Commentaries:
Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown
I speak in the world, that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves—that is, Such a strain befits rather the upper sanctuary than the scene of conflict; but I speak so "in the world," that My joy, the joy I experience in knowing that such intercessions are to be made for them by their absent Lord, may be tasted by those who now hear them, and by all who shall hereafter read the record of them,
I pray for them—not as individuals merely, but as representatives of all such in every succeeding age (see on John 17:20).
not for the world—for they had been given Him "out of the world" (John 17:6), and had been already transformed into the very opposite of it. The things sought for them, indeed, are applicable only to such.
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