John 17:20, commentary and pictures

Christ looks beyond the eleven with Him to all in every later age to the close of time who will believe through their word and testimony. For those future believers He asks that they all be one with one another and one in the Father and the Son as the Father is in the Son and the Son in the Father. That oneness is to testify with convicting power to the world that the Father sent Jesus, so the world may believe and know it. He includes them also in sanctification through the truth which is God's word, in keeping from evil while in the world, and in the gift of the glory the Father gave Him, which is His character. He continues that intercession as Mediator in the heavenly sanctuary to the end of the world, and believers answer it by seeking to be one in faith and practice, putting away selfishness, strife and division in unselfish Christlike love.

Those Included in Prayer

The prayer reaches beyond the eleven who were with Him then, and beyond the seventy, to all who in every later age to the close of time would believe on Him through their word. It gathers those scattered over the world to the ends of the earth, including believers today, who come to faith through testimony, message, preaching and witness. Those later believers are drawn into the oneness He asks, to be one in God as Father and Son are one, one in purpose, mind and character without loss of distinct persons, made perfect in unity so the world may believe the Father sent Jesus and loves them.

It embraces everyone who hears the message of life and salvation through the messengers He sends and hears and accepts the message of truth through their word. It includes all who receive Him, who come to Him in repentance, confess sins and believe, who receive His word into good and honest hearts, and all who read it through time. The invitation gathers precious souls in every age for whom He gave His life, and the way is open for all to come to Him and be saved. His ransomed church thus becomes the recompense of His work, the people in whom He is glorified and through whom His wisdom is made known to heavenly powers, and the prayer is to shape how believers live.

Later believers are included in the privileges for which He prayed, in all the promises given to the disciples and all spiritual blessings through faith. The verse does not make the apostles a gift-possessing class and later believers a giftless class, for the promise that signs shall follow them that believe belongs to later believers as well. Receiving Him as personal Saviour binds believers to Him, gives power to become children of God with promise of His love and revelation of Himself, and places them within the mission to represent His character in the world. They are included in His call to unity so their oneness in God may lead the world to believe the Father sent Christ, to reveal the Saviour through works of righteousness before the world, angels and people, even as the glory the Father gave Him is given them that they may be one as Father and Son are one.

The prayed-for company includes parents urged to live and work faithfully at home so they and their children may belong to it. It includes students who learn present truth and prepare to serve others as ministers of healing, to be united with God and with one another so the world may believe God sent Christ. It includes those who through the grace of Christ find moral courage to accept unpopular truth and suffer reproach for His sake, made one with Him and dear to His heart. It includes those who have not personally experienced the prophetic work yet are to believe the testimony of those God led in proclaiming the first, second and third angels' messages, while searching Scripture to confirm the truth rather than turning from established light to devise new interpretations of prophecy.

In the verse He embraces the human race and the people of earth, joining finite humanity to the infinite God. The prayer is not limited to the disciples with Him but extends to the church and those who will believe through their message, embracing the children of Adam and reaching from earth to heaven across the earth. In it He claims for people the advantages purchased by His sacrifice, so that those who are tempted and tried can claim power in His name. That testimony about what was witnessed and learned from Him would lead people in later generations to believe and was to be carried to the world, uniting people on earth with God.

Time and Circumstances

This is Christ's final intercessory prayer, His last great lesson and His last recorded prayer, offered just before His agony in Gethsemane, betrayal, arrest, trial, humiliation, rejection, suffering and crucifixion, when the weight of the sins of the whole world rested upon Him. It was prayed just before His trial and crucifixion, and before His betrayal and crucifixion, as the prayer that extends beyond the disciples then present to all who will afterward believe on Him through their word, testimony and message.

It was spoken in the upper chamber when He was alone with the eleven after Judas went out, after the instruction in John 13-16 and just before He spoke of His approaching separation. It belongs to the lessons of John 13-17 and to the precious instruction in John 14-17, given as words of comfort, counsel and prayer expressing His mind toward the Father and toward the disciples. It was His last prayer before He left the disciples to face Gethsemane and the cross, presented in His final prayer before the crucifixion as something to be cherished.

The disciples repeated these words to sustain one another through disappointment and trial but did not fully understand them until after the resurrection and the descent of the Holy Spirit. They were given because the disciples must have special instruction for their future work to bless humanity, and unless divine power were combined with human effort their work would prove a failure. The same instruction applies today when a great work is to be done, with the Holy Spirit to work through human agencies in maintained partnership between God and workers.

It was prayed not from solicitude for Himself but for those He would leave to carry forward His work in the earth, with the agony of the cross before Him. Its burden is union and love among His disciples, because although the severest trials awaited them their greatest danger would be from a spirit of bitterness and division, and He foresaw the trials and dangers of His people and the dissensions and divisions that would distract and weaken His church. He looks upon believers with deeper interest and more tender compassion than moves an earthly parent toward a wayward afflicted child, bidding them learn of Him, trust Him, open their hearts to receive His love, and pledging Himself to be their helper. It was given to impress every heart and to stand against disunion and variance, with instruction meant to strengthen the disciples for future trials and temptations, to show His love for them to remember in their work and councils, and so they would not feel left as helpless orphans. His example in praying most earnestly to the Father in behalf of believers teaches the need to join praying with living out prayer, feeling need of help from God and asking in sincere faith with assurance that God supplies wants from His abundant fullness.

It was uttered in the hearing of the disciples as a sample of His intercession carried on in heaven within the veil. It reveals His desire that all should be saved through faith in Him and is full of instruction of the highest type.

Oneness Christ Requests

For those who would later come to faith through the apostolic message, the request is that they all be one, one with one another and one in the Father and the Son and in God, as the Father is in the Son and the Son is in the Father, with Christ in them and the Father in Him, made perfect and complete in one, in spirit and truth, in sympathy, love, heart, faith, works, order, harmony, consistency and beauty. The same widening includes them in the unity Christ shares with the Father and in the glory given to them, so that the world may believe and know that the Father sent Jesus and loves believers as He loved His Son. This appeal for unity embraces believers in every age and rules out dividing Christ's people along national or language-based lines.

That oneness is unity in purpose, mind, judgment, interest, faith and character, an inward living union and close unity of spirit, purpose and action like that between the Father and the Son, not oneness in person, without erasing distinct persons, personalities and personages. It is a unit and not separate atoms falling apart, made perfect in one by Christ in them and the Father in Him, bringing the richest blessings of heaven in becoming one with Christ as He is one with the Father. Their unity with Him is like His unity with the Father without destroying personality, since God and Christ remain two distinct personages.

