Unity hard to find

Jesus knows our trouble spots.

The night before he was crucified, after teaching his disciples many things, Jesus prayed. For them, and for us.

His prayer was not generic, or soft. He knew, and still knows, where we need help the most.

Jesus asked his Father for three things on our behalf:

• Protection. “Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one … I am not asking you to take them out of the world, but I ask you to protect them from the evil one.” (John 17:11,15)
• Sanctification: “Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.” (John 17:17)
• Unity: “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. … so that they may be one, as we are one, 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.” (John 17:21-23)

Protection

Earth is “the evil one’s” playground. He rules it. We don’t have to look hard to see this. Big stuff like wars, murder, rape, disease … Other things like selfishness, racism, anger … death.

God wants to protect us from all of that. Eventually, all that stuff will go away, but in the meantime, we live among it.

As Christians, we don’t have to participate in any of this. We know better. Yet we are prone to sin, so we become part of the problem.

We need each other to help avoid the evil one’s wiles. By learning how to get along with each other – as Christians, who should all have the same big-picture outlook on life – we can become one in spirit, and one with God and with each other.

This is how we overcome sinful passions, desires and actions.

We need God’s protection, in the middle of an otherwise evil world. We are different. We are one with God, not with the world.

Sanctification

This is a Christian jargon word which means that over time, we should think and live more like Jesus did, growing more like Jesus every day – or at least every year.

We do this by learning and living “the truth; your word is truth.”

The “word” is the Bible, where God explains how to live like he wants us to.

Sanctification means we are set apart, different than the world. We think differently, we talk differently, we act differently. Or, we should.

It’s a process. We shouldn’t judge each other for not measuring up to God’s standards, because we are all in a different place.

Again, if we are one, we as Christians can – and should – support each other as we grow ever closer to the living God.

Unity

For his 11 disciples (Judas had already left the room to betray him), Jesus prayed for protection and sanctification. He then turned his attention to future believers – that’s us – and on our behalf, he prayed for unity.

Oh, how we need it.

We have taken our eyes off of him and his word, and have become divisive.

Some of us use the Bible to justify our sinful behaviors. God is love, we say; this means that God loves homosexuals, those who support abortion in all situations, promiscuity, anger and things like that.

Using similar logic, others of us say that it’s okay to stockpile guns, keep unwanted people out of our country, ignore world wars and other issues on a global scale, and things like that.

Each group points judgmental, accusatory fingers at the other group.

Unity? It’s not on the radar screen.

I’m talking about Christians here.

I know folks who call themselves Christians who attend churches that support homosexuality and make fighting injustice the cornerstone of their faith.

I know others who call themselves Christians who think our government is itself evil, immigration is evil and abortion is outlawed in the Bible.

Unity? Where? How?

How does the world know that Jesus Christ is the king of the world?

Are we truly one with the Father, with Jesus and with each other?

That’s how Jesus prayed.

Instead, we have let the world define our faith.

By doing that, we’ve lost our witness.

The world doesn’t know.

Because we’d rather fight for our rights, or our principles, than show them what “truth” really is.

The solution

“Righteous Father, the world does not know you, but I know you; and these know that you have sent me. 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.” (John 17:25-26)

This is how Jesus ended his defining prayer.

What’s the key? Knowing Jesus. The real Jesus. Not our version of Jesus, or what we want him to be. Who he is.

To do that, we must read the Bible with an open mind. Not with preconceived notions. Not with a worldly mindset. To use another Christian jargon word, with “surrender.” Humilty. On our knees. Inquisitive. Seeking. Trying to understand.

We can’t pull verses or ideas out of context. We must understand the culture of the times the Scriptures were written in. We must read the paragraphs around the verses we want to quote, to make sure we understand what the writer is truly saying – not what we want the writer to say.

If we read the Bible like this, God will protect us from the desires of the evil one, because his evil desires are exposed in its pages. As are God’s answers.

The more we read and learn, the closer we get to the living God. This is how sanctification works.

And the more unified we will be.

This doesn’t mean we all will think alike or live the same way. God has wired each of us differently, and given us different situations in life.

But all of us – men and women, of all races and cultures across the world, and across time – worship the same God.

The Bible calls us brothers and sisters in Christ. That means all of us who take on the name of Christ are related. We are family, in the very best sense of the word.

Let’s act like it.