Christ’s Prayer for Christian Unity
In that last prayer of Jesus, before he went over the brook Cedron into Gethsemane, this was his one great request, "That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us; that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one; I in them and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me." John 17:21-23. Here three times in quick succession the prayer is that all who believe on him may be one; and twice is expressed the consequence of such unity, "That the world may believe" that he is the Son of God. The great heart of him who gave his life for the world, yearns for the belief of those for whom he died. A few then believed in him, and through these is he to be made known to the world, and that the world may believe their testimony they must be united. Burdened with this great argument, he prays with an earnestness only second to that in Gethsemane, that all his followers may be one, that so the world may believe that he was sent of God, and so believing be saved.