John 17:23
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. 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.
Christ living in his followers while the Father lives in him brings them into complete oneness, so that the world may recognize that the Father sent him and loves them with the same love he has for his Son. To be made perfect in one is to partake of the divine nature and attain perfection of character, with selfishness removed and the heart made pure like his through dependence on God for divine power. This oneness does not erase distinct personhood, but as the Father and the Son are two distinct persons yet one in purpose and work, so believers become one in mind, purpose, character and action while keeping their individuality. It is effected through the Holy Spirit and through sanctification by the truth and obedience to God's law, as believers abide in Christ as branches in the vine and draw nearer to him and to one another. Their visible unity and Christlike love is the convincing proof that God sent Christ as Saviour, while division and strife dishonor him and bar the world from believing.
Setting of Last Prayer
This is Christ's last prayer with his disciples, spoken with eyes lifted to heaven after finishing the work given him, glorifying God on earth, manifesting the Father's name and gathering those who would continue his work, alone with the eleven in the upper chamber after Judas left, just before betrayal, rejection, trial, Gethsemane, crucifixion, separation and agony. It was offered as counsel, comfort, instruction and preparation for seeing him betrayed and suffering and for future trials, spoken in comfort and love so they would not think they were to be left helpless orphans when he left them, as the outpouring of the burden of his soul and the close of his instruction. It was repeated by the disciples to steady one another though fully understood only after the resurrection and the descent of the Holy Spirit. It is a wonderful truth full of encouragement and comfort, to be received and acted upon without getting above the simplicity of pure Christlikeness, received into the treasure-house of the soul and made the daily lesson of life, meaning much more than is realized. Variance and strife in light of it give a false impression to the world, show the love of God lost from the heart with no love for brethren, and make Christ ashamed to call believers brethren.
The prayer was offered not for the first disciples alone but for all who would believe through their word in every generation to the end of time and to the ends of the earth, a prayer that parents and children may share in. Its instruction, promises and unity therefore belong to present believers numbered with Israel, who as repositories of greater light must show greater perfection of character and deeper devotion. Its mention of apostles and later believers gives no ground for confining spiritual gifts to the first Christians, for the unity prayed for is the state the gifts were given to secure.
In the prayer Christ with his human arm encircling the children of Adam in a firm embrace and his strong divine arm grasping the throne of the Infinite joins earth to heaven and finite humanity to the infinite God through his human and divine nature. It belongs to his short final time of comforting and instructing his little band of followers, farewell counsel rich in sympathy and truth, exceeding precious to the disciples in those last moments with their beloved Master. It is a petition to the Father for his church, poured forth like a consecrated high priest, deep and full, broad as the earth and reaching high heaven.
The chapter containing the verse sets out the plan of redemption and the provision made for the human race, presenting eternal life as knowing the only true God and Jesus Christ whom he sent. It shows Christ's recompense for his conquests, his ransomed church as the chief source of his glory making known manifold wisdom unto principalities and powers, and his love in dying a shameful death to save the perishing. It presents the fullness and breadth of his mercy waiting to be given to the obedient and humble, and the knowledge of God believers must acknowledge and seek, sufficient to sustain courage and keep souls in his love. Those who believe and practice God's Word answer this prayer, are kept from evil and sanctified by the truth, and though hated by the world do not contradict their belonging to God.
The verse illustrates Christ's continuing ministry and intercession for his people in the heavenly sanctuary to the end of the world, which he is now making at his Father's right hand and will continue to make for those who believe in him, prevailing to take away sin and keep the obedient from falling so that they shall live because he lives. He acts therein as consecrated high priest, faithful shepherd gathering his flock under the shadow of the Almighty in a strong and sure refuge, elder brother and mediator sharing human infirmity and temptation yet without sin, identifying his interests with fallen humanity. With divine authority he gives his elect church into the Father's arms as he goes forth to meet his last battle with Satan. The prayer seeks fresh grace and spiritual blessings of keeping from sin and remaining loyal to God rather than riches or human status, and helps truly penitent believers in every emergency who ask in faith for new strength and the Spirit's power.
Its lessons from the first verse to the last, together with John 13 to 17, are to be studied word by word with prayer, believed exactly as stated, received into the soul, taught in every family, digested by every church and institution, made the daily lesson and rule of life in habits, conduct, faith and obedience. It is both request for unity and pattern of what Christians may become, privilege of covenant relation and standard of holy character, to serve as the church's creed, since difference and disunion dishonor God. Its words are large possibilities almost beyond faith, worthy to be written in gold, dwelt upon and presented by pen and voice, to be believed and acted on by taking time to pray and then living lives in harmony with prayer, believing the Lord will answer though not in the expected way, for the Master is too wise to err and too good to do harm. Failure to avail oneself of them must be answered for, with every trial and disappointment met with Not my will but Thine be done.
The words are repeated by angels with deepest power, and when believed and practiced by commandment-keeping people they send forth powerful influence, God working for the happiness of obedient lovers of him. They set the standard all must reach to enter the heavenly city, meaning the end of faith is the perfection of human character and sanctification of the entire being through the truth, shown in harmonious service and obedience to God's commandments. God knows what his people need and through his chosen agents shows kindness to them, and greatly blesses men and women when he sees them obeying.
The prayed-for unity is the standard for the church which the spiritual gifts Christ ordained are the means to secure. The prayer belongs to Christ's foresight of trials, dangers and divisions weakening the church to the end of time, and he watches over them with deep interest and compassion, invites them to learn from him and trust him, and pledges to help them.
Wording and Promises
Christ dwelling in believers with the Father dwelling in Christ brings them to complete unity, to being made perfect in one, and that completed oneness is to show the world that the Father sent Christ and loves believers with the same love He has for Christ. This indwelling makes them complete in Him, while apart from Him they are deficient, and their unity is to resemble the unity of Father and Son as convincing evidence presented to the world. It joins them in perfect Christian love despite different characters, backgrounds and habits so they can work together, and it gives no support to separating them into groups by nationality or language. That unity is shown in harmonious service and obedience to God's commandments, and God constantly works for the happiness of those who love and serve Him and greatly blesses men and women when He sees them obeying.
Being made perfect means spiritual union in which, as Christ in His humanity was dependent on the Father, humanity is dependent on God for divine power to attain perfection of character. Perfection is partaking of the divine nature and overcoming the enemy's temptation and the corruption in the world through lust, with selfishness removed and character made pure like Christ's. It is expressed in spirit and character made evident through obedience to God's commandments rendered through Christ's imputed righteousness, requiring conduct, speech and character that let the Father love believers with the same interest and love He has for His Son. That character must be developed and tested in this life, where believers are stamped with God's image, for complete union with God through Christ by faith in the heart is necessary to perfection and makes the church perfect. This promise that the Father loves believers as He loves Christ taxes faith to the utmost, and it is given on condition that they meet the standard of Christ's righteousness.
To be made perfect in one is for human beings of different temperaments to be brought together by nothing short of the miraculous power of God into harmonious action with the one aim of speaking the truth in love. Such unity is evidence that the Father sent His Son to save sinners and a witness to the power of God and the power of truth for good, while suspicion, distrust and disunion are evil leaven with power for evil. It leaves each one free to do his God-appointed work under Christ as head, seeking counsel from God, with no one binding another about in his work or binding anyone hand and foot to another man's mind, and different works blend together in harmony rather than all doing the same work. It is to be practiced in every line of work through touch with God by the Holy Spirit and united connection with heavenly intelligences, so the cause of truth does not bear human imperfection and be misrepresented. Christ's workers are thus to labor in harmony, each using different gifts without pursuing independent plans or trusting in people, taking an unselfish interest in one another, and this unity joined with love and Christlike growth perfects Christian character.
The glory the Father gave Christ, which Christ gives to followers to make oneness possible, is His character and obedient sonship — mercy, graciousness, longsuffering, goodness, truth and holiness, an expression of God's law which Christ fulfilled. Imparted by the Spirit, it conforms them to His likeness so they reveal the same spirit, are one even as Father and Son are one, and are sent as He was sent. It is character given as the greatest gift, the full grace every follower may receive, by which He still purposes to sanctify and cleanse His church without blemish. Its result is harmony with one another and steadfast loyalty to God, His Word and fellow believers, making His ransomed church the chief source of His glory and making known the manifold wisdom of God unto principalities and powers in heavenly places. Beholding His glory, which is character, fills the mind with awe and love and strengthens faith to talk faith, live faith, and give the world an example of faith which works by love and purifies the soul, and it holds great possibilities if they humble themselves and exalt Jesus.
The verse sets the standard all must reach to enter the heavenly city and sets before believers the possibility of high and holy attainment. It states God's great purpose to secure a people who work out His will in complete harmony with God and become channels of light to the world through the one Spirit molding the human soul after the divine similitude. It presents an essential spiritual principle and lesson necessary for present and eternal good and growth in grace, calling believers to seek a deep experience with God and to live out the prayer. They are to work toward its fulfillment with persevering effort, in harmony with one another and with God who works in them, made possible by grace given to every striving soul. This oneness means believers are not independent atoms doing as they please or following independence, but are united by the great principles of the gospel in submission at every step to God's authority, mind and will, formed by the Holy Spirit, and every believer must work for its perfection. Together with every verse in John 13 to 17 it is to be believed exactly as God says it and lived out before fellow ministers as the philosophy of genuine missionary work.
Believers are to be forever one with Christ and the Father where Christ is, to be with Him and behold His glory which the Father gave Him because He loved Him before the foundation of the world. This unity and love are a marvel and joy to the heavenly host, and they are the outcome of the oneness that lets the world know the Father sent Jesus. Of himself man has no perfection, but through the infinite sacrifice of the Son complete provision is made for him to become a partaker of the divine nature and through the merits of Christ's blood to be an overcomer. Where the Redeemer is the redeemed will be, for the Father's covenant with Christ is that He will receive repentant and obedient people and love them as He loves His Son. As His church they may share in His kingdom as joint heirs with Him, and when heart and hand are wed to Jesus a person becomes an heir of God and joint-heir with Christ, loved with the same love He loves His only-begotten Son.
Christ's promises are complete because His sacrifice is complete, so believers may trust them and seek completeness in Him. The union to God and Jesus Christ shown here is the precious privilege that is the highest, most sacred and most exalted privilege mortals can have.
Nature of Oneness
The oneness for which the verse prays does not erase distinct personhood or make believers the same person, and it must not cause doubt of the distinct personality of God. As God and Christ are two distinct personages yet one in purpose and work to save the fallen, so believers are one in mind, purpose, character, action, feeling, spirit, heart, soul, judgment and faith. That oneness is as close as the union of Father and Son, though the first disciples differed widely in natural character, training and habits. Christ dwelling in believers and the Father in Christ brings them to this unity, so that the world may know that the Father sent Christ and loves believers as He loves Christ.
