John Calvin Commentary John 17:9

"I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for those whom thou hast given me; for they are thine:" — John 17:9 (ASV)

I pray for them. Until now, Christ has brought forward what might secure favor for the disciples with the Father. He now forms the prayer itself, in which He shows that He asks nothing but what is agreeable to the Father's will, because He pleads with the Father only on behalf of those whom the Father Himself willingly loves. He openly declares that He does not pray for the world, because He has no concern except for His own flock, which He received from the Father's hand.

But this might be thought to be absurd, for no better rule of prayer can be found than to follow Christ as our Guide and Teacher. Now, we are commanded to pray for all (1 Timothy 2:8), and Christ Himself afterwards prayed indiscriminately for all,

Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do,
(Luke 23:34)

I reply, the prayers which we offer for all are still limited to God's elect. We ought to pray that this person, and that person, and every person, may be saved, and thus include the whole human race, because we cannot yet distinguish the elect from the reprobate. And yet, while we desire the coming of God's kingdom, we also pray that God may destroy His enemies.

There is only this difference between the two cases: we pray for the salvation of all whom we know to have been created in God's image and who have the same nature as ourselves, and we leave to God's judgment those whom He knows to be reprobate.

But in the prayer related here, there was some special reason which ought not to be presented as an example. For Christ does not now pray from the mere impulse of faith and love towards people; instead, entering into the heavenly sanctuary, He places before His eyes the Father's secret judgments, which are concealed from us as long as we walk by faith.

Besides, we learn from these words that God chooses out of the world those whom He thinks fit to choose as heirs of life, and that this distinction is not made according to human merit but depends on His mere good-pleasure. For those who think that the cause of election is in human beings must begin with faith.

Now, Christ expressly declares that those who are given to Him belong to the Father; and it is certain that they are given so as to believe, and that faith flows from this act of giving. If the origin of faith is this act of giving, and if election comes before it in order and time, what remains but that we acknowledge that those whom God wishes to be saved out of the world are elected by free grace?

Now since Christ prays for the elect only, it is necessary for us to believe the doctrine of election if we wish that He should plead with the Father for our salvation. A grievous injury, therefore, is inflicted on believers by those persons who endeavor to blot out the knowledge of election from the hearts of believers, because they deprive them of the pleading and intercession of the Son of God.

These words also serve to expose the folly of those who, under the pretense of election, give themselves up to indolence, whereas it ought rather to arouse us to earnestness in prayer, as Christ teaches us by His example.