John 17:22 I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one.
Jesus was aware that the
church would never make the influence on the world that He wanted it to make
unless spiritually the world saw in the church a oneness, a unity. Sadly, many
churches in the world across the years have not taken these words of our Savior
to heart. There were incredible tensions in the original group of the twelve;
it began with James and John when they wanted a seat at the right and left hand
of Jesus in His kingdom. On the same evening that this debate was raging, there
was another argument between the disciples as to who was the greatest. Many
other tensions were festering just below the surface. The publican Matthew had
sold his soul to the Roman Government acting as a tax collector. Then there was
Simon Peter, the zealot who had determined to kill people like Matthew. Jesus
prayed that they would all become one. Furthermore, Jesus prayed that all his
followers, the twelve and all that would come after down through the ages,
would be one in spirit and soul.
We should note that Jesus asks
God to give us, as His followers and believers down through the ages, unity as
the body of Christ today and every day until He comes to take us all home. We
must realize that unity is given and does not come as an achievement of
humankind. It is most certainly a gift from God, or Jesus would not have urged
His disciples in that day and today to be one body in Christ. Mere human beings
can never universally achieve the unity of God's church; it must come through
the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. The pattern for the unity of believers is
not akin to anything else on this earth. The modern-day church can only achieve
unity through the unity of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. It is not merely a
harmony of organization, intention, feeling, or affection. Just as the Father
is in the Son and the Son in the Father, we must be so related in the church.
Christians can only unite through a common center, Jesus Christ Himself. Jesus
prayed that "they would be in us." That is the only source of the
power of that unity.
It is as if every child of God
in today's church is a piece of delicate crystal in a grand chandelier created
by God himself. At the peak of the chandelier is God the Father, Jesus the Son,
and the Holy Spirit. Then, as followers and believers in Christ Jesus, all of
us receive a small fragment of light, and each of us reflects that light as it
streams down the chandelier. This process will develop in the ones in the world
that do not have the light of Christ Jesus, looking up to that light and
realizing that it comes from God Himself. This concept is the ultimate purpose
of Christ Jesus for his church; without us reflecting his light, the lost souls
of this world will not see or desire to come to the light and the saving power
of God through the son, Christ Jesus our Lord, and Savior.
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