Believers are to become one with Christ as He is one with the Father, joined as a single unit and blended in Him, not as separate atoms falling apart. It is oneness with God through Christ in a vital relation like the Son's relation to the Father, expressed as partaking of the divine nature and being conformed to God's character. This closeness lets Christ's character appear in them as His representatives, making them channels of light to the world. It is not independence or doing as they please, but harmony in the principles of the gospel formed by the Holy Spirit.
The unity brings diverse disciples with different characters, backgrounds and habits into oneness in feeling, thought and action so they can work together as the world's teachers. It does not require the same temperament, intelligence, experience, gifts, way of working, speech, manner or understanding of every passage, but retains individuality as separate branches drawing life from one vine and different parts of one temple made complete through the same Spirit. Their words and manner of expression may differ, but their spiritual unity is one, with purity preceding unity and vainglory and a quarrelsome spirit put away.
The unity is an inward, living bond of peace and love made possible through Christ's life, work, death and participation with humanity, a holy purpose of God and eternal principle. It is not mere sentiment, profession, temporary regard, worldly policy or consolidation after the world's idea, nor independence or each following his own judgment, and it is a work of God's power, not merely human agreement. Division into separate, independent parties gives the world the opposite impression from the one prayed for.
It teaches unity in the truth and pure truth of the Bible, not agreement in error, expressed in Christian fellowship, obedience, without self-seeking or rivalry, centered in God as believers receive truth and obey heaven's laws. It requires being led out from the world upon the platform of the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus, unifying on the truths that called them out as His denominated people. Preserving it requires agreeing on fundamental truths, refusing to stand apart over minor points and side issues, resisting prejudice, avoiding enlarging differences, and meeting disagreements by turning together to Scripture with brotherly love, meekness and humility.
The oneness is strong, sincere, unaffected friendship and living love in and through Christ, drawn from the cross and shared by the Spirit as branches share the vine's life. It is fostered by love for God and one another, expressed in mutual love, confidence, sympathy, courtesy, compassion, grace and harmony while submitting to Christ's shaping work, with each keeping identity, field and work while united. It gives no support to separating believers into groups by nationality or language nor to remaining divided into disconnected groups, but calls for complete harmonious unity across nationalities and peculiarities of character, removing selfish territorial, racial, color and caste barriers by the Holy Spirit. Without living it in this life believers cannot dwell together in the life to come.
Each person can be thoroughly identified with Christ through true conversion, endowed with His divine nature and sharing His love, so plainly seen in character that the world has evidence God sent His Son to save the world. Unity consists in being one in Christ despite differences, which need not cause discord, and coldness or trivial disagreements must not alienate, so unity must be preserved and cultivated daily. Believers even when scattered worldwide are to be closely united in Christ their Head and Mediator, guided by God's Word, giving up their own way for God's way. Christ prayed believers share the same nature and oneness existing between Him and the Father, answered when they work as earnestly for mutual union as Christ works for them by seeking confidence and love. Believers are to be united in Christ through shared faith and love, and though having different talents all depend on Christ as Head, and His Spirit removes quarreling and seeking supremacy.
How Oneness Is Effected
Union comes through drawing nourishment from Christ as the True Vine, through his presence by faith in the heart as power and life, and through receiving and daily feeding on him as spiritual food and drink. By that receiving the whole person of body, soul and spirit is bound to his divine-human nature, joined to him and made complete in him, with Christ formed within as blood is formed from food. This indwelling is the life of the new man and of the soul, its living supply and the source and pledge of joy, glory and hope, so close unity with the Saviour is to be preserved and conversion and oneness with him as he is one with the Father are required. Those so connected carry him in heart and life, bear fruit and the Spirit's fruit in each branch amid diversity, and being united to Christ are united to one another in a shared life that witnesses to redeeming and transforming power. Their hearts filled with his love obey his law and represent his character, convincing the world that God sent Christ and loves them as he loves Christ.
The oneness is the work of redemption: Christ obeyed God's commandments and took humanity into himself, giving humanity life in him and bringing fallen people into oneness with divinity. It is made possible through his sacrifice and sanctifying work, which removes evil and disunion and makes people fit to serve God, and through the merits of his atoning blood by which overcomers partake of the divine nature. Christ sanctified himself that he might sanctify his disciples, and God gave his beloved Son that this unity might be brought about and preserving it become duty. Those joined to the Lord through that sacrifice are sanctified by the truth, share one Spirit, and are knit in perfect heaven-born love, with purity preceding unity and the selfish heart changed so that differing speech and manner are guided by the same Spirit without vainglory or quarrel. Their unity in daily action and love, even when scattered worldwide, comes as they give up their own way for God's way and is effected by the Spirit of Christ alone.
The oneness is effected through the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, the Spirit of truth abiding forever, given to dwell with believers and purify the church. Christ answers the prayer by giving true disciples the glory of his character and appearing in their lives through the impartation of his Spirit, abiding in hearts to make joy full, with his words as bread of life and strength to develop obedient characters bearing the fruit of obedience to truth. Cooperation and submission to that one Spirit secures the result, molding the soul after the divine similitude, drawing all by cords of love to Christ as the great Center, and expressing love, compassion and tenderness toward one another with rest, peace and joy. By the Spirit and conformity to God's law believers share the divine nature and are brought into living union with Christ and the Father, becoming complete in Christ, one in mind, purpose and character without becoming the same person. On that close connection depend spiritual life, power and ability to carry out the gospel mission, and Christlike love becomes evidence that God sent Jesus to save and loves believers as his Son.
The prayer calls believers to be sanctified through the truth and by obeying God's law to be united with Christ who is one with God. That sanctification produces complete harmonious unity seen in goodness, mercy, love, faithfulness, meekness and lowliness, overcoming self-exaltation and jealousy. It yields a life of prayer, praise and obedience to all the commandments, defeating the lie that man cannot keep them, and advances by loving God supremely and neighbor as self, keeping the first four and last six commandments and the new commandment to love. Oneness exists only in proportion to illumination and sanctification, as believers harmonize in understanding truth, judgment, confidence and peace, and it is perfected by walking in Christ's love, the Spirit's unity and sanctifying truth through diligent self-sacrificing effort.
Oneness requires the natural selfish heart to be changed, cleansed and sanctified through the truth, exchanging selfishness for the heart God gives and partaking of the divine nature. Through faith believers receive power to remain faithful when tempted, share in the divine nature and receive blessings promised to those who trust him as personal Saviour, with victory over the world, the flesh and the devil. Christ dwelling in them by faith and the Father in Christ makes them complete in unity with God, and a heart so sanctified is one with Christ in God with wisdom pure and peaceable. Confessing and forsaking sin brings them into close relation with Jesus and oneness with Christ by grace working in the heart, and Christ saves completely those who come to him. When believed and practiced this unity perfects Christian character, shows in harmonious labor with unselfish interest in one another, bears divine credentials, and gives commandment-keeping people powerful influence.
Renouncing self-will in matters brings believers into union with Christ, and as they draw near to God and are united with Christ they live in holy fellowship. Union with Christ leads naturally to union with one another in tender Christian affection and confidence, and the closer they are to Christ the closer they are to each other. Each must remain personally united with Christ and commune with him daily and hourly rather than drawing spiritual life from one another, as branches joined to the living vine receiving life from him and bearing the Spirit's fruit. Disagreement is inconsistent with belonging as branches to the True Vine, so the unity for which he prayed must be continually sought, prayed and worked for determinedly, thereby answering his prayer. When so united, suspicion, unbelief, wrangling and dissension are put away and work carries a fragrant influence wherever they go.
It was fulfilled after the resurrection and ascension when union prevailed and believers were all of one heart and one mind. Even the difference over circumcision and admission of uncircumcised Gentiles was soon settled, so that through divine illumination and sanctification believers were perfectly joined in the same mind and judgment, which is and always will be the fruit borne under the Holy Spirit's influence. That unity exists in proportion to illumination and sanctification, with increasing harmony in understanding truth, unity in judgment, mutual confidence, peace, and believing and speaking the same things with one heart and mouth glorifying God. Those accepting the Advent message likewise experienced it when denominational barriers fell, conflicting creeds shattered, false views of the second advent and temporal millennium corrected, pride and conformity swept away, wrongs righted, and hearts united in sweetest fellowship where love and joy reigned.
As Christ works with believers abiding in him they reveal perfection of character and are made perfect in one. This comes by looking to the Saviour and beholding with open face as in a glass the glory of the Lord, being changed into the same image from glory to glory by the Spirit, growing in grace and knowledge of God and Jesus Christ, and walking humbly with God. It requires purification of soul by faith working by love, putting on Christ, confessing that of self nothing can be done and no atonement made, and through faith purifying the soul from dross and revealing Christ's God-given righteousness by faith. It is formed as they learn from him through life, share his meekness and lowliness, partake of the divine nature, and God and people work together as wrong tendencies are removed and temptation overcome, with the mind resting in peace and assurance as a power for good. So beheld in the word the believer becomes more like Christ, takes eyes off finite man, trusts no arm of flesh, exalts Jesus alone, and knows him aright as life eternal, reflecting his oneness with the Father and making his great love visible.
The prayer will finally be answered for his church as he is one with the Father, with God's love fully revealed through the church and the Holy Spirit continually supplied to witness to saving power. Believers are to be one through Christ in them and the Father in Christ by putting away jealousy and suspicion and walking in the light, since living in Christ is necessary for fruitful labor. They are to be one with Christ and complete in him, with God's Word leading to belief and those sanctified by truth revealing binding unity, tenderness and love that works for others, receives and shares grace, and seeks God's presence. Believing unto salvation with full surrender makes them Christlike and one with Christ, enabling them to reveal him to the world and ending fitful haphazard work. The unity prayed for is to exist among those who cling to him, for as they are connected with Christ and abide in his love they are transformed and brought into unity with fellow believers.
Father's Love for Believers
God loves those who believe with the same great love He has for His Son, even as greatly as His only-begotten Son, taking the same interest in their salvation. This is a living reality and not an uncertain or unreal hope, prepared and certain today even for fallen, poor, perverse people stumbling in darkness and error. It was spoken in His last prayer for His disciples, a wonderful truth full of encouragement and comfort, to be trusted and held onto with joy, reverence, gratitude and comfort. Their unity through Christ in them and the Father in Him, bringing them to complete unity as Father and Son are one, is meant to show the world that the Father sent Jesus and loves His people as He loves His Son, a purpose almost too great for faith to grasp yet the will of God through Jesus. Drawing near to God brings believers near to one another, and a converting power must come upon hearts with Christ abiding in human agents while heaven works and waits for human cooperation through humbled hearts.
