Perfectly One

In Jesus’ great prayer in John 17, He says, “The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.” (vs. 23, 24, ESV) 

In a conversation with a student recently I was helping him work through the mechanics of sermon writing – but not ignoring the “art of sermon writing” that gives life and breath to sermons. We were talking about the wonderful community described by Luke in Acts as “the earliest, early church.” (2:42-4:37) Luke is prone to talk about “they had all things in common” and “that there were no needy people among them.” I don’t read of any theological arguments, internal conflicts, or other behaviors that would get in the way of what Jesus prayed for.

We do read of some external threats where leaders in Jerusalem wanted to put them in jail and quiet their testimony about Jesus. But rather than harming the outbreaking of the kingdom of God in Jerusalem, that just seemed to spur it on. It is only when there is an internal problem (Acts 5 and the story of Ananias and Sapphira) that the internal life of the church is disrupted a bit.

Before we even get to the great missionary stories of Paul, Barnabas, and others like them, the kingdom people in Jerusalem have welcomed Samaritans, a government official from Ethiopia, and Gentiles to be a part of God’s effort to plant the flag of the kingdom of God all over that part of the world. If you take a moment to do a little research, you will quickly discover that those three categories represented huge cultural divides in the Greco-Roman world of first century. But apparently when the church manages to be on the same page about Jesus – stunning things can happen.

We ought to stop right now and join with Jesus in praying this prayer. Our religious world is anything but “perfectly one.”

If you vote one way and I vote another – how could we possibly be “perfectly one”? If you’re rich and I’m poor, how could we possibly be “perfectly one”? If you’re for gun control and I think it is unnecessary, how could we be “perfectly one”? If you think organizations like Focus on the Family are wonderful and I think they aren’t, how could we be “perfectly one”? If I’m letting an undocumented immigrant live in an empty bedroom in my house and you think I should call ICE, how could we be “perfectly one”?

That series of questions about various positions could go on and on. We live in such a fractious world that it seems we think around every corner in our journey, we will be face with a “my way or the highway” kind of call to make.  I’m confident that Paul, despite thinking slavery was wrong, thought the circumstances with Onesimus meant that he should be sent back to Philemon. I’m even more confident that Onesimus would have disagreed with Paul. I hope that Philemon eventually took the side of Onesimus!

But in Philemon, Paul argues that while “rule and authority” can sometimes make right decisions, he preferred to “appeal to the heart.” Just think of how many divisive culture issues we are bombarded with daily could be brought to resolution if we worked on hearts and not more rules.

We can’t possibly be so naive as to think that our issues are more demanding than were the issues of the first century believers! (If you want a quick and relatively easy read on this topic, check out Scot McKnight’s A Fellowship of Differents.)

But within hours of the most brutal ways to die, Jesus prayed desperately that we would find a way to be “perfectly one.”  It is interesting that in Ephesians 4:1-6, the text where Paul names a whole series of “ones” – he puts them all on the same grammatical level. You can’t look at the list and say “one God” is a bigger theological issue than “one Spirit” for example. Or that “one God” is a bigger issue than “one body” – just to name a few of the “ones” on the list.

Yet, if I were to say something like “it really doesn’t matter if you believe the God revealed in Scripture is the one and only God,” I’m pretty sure this would be my last EES devotional. But if I were to say – I wouldn’t, this is hypothetical – “It really doesn’t matter if the church is fractured . . .” there is a good chance that few would say that I’m a heretic.

“Perfectly one.” That’s Jesus’ prayer for the church. If I believe the truth about Jesus and you believe the truth about Jesus, then I’m thinking we can work out all that fractures the essence of what Christ prayed for His disciples to be.

We really could do well to start praying with Jesus – and acting like he did!!