It is a vital, heaven-born relation joining believers to Christ and through Him to the Father and the heavenly angels, distinct from worldly consolidation, giving God's workers shared life and power as they work together. It is unity in diversity in which believers have different abilities and kinds of work yet press together, humble and Christlike, in the path set before them. Each is left free to do his God-appointed work under Christ as head, seeking counsel from God, with no one seeking to bind another in his work and no one bound to another man's mind, while all do not labor in the same manner or say the same things yet the words of one balance the words of another in beautiful harmony.

It is unity of faith and spirit, the unity of the faith, with the same preaching and no differing sentiments, since hearers cannot be one if one minister preaches one thing and another preaches something different. That oneness requires those who preach to preach the same things with harmony in sentiment and action, reached by counseling together, because truth is a unit. It excludes moving independently, taking peculiar views of Bible truth without regard to the brethren and pressing them upon others, and it is reached through the diversity of gifts and governments placed in the church, bringing all together upon the exalted platform of the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus, with spiritual gifts as Heaven's appointed means to secure it for the perfecting of the saints, the work of the ministry and the edifying of the body till that unity is complete.

Unity exists only in proportion to illumination and sanctification, for the more fully believers receive the Spirit's enlightenment the more nearly they harmonize in understanding truth, judgment, speech, trust and peace with one heart and mouth glorifying God. In the days after the resurrection and ascension union prevailed and believers were all of one heart and one mind, and even the difference over circumcision and admission of uncircumcised Gentiles was soon settled, so that through divine illumination and sanctification of the Spirit they were perfectly joined in the same mind and judgment, which is and always will be the fruit borne under the influence of the Holy Spirit.

The oneness is produced by supreme love to God expressed in love to neighbor as self and obedience to the new commandment to love one another, which is a step heavenward and what gives God's people power and supremacy. When truly believed, no glory is given to man, no one seeks his own glory, all dissension and strife cease, no human kingly power is exercised, and every thread of selfishness is taken out, so the world sees the excellence of the truth. Keeping this commandment lifts the believer heavenward, fits them to become members of the royal family as children of the heavenly King, and requires pressing together, working as one, being at peace, cultivating love, and putting away suspicion, envy, jealousy, evil thinking and speaking, spiritual pride and love of supremacy.

The prayer seeks purity first and then unity, for believers are sanctified by the truth of God's word, shaped into Christ's image and joined by the same Spirit and heaven-born love. That sanctification changes them from sin to holiness, joins them to God, brings enduring happiness beyond earthly pleasures, and includes receiving the glory the Father gave Christ and being loved by the Father as Christ was loved, so that by this oneness the world may believe and know that the Father sent Christ. This union does not require identical speech or manner but excludes selfishness, vainglory and a quarrelsome spirit, calling His people to be loyal and true to all the light given them.

Witness to the World

The prayer for oneness is given so that the world may believe and know that the Father sent Jesus to save sinners. That unity is to convince and testify to the world with a convicting and converting power that cannot be withstood or controverted. It gives unmistakable evidence that Christianity is genuine, that God sent Jesus into the world as its Redeemer. By it sinners are won to faith and salvation, and thousands are brought to believe through the testimony carried across all lands and through the ages. Made perfect and complete in unity, with Christ in believers and the Father in Him, the church helps the world believe that the Father sent Jesus.

That same oneness reveals that the Father loves believers as He loved His Son. It assures them with a love as real and great as His love for His Son, bringing joy, reverence and gratitude and giving hope that fallen people are loved and accepted. All believers are thereby given opportunity to show the world that God loves His earthly children as He loves His only begotten Son. This is manifested through perfect character and unselfish service, as Christ manifested the Father's name by giving His life for the sheep.

Where that unity exists there is strength that all the powers of hell cannot break. Love, compassion, tenderness, peace, confidence and joy are expressed, and all are drawn by cords of love to Christ the great Center, the world's Redeemer. Their love and Christian unity is evidence to the world that God sent Jesus to save sinners and testifies with convicting power that the Word of God is the safe rule of life. So lived out in harmonious words and actions, it gives the church influence in the world and makes their lives a convincing witness under the Holy Spirit's leading.

Bickerings, strifes, dissension, variance, contention and political strife dishonor God. They disgust unbelievers with Christianity, fasten them in unbelief and infidelity, give a false impression to the world, show loss of the love of God from the heart, and make Christ ashamed to call them brethren. Jealousy, backbiting, criticism, faultfinding, discord, evil speaking over little misunderstandings, and divisions along national or language-based lines work against the prayer and misrepresent Christ. They undermine grace, give unbelievers occasion to doubt, keep many from conviction, and make the witness the opposite of what God desires.

The widening of the prayer to all who shall believe belongs to the recompense claimed for His conquests. In it His ransomed church becomes the chief source of His glory and the means by which the manifold wisdom of God is made known to principalities and powers in heavenly places. The chapter presents God's plan of redemption and what He desires and has provided to do for the human race, gathering precious souls for whom Christ gave His life. The way is open for all to come to Him in repentance, confession and faith and be saved, and the world is preserved while some have not yet heard the message of truth.

Sanctification Keeping and Glory

The widening of the prayer brings all later believers inside the request for sanctification through the truth, which is God's word, unto holiness, purity and perfected character. They are set apart to do the same work Christ did, kept from evil while left in the world yet not of the world even as Christ is not of the world, and sent into the world as the Father sent Christ. Purity comes first and unity follows, for oneness is reached only as every believer sanctified by the truth works for its perfection. Believed and practiced, these words send forth a powerful influence from God's commandment-keeping people.

That sanctification is answered as believers obey God's commands, grow in unity with Christ, and follow the truth in preparation for eternal life. Receiving Christ by faith and following Him as the pattern gives power to become children of God, whose lives express the truth in purity, love and righteousness. To make that oneness possible Christ gives believers the glory the Father gave Him, which is His character. By it they become like Christ, are molded after the divine similitude, change from character to character, partake of the divine nature, and reflect Christ in a united, sanctified life. This rules out dividing His people along national lines, for they are made perfect in one that the world may believe and know the Father sent Christ and loves them as He loved Christ.

