A Terrible Job

Yesterday, we began looking at Jesus’ prayer in John 17: investing in men was his major work; we are to be in the world but not of it.

Today we look at one area at which we have done terribly:

I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me. (John 17.20 – 23, ESV, emphasis mine)

We’ve done a terrible job of this one. “That they may all be one…so that the world may believe that you have sent me…that they may be one even as we are one…so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.” 

Wow. He says it twice. Be one…so that the world may know. Maybe that’s why Satan has worked overtime to keep us riled up about inconsequential differences. By contrast, the church in Iran, as I found out watching Sheep Among Wolves, Volume II, believes we shouldn’t have “1,000 points of theology.” Their “test” is simple:

  • Do you believe that Jesus came once for sin?
  • Do you believe he’s coming back for judgment?

Then we are brothers.

Apostles Paul and John were clear:

I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. (Ephesians 4.1 – 3, ESV)

By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already. (1 John 4.2, 3, ESV)

As was Jesus:

I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me. (John 17.23, ESV)

One thought on “A Terrible Job”

  1. Bob, right on point. In Galatians Paul wrote how the church had been bewitched into accepting another gospel, a false gospel (which is no gospel at all), and was being led away from the true gospel of salvation by faith in Jesus alone. Neither circumcision nor eating kosher nor refraining from communing with Gentiles had a place in their justification before God. We let so much of the nonessentials keep us (the family of believers) separated, i.e., not one. How foolish we are!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *