Christians United in Christ

Do we yearn for unity among believers? Do you pray earnestly for unity between believers in your own town, city and locality? Do you remember that one of Jesus’ last prayers was for unity amongst all believers on earth? Do we strive in your daily living to manifest unity with everyone who believes in Jesus Christ? Unity is one of the key Christian elements that will literally change the world for good by binding believer-to-believer and releasing the power of the Holy Spirit through us. It will also bring salvation to hundreds of millions who will see Christ in us by how we love one another. But do our hearts burn with this passion for unity, passion to unite all believers in Christ once and for all?

Jesus drew disciples from many backgrounds, socio-economic levels and beliefs, but He drew them together for one purpose: to spread the gospel of His Kingdom through a united Body. His purpose would be maximized through unity and anything less than true unity would diminish their results, divide His Body and keep many non-Christians from believing because of our divisions.

On the night prior to His crucifixion, Jesus poured out His heart to the Father offered up His last prayers prior to His death. We can see what was stirring in His Spirit because the deepest burdens of His heart were prayed out passionately; Jesus knew that after His departure His disciples were responsible to continue to build upon and enlarge the work that He had only begun, but that work would only be successful to the degree that they maintained unity.

One of the greatest desires He expressed that last night was “unity” amongst all believers, both then and throughout all of Christian history until He returned. He prayed for, expected and gave the power for every believer to walk in unity with the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit which would give them the power and character to walk together in unity on earth. We must first walk united with God before we can walk in unity with one another, and that is spiritual and biblical unity.

On that last night His prayers were deeply fervent because He had such a passion for unity amongst His people. He had lived in unity with the Father all the time on earth, and this enabled Him to achieve all the Father gave Him to do. His prayer that night was the same thing to be amongst His people:

“I am no longer in the world; and yet they themselves are in the world, and I come to You. Holy Father, keep them in your name which You have given Me, that they may be one even as We are…I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word; that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in you, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me.” [John 17:11, 21-22, emphasis added].

What a passionate prayer, and what a burning desire to see unity lived out in the earth because unity was the prelude to achieving all that He wants! You can feel the urgency in His tone that unity be accomplished now and maintained in the future amongst all believers. Jesus walked in complete submission and unity with the Father during His earthly ministry and accomplished more than anyone had ever done. He was and is passionate about the unity of His people, and He longs for us to live in unity to the same degree that He had experienced. But unity is not going to be imposed upon us from above, nor will it be achieved without our effort, but only by and through us who actively seek to build and maintain it everywhere and at all times.

Look at the key parts of the prayer above: (1) we remain in the world with a goal of being one, that is, united; (2) He begs the Father to “keep” us in His name, that is, His truth and character so that it will naturally produce unity; (3) He asks for unity amongst all believers throughout all of history, that they may be one; (4) He prays that this unity is achieved as each believer comes to live “in” Christ because then each believer can relate to all other believes spiritually; and (5) lastly He prays for the great result: our walking in unity will convince the world of Christ’s love, truth and sacrifice, which is the only thing that can hold together so many diverse people. Our unity will convince everyone that He exists and has the only truth worth living and dying for.

All that we pray for, all that we preach, all that we believe, all that we do and all that we desire is summed up in our unity with one another. If we as believers throughout the earth will walk in unity with all other believers, that is, loving one another all the time and in every place, the Father, Son and Spirit will be fully manifested in us, the knowledge of the glory of God will be seen, and the world will come to know Jesus Christ just as we know Him.

John 17:11 is one of those rare instances that Jesus, as God in the flesh, commands His Father to maintain unity amongst His people. When God speaks to God, He reveals His innermost desires, plans and goals for us, His people. Of all the things that Jesus envisioned for His Church before ascending to heaven is unity for us all the time. The Father does everything He can to achieve and maintain unity, but it is up to each Christian to live out His desire to the fullest.

How did Jesus maintain unity with the Father? Is it possible for us to really do that? Jesus was God in the flesh, but He was also fully human and lived like you and I. If we can understand how He maintained unity with the Father, we will know the key to our maintaining unity with one another.

The first key is, He submitted His thoughts, will, emotions, body and spirit to the Father. He had thoughts and desires, but He was not ruled by them, but only by what the Father wanted Him to do. He came to do what the Father told showed Him and nothing less. Jesus expressed His opinions, but yielded so that He did not try to accomplish His will, but only the Father’s.

The second key is that He did not try to accomplish the Father’s will until He was filled with the Holy Spirit. The Spirit of the Father is our communication connection with heaven. The Holy Spirit is God who speaks to us what the Father and Son desires. All believers need the Holy Spirit who unites us to the Father and Son.

The third key is that He believed what the Father revealed to Him; He accepted the Father‘s words as fact and did not try to undermine or discount them, but simply believe that He spoke only the truth to Him. There were many people speaking to Jesus, but He put His faith only in the words of the Father. Only God has the truth that brings life, and when we believe and live in that truth, we will experience the fullness of life that He intends for us.

And the fourth key is that He served others as the Father led Him to serve. Jesus said He came to serve and give His life, therefore the Father’s will was revealed each time Jesus served others. He was not selfish or only interested in His needs, He took others’ needs into account as He did the Father’s will.

If we can do these four things as well, then we can build and maintain unity that will bring the world to the feet of Jesus and salvation. Let us strive to accomplish all that He prayed for on that last night of His life.

Dr. John F. McGeorge, Jr.

Founder and President