Through faith in Christ they receive all spiritual blessings. This union changes them from sin to holiness, joins them to God, and makes them one with Christ as Christ is one with God. He carries on the great process by which believers are made one with Him in this present life to be one with Him throughout all eternity, having His life in them unto eternal life and resurrection at the last day. It brings enduring happiness beyond earthly sinful pleasures and should give courage, increase of faith and trust in God. That close union is desired for His children today, like His own union with the Father.

Believers are sanctified through belief in the truth, a faith that works by love and purifies the soul from sin. Its meaning is best known when believers in the truth are meek and lowly in heart, coming close to Christ and close to one another in Christlike sympathy and love. Their faith comes through the word, which makes them acquainted with Christ and sustains steady trust through diligent study, and the prayer is illuminated by Christ formed within as they daily receive and obey the Word as spiritual food. That food nourishes growth in Him and leads to love and harmonious action rather than division, enabling them to overcome the weakness of the flesh and become holy and cleansed in this life. Such devotion, with self-denial and consecration of every ability to His service in patience, goodness, mercy, sympathy and love, commends Christ and brings others to knowledge of the truth.

The prayer is for believers facing the perils of the last days as they seek salvation. They must cling to Christ for power to become God's children and gain victory over sin, live in purity and holiness, cast away sinful appetites and passions, and show that truth has sanctified them.

Love and Intercession of Christ

The prayer looks beyond the cross to a continuing ministry as Mediator and High Priest in the heavenly sanctuary after sacrifice, interceding to the end of the world for those who come humbly trusting His saving power. What He asks is spiritual blessing rather than riches or human favor, including protection from sin, loyalty to God, and unity, with no dead prophet or saint standing between the sinner and Christ as Intercessor, Advocate, substitute and surety. As the Good Shepherd He identifies His interests with fallen humanity and prays on their behalf, and that prayer assures future believers that He intercedes for them and brings their petitions before God. His watchful care meets them especially in greatest need when human support fails, seeking grace and strength to give assurance and hope, for He knew their life histories, burdens and sorrows to the close of time.

By taking humanity upon Him He came to be one with humanity and at the same time to reveal the Father to sinful beings. He who had been in the presence of the Father from the beginning as the express image of the invisible God was alone able to reveal Deity, yet was made like His brethren as flesh, hungry and thirsty and weary, sustained by food and refreshed by sleep, tempted as men and women are tempted, while remaining the blameless Son of God living free from sin in tender compassionate service. The prayer reveals His inexpressible love for fallen man, the same love that led Him to die a shameful death to save the perishing, and shows the breadth of mercy ready to bestow on all who walk in obedience and humility. By receiving Christ He is glorified in believers, as His Spirit molds character after the divine similitude, gives correct views, sanctifies obedience, and binds them in inward living union with God and one another. As the Good Shepherd and Elder Brother He prayed for those He came to save, and their Spirit-shaped lives in Christian love make their unity evidence that God sent Christ to save sinners.

The prayer assures believers that the Father loves them with a love as real and great as His love for His Son, bringing joy, reverence and gratitude. Jesus manifested the Father's name through perfect character and unselfish service shown in giving His life for the sheep, and He declared that name so that the Father's love for Christ may be in believers and Christ Himself in them. The prayer stands within the vast enterprise of human salvation calling into action every attribute of the divine nature, in which Father, Son and Holy Spirit have pledged to make God's children more than conquerors. For the Lord is gracious and long-suffering, not willing that any should perish, and has provided power to enable overcomers.

The prayer was presented for all believers including ministers over congregations and the churches in their care, while they stand clothed with filthy garments humbling hearts with fasting and prayer for pardon through the atoning sacrifice. In that intercession Jesus holds out bruised hands bearing spike wounds and pleads that He has graven His church and the names of those who believe upon the palms of His hands. This shows the high value placed on human beings as precious and purchased with blood at the sacrifice of life by One who came to suffer for those He sought to bless. Because believers are so valued, others must treat them with humility, love, respect, patience and forbearance and must not wound and bruise their hearts or treat them with contempt or indifference. To cast disparagement on the character of those who through grace find moral courage to accept unpopular truth and suffer reproach, made one with Him and dear to His heart, is not working after His order.

He prays with earnest longing desire, inexpressible tenderness, compassion and solicitude, weeping over souls ready to perish. Those who consent to wear the yoke reproduce the same character, aims and purposes and will pray in the same way for perishing souls, finding strength through prayer as the disciples' beneficiaries did. The widening of the prayer to later believers gives a great advantage to God's people and marks their day of visitation, holding possibilities, privileges and responsibilities that strengthen faith, give courage and trust, and show what Christians may become. It opens heights and depths of experience as laborers together with God, with the positive privilege of covenant relation whose neglect must be answered for, to bind unity daily as witness that the Father sent Christ. The only hope of reaching heaven is to be one with Christ and then in and through Him one with one another, with no one called to walk alone, for in Christ life and immortality are brought to light and the way to the kingdom opened with no different path assigned.

Obstacles to Unity

Satan labors with unwearied effort to make the prayer of no effect by scattering and dividing believers, working through selfishness, envy, jealousy, evil surmising, bitterness, discord, strife, criticism and evil speaking over little misunderstandings, while even the friends of the powers of darkness stay linked together in disloyalty. Heaven and holy angels work to bring believers into unity of faith in one body with the same preaching and no differing sentiments, for hearers cannot be one if one minister preaches one thing and another something different, and Satan opposes this by introducing different sentiments so the prayer will not be answered. Bickerings, strifes and dissension dishonor God, disgust unbelievers with Christianity and fasten them in unbelief and infidelity, and all who bring weakness, sorrow and discouragement upon any of God's people through perverse ways and tempers aid the enemies of God and work directly against the prayer. Where the prayed-for unity exists there is strength that all the powers of hell cannot break, with love, compassion and tenderness drawing all by cords of love to Christ the great Center, and that unity is reached only as every believer sanctified by the truth works for its perfection in submission to God's authority, mind and will instead of drawing apart as independent atoms doing as they please.

The natural character and upheld self prevent working as Christ worked and prevent unity, while dissension comes from Christ's absence in the soul and cherished self-sufficiency, and divisiveness and accusations among believers work against the prayer. Criticism and division counteract the prayer, and those who bring bitterness, discord, weakness, sorrow or discouragement among God's people work against it, so believers are to work earnestly for unity and put away whatever leads to discord or strife. Without striving with all capabilities to be imbued with His Spirit they are not bound up with Him, but individual consecration of the whole being of mind, soul, heart and strength to the side of Christ brings genuine sanctification through obedience to the truth, and the faith that works by love and purifies the soul produces true unity. Cherished criticism, bitterness, suspicion, coldness, indifference, easily stirred feelings, backbiting and weakening one another's hands corrupt spiritual life and harm health of soul and stand opposed to the oneness for which prayer was made.

