In the longest recorded prayer Jesus prayed just before his arrest, trial, torture and execution, Jesus spends two thirds of it praying for his disciples and future disciples. One thing he prayed for was for our unity, ‘that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you…so that the world may believe that you have sent me’ (John 17:21).
It is very clear from Jesus’ prayer that our unity is essential to our effectiveness in the mission he has given us to make disciples who follow him and become ‘fishers of people’. The unity of Christians is a powerful testimony! One modern Indian pastor had this to say, “Most of what happens in Christians churches, including even miracles, can be duplicated in Hindu and Muslim congregations. But in my area only Christians strive, however ineptly, to mix men and women of different castes, races, and social groups. That’s the real miracle”.
The apostle Paul experienced this miracle. As a typical Jewish rabbi before his conversion would have prayed virtually every day, thanking God for not making him a Gentile, slave and woman because they were not allowed to fully participate in the community of faith. After becoming a follower of Jesus, there was a complete turnaround. Using the same categories deliberately, he wrote, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Gal 3:28).
But the unity Jesus prayed for us to experience is not easy. That is one of the reasons why the following exhortation abounds in the New Testament, “Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love” (Ephesians 4:2). It takes effort and commitment to maintain unity as followers of Jesus as it does for couples to maintain a good marriage.
Finally, in Jesus’ prayer we learn that what must underpin our unity is our love for and commitment to the Lord Jesus. D.A. Carson explains it well, “What binds us together is not common education, common race, common income levels, common politics…or anything else of that sort. Christians come together…because they have all been saved by Jesus Christ and owe him a common allegiance. In the light of this…in the light of the face that they have all been loved by Jesus himself, they commit themselves to doing what he says – and he commands them to love one another. In this light, they are a band of natural enemies who love one another for Jesus’ sake”.
Following Jesus,
Mark
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