (Luke 6:12, 16), but proved to be a false one. So also the multitude that followed Jesus and were fed by Him were called disciples, but most of them quit following Christ when His teachings became difficult to swallow (John 6:66).

Jesus here is not praying for Judas, nor for the multitude who stopped following Him. Nor does He pray for superficial disciples who pass themselves off as believers, but are not (the tares among the wheat, to use the words of one of Jesus’ parables – Matt 13:36-43). He prays for those “You have given Me,” that is, the elect of God. He uses no figures of speech, but speaks very clearly with very specific words. This is a very select group of individuals that Jesus has in mind and it is clear, from the context, that group initially included those in the Upper Room with the Lord. But it also includes “those also who believe in Me through their word” (vs. 20). We who believe today are part of the elect of God.

While God so loves the world (and in John, that word most often refers to the entire world of humanity), Jesus prays for the select (relatively few) image-bearing humans. This is the inner circle of God’s family, those privileged to have the Son of God making mention of them to the Father.

Lord, I am overwhelmed that You actually talk to the Father about me. Wow!