The prayer is not yet answered while ministers and lay members proclaiming the gospel remain envious, full of strife and destitute of love, dishonoring the name of Jesus before unbelievers, and drawing apart from one another displeases Christ and keeps Him from doing much for believers. Jealousy, suspicion and contention undermine the call to work together and hinder the Spirit's work, and self-love, self-esteem, self-sufficiency, self-glorification and love of praise fill the soul so there is no room for Jesus. Acting contrary to the prayer through lack of love places professed followers where Christ cannot bless them and His name cannot be glorified while they disobey His commands. Creating and displaying divisions dishonors God and weakens both those who divide and others, and striving for supremacy or holding apart through selfish feelings grieves the Holy Spirit and fails to answer the prayer.

Disregarding the instruction scatters believers from Christ and guards nothing against discord and alienation, while following it guards the church, for conduct toward one another is seen by heaven. Disregarding it through faultfinding and discord misrepresents Christ and undermines the saving influence of His grace, and brings guilt before God, dishonors God, gives the world occasion to doubt the truth of Christianity and puts speeches about lack of union and harmony into the mouths of unbelievers. Such disregard reflects confusion, dissension, disorder and unholy ambition and hinders the work, leaving professed followers where blessing cannot rest so the name cannot be glorified. The prayed-for unity rules out dividing Christ's people along national or language-based lines and calls for believers with varied gifts to blend harmoniously, for there is no unity in error and the enemy works to keep them from being united in truth.

Dissension and the pursuit of status leave the church weak, hinder the answer and expose self-exalting people to Satan's deceptions, while lived unity in practical life joined in love is a strong barrier against Satan. The unity prayed for ends the long controversy kept alive by Satan and gives believers spiritual sight to discern danger and work as Christ worked, so that united God's watchmen warn more clearly because they see the sword coming and recognize the danger facing His people. Drawing apart from one another is contrary to God's plan, and oneness is part of the soul's spiritual prosperity. Fixing the mind on disagreeable representations leaves no room for the Spirit of God and lets Satan control the mind and hinder the oneness that comes by beholding the crucified and risen Saviour unto transformation into His image and entrance into oneness with the family of God and unity with heavenly intelligences.

Disagreement shows the lesson of special weight has not been given its proper importance. Its appeal for unity stands in sharp contrast to the dissension and confusion that arise when people reject the light given, for Christ is the refuge on whom His people must depend. The blessed unity belongs to those truly children of God in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and only in that unity can the work advance to meet what lies ahead. That unity means never leading anyone by word or act to doubt the distinct personality of God or the sanctuary and its ministry, but keeping ever before the mind by prayer and study that there is a sanctuary in heaven, patterned once on earth, where God is all and in all.

Answering the Prayer

Seeking this oneness is both privilege and duty, and striving for it answers His earnest request offered before betrayal and crucifixion, for as Intercessor in heaven He is ever working for the unity of His people and to be in harmony with heaven they must seek to be one in faith and practice as one body under one Head, without delay and by determined effort drawing together and working unselfishly to help one another and build up the harvest work. That unity exists in proportion to illumination and sanctification, for the more fully believers receive the Spirit's enlightenment the more nearly they harmonize in understanding, judgment, confidence, peace, speech and action with one heart and mouth, as after the resurrection when believers were of one heart and mind and even the dispute over circumcision and uncircumcised Gentiles was soon settled, which is always the fruit of the Holy Spirit. The prayer is not yet answered while ministers and lay members remain envious, full of strife and destitute of love, dishonoring Him before unbelievers, and it is answered when believers repent and are converted, sweep away evil surmising and discord, put away variance, blend with unity of purpose devoting heart, soul, mind and strength to work holy in His sight, love as brethren and seek the Holy Spirit, and then His Spirit witnesses through them that they are His instrumentalities. The unity prayed for is heaven-born, joining believers to Christ and through Him to the Father and heavenly angels, distinct from worldly consolidation, giving shared life and power, and it requires laying pride at His feet and putting away childish pettishness, envy, jealousy, evil surmising, strife, malice and hatred to love one another as He loved, so all men will know they are Christians.

The oneness requires God's converting power on the heart, Christ abiding with human agents, humbling before God and drawing nigh to God in order to draw nigh to one another, in unselfish Christlike love that breaks every barrier and ends variance, criticism, division and weakening of fellow workers, with all heaven at work to answer and waiting for human cooperation, giving hope through imputed righteousness that fallen men are loved and accepted. That unity is attainable through the Holy Spirit and comes as believers surrender, put away selfishness and worldliness and draw near to Christ the True Vine, for drawing near to Christ draws them near to each other in shared life and power, and united with Christ they are united with one another in love, agreement, Christlike character and fruitful harmonious action that witnesses that God sent Jesus. The prayer expresses the great purpose of His coming to secure a people who work His will in complete harmony under the divine theocracy with will submitted to God, inquiring His way at every step in preparation for His coming in the clouds with power and great glory. That unity is reached only as every believer sanctified by truth works for its perfection, submitting to God's authority, mind and will instead of drawing apart as independent atoms doing as they please, becoming molded channels of light united by gospel principles after the divine similitude.

Believers answer by cooperating with Christ in earnest effort for their own sanctification through the truth with unyielding determination as true disciples, becoming one with Christ and one another and bound up with Christ in God, laying self aside, giving the whole being of mind, soul, heart and strength to Christ and letting Christ live in the heart, which is the only hope and preparation for heaven, while without that striving with all capabilities they are not bound up with Him. Through the Holy Spirit and obedience to His law and commandments believers share the divine nature and are brought into living union of mind, purpose, spirit and character with Christ and the Father, not of person, and their unity testifies to His majesty, virtue and power to take away sin. It is answered when believers repent and are converted, put away all variance, envy and evil traits, love as brethren in fellowship and unity of purpose and become His instrumentalities in word and deed, ceasing criticism, helping the erring and obeying the truth, and then His Spirit bears witness through them and the world takes knowledge they have been with Jesus.

