John 17:20-26
20 “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 21 that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one—23 I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.
24 “Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.
25 “Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. 26 I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.” [1]
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This prayer of Jesus we can apply directly to us because Jesus is directly praying for us. These aren’t words first spoken to or about the people of the time that we then apply to us, but rather words that reach across the centuries directly into our lives. Jesus is praying for those who will believe through the apostles’ ministry, and that includes us, who have come to faith through the Word which the apostles wrote and propagated.
So this is really a passage to stand up and take note of. And what is He praying for? There are really two things, and the second is the result of the first.
- That we might be one
- That through us the world may believe
Here in these last words before heading out the Garden of Gethsemane and starting the final road to the cross, Jesus is praying for the mission of God, and His prayer makes the point that His followers need to be one, that they need to have complete unity. All so that the world may believe and come to faith.
And what is this unity? We are one through being one with the Father, even as Jesus and the Father are one. We are like spokes on a tire that are one with each other because they are all connected to the hub. The key to our unity with one another is our unity with the Father. The picture is growing in UP so that we grow IN. It’s not just a matter of us all getting along, but rather of us all growing deeply in our covenant oneness with the Father. If we are all one with Him then we are one with each other.
But this unity is not just spiritual and invisible. Just as faith is not faith unless it is in motion and action, and just as love is not love if it is merely a feeling and not deeds, so also unity is not unity unless it is manifest in our lives. We can’t say that we Christians are all one with each other because we believe, and then continue to bicker with each other, hurt each other, fail to help each other, and be unconcerned with each other.
Our oneness in Christ is to be incarnate in our relationships with each other. If a bunch of Christians are not living in unity, it is not just a social problem, it’s a spiritual problem, and its roots lie in their relationship with their Father. So because of the problem of the UP relationships, they have failing IN relationships, and because of that, they will fail in their OUT mission.
In other words, a huge part of our corporate witness is our demonstration of unity among believer. That we care for each other, work out our differences, demonstrate compassion, concern and support. Jesus made the same point in 13:34-35. 34 “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
So my prayer is for unity, and that I might be a agent of unity among believers. I can’t be an answer to this prayer on my own, so I pray that the Lord work not just in my life but in the believers around me, and bring about in our lives the unity which we have in Him through faith, all so that the world may believe.
What is the Word leading you to pray about today?
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[1] The New International Version. 2011 (Jn 17:20–26). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.
