| | "Unity is not conformity. Unity is diversity held together by love and truth."
What did Jesus mean when He prayed for unity?
John 17 (ESV)
6"I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word. 7Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you. 8For I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me. 9I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours. 10All I have is yours, and all you have is mine. And glory has come to me through them. 11I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name—the name you gave me—so that they may be one as we are one. 12While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe by that name you gave me. None has been lost except the one doomed to destruction so that Scripture would be fulfilled. 13"I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them. 14I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. 15My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. 16They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. 17Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. 18As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. 19For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified.
<So, here He's praying for the 11 disciples - as indicated in verse 12. But then he broadens the group:>
Jesus Prays for All Believers 20"My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 21that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: 23I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. 24"Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world. 25"Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. 26I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them."
<We've been given God's glory, the glory God gave Jesus, and we know God through Christ --> so that we will be unified (with the same quality of unity Jesus experiences with God!) --> so that people will believe that Jesus was sent by God and that God loves them [the world, evidently] *as He loves/d Christ*!
Astonishing. Both the depth of His love and the results that He wants to bring about in the world THROUGH US. Crazy. I mean, right there it is. We are somehow used by God to help people believe. [Incidentally, I love Bible study... It clears up so many questions... Why not take this at face value?]
So, what did Jesus mean here? That we would know God. That we would be one [with each other - "complete unity"] as God and Jesus are one with each other. That we would be in God&Jesus.
When is this to happen? He doesn't say. He just prays for it. But it's sometime before everyone in the world who will believe has believed.
Even though He doesn't say, though, I don't think that a valid reason to not seek the fulfillment of His prayer now. Whether it's possible, I don't know. [If Jesus prayed for it, does that make it possible and/or certain? Are we able to thwart God's plans? Somehow I don't think so.] But anyway, the way we fulfill this prayer is to know God better. Together.
Praying that for myself and for you readers who have the same Papa I have.>
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| | Posted 6/20/2009 1:34 PM - 4 Views - 2 eProps - 1 Comment
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Dunno, does sin thwart good promises?