I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them. – John 17:26
Motivated by thinking of how much it cost God to give His Son, in a contemporary worship chorus hymn-writer, Stuart Townend began, “How deep the Father’s love for us, how vast beyond all measure.” In Jesus’ high priestly prayer, recorded in John 17, the Father’s love is seen as having several layers. These are all expressed in the ultimate unity of Father and Son, Son and believers, Father and Son and believers together, believers and the world, and the open-endedness of love’s availability.
It is God’s love for His people, their love for Him, and their love for one another that provides the glue for unity. One commentary states that Jesus desires that such unity be “visible enough to be noticed, and strong and attractive enough to bring conviction to an observing world.” It was that goal of unity that Jesus had impressed upon His disciples only hours before His prayer in the garden. He said, “By this all people will know that you are my disciples: if you have love for one another” (John 13:35). Unity should be a goal of the Church at large, as well as churches individually. According to Wesley Gehman at Christ Link, unity in the church cannot exist when there is a lack of communication, a lack of direction, the lack of expectations, the lack of focus on God and His truth, including the lack of prayer, the lack of a deep relationship with God, or sin issues. When a church is more of a business that seeks to look like the world, there will not be unity.
Paul compares a healthy church to a healthy body: just as one part of the body cannot operate without the others, unity requires a cooperative spirit of love, and the acknowledgment of Jesus Christ as the Head (Colossians 1:18). Just imagine what America would be like if believers were truly united together in love among themselves and for others! Pray for members of Congress who gather each week in prayer meetings at the Capitol to experience the unity that Jesus desires.
Today’s Verse: John 17:26
I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them
All Scripture quotations and audio are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Recommended for further reading: 1 Corinthians 12:12-27
12 For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. 13 For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit.
14 For the body does not consist of one member but of many. 15 If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. 16 And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. 17 If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell? 18 But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. 19 If all were a single member, where would the body be? 20 As it is, there are many parts, yet one body.
21 The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” 22 On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, 23 and on those parts of the body that we think less honorable we bestow the greater honor, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, 24 which our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, 25 that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. 26 If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together.
27 Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.
All Scripture quotations and audio are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
