Albert Barnes Commentary John 17:26

"and I made known unto them thy name, and will make it known; that the love wherewith thou lovedst me may be in them, and I in them." — John 17:26 (ASV)

Your name. See Barnes on John 17:6.

And will declare it. After my resurrection, and by the influence of the Holy Spirit (Luke 24:45; Acts 1:3).

I in them. By my doctrines and the influences of my Spirit. That my religion may show its power, and produce its proper fruits in their minds (Galatians 4:19). The discourse in the fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth chapters is the most tender and sublime that was ever pronounced in our world.

No composition can be found anywhere so fitted to sustain the soul in trial or to support it in death. This sublime and beautiful discourse is appropriately closed by a solemn and most affecting prayer—a prayer at once expressive of the profoundest reverence for God and the tenderest love for men—simple, grave, tender, sublime, and full of consolation.

It is the model for our prayers, and with like reverence, faith, and love we should come before God. This prayer for the church will yet be fully answered; and he who loves the church and the world cannot but cast his eyes onward to that time when all believers shall be one, when contentions, bigotry, strife, and anger shall cease, and when, in perpetual union and love, Christians shall show forth the power and purity of that holy gospel with which the Saviour came to bless mankind. Soon may that happy day arise!