Father I pray that they all may be one.

“Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.” John 17:20-21

In this passage of scripture we find our Lord and Saviour bowing and praying to the very same Father we all pray to everyday. Jesus knowing the events of what was about to happen (that main event being His death) knew He was soon to be separated from the men He had just spent most of three years with and had loved with a very deep love. Jesus prayed for them that the Father would keep them and help them, however not only they but He prayed also for us, “Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word;” V. 20. I personally find this a very spirit lifting thing that my Lord who was just about to suffer the greatest pain and death in the history of mankind took the time to pray for me. Jesus prayed for many things here for His disciples and for the future believers, but there is one single point that lifts itself from the pages of my bible as though it is more important than the others in this prayer, “That they all may be one…” V. 21. I think it deserves our time to investigate these words because one of the single most important things in a believer’s life is to understand the word of God. Unity among the independent churches is a very difficult thing today but unity among the brethren is even more difficult. I am convinced that this prayer was not for a single church although only one single church existed at this time, but was for all of the elect of God. It was the prayer of the man Christ Jesus (that would be His human side because His Deity side as the Son of God would never need to pray) that prayed to the Father for unity for those He was about to give His life for, and that they could be as one as they (the Father and the Son) are one. Paul said in Ephesians 4:3 “Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” The word “Endeavouring” means – to make an effort to – now I know there are some who would say “this is simply to the church, so Paul was speaking to the church here” and this is true however Paul went on to say “One God and Father of all…” he also said there is one faith, one Lord, and one calling, which leads me to believe this is more of a Christian commandment than simply a church commandment. Paul said to “make an effort” to find unity among the brethren. We cannot find unity with our brethren if we seek to find issues to separate us. It seems there are some who work harder to find the ways of separation than they are those who find ways to unite. Beloved our churches are very much to be kept pure; the Lord tells the churches to cleanse themselves of leaven in which I am a strong believer of, however the Lord never told us to make enemies of other beloved brethren. We are to work hard to find spiritual grounds in which we can find an area of unity instead of seeking to find ways of separation. Beloved none of us are infallible and none of us are 100% in line with truth. If you take 10 good sovereign grace Baptist Pastor’s and match them thought by thought chances are great that all 10 differ on something. Beloved I commend those of us who try to live the scriptures word by word but we still have to allow for some disagreement.

Jesus prayed for unity among the brethren and Paul said to make an effort to bring about this unity and not with just the church but also with our other brethren. The writer of Acts said Acts 4:32 “And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul: neither said any of them that ought of the things which he possessed was his own; but they had all things common.” Beloved in a time when believers allow almost everything to cause separation maybe it is time we work a lot harder to find common ground to fellowship.