Answering requires individual transformation in which selfish self-love, seeking to be first, hankering for honor and distinction, fear of failing to stand out, quarrels, selfish actions, discourteous words, criticizing, picking flaws, disparaging others, suspicion, jealousy, envy, evil surmising and speaking, unkind, unjust and cruel speech creating evil suppositions, hatred, accusing the brethren like the devil, strife, dissension and variance are put away and expelled never to be opened to again, and in their place come pity, compassion, sympathy, comfort, kindness, goodness, mercy and charity from a heart softened by His love, so believers are blended together because union is strength and define Christ in character as He defined God. When He abides in the heart each asks, Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do, keeping eyes fixed on Christ the perfect Pattern who came to save sinners, learning His meekness and lowliness and living in His promised presence, which is the only way to avoid dissension and fulfill the prayer. Followers are to foster unity by avoiding strife, examining and correcting faults in their own heart, humbling themselves, emptying selfishness and self-centeredness, esteeming others better than self, appreciating, helping and strengthening one another, speaking words of hope and cheer that make hearts glad, feeling His transforming grace and receiving the Holy Spirit to work in His lines each doing his appointed best, revealing Christ in spirit, words and acts.

The unity and brotherly love, joined to His love and power working in believers, removes selfish and human-made divisions and is to be lived out in practical life in sympathy, courtesy, gentleness, compassion and grace, doing His words by repenting, cultivating love, respecting His purchased possession and demonstrating the truthfulness of His words, giving strength to withstand Satan's attacks, the shaking time and the coming test, and demonstrating the sanctifying power of truth with decided influence for good. Practicing a contrary spirit that breaks up instead of unifying disregards the Great Teacher and dishonors Him, while unselfish care for one another testifies that God sent His Son so people may believe and be saved. When at variance believers cannot be branches of the True Vine abiding in Him, for loyalty to Christ in whom all are united is required, and without cherishing love for one another as He loved, He is not glorified. That tender Christlike sympathy and love gives confidence to the weak, and Christian conduct, righteousness and Christlike sweetness in words and deeds make it possible for God to answer.

Believers who criticize fellow believers are not answering the prayer, and they are to bring even thoughts into captivity to Christ, speaking every word and cherishing every thought to answer it, thinking no evil of brethren, with no strife, evil thinking, speaking, surmising or jealousy toward fellow laborers. Those who follow it are to pray for union, put aside petty differences, cultivate the fullness in Christ, labor in His lines, let no perplexity or discouragement eat into the soul and live so God can answer, with fellowship and obedience bearing fruit, succeeding and revealing grace. The prayer requires striving against all variance, esteeming and improving the gifts God gives each person, refusing to demerit another's gift and work or hinder another worker because he does not follow the exact same track, and drawing together in constant love and unity, through which the Holy Spirit works with power and the world is convinced.

Believers are to answer by allowing Christ to sanctify their hearts through the truth, yielding individual preferences and letting Christ rule in heart and mind to be made complete in Him and live in harmony, while clinging to personal ideas and separating over disagreements dishonors Christ, weakens believers spiritually and deprives them of needed experience. When differences of views arise, co-laborers should go to one another with souls imbued with the love of God and pained at division, bring ideas together to the Scriptures, lay aside prejudice, cherish brotherly love, and in meekness and lowliness try to see eye to eye, meeting in humility, love and earnest prayer to understand and obey His words. Contention over minor or uncertain questions while agreeing on fundamental truths violates the unity, and striving for supremacy or holding apart through selfish feelings grieves the Holy Spirit. Living out the call to speak in agreement and be joined in the same mind and judgment answers that prayer, and faith is to lead to harmonious action with love and agreement in belief and work giving evidence of faith under the Holy Spirit's presence.

The prayer calls workers with different works to blend efforts, each filling the place God designed without everyone doing the same work, and like branches joined to one vine they remain united in Christ while bearing varied fruit that shows character and the Spirit's work, with unity in diversity attained as powers are illuminated, inspired and sanctified and cultivated day by day. That unity is order and harmony, consistency and beauty, without confusion, strife, discord and emulation, for truth is a unit, and disunion, variance, dissension, criticism and holding aloof dishonor God, do not glorify Christ and hinder the work. This unity must be cultivated day by day, for division among those who profess the last message of mercy dishonors God and hinders His work, while believers who love God and keep His commandments are to press together, joining their illuminated, inspired and sanctified powers as one. Those who believe are to become one through Jesus, reflecting His unity with the Father, and His sacrifice to save people and bring them into this unity calls His followers to make sacrifices to preserve it, sharing that unity through Christ and expressing it in loving fellowship, for dissension dishonors Him while unity is strength.

Such oneness must exist in the church before it can have the growth and power He desires, and God makes believers one with Christ and one another as they give up their own way for His, becoming more like Christ through fellowship. Believers are to become one with Christ by giving up their own way for God's way, putting self-interest aside, giving up rivalry and strife and showing love, and then they may receive the Spirit's grace, with unity as evidence they are one with the Father even when scattered throughout the world. Christians are to answer by preserving harmony and pressing together in Him, while drawing apart through dissatisfaction, prejudice and self-righteousness opposes that unity and hinders growth, and the prayer is not fulfilled when they fail to cooperate with God or love God supremely and neighbor as self. The prayer is answered as believers cooperate rather than pull apart and love one another as He loved them, so that transformed lives make His character and work known to the world and testify that the Father sent Him, bringing peace and forming Christlike character with forgiveness, tender sympathy and love toward friend or foe, acquaintance or stranger.

Everyone who believes in Christ as a personal Saviour has a duty to answer through unity under the Holy Spirit, and those who claim to be God's children are to make personal efforts to work for unity, for when united in love they are a holy and powerful people, while accepting accusations against God's children and letting love die works against it. His prayer includes future believers and calls them to unity, love and forbearance as they follow Christ and remain true disciples becoming one with Christ and one another, and it calls for His people to be united in love without giving up any principle of truth as evidence of discipleship helping the world believe. It includes everyone to the close of time in concern for their unity and love and being sanctified through the truth in a unity that shows the world God sent Jesus and loves them, visible in lives marked by goodness, mercy, love, self-denial and care for one another, fulfilled through love, the Spirit and sanctification requiring diligent self-sacrificing effort rather than partial or divided groups practicing heaven's principles as one people. His purpose is that they be one in Him even while scattered throughout the world as they give up their own way for God's way, Christ sanctifies His disciples and the Spirit brings oneness, and when the instruction is believed and lived out believers are united in action and bound by His love, for He sanctified Himself so they could be sanctified.