Those united with Christ are bound up with God, belong to Him as His chosen children, and share the inheritance of God with Christ. The Father loves each person in whom Christ abides, including obedient believers united with Christ in heart, soul and spirit and overcomers who obey His word. This love is free abundant grace and an inheritance already shown in gracious favor and gifts in this life, pointing toward the heavenly inheritance to come. Through Christ's grace sinful people can be clothed with His righteousness, purified, elevated and ennobled, with God's gifts meant to ennoble, expand and elevate character and prepare for heaven. Jesus conveys its circulating vitality of pure and sanctified Christlike love through every part of human nature, and when expressed in character it reveals that God can be formed within, the hope of glory, diffused to others by being yoked with Christ as members of His body with Christ Himself as glorious Head, nothing less satisfying God's desire.
That love is known by believing in Christ as a complete Saviour, rejoicing that the atonement is complete, appreciating the value of the ransom paid and what was suffered to forgive and rescue from destruction. Those who place their will on God's side become children of God and share in the divine nature through Christ and the atoning blood. Through faith in Christ believers receive the Father's love as the Son does, becoming members of His body and branches joined to the living Vine receiving nourishment from Him, including those who share His sufferings and endure humiliation for His name. It is shown even now in gracious favor to ennoble and elevate character, inspiring gratitude and freeing from spiritual weakness, pride, vanity, selfishness and whatever deforms Christian character. By faith they can grasp and live in its reality, receiving Christ's grace so light shines steadily amid moral darkness, while Christ continually intercedes and desires them to be with Him and behold His glory.
The love is joined to knowing the Father through Christ who declares the Father's name and character, and to the hope of being with Christ where He is and beholding His glory. Christ reveals the Father as He truly is, correcting the false picture of God as harsh and condemning, for God is merciful, gracious, patient, good, truthful, forgiving and just. The God who dwells in unapproachable light and rules the universe loves believers with the same love He has for His Son, a wonder angels desire to look into. In Christ's face the invisible God becomes a clearer object of contemplation and love, and as Christ's life is revealed in believers the world can see this love and the privileges received through Him.
The Father's love is so wide and full that understanding it should lead people to act in keeping with these words. He holds fast to fallen human beings even as they stumble in darkness and error, and this calls believers to welcome a brother before he has reached the position they think he should attain. The prayer calls believers to love and value one another in light of the cross. The life and character of the believer who obeys His commands bears testimony that God loves the human agent as He loves His own Son, an almost incomprehensible value placed on one entirely surrendered to Him, with provision to serve Him without fear in holiness and righteousness all the days of life. Those who accept God's truth are dear to Christ, and disparaging them opposes Christ's purpose for them, while God regards with peculiar tenderness those who struggle to enter the strait gate.
Believers are accepted in Christ because they have united their interests with Him in love. Christ stands between God and believers, reveals God's glory to them, and covers their defects, sins and transgressions with His spotless righteousness. His self-sacrifice has averted the sword of justice, and He presents the sinner as saved by His grace and asks the Father to receive him as a child, with the Father's acceptance of Christ's atonement extending to them. Believers purchased at infinite cost are to value His sacrifice, live hidden with Him in God, and show God's love by loving one another.
Witness to the World
Their perfect oneness testifies to the goodness and benevolence of God, proving that He sent Christ to be the Saviour of the world and loves believers as He loved Christ, making them partakers of the divine nature as a standing miracle before the world. This unity and harmony is the convincing argument and credential that leads the world to believe, which the world cannot withstand and controvert, and on which the disciples' power, mission, conversion of unbelievers and glorifying of God depend. It leaves no room for variance, pulling apart, or walking selfishly alone in independent judgment, but places on every believer the obligation as messenger, instrumentality, co-laborer and delegated representative to live as seeing Him who is invisible, to express love as Christ loved, to manifest grace and truth with cheering, uplifting, sanctifying power, and to make known mercy, forgiveness and paternal character so other hearts are drawn into unity with Christ. That oneness in mutual love, in mind, purpose and character through the Holy Spirit and conformity to God's law, bringing completeness in Christ, is how the world may know the Father sent Christ and loves believers as Christ, while variance and strife give a false impression, show love lost from the heart, make Christ ashamed to call them brethren, disgust unbelievers, fasten them in unbelief and dishonor God. Their profit is not in keeping apart and holding to mind and ideas but in wanting oneness and striving into unity, willingly receiving the given glory that lightens their pathway and others' in face, words and testimony, as each must choose like one who drinks when brought to water.
Transformed lives and Christlike character formed through fellowship and through belief and practice of the truth, with the Spirit molding after the divine similitude and giving correct views, bear uncontrovertible evidence to the power of truth to purify, ennoble and sanctify. The power of God's grace displayed in mind and character reveals the Father's true character as a God who works miracles and gives the world a living present witness to what the gospel can do to uplift and sanctify. This unity, in which Christ in His people and the Father in Christ bind them in inward living union and Christian love, is convincing proof that God sent His Son to save sinners and loves them as Christ, with Christ glorified in those who receive Him as Saviour and obey. Made fully one through Christ dwelling in them and the Father in Christ, their visible heavenly unity in character and good works bears compelling testimony that can lead many to believe and be converted.
Believers' unity with Christ, shown in character and in love for one another, demonstrates to the world the Father's sending and love, and their righteous lives reveal the Saviour. Their power comes from Christ, whose fullness and grace supply need and bear good fruit as part of the pattern they must follow in seeking to overcome. A holy life formed through unity with Christ shows they value His life as pattern and gives strength and power to convince the world, for Christ makes the high standard reachable by giving grace and strength to every striving soul. This oneness, joining them in unity with the Father as Christ is united with the Father, is to be seen in harmony and maintained by answering His prayer with oneness with Him, since distinct persons can be one in purpose and work to save the fallen and restore them. Faultfinding and criticism work against the prayer by undermining unity and obscuring the witness.
The unity convinces the world that Christ came to die for sinners, to make them partakers of His perfection, to change sinful hearts and to shape characters in the divine likeness, and it is the badge and sacred mark of discipleship. The love believers show one another is the public sign that they are Christ's disciples and God's children, and when oneness is lived in word and deed His Spirit bears witness that they are His instrumentalities and the world knows they have been with Jesus, making efforts for unbelievers acceptable to God. Answering requires repentance and conversion, putting away variance, loving as brethren and being Christians in association, for the prayer remains unanswered while ministers and members proclaiming the gospel are envious, full of strife and destitute of love, dishonoring His name before unbelievers. Joined to the Lord through sacrifice, sanctified by truth, sharing one Spirit and knit in perfect heaven-born love with purity preceding unity, they may differ in speech and manner yet are guided by the same Spirit without vainglory or quarrel, giving evidence of Christ's power, purity, genuine faith and true conversion that makes Christianity a power to convict and lead to Christ.
Oneness in heart and soul after the oneness of Christ and the Father requires believers to be one with Christ in God, letting light shine through good works and showing the world that God sent His Son. The church on earth is to give clear and unmistakable evidence that God sent His Son, through whom His people represent the heavenly family. God has done everything possible to purify and cleanse believers from earthly defilement and to restore His moral image in them, so that transformed human character revealing the power of Bible religion lets the world know He sent His Son. This witness is given only by those who seek knowledge of God and consent to come under Christ's rule while sin pervades the earth, and He who created man and gave His life showing man's value is greatly dishonored when redeemed people choose a low, frivolous, cheap earthly life. Centered in Christ and joined to Him, their combined influence as God's agents, united yet distinct from the world, is to help bring conversion, reveal goodness and make the gospel visible.
Division, disagreement, quarrels, criticism and disunion give the world the opposite impression from what was prayed for, displease Christ, limit what He can do, dishonor Him, obscure the witness and prevent conviction and conversion. Bickerings disgust unbelievers and fasten them in unbelief, while drawing apart into separate independent parties fails to answer the prayer offered as He was about to leave them. Oneness amid diversity, with different temperaments brought by nothing short of miraculous power into harmonious action with the one aim of speaking truth in love, and obedience rendered through Christ's imputed righteousness in spirit and character, testify that God sent Jesus to save sinners and loves believers as His Son. Such unity, possible because Christ prayed for it for believers in every generation through His presence in them and the Father in Him, is evidence they belong to God, whereas suspicion, distrust and disunion are evil leaven with power for evil.
The oneness gives strength which all the powers of hell cannot break, giving the church defense against Satan's attacks, beauty and fragrance of character, and joy. Satan works continually to make the prayer of none effect by creating bitterness and discord, and all who bring weakness, sorrow and discouragement upon God's people work directly against Christ's prayer and aid His enemies. Believers are to answer the petition earnestly asked before betrayal and crucifixion by unifying and striving for the desired unity with heart bound to heart, yielding wills to Christ, ending tale-bearing, resolving difficulties and making confession where needed, with the Holy Spirit given to dwell and purify. Failure to strive for this unity grieves Him, while seeking it satisfies infinite love with rejoicing and brings joy to souls and church.
Followers are to be united with one another as Christ is united with the Father, expressed in respect and love rather than leaders drawing people to themselves. When they live this way the world can recognize God's presence among them and see the truth's power to cleanse the heart. The unity of believers so the world may know the Father sent Christ and loves believers as He loves Christ is the central witness of the verse. Joined to Christ as He is one with the Father, renouncing self-will, drawing nourishment from Him as the True Vine and bearing the Spirit's fruit in unity amid diversity, their shared life witnesses to the gospel's power to redeem and transform, and God's love in their hearts leads to obeying His law so unbelievers are convicted and converted as Christ's character is represented. Preserving this unity requires resisting prejudice, avoiding enlarging differences, and meeting disagreements by turning together to Scripture with brotherly love, meekness and humility, for Christ's sacrifice and sanctifying work remove evil and disunion and make people fit to serve in harmony.
When believers fight among themselves they weaken their witness and give Satan reason to feel no fear of them, but Jesus works with those who watch and pray earnestly and are daily converted. God hears their prayers and will not let a praying child be overcome by the enemy, and the prayer for unity offered just before suffering and death is meant to impress every heart in the face of efforts to cause disunion. The unity and love of believers is to show the world the Father sent Christ and loves believers as He loves Christ, giving powerful convincing evidence for faith and for God's power to save sinners. This oneness does not mean all do the same work but that different works and different temperaments blend in harmonious action by miraculous power with the shared aim of speaking truth in love, diverse branches united in the vine and bearing fruit. Love and confidence among fellow workers, respect, freedom from envy, criticism and dissension, and cherishing love and faith together so love leads to dealing faithfully, express the unity; Christ's transforming grace brings harmony and sweeps away differences, while lack of love works against the prayer, places them where Christ cannot bless, and prevents His name being glorified. Christ unites true disciples closely to Himself and binds them in deep love that reveals God's love and convinces the world He sent His Son, and those who receive His grace are cleansed by His love and compassion, transformed to reflect God's character, kept by power through faith unto salvation, and carry that love to the world while making known the happiness of serving God.
