John 17:25 Explained in Context

Selected verse

Verse 25. O righteous Father, the world hath not known thee: but I have known thee, and these have known that thou hast sent me.

King James Version — public domain in the United States · Bible text and permissions

Quick Meaning

Read It With

John 17:20-26

Read John 17:25 with 17:20-26. This verse serves as the sixth turn in Jesus Prays for Future Believers' Visible Unity, where it carries the testimony toward its next judgment: “O righteous Father, the world hath not known thee: but I have known thee, and these have known that thou hast sent me”. The controlling movement is: Jesus extends prayer to those who will believe through the disciples' word, asks that they share the Father-Son unity so the world may believe, and desires that they see his glory and know divine love.

Why This Verse Appears Here

This verse serves as the sixth turn in Jesus Prays for Future Believers' Visible Unity, where it carries the testimony toward its next judgment: “O righteous Father, the world hath not known thee: but I have known thee, and these have known that thou hast sent me”. As the sixth turn in Jesus Prays for Future Believers' Visible Unity, it prevents the verse from becoming an isolated maxim: Jesus extends prayer to those who will believe through the disciples' word, asks that they share the Father-Son unity so the world may believe, and desires that they see his glory and know divine love.

What Remains True

This verse serves as the sixth turn in Jesus Prays for Future Believers' Visible Unity, where it carries the testimony toward its next judgment: “O righteous Father, the world hath not known thee: but I have known thee, and these have known that thou hast sent me”. Its enduring force supports this passage-controlled response: Pursue truthful, loving, mission-serving unity that can be seen, while preserving justice, accountability, and legitimate difference.

How It Can Shape Life

For John 17:25, practice this verse's particular contribution by doing the following without outrunning John 17:20-26: Pursue truthful, loving, mission-serving unity that can be seen, while preserving justice, accountability, and legitimate difference.

Continue in Context

The full thought-unit study remains the final contextual authority for this Verse Lens.

Read John 17:20-26 — Jesus Prays for Future Believers' Visible Unity

Sources used for this Verse Lens

How certain is this explanation? strong

These are the sources used directly for this lens. Language, grammar, disagreements, and the complete source shelf remain attached to the full thought-unit research record.

Biblical text

King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006

eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society

USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.

Supports: Exact KJV wording, paragraph flags, supplied-word markup, and coverage.

Exact location: John 17:20-26, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM corpus

Open source ↗

Greek textual evidence

The Greek New Testament: SBL Edition

Michael W. Holmes, editor; Society of Biblical Literature and Logos

Society of Biblical Literature and Logos Bible Software, 2010

Supports: Greek wording, sentence relations, and critical-text reading checked independently of the KJV.

Exact location: Faithlife SBLGNT official repository, data/sblgnt/text/John.txt, 17:20-26

Open the John Greek text file ↗

Translation and textual notes

NET Bible — John with translators' and textual notes

Biblical Studies Press

Biblical Studies Press, 2005–2026 online edition

Supports: Verse-level syntax, older-English clarification, material variants, background, and alternatives.

Exact location: NET Bible John PDF, John 17:20-26 and attached translator, study, and textual notes

Open the official NET John PDF ↗

Open the complete thought-unit research record