In Christ all who accept the Fathers’ gift of salvation are made one. We are one in being with the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Love is the binding element that holds all things together and in the unity of the heart of God, the Holy Spirit, we are sanctified and made whole. Christ within us is the hope for Gods’ glory on earth and without filtering our actions through His lens of love we can do nothing. Unbelievers are drawn to salvation through God’s love evidenced in those who believe. In unity we can do anything!
Jesus not only prayed for those the Father had given Him but for all future believers—for their unity and their future glory. The present tense of the verb “to be” indicates that Jesus was praying for the unity that takes place through the sanctification of believers.
The loving relationship of believers to each other is the greatest witness to Jesus Christ.
Correct belief must bear the fruit of the Holy Spirit—a life that demonstrates God’s love and produces the unity between all the believers.The mutual indwelling of the Father in the Son and the Son in the church is also the means to unity, the true expression of God’s love.
The ultimate reason for future believers to know the love of God is so that God’s love may be replicated in them, thus drawing the entire world to Christ.
John 17:20-26
20 “I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; 21 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. 22 And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one: 23 I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me.
24 “Father, I desire that they also whom You gave Me may be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory which You have given Me; for You loved Me before the foundation of the world. 25 O righteous Father! The world has not known You, but I have known You; and these have known that You sent Me. 26 And I have declared to them Your name, and will declare it, that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them.”
16 And other sheep I have which are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and they will hear My voice; and there will be one flock and one shepherd.
John 10:16
5 so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another.
Romans 12:5
28lThere is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
Galatians 3:28
4 There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling;
Ephesians 4:4
6 one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.
Ephesians 4:6
18 But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.
2 Corinthians 3:18
14 But above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfection.
Colossians 3:14
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