Christ prayed for His people to be made perfect in one so the world would know the Father sent Him and loves them as He loves Christ, and God desires them to present that oneness with its great advantages in their day of visitation. Satan understands the prayer and works to keep believers from understanding it, keeping them in discord and strife over little misunderstandings and little differences that grow into variance and hatred, so they present exactly the opposite showing to what God desires. Unity among followers is spiritual oneness in God that makes their witness truthful so the world can recognize the Father sent Christ and loves them as Christ.
Personal Practice of Unity
Answering the prayer requires repentance and conversion, with wills yielded to Christ and one's own way given up for God's way. Unsanctified dispositions must end, difficulties resolved, confession made where needed, strife put away, and believers must press together in peace and love to work together and live as Christians in word and deed. It means having more of the mind of Christ and much less of self, dying to self, submitting to Christ, and cooperating to save souls, for spiritual unity cannot be reached while insisting on one's own way or acting from unsanctified dispositions. Drawing apart fails to answer the prayer, while division into separate independent parties gives the world the opposite impression from the one prayed for.
The call is to receive Christ's melting love in place of coldness and hardness, and to cherish love and not hatred. Believers are to put away all evil thinking and evil expressions, all dissension and strife and accusing, and to labor for the oneness prayed for. Variance, pulling apart, and walking selfishly alone in independent judgment leave no room in this oneness, and alienation, speaking against one another, envy and fault-finding must be left behind because disunion pains Christ and turns service into pretense. Fretfulness, impatience, criticism, tale-bearing, jealousy, evil-speaking and evil surmisings are forbidden, with even the thoughts to be brought into captivity to Christ so as to think no evil of brethren.
Believers are to seek the fullness that is in Christ and labor in his lines, cultivating this unity in every word and thought. They are to pray for union and then live so that God can answer, making the prayer the rule of life and learning both how to pray it and how to live it. Such sanctified harmony gives success to God's workers, forms characters that honor God and reveal the power of grace, and presents the showing God desires instead of discord, strife, variance and hatred. Believing and practicing these words fills believers with all the fullness of God and gives power to resist every device of the enemy, keeping from indiscreet moves that give advantage to the enemy and bringing the fulfillment of the prayer in practical life. This promise is to be believed and acted on, for grace and truth make harmony possible among different minds and opinions, and the unity then bears witness that God sent his Son to save sinners.
Where this oneness exists selfishness is uprooted, and unfaithfulness, strife, division and stubborn independence do not exist, for no one bound up with Christ acts out stubborn independence. It is marked by death of selfishness, freedom from rivalry, and love, compassion and tenderness with heart bound to heart in the golden chain of love, in fellowship and love and oneness with Christ and the Father. A converting power must come upon hearts with Christ abiding in human agents, and all heaven is at work to answer this prayer while waiting for human cooperation through humbled hearts. This unity is fulfilled as grace received through faith removes fault-finding, envy, jealousy, evil speaking, bitterness, impatience and malice, while kindness, compassion, forbearance, meekness, patience, gentleness, goodness, faith, hope and love are cherished, requiring each person to give up individual preferences and refuse to separate over disagreements. There is no perfection of character in those at variance who watch to criticize and draw away and show division, but drawing near to God brings believers near to one another.
The perfected unity is lived out in unity of belief and practice, expressed through love for one another and for Christ and freedom from selfishness. It is lived out in love and harmony, in bearing one another's burdens, in shining as lights amid moral darkness without growing dim even amid trials and persecution, and in laboring harmoniously together with unselfish interest in one another. It includes kindness, tenderness, courtesy, pleasant words and deeds, fellowship, harmonious labor, prayer with and for one another, and obedience to God's commandments, bearing witness to the sanctifying and uplifting power of truth and divine grace. Oneness means working in concert under one Head, all obeying orders and pulling in one direction instead of acting independently from self-will, high self-estimate and personal plans. A small united company accomplishes more than a much larger divided company, because divided effort wastes strength in desultory display that flashes brightly and then is gone and often does more harm than good.
Answering requires each Christian to exercise self-restraint and submit personal judgment, wishes, ideas and preferences for the good of others and to preserve unity of action, so the church becomes a unit that stands unbroken. It comes when believers are sanctified through the truth and learn meekness and lowliness, overcoming self-exaltation, jealousy, envy and selfish striving, with different gifts given to meet mutual need used unselfishly to uplift Christ and strengthen one another. Workers are to do appointed work without trying to outdo one another, each faithfully filling an appointed place and revealing kindness and love, rejecting rivalry and strife. The instruction is to be practiced in the home as well as in the church, for obedience in the home shapes church life and gives clear light to people in darkness, and home conduct measures Christian character. Power is given to be one as Christ is one with the Father in family life where parents come into right relation with God, follow the Word and receive the Spirit so dissension gives way to unity, and agreement and love seen when sisters love without contention, speaking kindly and gently, playing pleasantly and working patiently and not crossly, pleases angels.
Believers are to be made one as Christ was one with the Father, requiring the principles of truth to shape daily life so that Christ's character and atmosphere are present in them, reached when self is surrendered and Christ abides. Being one with Christ in God is a privilege open to every soul, joined with meekness, humility, teachability and obedience, and with faith that works through love and purifies the soul. It is gained by beholding Christ, which changes believers into his likeness into a life of piety that is a life of praise, comprehended, gained and guarded by watching unto prayer and constant guard against failing to attain it. Union and the spiritual life it sustains require close Christian fellowship and devotion, and spirituality cannot be preserved while neglecting its privileges, for drawing apart is contrary to God's plan and oneness is essential to the soul's spiritual prosperity.
Christ's presence in believers and the Father's presence in Christ bring perfect unity where workers labor in harmony, each using different gifts without pursuing independent plans or trusting in people, and taking unselfish interest in one another, which with love and Christlike growth perfects Christian character. The prayer for unity is answered as believers yield wills in obedience to his, putting aside personal preferences while holding fast to divine truth, bringing peace and harmony in the church. It is a pattern for daily conduct answered by refusing retaliation or dislike and showing patience and forbearance even when hurt, distrusted or suspected. Disciples were prayed to be one with one another, and they answer by showing in actions a desire to be united with others.
Church Life and Mission
There can be no perfection in division, for the prayer is that he in his followers and the Father in him would make them perfect in one, and that oneness is the evidence the world cannot withstand or controvert that God sent Jesus as Redeemer. Believers are therefore to share a united concern for those perishing without Christ and to accept individual responsibility for that work as members of the visible church and workers in the vineyard, doing their utmost to preserve harmony, union and love. When this unity exists among Seventh-day Adventists it will have powerful influence on the world, bringing reform first among themselves and then transforming the character of those they serve. Those professing greater light and a higher standard as repositories of God's law must show greater perfection of character and deeper devotion, exalting sacred things and letting light shine in clear beams to brighten the pathway of those in darkness and daily glorify God, for if greater truth does not lead to purer and holier lives sanctified by truth it is of no advantage. Unity is strength while division is weakness, so believers must press together, heed counsel, refuse independent courses and dividing teachings, and exercise every faculty God has given to answer the prayer.
God commits to men and women the mission he committed to Christ, with the same object to make known and demonstrate God's love and save sinners. As Christ represented the Father and revealed the invisible Father to the world, believers whose mission is identical with his are to represent Christ and reveal the Father through the Son by work identical with his, including the work of the greatest Medical Missionary. This calling disentangles followers from worldly connivings and policy and requires Christ's character continually represented in them as they work as he worked, as a spectacle to unfallen worlds, to angels, and to men. Their becoming one with their brethren allows the love and power of God to flow richly into the soul, for God's work is one, so separation between medical missionary work and the ministry shows the Holy Spirit is not working upon hearts. Christ's messengers are thus one with him with interests joined to his, sharing his work and inheritance and revealing him to the world.
Becoming one through unity with Christ requires love, humility, and the end of criticism, separation, envy and jealousy among brethren, joining the ministry and medical missionary work as one work. When believers are one in Christ, God's love and power flow among them, and their unity gives the world evidence that God sent his Son and loves his people. In sanitariums this rules out selfish efforts to dominate or claim the chief place, calling physicians and other workers to serve together, respect one another and one another's God-given gifts and work, and give capable associates room to contribute even when another follows a different course. Medical practitioners included in the prayer for oneness are to work together in love and unity without letting differences in practice create enmity, distrust or division, showing they are Christians and brothers who will meet in the same heavenly home.
The convincing oneness is God's plan for his people to work together in organized church capacity with no breaking up into separate disconnected groups, because disorganization and division would bring triumph to Satan and the forces of hell. It is what convinces the world that Christianity is genuine, showing the Father sent Christ and loves his followers as he loves Christ, and must be lived out as church members work together and love one another. This unity must be cultivated day by day, with God's servants uniting their illuminated, inspired and sanctified powers into a complete whole, pressing together as lovers of God and keepers of his commandments. Disunion among those who proclaim the last message of mercy hinders God's work, while dissension and petty disputes dishonor Christ, and union gives strength and is necessary to God's cause. Individual judgment is therefore to be submitted to the authority of the church rather than pursuing independence that leads to confusion.
The prayer for oneness must be earnestly answered by treating relation to the church as sacred, submitting to its restraint and discipline, and refusing to exalt private judgment above the judgment of the united church or to oppose its voice. It requires honoring the authority Christ gave to his church and to those in responsible positions even though they have faults and may err, refusing to cancel church connection or threaten to leave when crossed or denied controlling influence, and being whole-hearted in attachment by making its prosperity the first interest, seeking its benefit above self and sustaining it with means and service. Messages that divide the church bring shame before enemies of truth and do the work of the great deceiver who seeks to hinder the church from attaining perfection in unity, and calling the Seventh-day Adventist Church Babylon violates the call to press together. Oneness in heart and soul after the oneness of Christ and the Father is practiced by being one with Christ in God, counseling together, building up one another, and recognizing God's equal control over every part of his vineyard. This forbids Jerusalem centers, kingly power, tying work in different countries by contracts to a central place like Battle Creek, perpetuating kingly power once exercised there, making any publishing institution a kingdom of itself, or esteeming one branch vastly more important than others, for the same principles are to govern general, publishing and sanitarium work, and it does not require centralizing control in one place. Workers ordained of God answer by refusing to judge, criticize or pronounce upon brethren who walk in fear before him, leaving all discerning of flaws to God alone as judge, wearing Christ's yoke, learning from the great Teacher for themselves, making no man's mind decisive over fellow workmen with no lords over God's heritage, and making the interest of one the interest of all.
