John 17:18
John 17:1818As You sent Me into the world, I have also sent them into the world.
Read as Jesus commissioning his followers for the preaching work, on the pattern of his own sending by Jehovah. The sending language is also used more broadly to argue subordination — one who is sent is lesser than the sender.
This verse is most useful as a control on how "just as" comparisons work in John. Jesus says: just as you sent me into the world, I also sent them into the world. Nobody reads that as meaning the apostles were sent from eternity, or that their sending matches his in kind and degree. The comparison is about pattern. Keep that in hand for the next verse but five, where Jesus prays that believers may be one just as he and the Father are one — the standard Watchtower answer to . The same "just as" is at work, and it no more flattens the Father-Son relationship to agreement than this one elevates the apostles to pre-existence. This verse also settles the frame for . "I live because of the Father" sits inside exactly this sending-into-the-world language. The life in view is the life of the one sent on a mission, which is why the same sentence can go on to say believers live because of Jesus. Compare , , .