SEP 3

John 17:21
Memorise Ephesians 4:2-3
“That they all may be one”

In John 17:21, as part of His High Priestly prayer, Jesus prayed to the Father “That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.” From the preceding verse, the “they” refers to the body of true believers in Christ, and Christ is praying that this body may be united in the same way as Christ and the Father are united. Now Christ and the Father were always in complete agreement, because this is based on truth. This unity in the Godhead is crystal clear to us who read God’s Word, because both the Father and the Son are always one in truth. God can never contradict Himself! Thus any unity in the church must be based on the truth of God’s Word, and must never compromise the truth. The ecumenical movement must therefore be rejected because it tries to compromise between truth and error. For example, when the ecumenical movement promotes unity with the Roman Catholics, and encourages Protestants to accept Mary as divine, that compromises the truth of John 14:6 where salvation is through Christ alone. If such a stand is accepted, the world would perceive there is unity and peace amongst men who have settled their differences, rather than see unity between the true church and the Godhead. Thus the ecumenical movement is wrong in adopting John 17:21 as a proof text that God wants all who call themselves Christians to settle all their differences. This is not true unity because it is not based upon the truth. When Jesus was on earth doing His Father’s will, He never sought to achieve unity between Himself and the Jews, but always sought to declare the gospel truth alone.

Thus we who are part of this true church must strive for this godly unity that is based on truth. Now this is not easy, because the truth is sometimes hard to accept. I remember in the past, a teen in his 20s started to believe in Hyper-Calvinism. Eventually he left our church, leaving behind friends with whom he had worshipped together with for years. While the breaking of this bond of fellowship is saddening, if this teen were to remain and exhort other members on this false belief, the effects might have been far worse. When we pray for unity, we must pray first of all that all parties be rooted and grounded in God’s Word. We must not pray for the kind of unity that sacrifices truth by burying differences. However, when there is no compromise of truth, then since all parties are united in the truth, then through much prayer and meditation on this truth, those who differ can show Christian love one toward another and accept these differences in unity.

Thought: Love rejoices in the truth.
Prayer: May the mind of Christ my Savior live in me from day to day.