For I have given them the words You gave Me, and they have received them. They knew with certainty that I came from You, and they believed that You sent Me.
8. And they have received them. He expresses the manner of this knowledge. It is, because they have received the doctrine which he taught them. But that no one may think that his doctrine is human or is earthly in its origin, he declares that God is the Author of it, when he says, The words which thou gavest me I have given to them.
Christ, having prayed for himself, comes next to pray for those that are his, and he knew them by name, though he did not here name them. Now observe here, I. Whom he did not pray for (Joh 17:9): I pray not for the world. Note, There is a world of people that Jesus Christ did not pray for.
Commenting on John 17:6-10
For I have given unto them the words,.... Not commands, but doctrines; and these not the doctrines of men; nor any of the divers and strange doctrines; but what are called in Scripture the doctrine of God, of Christ, of the apostles, are agreeably to the Scriptures, and according to godliness; and are styled the word of truth, of faith, of righteousness, of peace and...