THE ONENESS OF THE BELIEVERS IN JOHN 17
In the Father’s Name and by His Life
The Son has been given authority to impart eternal life to all those whom the Father gave Him (v. 2). Now He prays, “Holy Father, keep them in Your name which You have given Me, that they may be one even as We are. When I was with them, I kept them in Your name which You have given Me, and I guarded them” (vv. 11-12). The life and the name are inseparable. Without the Father’s life, how could we have His name? If we were not born of Him, He would not be our Father. God is our Father because we have His life. Thus we call Him “Abba Father!”
By the Word
Besides giving the believers eternal life, the Lord says, “I have given them Your word, and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world even as I am not of the world.…Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth.… And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth. And I do not ask concerning these only, but concerning those also who believe in Me through their word, that they all may be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, that the world may believe that You have sent Me” (vv. 14-21).
The word which the Lord has given the believers separates them from the world. They do not belong to the world, but to Him. The sanctifying word keeps them, even while they are left in the world.
Thus through the word, the life, and the name the believers can be brought into oneness.
By the Glory
“And the glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, even as We are one; I in them, and You in Me, that they may be perfected into one” (vv. 22-23). The Son has been given the Father’s life and nature that He may express the Father. The glory of the Son is that He expresses the Father by having the Father’s life and nature. Suppose the President has a son whom he sends as his representative. The glory of this son is that he expresses the President in life and nature. The Son of God has received glory from the Father in that He has the Father’s life and nature to express.
This very glory of the Son He has given to us. We share the Father’s life and nature and have the position and right to express Him. We have this glory!
We are brought into oneness, then through the life, in the name, by the word, and in the glory. This oneness is genuine because it is in the Triune God. We are mingled with Him in such a oneness.
We are here for this genuine oneness. Oneness in the name of the Father through His life. Oneness in the Triune God by His word, which separates us from the world. Oneness in the glory to express God with His nature and life. This is the glorification of the Son and of the Father! And this is the church life!
(The Mending Ministry of John, Chapter 4, by Witness Lee)
