Short but Sweet - John 17:3

Jesus continues, “And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent.” There are several points to be made in just this very simple statement. First, it might not seem like it, but what I get out of “and this is life eternal” is “this is the purpose of our existence.” “This is” connotes the end result of something, the cumulative purpose. I take this verse to mean “the purpose of life is to know God and Jesus Christ.” That seems pretty accurate. We talked about why it’s important to know God and why Jesus was trying to teach us about who God is, but what does it mean to know God? Is it knowing information about Him or an incorporation of his character into ourselves?

The IM says, “Knowing God means more than believing that He exists or having an intellectual understanding about Him; it means becoming acquainted with Him through personal experience and living His teachings. Elder Bruce R. McConkie of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles pointed out...: We know them, in the sense of gaining eternal life, when we enjoy and experience the same things they do. To know God is to think what he thins, to feel what he feels, to have the power he possess, to comprehend the truths he understands, and to do what he does. Those who know God become like him, and have his kind of lie, which is eternal life.’”
If God’s love is the pinnacle of joy, then it would make sense that his life would exude love and be the ultimate happiness, and if we wanted to be happy, then we would live God’s life and experience the bliss for ourselves. As we live like God does, then we slowly but surely become like God is. It’s like we learned while studying the atonement, those who refuse to repent will suffer for their own sins, which is possible. But once they are done suffering for their own sins, they will not be ushered into the celestial kingdom, because repentance isn’t just about the discharge of responsibility for your sins, there is a transformative property of repentance that changes us to be like God. Living with God isn’t just about not being guilty of sin, it’s about being like him and wanting to live with him. Those who are too stubborn to accept the atonement and insist on their own personal suffering don’t want to live with God and don’t want to be like him. Therefore, the knowing God isn’t just about awareness, but a desire to be where he is.
Second point, Jesus points out that the God he is praying to, His Father, is “the only true God.” The article that I quoted last time “The Great Intercessory Prayer of Jesus” from trusting-in-jesus.compoints out, “The title, ‘The only True God,’ is not found anywhere else in the Gospel of John and is used here to differentiate with false gods.” When I first read this I thought, “Jesus is speaking to His disciples, they already believe that the Israelite God he’s praying to is the only true God,” like it was pretty obvious. But then I thought, why would Jesus make this point? I think it’s similar to when he said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” In our day, we might not have obvious “false gods” such as Baal and Anubis, but we do have false gods such as Jaguar and Mercedes. We serve these gods when we put our focus on them above serving God.
Of course we all have to make a living and pay our bills, but when our focus shifts from “sufficient for our needs” to “oh that’s pretty I want that,” then we need to readjust. Perhaps Jesus is saying that our focus needs to be on His kingdom and not our own. The disciples were about to face some pretty unsettling things and they had a huge responsibility to spread the gospel after Jesus’ death. Maybe Jesus was reminding them that nothing else mattered except the work. Maybe he was reminding them that the would experience contradicting doctrine, but the only truth was what Jesus had taught them. He just finished talking to them about how much God the Father loved them, now maybe he’s tying the man who loves them with their purpose to spread the truth.
Third point, “and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent.” The article says, “This is also the only scripture where Jesus refers to Himself as, ‘Jesus Christ.’ (Christ is the Greek, word for, ‘The Anointed One, the Messiah.)” I know that we’ve heard the name “Christ” used before, but used as a word to describe who he was, such as when Peter testified, “Thou art the Christ,” but I don’t know if we’ve had it put together as part of Jesus’ name, Jesus Christ. It’s also interesting that Jesus would use the word from Greek, meaning that he must have spoken Greek and known how important the Greek language would be in disseminating the gospel. I wonder if also Jesus is giving the disciples a hint as far as what he would like to be called as part of the ministry. Up to this point, Jesus has been called Jesus of Nazareth, Jesus the carpenter, Joseph’s son, the Christ, the Master, Rabbi, but none of these take his well known name and put it with his role as the Savior of the world. Jesus (his given name) Christ (The Anointed One, The Messiah) identifies him by his most important role, Savior, and doesn’t limit him to nationality or family or occupation.
Fourth point, Jesus again connects himself and his work to the Father and the Father’s work. He aligns himself with God, and points out that they’ve been working together the whole time. “Whom thou hast sent” indicates that Jesus was born into this world with a mission directly from God. Not only does this mean that all his actions have been the will of God, but also that Jesus had some sort of consciousness before he was born. This would indicate some sort of pre-existence, because otherwise how would Jesus and Heavenly Father be able to work this plan out before Jesus was born?
Small, short verse, but loaded with meaning and lessons.