John 17 - My favorite chapter...... What does UNITY mean to you???

at 07/17/08 4:49PM
20 "I am praying not only for these disciples but also for all who will ever believe in me because of their testimony. 21 My prayer for all of them is that they will be one, just as you and I are one, Father – that just as you are in me and I am in you, so they will be in us, and the world will believe you sent me. 22 "I have given them the glory you gave me, so that they may be one, as we are – 23 I in them and you in me, all being perfected into one. Then the world will know that you sent me and will understand that you love them as much as you love me.

24 Father, I want these whom you've given me to be with me, so they can see my glory. You gave me the glory because you loved me even before the world began! 25 "O righteous Father, the world doesn't know you, but I do; and these disciples know you sent me. 26 And I have revealed you to them and will keep on revealing you. I will do this so that your love for me may be in them and I in them."
  • arsenal
    As one preacher put it: "Unity is a noble but unattainable goal".
    by arsenal at 07/17/08 5:45PM
  • dfox
    Sure... I'll take a stab. Biblical Unity and Unanimity are not the same thing. Unanimty, or "being unanimous" is indeed probably an "unattainable goal"... agreeing on everything, every issue, every decision wasn't attained by Jesus' most intimate 12, much less his followers 2000 years later. Rather, to me, Unity demands that we, through deference to one another and ultimately to Christ, can be as One, in spite of our lack of unanimity on certain issues.
    by dfox at 07/17/08 6:04PM
  • dfox
    ... And as Jesus prayed on his last night, attaining that "oneness" can lead to great things. As our Lord said, the degree to which we, the vehicles through which Christ is seen today, can be unified is the way that we are in turn united with our Father and represents the way that the "world will belive" that God sent Jesus.
    by dfox at 07/17/08 6:08PM