In the setting of His final prayer before the crucifixion He was concerned for those carrying His work forward and prayed they would be united in love, since bitterness and division were their greatest danger. The verse calls all humanity to come to Jesus, humble proud hearts, repent and believe, with faith working by love and purifying the soul, and calls all who claim to believe to take a higher holier standard, put away hardheartedness, act justly and benevolently, cease dissension and strife, become one as He was one with the Father and prove love by doing His Word. Believers must not be light, trifling, giddy or censorious or make the unbeliever's path hard but come to their side with meekness, kindness and tenderness to remove difficulties rather than placing stumbling blocks, for their actions can support or hinder the prayer's purpose of unity.

The oneness prayed for is oneness with Christ and God in which believers are complete but apart from Him deficient, oneness with the family of God and heavenly intelligences by beholding the crucified and risen Saviour unto transformation, reached by fixing heart and mind on His perfection, love and power rather than others' imperfections, owning the Word's authority and living its principles daily, preparing them to dwell together in the life to come, for they must live together in love now to live together then. Through Jesus believers receive the Fatherhood of God, and faith enables them to overcome the weakness of the flesh and through their Redeemer to become sanctified, holy and cleansed in this life, growing in grace fit for the eternal world. Understanding means close union with Christ leaving no room for baseless speculation and calling teachers to crucify self and purify hearts as He is pure, answered when contention ends through conversion, truth held in the sanctuary of the soul not the outer court, divine vitality filling the church and one absorbing ambition to be nearest His likeness and win souls, with fuller understanding of His self-sacrificing death preventing alienation and strife.

Those who hear the Word with good and honest hearts answer by living in unity with Him, and when workers are free of selfishness and rivalry, sanctified and loving one another, the Spirit's grace is poured out, for Christ dwelling in the heart gives a life and teaching that produce unity as He works with those daily converted by watchfulness and prayer whom the enemy will not be permitted to overcome. Gaining this oneness plainly outlines privileges and possibilities but requires watching unto prayer and being constantly on guard against failing to obtain it. The prayer calls believers to love one another as He loved them, which cures alienation and strife and fulfills His purpose, requiring claimants before the world to show they left childish, pettish, hasty and unconverted ways, with those acting like unruly children offending God and needing to repent and do first works of love, for upon this love hinges the world's recognition of the gospel.

It prays that the spirit of unity exist among disciples and later believers, and those who profess the truth should strive for and live in that Christian unity, with oneness as the keeping of the first love, so reading the prayer exposes when the first love has been left. Keeping it requires repenting for dishonoring Him, dying to natural selfishness, forever burying hatred, gaining fuller knowledge of God and serving in a sweeter wholesome way that strengthens others, for self-sufficiency, suspicion, imagining and thinking evil, placing others in false light, jealousy, evil-surmising, evil-speaking and cherishing a hateful spirit break it and corrupt spiritual life. It is a prayer believers are to join, belonging with a life rich in love, courtesy and Christian politeness and filled with fruits of righteousness to God's praise, and those who strive to answer it are enabled to be the light of the world. Believers have the privilege of answering through daily attitudes and actions, including refusing suspicion and treating others without retaliation, for the unity prayed for is cooperation bound by love, not a confederacy or system of restrictive bonds.

The prayer is to be answered through sanctified zeal directed not toward lifting up people but toward the glory of God. The prayer lays a sacred obligation to answer by realizing the sacredness of church relations, honoring relationships, accepting restraint and discipline, not exalting private judgment above the united church, guarding against opposition to its voice, esteeming its God-given authority, holding fast when crossed rather than threatening to leave, making its prosperity the first interest, benefiting it rather than self and giving means for God's cause. The unity cannot exist fully until the church brings spirituality into missionary service, becomes an agency for missions and supports missionaries in deed and word to rescue the perishing, serving as channels of grace cooperating with God through divine and human agencies so sinners are converted, sharing His mission without dividing from one another, with unity bringing an end to worldly methods and sight to warn urgently and pointing to exalted spiritual maturity. Receiving the truth is to sanctify them and lead to love and harmonious action, not division, with grace to follow His example and continue the work He began.

While in the world believers are to consider His words, be united with Christ and through Him with one another in heart, belief, sympathy, courtesy, compassion and grace, and pray earnestly for unity in faith and understanding of His word, with the chapter joining oneness with love and power flowing into them as the truth's power to sanctify the soul. The call to unity applies to believers of every nationality to help God's work succeed, to students educated in schools joined with sanitariums to become ministers of healing, to churches and institutions, and to workers in the truth especially in publishing who must have undivided minds, live under God's supervision, be subject one to another and be drawn together by His love. That widening makes His will for oneness binding now, opening privileges and heights and depths of experience as laborers together with God. Applying the instruction means rejecting self-centeredness, self-esteem, self-sufficiency, self-glorification and love of praise to make room for Jesus, wholly consecrating to God's service, being loyal to all light given, purifying as He is pure and becoming sanctified vessels prepared for every good work, through divine power combining with human effort where the Holy Spirit works through human agencies and man works because God works in him. The instruction given after the disciples would no longer have Him as visible counselor applies today, and the chapter presents God's will and holds the divine antidote for the sin of the whole world, carrying on the process by which believers are made one with Him in this life to be one with Him through eternity unto eternal life and resurrection.

Mission Through Their Word

The word through which others come to believe must be clear and truthful in order to lead them to Jesus, and people believe as they see the beauty of God's Word and Jesus revealed in the lives of those who serve Him. Through the disciples' testimony about what they had witnessed and learned from Jesus, His truths were carried across all lands and through the ages, living on to comfort the desponding and to bring comfort, peace and hope to thousands who believe. That farewell prayer for the church reaches across the earth and joins people on earth to God, with the disciples to carry to the world the message that would lead later generations to believe.

Believers are to be laborers together with God by word, works, labor, daily Christian character, and lifting up the cross of Calvary higher and higher. They are to take hold of perishing souls around them, forgetting ease and unbelief, and advancing step by step in righteousness and truth and holiness. They must represent in humanity the work Christ did in humanity, beginning heaven here below in this world rather than waiting for heaven with unchanged habits, and by united belief, timely words, and work on every side present the correct standard of what Christ is and what His followers are to Him, so God is glorified and the world receives a true impression of Christ.

The prayer gives every believer an exalted position as God's messenger, Christ's instrumentality and co-laborer with Him. It places obligation on every believer to represent Christ as full of grace and truth and to convey His cheering, uplifting, sanctifying power to the world. It commissions believers to go forth as Christ's delegated representatives to make known God's mercy, love and forgiveness of sin, to draw all hearts into unity with Christ and with one another as Christ is one with the Father, and so to testify that God sent Christ as Saviour and loves believers as He loved Christ.

