Daily Devotion for Wednesday 16th July 2025

St John 17: 1 – 5

The Revd Bernie Collins, retired minister, member of Avenue St Andrew’s URC, Southampton

After Jesus had spoken these words, he looked up to heaven and said, ‘Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son so that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him authority over all people, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him.  And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.  I glorified you on earth by finishing the work that you gave me to do.  So now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had in your presence before the world existed.

Reflection

It was a thrill to discover this definition of eternal life, during my daily morning devotions when I was a university student, in the Revised Standard Version which had been presented to me by my home Congregational Church when I became a member two years before, and in the New English Bible even more succinctly.  This is eternal life: to know thee who alone art truly God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent.

I had been in groups discussing whether eternal life is life in heaven, trying to understand John 3:16, “that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life,” and whether the phrase ‘eternal life’ is John’s equivalent to Matthew’s ‘kingdom of heaven’ and Mark and Luke’s ‘kingdom of God’.  This definition in John 17:3, together with later parts of this chapter, showed that eternal life can start on earth through people coming to know God, the Father, and Jesus, the Son.

These words are a great encouragement to listening and talking with God in prayer in one’s own language.  They encourage exploration of the Bible and Church history, for more revelation and experience of God.  They encourage awareness of God in all aspects of life day by day.  They encourage openness to God (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) alive in different cultures and changing circumstances. 

Coming to know God’s love through the person of Jesus, takes us beyond receiving knowledge, to active participation, alert to God, in loving relationships and life-giving service.  The possibilities and opportunities for this were burst open through Jesus’s glorification in sacrificial death, resurrection, ascension and the ever-widening reach of the Spirit, empowering the people Jesus first worked with and their successors, to every part of the creation God loves.

Prayer

God, our Father, thank you for the gift of eternal life,
through Jesus who completed the work you sent him to do,
and prayed for those you gave him and their successors.
 
Please help us to be part of the fulfilment of his prayer,
as we read more of it in the coming days,
and as we grow to know more of you,
and your forgiveness and grace,
and share your love more widely. Amen