Do you remember the time that God prayed? You can find it in John 17. The flesh-and-bone incarnation of God bent low one night to draw close to the very earth from which He had formed man in the dust. Surrounded by men made in His image and likeness, the Divine Son lifted His voice to the Father, reflecting the internal conversation first recorded in Genesis 1:26 when God said, “Let us make man in our image and likeness.”
Once again, an internal dialogue happens within the Godhead, but this time, we hear it in human language and words we can understand. What we hear is stunning because Jesus is praying not merely about us but for us. He expresses a desire, reflecting the hope and longing of a sovereign God who has unlimited power to accomplish His will. And yet, instead of forcing our will to align with His, He gives us indescrib- able freedom, delegating both authority and responsibility to us.
Now, imagine you have a child whose room looks like a third-world country after a tsunami. You tell your spouse, “It’s my greatest desire that Jeffrey cleans his room and stops throwing toys at his brother.” What if Jeffrey overhears this, blows it off, and ignores his dad? Two weeks later, the room is still a mess, and his brother is still ducking for cover.
If that scenario pulls your parental triggers, you may be shocked at the grace of our Father, who has waited two thousand years for us to care about His greatest expressed desire.
Try this question on for size.
Can you imagine God praying a prayer that He expected us to answer?
I realize that’s a lot of pressure, so let me ask you a different question. What is unity to you? I will return to these questions in a moment, but first, I invite you to think about some other words: Instantly! Suddenly! Acceleration! These and so many more adrenaline-inducing words flood commerce and marketing as companies and services strive to speed things up even more. A culture flooded with these trigger words has trained us to live with a certain level of expectation and entitlement —even when we pray. Instant answers are the hope behind every fervent prayer, and why not? If Amazon can deliver my package the same day I order it, why not expect the same measure of efficiency from heaven?
We find ourselves entitled to getting things when we want them and the way we want them. Let’s revisit this thought: Imagine waiting two thousand years for an answer to a prayer. Such has been the case for our Lord and Savior since the night He uttered the profound and mysterious words found in John chapter 17.
“I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word; that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me. The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one; I in them and You in Me, 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. Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am, so that they may see My glory which You have given Me, for You loved Me before the foundation of the world.” (John 17:20-24, NASB)
In that prayer for every believer, Jesus appeals for our unity, defining it as a oneness that reflects the other-centered, self-giving love existing within the Godhead of the Father, Spirit, and Son. Yet two millennia later, the answer to this prayer has yet to materialize on a large scale or as a sustainable culture. Now, don’t give place to guilt and shame here, believing we’re just a bunch of rebellious losers. If we don’t under- stand what He was actually talking about, we’ll never see what Jesus expressed in prayer realized.
I believe we have a pretty major misunderstanding of what unity is. When I talk with people about what unity means to them, they almost always define it as agreement in some form. This definition of unity tends to lend itself to creating cultural gatherings that reflect a unifor- mity of style over substance.
Many Christians envision an idealistic, utopian, spiritual existence that looks something like a commune. One group may be bearded neo- hippies living in a retreat center in the woods, drinking craft coffee, swaying to jangly acoustic guitars in daily singalongs and Bible stud- ies. Others envision laser-lit mega gatherings, with stadiums full of thousands fixated on a single individual, leading them into a collective single-mindedness—until they’re all rocking in unison. Still others pine for anything that feels like church without it being “churchy.” Whatever that means.
But I don’t think any of these alone is what Jesus was praying for.
One day in prayer, I asked the Lord to help me understand unity. As I began journaling what I felt stirring, as a response from the Father’s heart, this is what I wrote: “While there is tremendous power in agree- ment, unity is not necessarily agreement. Unity is much deeper than agreement. If unity were merely agreement, then all of us would live our lives arguing others into our opinion as best as we could.” (And I think we can agree that happens often, especially online.)
The unity that Jesus prayed for is not Him cheering us on to create conflict and division, elevating the rightness of our opinions over the righteousness of His desire. This is what I believe is meant by unity and oneness from the perspective of Christ: Unity is when you find yourself willing to lay your life down in sacrificial compassion for people who don’t even agree with you.
One day, a lawyer came to Jesus and essentially asked, “What’s the best the Law can do?” Jesus responds with, “Love God and love others,” which has become a slogan for many evangelical churches. But, this man wasn’t asking what the highest revelation of Christian love was. He was simply asking for the greatest commandment in the Old Covenant Law.
In light of this, consider the new commandment that Jesus gave: “Love one another as I have loved you.” Under the Old Covenant, you love like you. Under the New Covenant, you love like Jesus. This is how we are empowered with supernatural compassion to love our enemies, bless those who curse us, and pray for those who despitefully use us. This revelation is also how we fulfill the divine call on each of our lives to live the ministry of reconciliation.
With that understanding of our mandate as children of God, we become a living invitation for people to witness the goodness and glory of God through the love we have for one another. As long as we define unity as agreement, we will continue to create an “us and them” culture, creating division and turning entitlement into a Christian virtue.
If you take a close look at the prayer of Jesus in John 17, you’ll discover that the focus of His prayer was on the disciples with him, as well as all those who would come to believe in Him through their word. There are currently an estimated 2 billion people on planet Earth who claim to believe in Jesus. And yet, within that collective mass of humanity, there are some divisions so deep and vitriolic that the venom and violence of our discourse have spilled into the public square of nearly every online forum, like a backed-up toilet. We’ve made a mess of our message, and nobody seems to care. As a people of grace, I believe we should care—because it matters to God. The Son of God has only one bride.
When we gather, we have the opportunity to put this unity on display, recognizing that there is more than one kind of unity. When we come together, we acknowledge that there are different styles and prefer- ences when it comes to preaching, music, seating arrangements, atmos- pheric elements, and more. Every opinion holds value on some level because it allows each unique identity to be expressed, weaving a tapestry of diversity into the beautiful and glorious body of Christ. Diversity is beautiful; division is not.
In our gatherings, we have the opportunity to exercise both individual and corporate liberty. In our individual liberty, we express ourselves as those who have an intimate relationship with God, reflecting a union as unique as the individual. During corporate gatherings, however, we should look for opportunities where leaders invite everyone to unite in expressions of worship or learning that demonstrate the other-centered, self-giving relationship of love between people.
There’s something remarkably powerful about these moments, and this is where agreement works into unity. Agreement doesn’t cause unity to manifest; it’s a byproduct of an already-existing unity grounded in pure love for God and one another. And this is how the world will know we are in Christ. With that confidence, we can say with our elder brother, Jesus, “If you’ve seen me/us, you’ve seen the Father.”
(You can find the rest of this book, including many chapters by many amazing authors, on Amazon.com. Search for the title, Free to Gather, compiled by Robin Smit.)
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