Those who receive Christ as Saviour are entrusted with His work of bringing truth to others, joined to Him, glorifying Him before the world by accepting Him and submitting to His guidance, and given power to become children of God. Their faith and unity are tied to teaching the plan of salvation and living in obedience to the truth, with the church called to seek this unity and to minister as well as preach. The prayer represents what believers must be as they seek to overcome.

The prayer brings present believers inside His intercession and calls them to unity and harmony in faith and purpose. It gathers in those who are absent and those who oppose without understanding, so that instead of staying on the outer skirts of the camp and firing in the dark they will come in, hear, have their hearts impressed by the Lord, and know where the Spirit of God is working. Their unity and love are the mark of discipleship and the standard Christians are to pursue as they help one another. His love replaces coldness and hardness of character and shapes how they treat one another, as believers who live according to God's plan grow through Christian fellowship and become more like Christ, receiving the benefits of truth and being one with one another and with the Father as evidence to the world that they are one with the Father.

Future believers included as followers are to carry the gospel to others by teaching its truth in what they say and do. They are to be united rather than act as independent individuals, so that the gospel's holy principles are shown to the unbelieving world, sanctified through the gospel and working together with God as part of the witness that God sent Christ and loves His people. They are to be made holy through the truth and brought to serve in sharing it with others, with those who preach taking responsibility for living in consecration and representing Christ so that the truth proclaimed is shown in daily life through righteousness and holiness.

Earnest prayer should be made for workers in the field, and there is a blessing in such prayer that can be received in no other way, rebuking failure to remember beloved brethren and sisters in labor. Unity is first brought by praying for the work and the workers, not as a mechanical thing but as a living experience in the heart that the Lord alone can give, requiring time spent talking about it and abandoning all to the one great theme of the gospel of Jesus Christ in every branch of gospel labor. The church is urged to seek to answer His prayer through earnest prayer.

The verse lays responsibility of individual influence on every believer, whose life practice must exalt the gospel of Christ and testify of the power of the Word upon human life. This oneness calls for self-denial and consecration of every ability to His service, representing the Saviour to the world in patience, goodness, mercy, sympathy, kindness, tenderness and love learned from Jesus, continually doing work like His and refusing worldly policies that conflict with truth. Through the influence of the Holy Spirit all are to labor for this unity of love to bring others to knowledge of the truth, for a living church is earnest in work for the Master, and such devotion in the light shining from Calvary commends Christ and His service so the world can see God sent His Son to save sinners.

Loving Christ means keeping His commandments, so that the disciple's words are simply a voicing of Christ's words and are to be received from His servants as the words of Christ. Those who believe are privileged to bear credentials to the world that Jesus Christ is Redeemer whose blood has cleansed them from sins, making them light to the world, voicing that He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Christ longs to save the sinner while hating the sin, and calls sinners to lay sin upon Him as the Burden-bearer and be one with God and with Him.

Its call is carried forward as believers teach the truth and live it before others, first in the home where parents interest their children in God's Word and children in turn help others learn it, so that truth wins souls to Christ and conduct shapes the influence that reaches the church. That oneness removes dissension and lack of unity and must be seen in households where parents are in right relation to God, keep the spirit of dissension out, live the Word before children, bring children to Jesus Christ, and are baptized with the Holy Spirit. Parents must be reconverted and let the Holy Spirit impress the mind and soften the spirit so they do not become passionate and take the devil's side, for living out this instruction begins in the home where Christlike conduct lets light shine and influences the church and those in darkness.

The message belongs to all who claim to be Christians, to be presented in every home about how to receive Christ's grace, and refusing the conditions He lays down leaves people unready to meet Him when He comes in glory. Christ joins Himself with His believing people and joins them to Himself in the work of saving a lost world, and believers are to carry the light they receive from Him beyond their homes and churches to the whole world, working together with divine help against the forces of evil. God's people are to sit together in heavenly places in Christ with unabating interest in soul-saving while souls remain to be saved.

In soul-winning the prayer means Christ has prayed for those souls, Christ is at the worker's right hand, and the angels of God are commissioned to do their work to bring them into the truth, and soul-winning is the very work to be done. Those who share the gospel should stand in right relation to God, proclaim His Word to people in danger of perishing, and care for them tenderly without placing obstacles in their way. This work is to be done in harmony with Christ and the angels, and it helps form Christian character.

Believers are to share truth openly so others may believe and be saved and sanctified, with the word they share like seed sown in hearts producing fruit unto eternal life. The truth for this time must be carried to those who have never heard it, with everyone taking part — not all can go as missionaries to foreign lands, but all can do the work in their own neighborhood and all can give of their means for foreign missionary work — so that all can be partakers of the divine nature. Receiving the moisture and dew of heaven depends on improving every opportunity to strengthen every line of work that extends the knowledge of God. Christ gave Himself not only for those now united with Him but for all human beings, and every Christian is the fruit of His death.

Christ's work continues through believers who share the truth, and even those unable to serve as ministers can serve through words, devotion, and a character dedicated to God. The united work of preparing the way of the Lord cannot succeed by scattered, individual effort but requires the influence of every church member and of ministers and workers, with every soul who claims to believe laid under tribute to God to prepare the way for the light and glory of God. The whole treasure of heaven and the cooperation of heavenly angels make that united work a wonderful, glorious success.

God's work is one, and becoming one with fellow believers allows God's love and power to flow richly into the soul, while division between medical missionary work and the ministry shows the Holy Spirit is not working upon hearts. Ministers in Word and doctrine must be one as Christ is one with the Father, drawing together in even cords in the solemn services of God's sanctuary. Those leading worship when God meets with His people must not draw the people to themselves or to human leaders but point them to God's presence and recognize God's presence, and all who worship Him must respect and love one another and manage every part of His service in an orderly, becoming manner.

That prayer places a great work on every son and daughter of God to bear as definite a testimony of the truth as it is in Jesus as the apostles did. Done trusting in the efficiency of the Holy Spirit, this testimony dispels darkness from many minds and causes many voices to be heard testifying of the mercy, goodness, and love of a crucified and risen Saviour. His commission therefore reaches later believers who receive the word through the disciples, and those called to represent Christ are to teach them the practical godliness Christ taught. The teaching was given not only for the disciples but for later believers through their testimony, so the disciples were to teach the same principles to make known salvation with lives governed by those principles to pass on knowledge by precept and example.