Unity cannot exist until the church is bound up in sympathy with its missionary workers, until spirituality is brought into missionary service, and until the church becomes an agency for the support of missions. It depends on spirituality expressed in missionary service, requiring members in the home field to show not only in word but in deed that they realize their obligation to give missionaries hearty support, for without that support missionary efforts cannot accomplish what they should and the church neglects its responsibility. The whole church is to act in perfect unity as a living, active missionary agency under the Holy Spirit, with members in every place consecrating body, soul and spirit to his service and acting as one, blending in perfect union. Every addition to the church becomes one more agency for carrying on the great plan of redemption, and this perfect oneness is a miracle the cross is fully able to accomplish for the good of an unbelieving world. Believers are to reach such a condition of unity with God and one another that the world may realize they are in the Father's love and be convinced he loves them even as his own Son. Fulfilling this unity is the solemn obligation and mission of believers under salvation and redemption to exert converting influence as the light of the world, revealing what God is prepared to do for them and grounding hope in his work through them as effective representatives who impress people with accountability to God, and reaching this high standard instead of half-way religion brings God's great blessings and leads hundreds more to be converted from darkness and error to truth.
The verse presents the close relation in which believers belong to Christ and he is glorified in them, to be sought through earnest prayer and shared faith and understanding of God's word. Its call to be one as he and the Father are one is an effectual lesson for all to live out, shaping lives so they discourage no one and encourage those carrying heavy burdens. This unity is not independence or doing as each pleases, but being sanctified by the gospel, working together and showing its principles to the unbelieving world. It is expressed through shared responsibility, prayer, counsel and united labor, with believers drawn together in love and confidence around Christ. The prayer includes believers who serve through healing work, for those who hide their life with Christ in God are called to become laborers together with God and through Christ's perfection reach this high standard of being perfected as one so the world may know the Father sent Christ and loves believers as he loves Christ.
Hindrances and Warnings
Satan works continually and with all ingenuity to make the prayer for perfect oneness of none effect, because that oneness gives a strength which all the powers of hell cannot break. He creates bitterness and discord, and works selfishness, envy, jealousy and evil surmisings to break the love among brethren which is of the greatest consequence for the prosperity of the church. He opposes love with temptations to selfishness, self-love, self-esteem, self-sufficiency, love of praise and supremacy, spiritual pride and contention over unimportant questions, leading believers to forget their obligation, to remain separate with each following his own judgment, and to draw apart brother from brother instead of pressing together in harmony. Heeding the prayer requires conscience enlightened by God into harmony with the Word through Scripture study and prayer, a settled established mind, confidence in tested brethren, refusal to work contrary to brethren, love for Christ and the truth lived out in obedience to the commandments, uprooting suspicion and evil thinking and speaking, and turning talk of faults toward Christ's power and mercy.
Bitterness and division were foreseen before the cross as the greatest danger, and dissensions, petty disputes, strife, suspicion, unbelief, wrangling, mistrust, envies, jealousies, evil surmisings and love for supremacy are satanic and must be crucified. Discord weakens influence, obscures the witness of purity and genuine faith, dishonors Christ, hinders the work and leaves weakness, while harmony serves the cause, gives strength and safety even to the last days, as the history of Christianity shows strength in union. Treating differences as unimportant dishonors God, wounds Christ and weakens souls, and accepting accusations against fellow believers allows love to die and serves sin. Disregarding the principles and rules that prevent discord and alienation separates believers from Christ, and all who through perverse ways and tempers bring weakness and sorrow and discouragement upon God's people work directly against the prayer and aid God's enemies.
This union is not promised while a person clings to sinful ways or self-righteousness, for answering is both privilege and duty requiring harmony with heaven in faith and practice. Those who pray must take time to pray and then live in harmony with prayer, set self aside, overcome evil tendencies and change imperfect dispositions, cleanse themselves to share His purity, and trust that the answer may come differently than expected, accepting His will in every trial and disappointment since the Master is too wise to err and too good to do harm. Following its teachings in this way is necessary for reaching heaven, and the gift must be willingly taken as each chooses to receive the light that lightens his own and others' pathway. Dissension comes from absence of Christ in the heart and soul with cherishing of self-sufficiency, and when people lack the Holy Spirit and Christ's love their self-directed alliances retard God's work rather than bringing the witnessing unity. That unity through Christ dwelling in believers must be lived through supreme love for God and love for neighbor expressed in Christlike forgiveness, sympathy and love toward every person, including keeping the command to love one another as the step heavenward.
Neglecting this call to unity and love brings warning that the candlestick may be removed. If profession of greater truth with greater light and higher standard does not lead to deeper consecration and purer holier lives sanctified by truth, it is of no advantage and it would be better never to have seen the light than to profess it and not be sanctified by it. Neglecting to cooperate and pull together rather than apart prevents growth toward perfection of Christlike character with selfishness removed and character made pure like Christ's, leaves people lawless, loveless and unfit for heaven's family, and leaves no room for empty speculation. The unity prayed for is the spirit of oneness in Christ, broken by self-sufficiency, suspicion, imagining evil, thinking evil, placing others in a false light, jealousy, evil-surmising, evil-speaking and natural selfishness, which dishonor God and must be repented of and put away with death to selfishness. Pride, seeking to be first, drawing apart from one another, entering secret confidences and bonds with worldlings and unbelievers who love not God nor keep His commandments, giving sinners supremacy, and abandoning the saving work from sin oppose it, so His people are to press together, be bound in holy bonds of unselfish love, and keep service sweeter and more wholesome for strengthening and blessing others.
Character and Daily Witness
Christ lived to supply the pattern of love that binds hearts together and made unity the badge of discipleship, calling for united consecrated effort with tender regard that recovers sinners, so that in love believers on earth become a symbol of the heavenly family; that self-sacrificing love shown in giving his life is to be understood and lived, and fuller understanding keeps from alienation and strife, with the prayer to love as he loved to be answered without delay as the cure bound by the golden chain of love.
Christ lives and acts through those who choose God's will and take his character through the Holy Spirit, marked by laying aside selfish pride, superiority and arbitrary demands and showing his meekness and lowliness; oneness in love requires decided change of thoughts, words and actions, putting away harsh judging speech and manifesting pity and encouragement to restore fainting souls, with hearts and minds joined in harmony cultivated through that meekness.
Christ's grace perfects the character of each believer who truly accepts him in this world of testing and forming, and those ready for heaven must share his perfection with new hearts living in harmony, seeking sanctification by the same Spirit and loving as brothers even when language differs, as the prayed-for unity and sacred pledge of discipleship practiced in love here prepares for living together hereafter by truth under God's Word after Christ's model.
Unity and love give evidence of purity, genuine faith, the influence of truth, Christ's power and true conversion, making Christianity a power to convict; unity through union with Christ lived in daily conduct shows what Christ's life can accomplish in sinful people, and every believer is responsible to answer by living it and heeding his commands.
Those joined to the Lord through his sacrifice are sanctified by truth, share one Spirit, exchange selfishness for the heart God gives, partake of the divine nature, and are knit in perfect heaven-born love without vainglory or quarreling though differing in speech and manner; oneness exists in proportion to illumination and sanctification as enlightenment brings harmony in understanding truth, judgment, confidence, peace and same speech, as seen after resurrection and ascension when even the Gentile admission difference was soon settled.
Believers' lives are to reveal Christ's goodness and tender love to those who do not know him so others understand his character and are led to love and serve him; they are to represent Jesus in character, actions, words and practical godliness, including training children, keeping premises clean and making home life a sample of heaven, so all understand they are Christians through visible change from hatred and jealousy to new creatures, by unreserved surrender and wholehearted service and by laying pride at Christ's feet and cherishing love rather than strife.
This representation bears witness to sanctifying uplifting power and divine grace. The verse belongs to the prayer for all who believe through the disciples' word, which parents and children may share, and applied to church members it calls them to seek perfect unity, keep God's living words and teach salvation; it assures educators and all working in harmony with God's plan of education of sustaining grace, continual presence and keeping power, and applied to parents it shows children are Christ's blood-bought possession saved by believing and receiving righteousness, truth and happiness.
The chapter calls one who knows truth yet has turned, denied the Saviour and disobeys the first four and last six commandments including Sabbath-breaking to be converted and cooperate with God in faithful service as part of his firm trading with entrusted goods instead of standing under the prince of darkness; forming characters like Christ's whose glory is his character and living in unity rather than domineering makes the Father's love and sending known, opposing factionalism and striving for supremacy and bringing changes in hearts and lives.
Christ identifies himself with believing people and joins them to himself in saving a lost world, and they are to carry his light beyond homes and churches to the whole world; the union between Christ and the Father now embraces followers through the Holy Spirit abiding forever, so Christ remains with them to cheer and strengthen for faithful work through persecution after ascension, and when that communion is perfected it leads to mutual love.
Being a child of God means being one with Christ in God expressed in earnest self-sacrificing love that strengthens and blesses the perishing by sharing what God has given; Christ's work to restore God's moral image calls followers to treat his purchased ones with tenderness, kindness, sympathy, love, care, forbearance and patience, never wounding hearts purchased at his life, whose high value is shown by the prayer offered before Gethsemane struggle.
The Fatherhood of God is given through Jesus Christ, and faith enables believers to overcome fleshly weakness and become sanctified, holy and cleansed in this life with hope of sharing the redeemed's joys; every person is to be so identified with the living Word that character demonstrates oneness with Christ and sharing his love, peace, joy and glory, determining true loyalty and Christlikeness as the highest measurement, into which humble obedient receivers of Scripture are brought in fellowship with prophets and apostles.
Believers connected with God and united with Jesus are enabled to see perfect harmony between science and Bible religion; genuine conversion is noble maturity leaving childish self-indulgence to become one with Christ with faith clinging to him as best friend bringing happiness, and truly converted believers value his prayer more than any worldly favor.
Christ prayed believers be made perfect in one, meaning they must work strenuously for unity by cementing church interests and bringing harmony of effort with might and soul, never weakening it, for failing to work for it is working against Christ; the very first work of laborers is to unite in fellowship shoulder to shoulder as Christ and the Father, putting away unkind criticism and doing all to work in harmony as those feeling the Spirit's sanctifying power do.
Believers united in Christ bear witness that the Father loves them as his Son, revealed in obedience to commandments, faith in Scripture, treating others as they wish to be treated, and justice, mercy, courtesy and fidelity, showing his death was not in vain and making law honorable; oneness with Christ leads to unity maintained by faith working by love purifying the soul, marking Christians and leading them to delight in obeying all commandments.
Christ prayed for followers to dwell in love and unity in this life as preparation for dwelling together in the life to come, obtained by receiving grace, fixing mind on him and speaking of his love instead of others' imperfections, fully owning the Word's authority and carrying out his example in daily conformity to God's will; communion with God so makes the believer one with Christ as Christ is one with the Father that transformed character contrasts with unbelief and helps present the church glorious without spot, seeking agreement and building rather than weakening for personal ideas.
Communion with God makes the believer one with Christ as Christ is one with the Father, transforming character so life contrasts with unbelief and helps present the church glorious without spot; the verse enjoins union with brethren linked together, with experienced men uniting with those chosen to give the last-days message, which would have avoided mistakes.
