Where is the Unity?
John 17: 20-23 "My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.
The modern church today is fractured on so many levels. Between doctrinal differences and compromising God's word for the sake of the illusion of tolerance it is becoming increasingly difficult to find any unity within the church. One can say they are a Christian but the denominational question can have ten different responses. But disunity runs far deeper than this in the church today. It runs through each denomination as well as through each individual church, as we continue to lose our focus on what Jesus Christ commanded us to do until He returns.
Taking a look at the above verses from the Gospel of John, we see a beautiful moment in the ministry of Christ when He is praying to the Father. He has just finished praying for his disciples when He prays the above verses. Is he praying for doctrinal minutia or denominational pettiness? Is he praying that the people who believe in Him be politically active and seek to fix the world on their own? Is He praying for pseudo-self-righteousness and moral superiority for His followers? When Jesus Christ Himself sat down to pray to God for us as believers today what was the one thing He prayed for? Unity.
Let's break down this prayer so we can better understand the plea of our Lord and Savior. After praying for His disciples, Jesus makes it a point to say to God that He prays not only for the 12 but for those who will "believe in me through their message". That would be us beloved. Specifically Jesus prays that all of us can be one and the example He leaves us is that we should approach this as Jesus related to the Father. He wants us to be one in them. Why did Jesus leave us this blueprint? Because He knew the depraved and selfish nature of man would seek to win out. It seeks to win out in each of us and Jesus is letting us know here that the way to be unified in the face of the flesh we fight against every day is only accomplished through God; by being in God. Sounds simple but yet we can still fall short in this too easily. The point Jesus is making is that no matter what the differences are between you and your brother and sister, your unity should still be based on God and the fact that you are both in Him. This has to be more important that anything else and as long as it is, there will be unity.
Once you allow something else to become more important that is when disunity comes in to play. We see it happen every day. Someone gets hurt in the church, maybe even by leadership. The result is that the hurt or the action taken against you becomes more important than unity in the body. How serious does God take this? He doesn't even want us making a sacrificial offering to Him if we know there is disunity:
"Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift. Matthew 5: 23-24
That includes a sacrifice of praise! The mistake we often make is we think we are somehow "right" and that makes the behavior somehow acceptable to God. Note that it doesn't even matter who is right or wrong. As long as there is disunity, both sides are wrong. We live in a society that preaches the opposite. The world will tell you to take revenge if you have been wronged. The world will tell you that you have a right to draw a line in the sand and be petulant. The world says that there is a right side and a wrong side. But Jesus has told us here that His way is different. It is required that the unity of the body be more important than any individual difference. Jesus also has compared merely being angry with a brother to murder. That is how serious He takes it.
