I ask on their behalf. I do not ask on behalf of the world, but on behalf of those You have given Me; for they are Yours.
9. I pray for them. Hitherto Christ has brought forward what might procure for the disciples favor with the Father. He now forms the prayer itself, in which he shows that he asks nothing but what is agreeable to the will of the Father, because he pleads with the Father in behalf of those only whom the Father himself willingly loves.
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
I pray for them,.... This is to be understood of Christ, not as God; for as such he is the object of prayer; nor need he pray to any other; nor is there any superior to him under that consideration to pray unto; but as man and Mediator: nor is his praying any argument against his deity; nor proof of inferiority to his Father with...