Christ lives in his people and their unity is visible through shared character and work, with the Spirit giving unity of heart and action that overcomes selfishness and testifies they are God's children; Christ dwelling in believers brings complete unity shown in genuine mutual love, while jealousy, suspicion, criticism and disunion block the Spirit, and God binds them with the love he has for his Son, showing goodness in sending him to die.
Christ in followers and the Father in Christ make them complete in unity to show the world the Father sent Christ and loves them, fulfilled as they behold Christ, learn meekness and lowliness, bear kindly with one another, and reject criticism, selfishness, quarrels and strife; the church is called to seek harmony by living in truth and keeping thoughts on the Saviour and future life rather than dwelling on others' errors.
Believers are brought into Christ's sonship to share unity like Father and Son, expressed in brotherly love and living out God's law so the world recognizes Christ's mission, while lack of love denies unity, separates from God and shows need for conversion before trust with responsibility; believers one with Christ share the Father's love shown in Christlike peace, joy, glory and true loyalty.
The world knowing the Father's love depends on the church manifesting Jesus' self-sacrificing love instead of misrepresenting him by selfishness, and while self is supreme with time, thought and money given to self-gratification the fullness of blessing is withheld lest a false representation be endorsed, but when the church separates from worldly maxims Jesus will work with them and pour out his Spirit.
Unity and mutual love with simplicity in Christ are essential to success in religious work; followers' unity is to make the world know God sent his Son, including testimony that Christ came to save from sin through cheerful obedience, growing knowledge and usefulness and grace-transformed lives revealing his power and imprint.
Supporters are to work in Christ's lines for complete oneness, especially preachers entrusted to reprove, rebuke and exhort, requiring God's impress alone learned daily in Christ's school and refusing human lessons that unfit for God's work; Christians are to define Christ in character as Christ defined God by showing goodness, mercy and charity by the Spirit, requiring daily subduing of a suspicious unbelieving heart that views brethren unkindly.
Believers are to be united through the life and character of Jesus, and this unity makes the world aware the Father sent Jesus and loves his people; the church must resist selfishness and Satan's efforts to divide it and press together in Christlike harmony, applied to putting away jealousy and differences and joining abilities, and such unity glorifies God.
Believers are to be united through their bond with Christ, cultivated by sanctified unselfish love, sympathy and tender regard without self-exaltation as finite people center in God; strength comes through union with God by his Son and through unity with one another, and Christ as center unites believers, joins them in love, makes them responsible for one another, and shapes service by meekness, goodness, patience and love, to be one in heart and soul building one another up.
Christ's oneness with the Father is to be reflected in disciples as they become like Christ and are united in him, making his great love visible; believers are to be united with Christ and God following that unity, expressed as being one in heart and soul and working to build one another up.
Followers are to be united in Christ while dissension, obstinacy and self-worship weaken their representation, and their unity in Bible truth and joint testimony can convict and convert; Christ prayed for unity among disciples, which believers should seek through God's presence and by making matters right when wrong.
Christ prayed for hearts and minds joined in harmony as united in him and the Father, cultivated through his meekness; believers are to be one with Christ as Christ is one with the Father, changed into his likeness by beholding him, and the prayed-for unity is seen when truth makes believers more Christlike in practical love and tender home ties with visible church unity from love of truth which is love of Christ.
Unity among workers is sought by wisdom, forbearance, humbling before God, tearful confession of defects, mutual reconciliation and humble grateful work, bringing signal manifestation of the Spirit, changed atmosphere and experience like new birth; when ministers stand together barriers are broken and hearts joined, bringing unity and strength among Sabbath-keepers.
When professing Christians are united as one with Christ in God they represent the church of the firstborn, a preserving element joined by covenant to obey his Word and strengthen faith; unity preserves the church and makes members its representatives, expressed in covenant obedience.
Believers are to be united with Christ and one another with difficulties removed, letting light shine through good works; those obeying commandments and united in Scriptural faith as one in Christ with lives hid with him are made perfect in one with Father-Son unity, and by practicing the golden rule, partaking of divine nature, escaping corruption and loving as Christ loved they become channels whose consistent lives prove the law perfect, give living testimony, draw souls to obedience and testify the Father sent Jesus and loves them as his only begotten.
Church unity is Christ's work which faithful servants labor to strengthen while guarding against division, and work introducing original plans to suit personal progress opposes it, needing learners' humility and faith; oneness with God's family is entered by beholding the crucified and risen Saviour and being changed into his image, which Satan hinders by controlling the mind against unity with heavenly intelligences.
Believers are to be united in Christ as Christ is united with the Father to serve together as God's agents, and centered in him their combined influence brings conversion while distinctness from the world makes the gospel visible; unity and close fellowship expressed in love endorse Christ's redeeming work, standing against hatred, faultfinding and criticism which divide and hinder.
God's people are to be one linked with Christ and blended in service, forbidding seeking authority over brethren or forming a separate party with a human leader, while passionate outbursts break unity, hurt influence and misrepresent Christ; Christians and the world cannot share fellowship because they serve different masters.
Believers become one with Christ as Christ is one with God as they learn from him lifelong, share meekness and partake of divine nature, with God and people working together as wrong tendencies are removed and temptation overcome in peaceful assurance as a power for good; those who believe become one with Christ losing identity in him, revealing his spirit and set apart for his work, gained by searching the Word as leaves of the tree of life to know salvation and how to work for others.
The prayer for unity is to be lived by loving and helping one another with compassion and courtesy without exalting self, and this unity enables them to stand through the coming test; the last prayer is to be answered individually through consecration, conversion, coming in faith, receiving the Spirit by believing prayer, then working in harmony to present truth so influence is felt on heart and character with ever-increasing light like morning.
God's truth sanctifies those who receive it, and their loving harmonious work represents his grace and glorifies him, while division contradicts this witness; being one with Christ connects with understanding and practicing God's will, where truth forms a consistent, pure, holy character fitting believers for the heavenly home.
The Father loves believers as his Son and they may receive his glory, and as they look to Christ the Spirit changes character and writes his Spirit on hearts making them obedient children; God loves those who receive Christ as he loves his Son, and Christ's atonement acceptance extends to them as he stands between, covering defects with righteousness.
When heart and hand are wed to Jesus a person becomes an heir of God and joint-heir with Christ, and God loves that person as his only begotten Son; Christian union is possible when God's love is in the heart and people give themselves fully to do his will, and through the Holy Spirit Christ helps them grow into his likeness rooted so they do not fight in own strength, loving his people as he loves Christ.
Believers are to be one with Christ, lived through trusting him as personal Redeemer, dwelling on his love and mercy, loving what he loves and hating sin; believers must be closely united with Christ, necessary for white and colored members to resolve divisions, with both needing conversion to follow the Lord's order.
Believers' unity is to reflect Christ and the Father's unity, and when workers strive to be one their lives help others see Jesus' love and understand truth so God can educate others by teaching and example, aiming to form Christ's character not their own; the essential unity is a standard to strive for by walking in all truth, being truthful in word and deed and developing Christian graces after the Divine Pattern, and believers become one as they practice his words representing pure principles in simplicity and meekness.
Believers become one with Christ as they practice his words, and their lives then represent the Word's pure principles in simplicity and meekness; Christians should join Christ's prayer, cultivating love, courtesy, politeness and fruits of righteousness.
Christ's love leads to being made one with him, as he died to purchase salvation and make them mystically and eternally one; believers united with one another and with Christ, when guided by the Spirit and filled with humility, are of one mind and reflect given light.
The Father loves those who serve him with purified character as he loves his obedient Son; God loves obedient believers united with Christ in heart, soul and spirit just as he loves Christ, giving free grace vitalizing every part of human nature through circulating Christlike love expressed in character as Christ formed within the hope of glory diffused by yoking with Christ, satisfying God's desire as part of Christ's body with Christ as Head, when truth purifies so mind serves God.
Christ received into the heart makes a person one with God in the Son, accompanied by the Redeemer's love and changing life and character; union with Christ is union with God giving mystical spiritual life that never fails, becoming real when Christ is woven into plans and presides as light, truth, way and counsellor with self less and competing voices less, while ambition, self-love and self-indulgence extinguish love and break the witness by which the world knows truth through fruit.
Believers are to be brought to completeness and unity in Christ, which requires converting power and truth in hearts; unbelief, faultfinding and false witness obstruct it, and when purged the church becomes a lightbearer so many may be saved; Christ's waiting ones are to be made complete through the Word and sanctified unity.
Believers must press together and become a unit, holy in life and pure in character, with no time to range with transgressors, bow to men's opinions, be slaves to lust, or bring a polluted offering; Christ's prayer is answered in daily attitude by not treating others with experienced suspicion or unkindness but practicing its spirit.
Jesus desires believers to be one with him and to share his glory, which means faithful service and reflecting God's love for fallen humanity; the Comforter reveals a person to be manifestly declared the Son of God, one with Jesus and the Father.
God gives believers the love he gives Christ when they return in faith and repentance, with Christ as surety presenting his obedience on their behalf; the Father loves each person in whom Christ abides, and through grace sinful people can be clothed with righteousness, purified, elevated and ennobled into perfect unity with one another and the Father through Christ making the sending known.
The unity of disciples is a central burden of his prayer before crucifixion, possible and essential when wills harmonize with God's will and believers humble themselves so Christ is first; believers are called to be made perfect in one through Christ in them so the world may know Christ was sent and the Father loves them, and disregard requires repentance since lack of union dishonors God, gives unbelievers occasion to doubt and brings greater guilt with greater light, to be answered individually at home, in family and church till dissensions end in prevailing love.
The prayed-for unity is answered when Christ's love is revealed in transformed character, the greatest miracle before a quarreling world, and working in Jesus' name not own power puts on Christ so grace plainly revealed in changed character convinces the world God sent his Son to make men as angels, while miracles are lacking because the church refuses guidance.
Christ prayed for oneness including followers through him in them and the Father in him so they may be united and the world may know the Father sent Christ and loves them, calling physicians to work without envy or jealousy over practice differences; believers are joined in perfect unity through Christ, and God gives special love to those one with Christ and the Father.
Believers united in Christ bear witness in obedience and justice, showing Christ's death was not in vain and making law honorable by commandment-keeping, Scripture faith, golden-rule treatment and justice, mercy, courtesy and fidelity; Christ's people are called to unity of purpose and harmonious work that strengthens service and is safety in the last days, while discord weakens, dishonors and gives the world cause to rejoice in divisions.
Oneness with Christ leads to unity and love maintained by faith purifying the soul, marking Christians and leading them to delight in obeying all commandments; Christ's people are to be united by pressing together while living holy lives and keeping character pure.
Being one with Christ means sharing his unity with the Father, a standard to examine relationship with Christ; believers are to be one with Christ as Christ is one with the Father, made possible because Christ's victory enables overcomers.