The testimony of true Christians brings many people to believe the truth. Those who believe are to bear witness to Christ by seeking to save people rather than repulsing them, sanctified through belief of the truth, a faith that works by love and purifies the soul from sin. The prayer reaches forward to future believers won through the witness of the disciples, and it gives weight to diligently studying the lessons Christ gave His disciples, because His words are Spirit and life and full of rich nourishment to be passed on to others.

God commits to men and women the same mission the Father committed to Christ, to disentangle them from all worldly conniving and policy and give them a work identical with the work Christ did. They are to represent Christ in character continually just as Christ represented the character of His Father while in this world, revealing the Father through the Son as a spectacle to worlds unfallen, to angels, and to men, with the same object as Christ's mission to make known and demonstrate God's love and to save sinners. This is fulfilled in sacred work that must perfectly correspond with the lifework of Christ as the greatest Medical Missionary. Christ's words to His followers, including His prayer for those who would believe through their word, were not being heeded, and they call for conduct shaped by the Holy Spirit rather than unkind talk and judgment that harm people and damage God's work.

Study and Practice of Prayer

The whole prayer from its first verse to its last is to be studied word by word, read often and over and over, prayed over for understanding of its meaning, carried into practical life and made the rule of life. It holds a word of possibilities revealing the positive privilege of covenant relation with God as the greatest gift within reach, raising fallen humanity, and all who have this privilege and do not improve it must answer in the great day, while the salvation of His striving people is promised to the Saviour. Those who believe and practice it reveal its sanctifying power in their lives, give power to God's commandment-keeping people, preserve the unity for which it prays by pressing together, working as one, being at peace, cultivating love, uprooting suspicion, envy, jealousy and evil thinking and speaking, and putting away spiritual pride, love of supremacy and selfishness, schism and division, and then God loves them as He loved His Son, the sinner is saved, God is eternally glorified and present to commune with and bless them, the world believes and knows the Father sent Christ, and they are fitted to become members of the royal family, children of the heavenly King. It is to be received into the treasure-house of the soul as a daily lesson and rule of life, teaching how to pray and how to live the prayer.

Living it means ceasing petty talk, criticism and evil speaking, linking with one another and with Christ, going to God in earnest prayer, praying for union and then living in obedience so God can answer, helping the erring and obeying the truth. To those who so obey, Christ as the Comforter abides in the heart making joy full, and His words become the bread of life giving strength to develop characters that honor God and reveal the power of grace in perfect Christian fellowship and fruit of obedience. Its answer is perfect oneness, a union as close as that between the Father and the Son, brought about by Christ giving His true disciples the glory of His character and appearing in their lives through the impartation of His Spirit, giving success to the efforts of God's workers and convincing the world that God sent His Son to save sinners and loves believers as He loved Christ. This widening of the prayer gives a great advantage to God's people and marks their day of visitation, standing within the vast enterprise of human salvation calling into action every attribute of the divine nature, in which Father, Son and Holy Spirit have pledged to make God's children more than conquerors, for the Lord is gracious and long-suffering, not willing that any should perish, and has provided power for overcomers.

Its lessons are to be studied and practiced, shaping faith, conduct and habits in harmony with it rather than allowing one-sided development, and received and acted upon to keep believers from getting above the simplicity of pure Christlikeness. The chapter plainly outlines God's will and calls for belief in that teaching and living it out, serving as the church's creed showing that difference and disunion dishonor God. The call for unity of sentiment and action among professed churches leaves not a single apology in the New Testament for the existing want of such unity. This oneness is a deep, broad, eternal truth to govern every church that accepts truth of heavenly origin and a principle to be acted upon in the church and in all institutions, and to take any other course is to leave the way of the Lord.

That oneness means no perfection in division but oneness in interest for souls perishing out of Christ and in taking up individual responsibility and cooperating with Christ in the great work to be accomplished instead of sitting down to take life easily. When this prayer is answered for His people in this age, when this unity exists among Seventh-day Adventists, a tremendous influence will go forth to the world, and reformations will take place first in their own ranks and then in those for whom they labor in transformation of character. The lessons of John 13-17 carry deep import and hold the richest promises, needing to be studied and even committed to memory, with diligent searching of the Word and studying the meaning of every word. The mind is to be kept as a storehouse of truth, with Thus saith the Lord and It is written on the lips, so as to speak a word in season to the oppressed, the sorrowful and the afflicted, to draw out the richest consolation to impart to others ready to perish, and to be like a garden whose waters fail not in refreshing all around, while the Spirit enables believers to understand with new enlightenment, teaching acknowledgment of God in all ways and dwelling on uniting truths rather than questions that provoke controversy.

The chapter directs people to worship Jesus as the Life-giver rather than trust in human beings. It shows Christ in His people united to God the great Head, revealing the depth of the wisdom and knowledge of God in oneness of heart, belief of the truth, sympathy, true courtesy, compassion and grace exemplifying the union between the Father and the Son. This unity is the power of the truth sanctifying the soul, and the restoring agencies that produce it are not to be confined to a few places but extended to the ends of the earth. The words are wonderful, almost beyond comprehension, and call teachers and students to take the Bible as the lesson book able to make wise unto salvation, because the Bible is the voice of God giving words of life and making known Christ who is life.

True abiding faith comes from knowing Him as represented in the word, as trust founded in Jesus Christ kept in constant exercise by diligent persevering study, and by that living agency believers are sanctified through the truth. The verse belongs to words whose significance sustains courage, strengthens faith and keeps believers in the love of God, and calls for faith that takes hold of God's promises as its own. Christ's prayer is an encouraging lesson to study, and those who believe the Word are to put it into practice. The wonderful prayer is to be studied often to learn how to pray and to be brought into right relation to God, sustaining those who labor together with God in never neglecting the precious privilege of prayer, and its prayer is to be read and considered, with the chapter calling for careful study and earnest practice because it specifies duties Christ gave His followers.

That prayer is answered when believers read 1 Corinthians 1 and earnestly take it into life practice, and what is commanded there is possible to do, otherwise it would not be written. The verse was the basis of an appeal to seek the Lord more earnestly, give wholly to Him and give means to advance His cause, leading many to confess sins in prayer. The prayer is to be kept before the church as a call to draw together in unity and faith, presenting an unbroken front. Truly converted believers are transformed in character and treasure this prayer above any favor the world can offer.