"The Pattern of Unity"

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The Priority of Unity Seen in the Prayer of Jesus


The PATTERN


“I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; that they all 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 just as We are one: I in them and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me.”  (John 17:20-23)


Patterns are important if you hope to have the real thing come to reality. It is “a model proposed for imitation.” (Webster) My mother used to make clothes and she always bought a paper pattern and she would cut the cloth according to the pattern she had bought. Jesus gave us the model of unity in this prayer. We are to model our lives according to this divine pattern. No deviations are allowed, or the reality won’t fit the pattern, which is a divine pattern.


We were created and saved to bear the image of God, to be like Him. He has given us the pattern of unity that we should follow – His own nature that we see in the Trinity. “As You, Father, are in Me, and I in You, that they may also be one in Us, that they may be one just as We are one.” Wow!


How can we possibly follow this perfect pattern and live in unity? First John 5:7 says, “Three bear witness in heaven: the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit; these three are one.” Notice, it does not use the word “Jesus.” Well, the Word is Jesus (Jn.1:1-3,14), but the inspired writer uses the word Word. The other two are with and agree with the Word. What else do we call the Word? The Holy Bible, which is the Word in print. They all agree with the word in print.


Now look at 1 Corinthians 1:10, “Now I plead with you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.” Paul pleads with us to be unified in what we say and the way we think. That’s amazing. How can we do that? God fully expects us to do this. How? When we have so many churches saying different things and so many Christians in each church thinking differently, how is it possible for us to have this kind of unity? The word of God. The Bible. This is the one thing we must agree on and if we do we can have unity. We all believe the same Bible. But it’s such a big Bible and some see one thing and others see another thing in the same Bible. Well, this does take some hammering out. I’ll show you how it’s done.


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