Christ prayed for believers to be united in him, and sharing that unity will end Satan-stirred controversy and give spiritual sight to work as Christ worked; when believers have the prayed-for unity the controversy ends, blind worldly planning ceases, they see as God sees, discern danger and give a clearer united warning.
When believers differ on truth they must meet in meekness and love, pray to know God's will, study humbly as a child, sacrifice selfish dignity, and use all abilities to answer the prayer with heaven watching their spirit toward one another, not grieving the Spirit by unconsecrated feelings, supremacy-striving or standing apart; differences reveal the prayer's lesson has not been weighed, though it should carry special weight in council.
Disciples' unity is shown by speaking the same things, being sanctified by truth and striving together in trust as evidence of connection with him; the prayer is answered when believers speak the same thing and are perfectly joined in the same mind with no divisions, possible in daily life as teaching taken into practice displays God's building in character.
Believers are called to strive for the prayed-for unity, and answering it makes them light to the world; answering requires seeking oneness rather than keeping differences in view which makes truth ineffective, including patient effort and leaving others free to do appointed work, seeking closeness through Christ in them and the Father in Christ to show the sending and love.
When believers consecrate all to God the prayer is answered and Christ is glorified with unity giving proof of the sending; the prayer is a model for the church, in which those joined to Christ are full of sympathy, tenderness and love through unity with Christ and God.
Union gives strength and is necessary to God's cause, so unity is enjoined, supporting submission of individual judgment to the church rather than independence leading to confusion; the unity preserves the church and calls believers to obey God's word, draw together in faith and stand unbroken against Satan's efforts to distract and divide, requiring giving up own way for God's way before growth and power come.
Harmony makes known the sending and love while dissensions dishonor Christ, and oneness means working in concert under one head obeying orders and pulling one direction instead of independent self-will, where a small united company accomplishes more than a larger divided one wasting strength, requiring self-restraint for others' good as testimony to holy truth.
Oneness requires conversion and humbling to be kept together in love without letting the enemy break unity, and loving as Christ loved witnesses that God sent his Son and loves his people, revealing redeeming grace; unity through Christ dwelling in them must be lived through supreme love for God and love for others in forgiveness, sympathy and love to all.
The prayer must be lived in practical love, mutual help, compassion, courtesy and perfect harmony, with workers rejecting self-exaltation and working under the Spirit, which prepares them to stand in the coming test; unity in heart and purpose answers the prayer and is made possible by a pure spiritual atmosphere where loving God supremely leads to loving neighbor as self.
Unity is formed through sanctification joining believers heart to heart and makes character genuine rather than profession; the unity and mutual love make an impression on the unbelieving world demonstrating truth and calling believers to practice love, courtesy, gentleness and respect.
Perfection in unity comes through union with Christ, not from themselves, through Christ dwelling in them and the Father in Christ letting the world know the sending and love; the close relationship uniting them with God is a privilege for humanity, and the believer's life can testify that God loves the obedient as he loves his Son.
The unity is to be put into practice in the church and its institutions, and following worldly principles instead undermines strength and vital godliness; perfect love and unity require removal of defects and subduing of tempers by God's love, and cannot exist while self seeks supremacy.
The unity removes selfish barriers including territorial, racial and caste distinctions and helps bring conversion, and in Christ believers are complete; the prayer is answered by hearing and obeying Christ, working with him, dying to self and letting Christ live within, with his love enabling mutual love by the Spirit in brotherly sympathy.
Unity with Christ and one another joined with love is strength and defense against Satan's attacks, while dissension and striving for place show the prayer is not lived and leave weakness open to deception; true abiding faith comes from knowing Christ through diligent study, with the Bible as lesson book sanctifying through truth as God's voice making wise unto salvation in living principle not impulse, and living teachings makes promise real with power to resist.
The Father's covenant with Christ is to receive repentant and obedient people and love them as his Son where Redeemer and redeemed will be together; Christ dwelling in believers and God imparting his Spirit make them one harmonious whole, expressed in the church working together with selfishness and divisions removed to reveal that love.
Practicing truth and serving unselfishly bring believers into harmony in Christlike love, and their love strengthens influence and bears witness to Christ's mission; believers must put away strife, jealousy, suspicion and accusation, humble themselves, confess and forsake sin, restore one another and live under the Spirit so unbelievers recognize truth and know the sending and love, with mutual confidence aiding unity and harmony needed for blessing.
Christ's last prayer was that disciples be one as he is one with the Father, and his people are to give full zeal to this unity fulfilled in sanctified love for God, which is their peace; being made one calls for removing barriers, seeking direct reconciliation, praying together and sharing tenderness to help and save one another, which makes room for the Spirit.
As believers repent and return to first works divisions are healed and peace, love, mercy and benevolence shape lives, with the Spirit renewing them in Christ's image, and their oneness gives the remnant church its testimony that the Father sent the Son and loves his people; unity is obstructed by rivalry, self-exaltation, jealousy and suspicion, while Christ dwelling in the heart enables deeper life and sharing responsibility without competing for authority.
Christ in believers makes them perfect in one, shown when there is no harsh, unfair or exacting spirit, no drawing apart and no independence, but counseling together as part of God's firm; this harmony is special evidence Christ's love abides, converts the natural man, overcomes defects by the Word and Spirit, makes laborers together with God and reaches otherwise unreachable souls by pure truth.
Believers' unity comes from Christ dwelling in them and is made complete through divine love; when they put away self-worship and receive the love that filled Christ, God draws them together and manifests power, so their unity makes the world recognize his power and know he sent Christ.
Believers are to be made perfect in one as Christ is one with the Father; drawing near to God individually and coming to the same cross blends hearts in perfect unity in spirit, understanding and faith, requiring sanctified understanding so Christ moves the mind, giving solidity, mutual love and divine credentials so Christ works through them amid moral darkness to God's glory, unbroken by quibbling especially at earth's close.
Christ prayed that his disciples bought with a price might be one as he is one with the Father, one with Christ and one another; believers must work with that prayer by letting Christ abide to reconcile wills to God's will, keeping love glowing instead of letting grievances separate, binding each by the golden chain of love through faith working by love, with influence first revealed in home life then bursting into church and nations as evidence of the sending.
Christ prayed for followers to be united in love, and their love lets the world recognize the gospel; Christians are to love one another as Christ loved them, and this love evidences belonging to God and leaving unconverted ways behind.
Christ's life in believers makes them one, bringing united action and enabling the world to know God sent Christ and loves believers; Christ is the great Center uniting all, making men one with Christ and each other, forbidding party strife and strife over political and worldly questions, gained by taking Christ as Teacher and imitating his meekness and love as channels of blessing, applied to workers joining in harmony not individual advantage, becoming one harmonious whole hidden in God uplifting the cross.
Fellowship in Christlike sympathy and love demonstrates the truth's sanctifying power; unity and brotherly love make an impression proving Christ's words and letting the world know the sending, so obedience requires repenting and cultivating love, courtesy, gentleness and respect for his purchased possession, while disregard and disunity dishonor Christ.
Oneness is love for one another as Christ loved, emptying selfishness, revealing Christ in spirit, words and acts, glorifying God, esteeming others better than self with help and cheer that make hearts glad, ending accusing and criticism, as receiving the Spirit enables each to do appointed work at best; it is lived in kindness, burden-bearing and restoring the erring with meekness where Christ dwells in renewed hearts, not assuming another wholly wrong when thoughts differ.
Believers must be a combined united power in love and efficiency, bearing burdens and refusing to grow dim amid trials, persecution and loss, as the light of the world amid moral darkness to eradicate sin, a call addressed directly to every Seventh-day Adventist to hear and fulfill through him dwelling in them as the Father in him.
Answering means representing Christ in character with the whole being, being so kind, tender and Christlike, correcting thoughts, words and acts and practicing the Word with stern self-discipline, that the world sees God sent his Son and recognizes they have been with Jesus.
The teaching in John 13 to 17 sets out God's will for ministers to believe and live before fellow ministers, reflected in the charge for workers to labor together in perfect unity and love.
The promise is to be believed and acted on, with Christ's grace and God's truth making harmony possible among different minds; the unity is expressed in working according to Christ's pattern by setting aside selfishness and personal insistence to show the sending and love for sinners.
The oneness offered to every believer does not mean exclusive attachment to one or two persons to the exclusion of others, and feeling fixed on one person without lovely character is infatuation without judgment, not sanctification, while every advance leads to unity as love for all believers in harmony with Christ.
Disunity dishonors God, while unity reveals Christ's love and has powerful influence; believers should not reject or hinder others seeking truth but let God work through them and preserve the unity of love, for peace and harmony are convincing evidence while dissension weakens witness, with oneness to show the sending and love through Christ in them and the Father in him.
It expresses God's will that believers be made one with Christ in this life and remain one throughout eternity; grace received joins people to Christ through faith and practical godliness, and as sinners are sanctified they become God's children and joint-heirs fit for angels' society, uniting every rank in one faith, hope and fellowship like branches to one stalk with moral power to work with Christ.
The unity is founded on love and wisdom, made possible through faith and belief of truth, joining people at variance in fellowship; Christ's love draws believers to contemplate his sacrifice, seek treasures of truth and form characters like God's, so lives give evidence of care and persuade people to believe unto spiritual perfection and knowledge of the sending and love.
The unity is possible because Christ prayed for it and calls for faithful cooperation without murmuring, faultfinding or jealousy; the unity requires Christ dwelling in the heart by faith with his truth nourishing the believer, ruling out selfish domination in sanitariums where workers serve together, respect one another and give room.
The oneness makes believers complete in one body in Christ and one with the Father, keeps the unity of the faith in bonds of love, gives evidence they have followed the sure word of prophecy not fables, and is recognized as they show by words and actions they have been with Jesus as a holy, happy people loved divinely, sought by earnest effort and perfected through sufferings conformed to his image.
Christ prayed for believers to be one with God as he is one with the Father, embracing them as his children to be sanctified through truth; the perfect oneness with glory given, Christ in them and Father in Christ even as Father and Son are one, is to be striven for by not separating when brethren do not do exactly what is thought best, but by becoming Bible Christians studying Christ's character, putting self out of sight and cooperating as strong testimony of the sending and love to save the world.
It reveals Christ's inexpressible love for fallen humanity and his desire that followers be united so the world may recognize the sending and love; the prayer reveals what God is prepared to do for believers and grounds hope in his work through them as effective representatives impressing accountability through unity and life in Christ.
Christ unites true disciples closely to himself and binds them in deep love, and their unity reveals God's love and convinces the world God sent his Son, to be made known in happiness of service and keeping by power through faith; lack of love and confidence among ministers is contrary to the prayer of sacred importance and leaves them weak.
Christ's love and compassion cleanse those who receive grace and transform them to reflect God's character through sanctification by truth, with love and unity showing the sending and carrying love to the world; unity is part of God's purpose for growth even when scattered, but requires giving up own way, fostered by the Spirit and expressed through cooperation, while discord hinders, and in oneness there is happiness and grace.
