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V I S I O N - to plant and establish Churches

U N I T Y

Bishop Dr. John Sathiyakumar

The last words of our Lord Jesus just before his Passion are impregnated with the inescapable realities of what was to follow. The prayer of Jesus to the Father in John 17 displays his heartbeat for the much-desired unity of his disciples and all who would bestow their faith in him.

‘Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one’ … ‘that they may have my joy complete in themselves’… ‘I am not asking you to take them out of the world but to protect them from the evil one’… ‘Sanctify them in the truth’ (vv.11,13,15,17)

“I ask not only on behalf of these (his disciples), but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, (v.20).

It is amazing to see that the foresight of Jesus covered even each one of us as he asked for all who believe in him through the word of the apostles. This is exactly what he asked of the Father:

“… That they may all be one. As you, Father, 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. – (v.21)

The Challenge of Disunity

The past two millenniums have seen how the Church of God, which is the body of Christ, has been thwarted with the challenge of various strives. As a result the Church has miserably lost its flair and flavour. Satan has powerfully used the weapons of misunderstanding, difference of opinion, doctrinal crisis and denominational barriers to distort the image of Christ in the Church. It is saddening to note that several wars have been fought in the name of God and religion resulting in untold human suffering, shame and loss.

The burden of Jesus expressed in John 17 displays the vision of Christ on the impending danger that the Church was to face. So he agonizes in prayer to his Father that they all may be one.

What is True Unity?

Every word in this is prayer is packed with meaning. The request that they may all be one does not stand alone. The kind of unity for which he prayed is included in the prayer, and the purpose for which we should be united is also mentioned.

In one way or another Christians of all traditions seem to agree that it is God’s will that they should all be one in some sense but believers have different ideas about the nature of the unity to which we are called. There has been much debate over the centuries about such things as whether it is necessary that Christians should have organic unity, being one visible fellowship, worshipping or whether it is sufficient that we recognize our spiritual unit, sharing perhaps an invisible unity which we have by virtue of our communion with the one Lord.

What kind of unity did Jesus desire for us? He said, As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us. There you have at least the foundations. We must begin with a spiritual unity: as God dwells in us, we together dwell in him. It is in the first place in our communion with God, through our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, that we have an essential unity. We belong together because we belong to him. But that is not all: the nature of our unity is further revealed in the purpose for which we should be one: that is, according to what Jesus prayed, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.

“That they may all be one. As you, Father, 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. – (v.21)

He went on to describe unity more fully:

“The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one, (23) I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.” – (v.22 – 23)

Unity is a display of Christ in us. Division and strife are display of the absence of Christ in us. We need to realize that we cannot do anything without Christ.

Unity in Godhead

That they may be one as we are one is a prayer that the kind of unity that we might have in the same kind of unity that exists between the Father and the Son. As Jesus said elsewhere The Father and I are one.” – John 10:30

It is interesting that he spoke of that unity between himself and God the Father when he was speaking of himself as the shepherd and giving his followers eternal life, in the passage we read three weeks ago:

*My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me. (v.28) I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand. (v.29) What my Father has given me is greater than all else, and no one can snatch it out of the Father’s hand. (v.30) The Father and I are one. –John 10:27-30

His unity with the Father is closely related to his caring for his followers I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one; and the purpose is reaffirmed: so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. – John 17:22-23

So he prayed that we may be one as God is one, sharing in the divine mystery of communion within the Holy Trinity. The love which binds together the persons of the Trinity is extended to include us. We share in the love that the Father extends to the Son, which Jesus acknowledged when he said, You love me before the foundation of the world – John 17:24b, and

*I made your name known to them, and I will make it known, so that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them”. (v.26)

We are called then to be completely one so that the love that is in the very being of God and the love with which we are loved may be shared. Jesus will then himself dwell in us and we in him, as he dwells in the Father and the Father in him.

The Way to True Unity of the Body of Christ

There are personal implications in our relationship with God and in the fellowship of believers both within our own church and in the universal church. The unity for which Jesus prayed will be increased by

** renewal of our personal relationship to Jesus Christ, in private prayer and devotion;

**participation in public worship and especially the Lord’s Supper;

**being sensitive to listen to his heart, will, desire and yield with obedience

**and recognizing Christ in one another, accepting and serving each other in his name

Achieving a wider unity will not be possible unless and until we develop more of the essential unity of the church within our own fellowship by such means as these. But that is not all. It is clear that we must have be a spiritual unity, but just as God reached out to us in a real live human being, in the real historical man who was the Word made flesh, in the man Jesus, who was visible in the world, serving humanity and showing this life in action, do out unity must be visible and practical. It must be visible so that the world will see and know that God loves them; indeed so that they may see that God loves them in the same way that he loves his only Son: as he prayed so that the world may known that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. * v.22-23.

Seeking a wider unity among the churches

It is sad to see that the ecumenical movement is not so widely supported today. At others times the things that divide us are simply ignored instead of being tackled and overcome. Too often divisions are accepted as a natural part of life. The divisions ought rather to be treated as divisions in a family; they ought to cause us pain, as they must continue to cause pain to our Lord. It must be a continual source of grief to him, and we may assume a continual cause of intercession of the suffering servant on our behalf:

It is no small matter whenever there is disunity among different churches. When Christians continue to separate for worship in the expectation of meeting with the Lord at separate tables. There is pain in the heart of God as one person of the Trinity pleads with another in the fellowship of love in which we are invited to share, yet we can only dimly perceive it when we cannot take our place at the fourth side of the table without meeting with one another in love.

Unity is not an option: It is an imperative. Disunity continues as a scandal of Christianity. We deceive ourselves if we think we can know God in Christ without positively confronting the scandal.

I believe it is time for us to move forward again to seek a wider unity. It will not be easy. Many things will need to be done that are not clear to us yet. The next steps in unity with other churches and in finding ways of working together will be bigger steps than we have taken so far. It involves hard work in getting to know other Christians in our own local communities, and in our places of work and neighborhood.

In Conclusion

If we do not wake up to this reality and choose to stay indifferent to the heart of Jesus, then, sooner or later we all will fall in to the hands of the evil one losing our God given privileges and authority. History records that persecution has always lead Christians to unity all over the world through ages. The question is, can we wake up before the Lord would allow suffering to take over the Church?

If we are not united in heart and cannot proclaim our solidarity before the world, we cannot achieve much on earth for Christ and the gospel. People will clearly see a gap between our preaching and our way of life. Our role modeling would suffer a setback because of the contradicting personality that is in us in comparison to the words and life of Christ. The choice is entirely ours.

Let us press on, believing and working for unity that in the long run the prayer of our Lord’s will be fulfilled, that we all may be one.

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