Unity

What Did Jesus Say About Unity?

In John 13 through 17 Jesus has a lot to say about unity, “Jesus answered and said to him, ‘What I am doing you do not understand now, but you will know after this.’ Peter said to Him, ‘You shall never wash my feet!’ Jesus answered him, ‘If I do not wash you, you have no part with me.’ ‘I tell you the truth, he who receives whomever I send receives Me; and he who receives Me receives Him who sent Me.’ So when he (Judas Iscariot son of Simon)had gone out, Jesus said, ‘Now the Son of man is glorified, and GOD is glorified in Him. If GOD is glorified in Him, GOD will also glorify Him in Himself, and glorify Him immediately. Little children, I shall be with you a little while longer. You will seek Me; and as I sait to the Jews, “Where I am going, you cannot come,” so now I say to you. A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.’ “Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in GOD, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.’ Thomas said to Him, ‘LORD, we do not know where You are going, and how can we know the way?’ Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; and from now on you know Him and have seen Him. Phillip said to Him, ‘LORD, show us the Father, and it is sufficient for us.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Phillip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; so how can you say, “Show us the Father”? Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on My own authority; but the Father who dwells in Me does the works. Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father in Me, or else believe Me for the sake of the works themselves.’ ‘If you love Me, keep My commandments. And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever – the Spirit of Truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you. I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you. A little while longer and the world will see Me no more, but you will see Me. Because I live, you will live also. At that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you. He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will manifest Myself to him. Judas (not Iscariot) said to Him, ‘LORD, how is it that You will manifest Yourself to us, and not to the world?’ Jesus answered and said to him, ‘If anyone loves me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him. He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine but the Father’s Who sent Me. These things I have spoken to you while being present with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, Whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things I have said to you.’ ‘I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit. You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast our as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned. If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples. As the Father loved Me, so I also have loved you; abide in My love. If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love.’ ‘You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you. These things I command you, that you love one another.’ But when the Helper comes, Whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of Truth Who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of Me.’ ‘Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away; for it I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you.’ ‘However, when He, the Spirit of Truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you. All things that the Father has are mine. Therefore I said that He will take of Mine and declare it to you.’ ‘Indeed the hour is now coming, yes, has now come, that you will be scattered, each to his own, and will leave Me alone. And yet I am not alone, because the Father is with Me.’ Jesus spoke these words, lifted up His eyes to Heaven, and said: ‘Father, the hour has come, Glorify Your Son, that Your Son may also Glorify You, as You have given Him authority over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as You have given Him. And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true GOD, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent. I have glorified You on the earth. I have finished the work which You have given Me to do. And now O Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was.’ ‘Now I am no longer in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to You. Holy Father, keep through Your name those You have given Me, that they may be one as We are.’ ‘I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word: that they may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. And the glory which You gave Me, I have given them that they may be one as We are one: I in them, and You in Me; that they might be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me.’ ‘And I have declared to them Your name, and will declare it. That the love with which You loved Me may be in them and I in them.’

All of this “in” stuff, Jesus is in the Father, the Father is in Jesus, we are in Jesus, Jesus is in us, we are in the Father, He sent the Holy Spirit who is in us, and all the what is Yours is Mine is Ours stuff is unity.  The unity of the GOD Head; The Father-Yahweh, Jehovah, Elohim (I Am The LORD GOD Creator); The Son-Christ, Jesus,  Emmanuel (Anointed Saviour GOD with us); The Holy Spirit-Spirit of GOD, The Helper, Seal of GOD (Teacher, Counselor, Comforter) and us-the born again Spirit filled believers (The Church, The Body of Christ, The Bride of the Lamb). We are all one in GOD in whom, by whom, and for whom all things exist.

There is unity in the GOD Head! There is unity in believers! Why? Because, there is unity in the Kingdom of Heaven. Jesus brought the Kingdom of Heaven to earth and left it with the believers to expand throughout the world.  It is only in unity that the church can take the Kingdom of Heaven to the world. Our individual efforts are lost in the enormity of the world’s nations, tribes, and tongues. But in unity we as the world wide Body of Christ we can reach every nation, tribe, and tongue with the Gospel Message of the Kingdom of GOD. And the Gospel message is Jehovah is your Heavenly Father and wants you through Jesus Christ to enter into His Heavenly Kingdom here on the earth, and to then take the Gospel to your family, neighbors, and communities.