Becoming Perfectly One

Day 148: John 17:1-26

“I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.” - John‬ ‭17:23‬ ‭ESV‬‬

Jesus’ high priestly prayer here in John 17 should make us emotional. He prays for His disciples, He prays for us, and He prays for the entire world.

The thing that broke my heart as I read this chapter is the insistence Jesus had on us remaining ONE. You don’t have to talk to Christians for five minutes to see that we haven’t done an excellent job of staying together.

Why do you think Jesus saw this as being so important?

He knew that this would be one of the main ways our enemy, the devil, would work to disrupt our mission of spreading the good news about Jesus.

How can we do a better job at being unified as a church? Listen more. Talk less. Cry with people and work to understand their perspective instead of choosing to slander.

Our knee-jerk reaction will always bend towards pride and a desire to be right. May God help us to shift toward being teachable and humble in all our interactions with fellow Jesus followers. 

There is always more going on than we can see and hear in people’s lives. We just have to stop for a bit to pay attention.

The fruit that follows unity is unmatched.

"The spiritual union of Christendom in its one faith, hope, and character, is, notwithstanding the divergence of some of its forms of expression, the most stupendous fact in the history of the world. The élite of all Churches are drawing more and more into a visible unity."  - Spence-Jones, H. D. M., ed. (1909). St. John (Vol. 2, p. 351)