Give glory to your son, so that your son may glorify you,
The heart of Jesus is to show the world the glory of the Father. Jesus wants us to know him and through our knowledge of him, since he is sent by the Father, to know the Father himself. He does the work he does on earth in order to give glory to the Father. In revealing his own glory he reveals what he has with the Father before the world began. The Father's glory is the Son's and the Son's glory is the Father's.
I do not pray for the world but for the ones you have given me,
because they are yours, and everything of mine is yours
and everything of yours is mine,
and I have been glorified in them.
Eternal life means entering by belief into the glory of the Father and the Son. We share and manifest the glory of God by belief in the one true God and Jesus Christ whom he has sent. Jesus prays for us to the Father so that we can receive and live this gift. We need these prayers because, for most of us, the glory of the Father and our own glory are two quite separate things. For Paul, however, the have become one.
What will happen to me there I do not know,
except that in one city after another
the Holy Spirit has been warning me
that imprisonment and hardships await me.
Yet I consider life of no importance to me,
if only I may finish my course
and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus,
to bear witness to the Gospel of God's grace.
We not only can but should care about the gospel more than life itself. Life is fleeting. Only the word of the LORD abides forever. And we can care that much. We don't have to fake it. Jesus prays that what is true of him and true of Paul may be true of us as well. When we welcome and accept this grace like a bountiful rain from heaven we are moved to sing his praises.
Sing to God, O kingdoms of the earth.
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