A Prayer for the Church

Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and signs were being performed through the apostles. Now all the believers were together and held all things in common. (Acts 2:42-44; emphasis added)

If every member of a church is willing to ask, “What does the Bible say?” and commit to obey it no matter what, that church will experience unity. There will never be unity within a church when the Word of God is neglected. When the good seed of God’s Word is no longer spread, you will find the church taken over by the weeds of gossip, selfishness, and conflict. Only the power of God through his Word brings a harvest of peace and righteousness within a fellowship of saints.

As believers, we are “in Christ.” He is the true vine, and at the moment of salvation we are placed in him. Our strength, guidance, and nourishment come solely from that life-giving connection to him. At salvation we are given a new position and identity. Who we are is wrapped up completely in Christ. In Confessions by Augustine, the fourth-century bishop of Hippo, he tells about a renowned philosopher who turned to Jesus. At the service when he made a public declaration of faith, because of his new identity in Christ, he wanted a new name. What a compelling picture of a believer’s new identity in Christ!

At salvation we receive a new identity in Christ, and we’re brought into a community of brothers and sisters whose identity is found in Christ. Our position in him allows us to experience unparalleled unity amid incredible diversity. Our new identity in Christ makes us a family. Three times in our text Jesus says the word Father (John 17:21, 24,25). You and I are brought into the family of God through the work of Jesus Christ. We no longer relate to one another as strangers; we love one another as family members. Christian unity is people from all ethnicities, countries, and social circles becoming family members. It means caring for each man in your church as you would care for your brother and treating each woman with the respect you would your sister.

We are brought into the love that exists between the Father and the Son. Twice in this passage (vv. 23, 26) we are told believers will know and experience that God loves us with the same love he has for the Son. There’s no way this understanding of God’s supernatural, selfless, sacrificial love can do anything other than overflow into our relationships with others (cf. 13:34). Our love for one another is reflected as we

Christ is not praying for us to embrace a concept but a conduct. He wants lives marked by unity—a unity that leads us to walk hand in hand with one another. When one family member hurts, we don’t just take note of it; we hurt as well. When a sister feels rejected, we accept her. When a brother begins to stumble, we pick him up. Real unity requires breaking a sweat. Unity takes effort and demands sacrifice.

Unity always moves forward, striving for perfection (John 17:23). The word completely doesn’t mean “spotless” but contains the idea of pursuing the highest degree of unity.

It keeps a target always in front of us. We are never content. We must never say, “We’re unified enough.” If someone dropped some arsenic in your cup, you wouldn’t be satisfied until you were certain every last drop of poison had been removed. Disunity and broken relationships are like poison in the church. We can’t be content until every last drop of division is removed—not by getting rid of someone or leaving ourselves but by dealing biblically with division.

There should be no safer place in the entire world for a child of God than in the church. This fellowship should be an attack-free zone. Puritan preacher Thomas Brooks wrote, “Discord and division become no Christian. For wolves to worry the lambs is no wonder, but for one lamb to worry another, this is unnatural and monstrous” (“Legacies”). Do you make your church a safe place? Are you proactively and humbly dealing with differences and disagreements?

Unity in the church is a powerful testimony in the world. Real unity is a supernatural work and points to a supernatural reason: Jesus lives in us (v. 21). Thomas Manton said, “Divisions in the church breed atheism in the world” (quoted in Hughes, John, 411). John MacArthur puts it this way: “The effectiveness of the church’s evangelism is devastated by dissension and disputes among its members” (John 12–21, 293). Sadly, we can all probably share stories to show that’s true. The good news is the reverse is also true. A unified church reveals powerful, life-changing truths to the world. Christian unity reveals Jesus actually did come to the earth, sent by the Father to die on the cross and pay the penalty for our sin (v. 21). The church is the visible display of God’s goodness to this world. Each local church is the visible display of God’s kindness to its community. We don’t have any photographs of Jesus. The church is the photograph. The church is the picture of his love and mercy. There’s a picture frame around each church and a sign above us that says, “Come, see what God is like.”

When a non-Christian sees a unified church, the only logical conclusion is God loves us just like he loves Jesus (v. 23). A group of believers, spanning generations and ethnicity and gender, all worshiping Christ and ministering to one another, will make the unbelieving stop and say, “God’s love is real.” A unified church is a billboard declaring Jesus came to earth because the Father loves us with the love reserved for his Son. Could there possibly be a more compelling appeal to a broken world?

Christians experience a unique union and fellowship with Jesus right now, but it’s only a shadow of what we will experience for all eternity in his presence. In his Father’s house we will see his glory (v. 24). We will see the full display of divine goodness. We will experience the presence of Jesus in unveiled splendor. We get a taste of it now—through his Word and by his indwelling Spirit—but in the future we will experience the full delight and joy of unhindered fellowship with our Savior. John Calvin describes the difference:

At that time they saw Christ’s glory as someone shut up in the dark sees a feeble and glimmering light through small cracks. Christ now wants them to go on to enjoy the full brightness of heaven. (John, 402–3)

The apostle John said it this way in his first letter:

Dear friends, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet been revealed. We know that when he appears, we will be like him because we will see him as he is. (1 John 3:2)

We will see him as he is. We will worship him face-to-face. What a privilege! What a promise! We, who know Jesus and have been received into his family, are going home. We’re going to a home unaffected by divorce, unmarked by abuse, and untainted by sin. We’re going to a home where we will forever experience perfect and complete harmony. Why? Because we’re going to our Father’s house.

Joni Eareckson Tada tells a wonderful story about a little boy named Jeff:

At the end of a five-day retreat for families affected by disabilities, a microphone was passed around so all the participants could share a couple of sentences about how meaningful, how fun the week had been. Little freckle-faced, red-haired Jeff raised his hand. We were so excited to see what Jeff would say, because Jeff had won the hearts of us all at family retreat. Jeff has Down syndrome. He took the microphone, put it right up to his mouth, and said, “Let’s go home.” Later, his mother told me, “His dad couldn’t come to family retreat because he had to work. Jeff really missed his dad back home.” (“Heaven, Our Real Home”)

It won’t be long until we get to go home. Not much longer and we’ll forever enjoy peace and unity in the Father’s house. In just a little while we will experience the uninhibited love the Father and Son have shared from before the foundation of the world. But we can begin to experience it here.

The church can be a taste of heaven. When people with different preferences, hobbies, jobs, genders, backgrounds, skin colors, accents, and tastes love one another with a love surpassing all human love, they open a window to heaven, and people begin to feel a breeze from a far-off country and in their souls awaken a long-dormant hope. They want to go to that place and be with those people who know, see, and feel something different, something beyond, something more.

The love of God assures us we have a home and a country on the other side of the sea. This knowledge binds us together and spills out in a love that feels strangely foreign but still familiar. When people see this love displayed in a million little ways, they will hope it’s real, and when the hope is confirmed, they will understand the story is true. They will know Jesus lives and Jesus loves.