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After Jesus told his disciples about these things that would happen, he looked up toward heaven and said, “Father, it is now time {for me to suffer and die}. Show everyone how great I, your Son, am in order that I may show everyone how great you are. 2 {Please do this} because you gave me authority over all people in order that I might enable all those whom you chose to come to me to live forever {with me in heaven}. 3 This is what it means to live forever: to know you, who are the only real God, and to know me, Jesus the Messiah, the one whom you have sent into the world. 4 I have shown everyone how great you are while I have been on the earth. {I did this} by finishing the work that you assigned me to do. 5 Father, at this time show how great I am in your presence with the same greatness that I had in your presence before the time we created the world.6 I have shown who you really are to the men whom you have given me from among the people in the world. They belonged to you and you have given them to me. They have obeyed your teaching. 7 At this time they know that everything you have given me has come from you. 8 {They know this} because I have told them the teachings that you told me. They themselves accepted those teachings, and they are certain that I came from you, and they believe that you sent me here. 9 I am praying for them. I am not praying for the people who oppose you in the world. Rather, {I am praying} for those people whom you gave me, because they belong to you. 10 All the disciples that are mine belong to you, and {all the disciples} that belong to you are mine. They show everyone how great I am. 11 I will not stay in this sinful world any longer. However, my disciples are staying in it. I will soon return to you. My Father, who is set apart, keep them safe by your same power that you gave to me, in order that they may be united in the same way that we are united. 12 During the time that I have been with them, I have kept them safe by your same power that you gave to me. I have guarded them, and only one of them will be eternally ruined. {He is} the one whom you had destined to be eternally ruined in order that the scriptures would come true.
13 At this time I am about to return to you. I have said these things while I am in this sinful world in order that I may give them my complete joy. 14 I have told them your teaching. {Thus the people who oppose you in} the world have detested them because, like me, they do not belong to those who oppose you. 15 I am not requesting that you take my disciples out of this sinful world. Rather, {I am requesting} that you keep them safe from being harmed by Satan, the evil one. 16 Like me, they do not belong to the people who oppose you in the world. 17 Set my disciples apart to serve you by {enabling them to know and live according to} what is true. Your teaching is what is true. 18 I am sending them among the people in the world in the same way that you sent me among them. 19 I set myself apart as a sacrifice on their behalf in order that they also may set themselves apart to serve you by {knowing and living according to} what is true.”
20 Now I am praying not only for these disciples here, but {I am praying} also for those people who will trust in me by means of what my disciples say. 21 {I pray} that they may all be united in the same way that you, my Father, and I are completely united. {I pray} that they may also be united to us in order that the people in the world might know that you sent me here. 22 In order that they may be united in the same way that we are united, I have honored the people who trust in me just like you honored me. 23 {This means that} I am united with them, and you are united with me. {I have done this} in order that they may be completely united together in order that the people in the world may know that you sent me here and that you love the people who trust in me in the same way that you love me.
24 “My Father, I want these people whom you have given to me to be with me where I will be in heaven in order that they can see how glorious I am. You made me glorious because you have loved me from before the time when we created the universe.
25 My Father, who always does what is right, the people who oppose you in the world do not know who you are, but I know who you are. These people who trust me know that you have sent me here. 26 I have made them know who you are. I will continue to do so in order that they may love others like you love me and in order that I may be united with them.”