That the world may know

      We have been studying John 17 in Bible study--Jesus’ “High Priestly Prayer,” and His prayer has challenged and convicted me on so many levels.  I could write all day about His remarkable words, but just to focus on one of the things we talked about the other day has to do with the part of His prayer focused on all believers.  (In the first part of His prayer, He prays for Himself; in the second part, He prays for His disciples; and in the third part He prays for us!--for all believers.)

John 17:20-21,23: “I do not ask for these only, [meaning His disciples] but also for those who will believe in Me through their word, that they [that us!] may be one, just 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 have sent Me... I in them and You in Me, that they [us!]  may become perfectly one, so that the world may know  that You sent Me and loved them even as You have loved Me.”  Wow!

Think of that--we are to be one as Jesus and the Father are one, and we are LOVED as the Almighty Father infinitely loves His Son!  What love God has for us!  I don’t know what that does for you, but it should make your gratitude and joy go through the roof!  But Christ’s words should and must also affect our behavior--and especially our unity.  We may belong to different churches, different political parties, different Bible studies.  We may have differing tastes in music or dress or habits... but if Jesus is our Savior, we belong to One Lord, and we are to love one another and thereby experience true unity.  And God intends that our unity would then be a visible, tangible demonstration to the world of the beauty and glory of our Savior.   

Yet, tragically we can often completely mess this up, can’t we?   We’re willing to die on some little molehill of insignificance when it comes to church--whether it’s the type of music or the decor or the informality of the dress code, and the result is rancor and disunity.  Or perhaps we allow some little root of irritation with another believer to develop into bitterness, or some difference of opinion to stir up anger.  So often the destructive disunity that results began over something insignificant or even silly, but the damage can be terrible. And all the while satan laughs as the world witnesses not how good and great our Savior is, but the misplaced anger and irritation that has divided God’s people.  

The Puritan preacher, Thomas Brooks, wrote: “Discord and division become no Christian.  For wolves to worry the lambs is no wonder, but for one lamb to worry another, this is unnatural and monstrous.”  And for centuries, great theologians have reiterated: “In essentials unity; in non-essentials liberty; and in all things charity.”   

Yes, we stand strong and immovable upon the essential truths--those are mountains worth dying upon--but not upon superficial stuff or selfish preferences  or personality conflicts.  Forgive us, Father, when we fail to reflect true unity with one another that reflects the perfect unity between the Father and the Son.  We cannot demonstrate the love and grace of Christ to a watching, wary world if we are just as messed up and mean-spirited as everyone else in the world.  They don’t know better... we should.  We must.  

And what’s the basis of true Christian unity?  It’s the Person and work of Jesus Christ and His glory.  We must stand strong on Truth--the Truth of God’s written Word, the Bible, and the Truth of His living Word, the Lord Jesus.  But we do it in love.  We do it in grace.  “In essentials unity; in non-essentials liberty; and in ALL things love.”  

And as with everything else, we cannot do this on our own!  I can’t make it one hour without thinking some critical or ugly or selfish thought.  It’s apparent I can be one hot mess, and why on earth God chose me as one of His children, well, I’ll never get over the incredible joy and wonder of it!  

But guess what?  You can be a hot mess too!  Sure, you may be better organized with a better hair-do, better behaved children, and a better yard--but seriously, let’s be honest here--deep down, sometimes you’re just as selfish and unkind and silly as me, just in different ways.  But God loves you extravagantly anyway and wants to hear from you... in fact, you’re the apple of His eye, even in all your mess!  

So since we’re all a mess, but Jesus chose us, died for us, and is crazy about us anyway, well then, it’s high time we be unified in our love for Him and for one another... and thus help win a lost and desperate world.  All this week, the phrase “that the world may know... that the world may know” kept ringing in my ears.  How will the world know unless we not only tell them but SHOW them by the way we are one in our love for Him and for one another?  

If Jesus is our Savior, then we’re beloved sons or daughters of the King.  Let’s start living like who we are in Him, by loving and showing grace to one another in Truth-based unity rather than fussing and fretting and criticizing ... that the world may know how good and great our Savior is.  

To God be the glory.