Commentaries:
People's Commentary (NT)
John 17:21
That they all may be one; . . . that they also may be one in us.
This is a prayer for the unity of the saints. The Lord all through this
discourse has shown the intimate union between the Father and himself.
The Father is in him and he in the Father, all that is the Father's is
his, and his is the Father's. They have no separate will, kingdom, or
interests. Such a union is demanded among the disciples of Christ.
Such union is impossible while they are divided into various
denominations, with separate work, property and interests, separate
churches, colleges, papers and missions. Denominationalism is utterly
opposed to this prayer, and every apologist for it is disloyal to the
spirit of the prayer. Nor is it fulfilled in any church where there
are factions, where "all are not perfectly joined together, of the same
mind and the same judgment" (1 Corinthians 1:10). If Christ abides in the heart,
the one life will draw all who have Christ formed within them into the
family. This unity is needful, and for it the Lord prays,
That the world may believe that thou hast sent me. It must be a
union that the world can see and recognize. It is therefore an organic
union, one Body as there is one Lord. There is no other source of
skepticism so fruitful as church quarrels and sectarian divisions.
Other commentary entries containing this verse:
John 17:21
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