And I have declared unto them thy name
Himself, his nature, his perfections, especially of grace and
mercy, his mind and will, his Gospel; (See Gill on John
17:6). A very fit person Christ was to make this
declaration, since he was with him from all eternity, and was in
his bosom; the Father did all in him, and his name is in him; and
he is the faithful witness; nor is anything of God to be known
savingly, but in and through Christ; the apostles are here
particularly meant, though the same is true with respect to all
that are given to Christ, who are his children and brethren, to
whom he also declares the name of God:
and will declare it;
more fully to them after his resurrection, during his forty days'
stay with them, and upon his ascension, when he poured down his
Spirit in such a plentiful and extraordinary manner upon them;
and will declare it to others besides them in the Gentile world;
and still more in the latter day glory, and to all believers more
and more:
that the love wherewith thou hast loved me, may be in
them;
that is, that a sense of that love with which God loves his Son,
as Mediator, might be in them and abide in them, and which is the
rather mentioned because they are loved by the Father with the
same love, and share all the blessed consequences of it, the
knowledge and sense of which they come at, through Christ's
declaring his Father's name unto them; and which they will have a
greater sense of, and will be swallowed up in it in heaven to all
eternity:
and I in them;
dwelling in them, taking up his residence in them; not only by
his Spirit and grace here, but by his glorious presence with them
hereafter; when they shall be brought to his Father's house,
behold his glory, and be for ever with him.