The Lord Jesus had a deep aspiration for oneness, and this aspiration issued in the high prayer recorded in John 17 for the oneness of the Body of Christ as the enlarged oneness of the Divine Trinity.
In this prayer, we can see three levels of oneness: oneness in the Father’s name and by the Father’s life (John 17:6-13), oneness in the reality of the sanctifying word (John 17:14-21), and oneness in the divine glory (John 17:22).
The first “level of oneness” is the oneness in the Father’s name and by the Father’s divine life. Hallelujah, we all the believers in Christ are one in the Father’s name and by the Father’s divine life which is in each one of us!
The source of our oneness is the Father God
What is the source of our oneness? What makes us really one, as believers in Christ and as the church? It is not something that we can manufacture, it does not originate from us, and it is not something that “we need to work so hard to maintain”.
The Lord Jesus prayed in John 17:11, Holy Father, keep them in Your name, which You have given to Me, that they may be one even as We are. The Lord Jesus gave us the Father’s name that we may be one!
This means that the Father as the source of life to the Lord Jesus (He did everything in the Father’s name, see John 5:43; 10:25) is now also our source of life, and we are the many sons of God!
The Lord Jesus has given us the name of the Father – which denotes the Father Himself, the Father’s life, the Father’s person – that we may be one. The Father is the source of life, and our oneness originates from the Father Himself as the source.
We ourselves are not the source – the Father is the source of oneness, the source of life. This means that for us believers to be one, we need to no longer live by our own natural human life but by the divine life, in which we have oneness.
We as the source are full of opinions and divisions, but the Father as the source of life is the source of oneness. When we live by the Father’s life we are one!
We are one by the Father’s divine life
The source of our oneness is the Father’s name, and the element of our oneness is the Father’s divine life. This is the oneness we pursue and practice – not a oneness in our good intentions or good will, but a oneness in the divine life.
If you just consider this, it is so simple and clear: we all believers in Christ are born of God the Father with the Father’s life and nature, and we are organically one. It is as simple as that!
But when it comes to practicing this, to being one practically, we need to realize that everything of our natural life – the source of division – needs to be terminated. We need to live by another life, the divine life, that we may be one!
A footnote that helps us understand this is the one on John 17:11, note 2,
To be kept in the Father’s name is to be kept by His life, because only those who are born of the Father and have the Father’s life can participate in the Father’s name. The Son has given the Father’s life to those whom the Father has given Him (v. 2); hence, they share the Father’s name by being kept in it, and they are one in it. The first aspect of this oneness, that is, the first aspect of the building up of the believers, is the oneness in the Father’s name and by His divine life. In this aspect of oneness the believers, born of the Father’s life, enjoy the Father’s name, that is, the Father Himself, as the factor of their oneness. (John 17:11, footnote 2)
Simply coming together for a common purpose or to encourage one another to be one is not enough.
The oneness that man tries to create and maintain is “muddy” – shady, not clear, quite strange, and it stinks. But oneness in the divine life of our Father is golden, shiny, clear, pure, and so fragrant!
The Lord wants to bring us into the oneness of the divine life in which we take the Father as our source and we live not by our human life but by the Father’s life. This is the way for us to be one organically and basically – by having the Father’s name and living by the Father’s life!
Thank You Lord Jesus for giving us the Father’s name! In this name we are one! God is our Father and He is the source of our oneness! Lord, thank You for the divine life of the Father – this life is now in us as the means and the element of our oneness. Lord, we don’t want to live by our human life but by the divine life of the Father. Show us, Lord, that in ourselves we cannot be one – but when we live by Your life we are organically one!
References and Further Reading
- Sharing inspired from, The Oneness and the One Accord according to the Lord’s Aspiration and the Body Life and Service according to His Pleasure (by Witness Lee, ch. 1), as quoted in, the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Genuine Oneness of the Body, the Proper One Accord in the Church, and the Direction of the Lord’s Move Today, week 1.
- Further reading: John 17 + notes, especially v. 6 note 1, v. 11 note 1 and note 2;
- Hymns on this topic:
# Father God, Thou art the source of life. / We, Thy sons, are Thine expression;
# We’re gathered here, O Lord, as Thy one Body: / Though we be many, yet we all are one.
# We are one in the spirit, by His life we are one, / We have left all divisions, Body-life has begun. - Picture source: trees, via Telegraph.
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Amen