Christ gave instruction about his purposes to prepare disciples for trials and wanted them to remember his love in all work; in the final prayer grace is asked for disciples to follow his example and continue the work he began.
God's love flows through the world and can fill the heart, giving spiritual strength and vitality to every part of being, with Christ in believers and Father in Christ to make perfect in one and make the sending known, and glory given to make one; believers are to work toward harmony by helping one another, avoiding prejudice and strife, learning meekness, showing love, promoting peace and soothing troubled minds, glad for this love.
The verse is applied by loving one another as Christ loved, refusing alienation and strife, being kind, courteous and tender-hearted, with faith working through love to purify the soul, requiring the Spirit; the prayer calls followers to unity in the bonds of Christ and in fellowship and love in God with Christ in them as Father in Christ to make the sending and love known.
The unity belongs to their work together and rules out acting as an independent whole, calling them to labor in connection with brethren for upbuilding; the unity is fostered by love overcoming separation and seeking sanctification through truth, with each using talents to fulfill the prayer as one as Christ was one with the Father.
It presents an essential principle calling believers to seek deep experience, be sanctified and put on Christ so as to represent his character, with unity and loyalty to God, Word and brethren as a sign of the sending and love through glory which is his character; the prayer must be answered by entire consecration as the only hope, obtaining fitness for heaven by seeking God as never before unto purification on a higher platform feeling souls' worth and peril of inaction.
Believers united with Christ and one another through his presence are dear to him, and their unity and acceptance of truth testify to the world of God's love; such oneness means working together under one Head with different gifts used unselfishly to uplift Christ, learned in meekness overcoming self-exaltation, jealousy and striving, proving the sending and love.
Through his grace believers may share in the divine nature and receive blessings promised to those who trust him as personal Saviour with power to do God's will in united interests with humanity; God loves fallen people redeemed through Christ as he loves his Son, and through righteousness they can be conformed to the Son's image unto full oneness showing the sending and love.
Christ is in his people and they are united to God the great Head, so that Christ and the church become one; through faith believers are at one with the Father, and when sinners come to Christ, are cleansed and adopted, the prayer is fulfilled in them revealing the sending and love.
Christ's abiding presence is the life of the soul and pledge of joy, glory and hope, formed in believers as blood is formed from food through receiving him as spiritual food and drink bringing unity and the Father's love as he loves Christ; heaven is one meeting place for this united people made complete by love and sanctification through truth lived in self-sacrificing effort not outward cooperation.
Their unity with Christ makes them joint heirs to the heavenly inheritance and binds them in fellowship so they love and bear with one another as brethren; believers are to abide in Jesus and be one with God through Christ as a great privilege calling them to be true to God.
The mercy and love of the chapter belong to those who live in Christ's spirit, are changed and walk humbly and obediently; the unity is essential, not optional, and those who cannot be one on earth will not compose God's family in heaven, requiring cleansed sanctified hearts with God and heaven working, crucifying mistrust, envy, jealousy, surmising and supremacy-love while pressing together zealously as one heart and judgment as branches in the vine.
The unity is connected with spiritual discernment: those who see as God sees can work as Christ worked, and united watchmen can warn clearly; when believers enter unity the Satan-stirred controversy will end and they will sound a clearer warning together discerning danger.
Tied to his command to love one another as he loved, it calls for love rather than finding fault, with each examining the heart, removing faults and humbling before God; the oneness requires carrying oneself in meekness, kindness and tenderness toward unbelievers, coming beside them to help, not being trifling, censorious or stumbling, and how believers act determines whether the world knows the Father sent Christ, with angels guarding full answerers.
The prayer is a model for the church's life and work, calling followers to live in unity with him and the Father to show the sending and love; given just before crucifixion, it means ministers must be one as Christ is one with the Father, drawing together in solemn sanctuary services with worshipers respecting and loving one another and leaders pointing to God's presence not self.
Christ's sacrifice was made to bring believers into unity like his with the Father, so followers should make sacrifices to preserve it; for those long having light, being one in heart and purpose means keeping a pure holy atmosphere with pure missionary spirit, loving God supremely and neighbor as self, allowing greater manifestation of the Spirit to heavenly satisfaction.
What Christ gave and prayed for the first disciples belongs to present believers numbered with Israel with all instruction and promises through obedience; living out the principles opposes factionalism and striving for supremacy and brings changes in hearts and lives revealing sacred unity and love of the sending and love.
Christ's indwelling and the Father in him bring oneness seen through mutual love that makes God's love known, requiring putting away selfishness, rivalry and strife and sanctifying themselves with death to self to receive the Spirit; Christ in disciples and the Father in Christ are to bring complete unity expressed in steadfast love, forbearance, sympathy, tenderness and kindness as evidence the Father sent Christ, with changed considerate conduct making faith visible and harshness weakening witness.
Oneness in Christ comes naturally when members love God supremely and neighbor as self, closing ears to injurious reports and cherishing love as one family, which bears divine credentials that God sent his Son; unity through Christ's presence is an eternal principle to be lived in the church, where sacred unselfish unity answers prayer and brings change in hearts.
Abiding in Christ and making his words part of daily life reveals his virtues and unites God's people to Christ and one another with evidence of the sending to save from sin; unity requires order and harmony without confusion, strife or emulation, where truth cultivated daily through sanctified speech joins illuminated powers into a complete whole, whose lack dishonors God and hinders the last message, calling commandment-keepers to press together not apart.
God's love for his overcoming children calls them to recognize relationship with God, live carefully and consecrate all to his service as fellow workers; oneness outlines privileges that must be comprehended, gained by beholding Christ changing into his likeness unto praise and guiding children to eternal life, and guarded by watching unto prayer against failure.
It calls believers away from defiling talk, unkind rubbish and judging brethren, requiring the Spirit to cleanse lips as with a living coal; unheeded, such talk hurts souls as strange fire, turning counsel into death rather than life.
The Father loves Christ's people as he loves Christ, and through the Holy Spirit Christ helps them grow into his likeness and become rooted so they do not fight in own strength; the Father loves those who serve with purified character as he loves his obedient Son, when truth purifies so mind serves God.
When all constantly draw near to God and are one with Christ they will be united in holy fellowship with no discord; when united with Christ and one another, believers' work carries a fragrant influence wherever they go in tender affection and confidence opposed to suspicion, wrangling and dissension.
Christ joined himself to humanity so people could be joined to divine power and love one another with the love he has shown, a debt owed by those enlightened and converted to practice forgiveness, sympathy and love to all; the verse teaches believers are to share in the divine nature and escape the world's corruption with the Father's same interest in their salvation as in his Son.
Loving regard and courtesy bears witness and honors Father and Son as a sign of obeying perfecting truth in oneness, while strife works against prayer and dishonors; unity and close fellowship expressed in love endorse Christ's redeeming work against hatred, faultfinding and criticism, with the scattered closely united in Head and Mediator under the Word.
The verse belongs to Christ's prayer for disciples before Gethsemane and shows the high value he places on people by giving his life to purchase them, so followers are to live in unity and love that reveal his character.
The Father loves Christ's people as his Son, receiving repentant obedient people through accepted atonement, with Christ returning to impart power and glory; believers are made one in Christ and loved as God loves his Son, bound up with fellowship, faith, obedience and growing to completeness.
People may become one with Christ and thus one with God by living pure holy lives, since Christ became one with humanity so people through grace and obedience could reveal his pure unselfish love and unquestioning faith after his help and heaven's principles.
The Father loves believers as his Son with Christ dwelling in them, and when self is hidden with Christ in God they represent Christ; Christ and his messengers are united in shared interests to reveal him, with their oneness making him known.
The unity of God's people reveals heaven's principles, while failure to reveal it makes void God's law and bars heaven; loving God supremely leads to loving one another, showing sonship, and cherishing Christ's Spirit unites people under the divine head in harmony receiving power from one Source.
Believers are to be one with Christ in God, expressed as a living relationship experienced through complete trust; Christ dwelling in the heart keeps workers safe while reaching people in darkness, keeping evil from staining character and so identifying the human spirit with his as to be one with him through faith and prayer lifting from feebleness to holy purpose unswayed, needed most when burdens are heaviest.
The prayer for his people to be united so the world may recognize the Father sent him was made just before humiliation and death, and it is disregarded when division prevails; the verse is part of the prayer just before humiliation which is unheeded, with enlightened people acting blindly under ambition affecting minds as among nations.
Christ's presence in disciples and the Father's presence in Christ are to make them one to show the world the Father sent Christ and loves them, calling the church to seek harmony by living in truth and fixing thoughts on the Saviour rather than dwelling on others' errors.
Believers work against the prayer when they lack love; they are to cherish love and faith with love leading them to deal faithfully, and disregarding this places them where Christ cannot bless them and prevents his name being glorified through unity by his presence and the Father's in him making the sending and love known.
Believers are called to answer by becoming one in purpose and spirit through connection with his divine nature, with his obedient life as pattern, by faith sharing divine nature and being restored to obedience.
This unity is fulfilled as grace received through faith removes fault-finding, envy, evil speaking, bitterness and malice with differences, jealousy, impatience, while kindness, compassion, forbearance, meekness, patience and love are cherished, whose harmony evidences grace, light and truth sent to the world.
The prayer is to replace dissension, leaving no room for disunion, variance, suspicion or growing cold when ideas differ; words will savor of unity and love letting the world know the same love as for Christ, for dissension comes from absence of Christ and cherishing self, while Christ came to bring peace.
Unity must be lived in this life and does not require identical gifts; diverse branches united in the vine bear fruit, and believers are made perfect in one by living union as branches showing faith by works in sympathy with his mission to save souls from sins, requiring harmony, mutual respect without envy or criticism, sweeping differences by grace, forbidding drawing apart or bonds with worldlings and giving sinners supremacy.
All who are truly converted are brought into sacred nearness and made perfect in one, with the Spirit so manifest that selfishness is overcome without fear of losing prominence; this calls for transformation of thoughts, speech and treatment of brethren, dismissing self-love and accusation with envy and cruel speech expelled, so believers become a blessing and angels transform character to its opposite reflecting mercy.
The Father's love for people changed from sin to holiness is like his love for the Son, and this enduring union by grace and the Spirit's sanctifying work gives lasting happiness and leads believers to reflect Christ's light to help save others united with Christ and one another.
The verse assures educators of sustaining grace, continual presence and keeping power in harmony with God's plan; children are Christ's blood-bought possession saved by believing and receiving righteousness, truth and happiness in parents' seeking work.
Christ's prayer before crucifixion calls for sanctified zeal directed toward God's glory, not human advancement.
Unity is to be visible through faith that makes believers kind, courteous, self-denying and full of love and reverence for God as one with him as he is one with the Father and united with one another.