Unifying Love

Read John 17

I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me 

through their word;

“that they all may be one

 as You Father, are in Me,

 and I in You; 

that they also maybe one in Us,

 that the world may believe that

 You sent Me....

“I in them, and You I Me that they maybe made perfect in one, 

and that the world may know that You have sent Me, 

and have loved them as You have loved Me.

“And I have declared to them Your name,

 and will declare it,

 that the love with which You loved Me

 maybe in them,

 and I in them.”

                                                                       John 17:20, 21-23, 26
Here in Chapter 17 of John, Jesus prays for Himself, the disciples and in verse 20 to 26 for all believers.
He prays for their unity in love.  That the love of God, be in them, as it was in Christ.
We, as individual Christians, must first of all know what we believe and why we believe it.  That is why we must study the Word of God, and sit under a good teacher, we trust.
Then, it is absolutely, imperative, that we find a church congregation that believes as we do or as close as we can find.  A congregation where we feel God would have us work.  And we must submit ourselves to that group.
In order to do this, we must think, and pray.
A Bible School teacher once said to me, “most Christians think with their heart and forget God gave them a brain for that purpose.
They think their hands are only to use to pick things up with, not put together in prayer, and that their ears are the only thing they hear with.”
What he meant was, many Christians go to where they feel good, not necessarily, where God wants them.  That they never pray and seek God’s guidance about which church they should attend or what they should do.  They listen to others and what comes in through their ears, not what God is telling their heart.
Here Jesus talks about the unity of the believers, about them being one.  And He asks:
“that the love with which You loved Me  maybe in them,  and I in them.”
Something to think about:
I go back to the words of the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthinas 13:4-8a
“Love suffers long and is kind: love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil. does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails.”
This is what Jesus prayed for, for all Christians. This is the kind of love we must show to both our brothers and sisters in Christ and the whole world.