The Bride is One: One of the most disturbing things I see today isn’t political or global; it has nothing to do with climate change or Hollywood or kneeling or crime; it has to do with division within the Church.
Maybe it’s supposed to happen. Maybe it’s God dividing real and false teachers or maybe the goats are tired of wearing their sheep’s clothing…or maybe it’s just the price of the flesh that we always like to belittle others to build up our self. Maybe it’s pride saying “My doctrine is better than your doctrine!” or “My dogma converts more people than your dogma!”. Maybe it’s some of all the above. All I know is it’s not the Church Jesus calls us to be.
I have been positively smitten with John chapter 17 lately. In it Jesus enters into an intimate discussion with the Father. Jesus prays for the disciples. He makes a definitive statement about salvation in verse 3, “that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom You have sent.” Eternal life is intimate knowledge with the father and Son through the Spirit.
Jesus tells the Father He is praying for us too; as those who believe in Him “through their word”. Verse 20. And Jesus calls the Father “Holy Father” in verse 11, for the only time in recorded scripture! (that’s a study for another day!)
Jesus talks to the Father about the depth of THEIR relationship, and how He desires that HIS people may have that same relationship with Them, AND with each other! Back to verse 11, the last line, “…that they may be one even as We are(one).” Verse 21, “…that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they may also be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me.” In the context of verses 20 and 21 together Jesus is talking about us; you and me and the disciples of old; ALL that are His! HE WANTS US IN UNISON, AGREEMENT, of one mind, because by THIS the world will know and believe that the Father sent the Son.
He says it again in verse 22, “…that they may be one, just as We are one.” And verse 23, “That they may be perfected in unity so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me.” Did you catch that “that You…. loved them”!? That the Father loves us the same as He loves the Son? Unfathomable love!
Jesus prayed that we would be in God just as He is in us. In his first epistle, 1 John 4:11-12 John reminds us of Jesus prayer by stating these facts, “Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has seen God at any time; if we love one another God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us.” And verse 21 of the same chapter “And this commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves God should love His brother also.”
One lesson of the Holy Trinity is unity…PERFECT unity. Unity in community! Unity is not that we never disagree but that we do not divide over our differences. There is one truth we, as the Church, cannot ignore any longer. Jesus does not have a divided Bride. We are a multifaceted thing of beauty before a Righteous Groom. There are many names for our parts but if we are in Him we are one. Revival can’t come to a divided Church, and we sorely need it! Ephesians 6:23-24 “Peace be to you brethren, and love with faith, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace be with all those who love our Lord Jesus Christ with incorruptible love.”