Jesus prayed for His disciples “that they all may be one, as you, Father, are in me, and I in you; that they also may be one in us, that the world may believe that you sent me” (John 17:21).

This was one of His most important prayers for us, a High Priestly prayer just before He went to the cross for us. It was why He came to this world and why He gave His sacrifice for us. First, that we might be saved, and secondly so that we might be His united Body on this earth. Is it any wonder, then, that the unity of the Christian Church is forever under the sinister attacks of the evil one?

That unity is the echad of Deuteronomy 6:4: “Hear O Israel: the Lord our God is one [echad]”. It is the unity that commands a blessing in Psalm 133.

It is unity in diversity. In all God’s expressions of Himself, He is one. Father and Son are one (echad). The Holy Spirit is one with the Father and Son (echad). The Holy Spirit is working on us through the ministries of the Church to bring us to maturity of the same oneness (Eph 4:13). Son and Bride, ultimately, will become one (echad).

This unity in diversity is also to be the character of the Christian Church, in which each member exercises particular gifts of the Holy Spirit.

False Unity, True Unity

Yet, all this is under attack. There is a forced unity that is sometimes evident when we try to subdue our doctrinal differences so much that we end up with a lifeless ecumenism. Worse than this is when we succumb to one of the tides of false spirituality that are always washing across the world, identified by a tendency to draw us into compromise with other religions and play down the way of salvation through the shed blood of Jesus.

Neither of these are what Jesus prayed for. He is looking for a Bride making herself ready through deep study of the word and prayer, whose unity is through the working of the Holy Spirit.

While there is a personal application of salvation to the individual whence we can each testify that “I” have been saved. The “I” turns to a “we” and an “us” when we recognise the one Body, growing in unity together.

It is time then to focus on the unity of the Spirit, recognise the enemy’s schemes to isolate and divide us, and pray more than ever through these difficult times, that we may indeed be one as the Father and Son are one.

Author: Clifford Denton