"Let's Agree"

1 Corinthians 1:10 ESV

I appeal to you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment.

Open your social media feed or turn on the news, and you will quickly recognize that we live in a fractured society, one that is deeply divided by competing worldviews and ideologies. In this fallen and broken world, it comes as no surprise when unbelievers devour and consume one another with hostility and b

itterness. It should, however, shock and concern us when those who profess belief in Christ do the same.

Scripture repeatedly emphasizes God’s desire for unity and peace among God’s people. Jesus prayed for the church to be one on the night before he was crucified (John 17:20–23). Paul pled with the Corinthians “that there be no divisions among you, and that you be united with the same understanding and the same conviction” (1 Cor 1:10).1 Peter urged believers in a persecuted church “to be like-minded and sympathetic, love one another, and be compassionate and humble” (1 Pet 3:8).

How should believers pursue unity? When should they go their separate ways? Here we will note two flawed and unbiblical approaches to church unity that reap destructive consequences for the church. But our primary focus will be on a biblical plan for church unity modeled by the apostle Paul in the book of Romans.

(20) Jesus broadens the scope of His prayer.

“I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word;”

a. I do not pray for these alone: Jesus prayed for His eleven disciples, but He also had the heart and the vision to pray beyond them. He prayed for those who would come to faith by the testimony of these disciples. He prayed for us.

i. “He prayed for them. He prays for us. He knew His intercession for them would prevail. He knows His intercession for us will prevail. Then let us rest in Him, with the rest of loving obedience and of surest confidence.” (Morgan)

b. Those who will believe in Me through their word: This shows that Jesus expected that the disciples’ soon failure would be only temporary. Others would hear from them, and many would come to belief in Jesus through the testimony of the disciples.

i. Jesus went to the cross knowing His work would endure. He didn’t have a vague hope in what God would do through the disciples. Jesus left His earthly work full of confidence in the work of God through the disciples.

ii. “The last section of Jesus’ prayer shows that he expected the failure of the disciples to be only temporary. The entire tone of the farewell discourse is built on the assumption that after the resurrection they would renew their faith and carry on a new ministry in the power of the Holy Spirit.” (Tenney)

iii. “By worldly standards of success Jesus had little to show for his mission.” (Bruce) Yet Jesus left His earthly work full of confidence in the work of God through the disciples.

(21) Jesus prays for unity among all believers, even as among the original disciples.

“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.”

a. That they all may be one: Jesus envisioned the great multitude before the throne of God of every nation, race, language, class, and social level (Revelation 7:9-10). Jesus prayed that they might rise above their different backgrounds and understand their unity; that they may all be as one.

i. It’s as if Jesus prayed with this in mind: “Father, I have prayed for the unity of the disciples You gave Me. Yet they are all Galileans, from this time and place. There will be countless others who also become disciples, and they will come from every nation, every language, every culture, every class, every status, from every age through the rest of history. Father, make them one.”

ii. “We are to be faithful to truth; but we are not to be of a contentious spirit, separating ourselves from those who are living members of the one and indivisible body of Christ. To promote the unity of the church, by creating new divisions, is not wise. Cultivate at once the love of the truth and the love of the brethren.” (Spurgeon)

iii. “Why are we not one? Sin is the great dividing element. The perfectly holy would be perfectly united. The more saintly men are, the more they love their Lord and one another; and thus they come into closer union with each other.” (Spurgeon)

iv. “Christ will have all his members to be one in spirit, one in rights and privileges, and one in the blessedness of the future world.” (Clarke)

b. That they all may be one, as You, Father are in Me, and I in You: Earlier in this prayer Jesus prayed specifically that the eleven disciples present at His prayer remain unified (that they may be one as We are, John 17:11). Here Jesus broadened the sense of that prayer to all believers, that they all may be one.

i. As in the previous prayer for the eleven, Jesus prayed that their unity would follow the pattern of the unity of the Godhead, specifically in the relationship between God the Father and God the Son. “If the Father is in him and he is in them, then the Father is in them: they are drawn into the very life of God, and the life of God is perfect love.” (Bruce)

ii. The repetition and extension of this prayer to all future believers is important. It shows that unity among the broader body of Jesus Christ was and is very important to Jesus.

iii. As You, Father, are in Me, and I in You also speaks to the truth that the foundation of our unity is the same as the foundation of unity between the Father and the Son: equality of person. We are all on the same ground at the cross.

iv. “Beloved, those in whom Christ lives are not uniform, but one. Uniformity may be found in death, but this unity is life. Those who are quite uniform may yet have no love to each other, while those who differ widely may still be truly and intensely one. Our children are not uniform, but they make one family.” (Spurgeon)

c. That they also may be one in Us: The oneness Jesus had in mind was the unity that comes from the shared life in both God the Father and God the Son.

i. As before, Jesus did not pray for uniformity or institutional unity among believers, but for unity rooted in love and a shared nature, bringing together the many different parts of Jesus’ one body. This isn’t a legislated uniformity seeking to unite wheat and tares, nor is it the unity of institutions. Jesus had in mind the true unity of the Spirit (Ephesians 4:3).

ii. We must believe that this prayer was answered, and that the church is one. Our failure is in failing to recognize and walk in that divine fact.

d. That the world may believe that You sent Me: This was a remarkable statement. Jesus essentially gave the world permission to judge the validity of His ministry based on the unity of His people. Unity among God’s people helps the world to believe that the Father sent the Son.

i. “Even when he prays for their unity, he looks beyond their unity to the still unconverted world which stands in need of the witness generated by that unity.” (Carson)

(22) Jesus prays that the church would be marked by glory.

“And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one:”

a. The glory which You gave Me I have given them: As God the Father shared His glory with God the Son (John 17:5), so Jesus gave glory unto His people.

i. There are many ways that Jesus gives His glory to His people.

· The glory of His presence.

· The glory of His Word.

· The glory of His Spirit.

· The glory of His power.

· The glory of His leadership.

· The glory of His preservation.

ii. In all these aspects, there is the essential aspect of the presence of Jesus, God the Son. Scripturally speaking, when God gives or displays His glory to His people, it is some type of manifestation of God’s presence. God’s glory is, in some way, the radiance or shining of His presence, His essential nature.

iii. The Apostle Paul also understood that Jesus gives His glory to His people: For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. (2 Corinthians 4:6)

b. The glory which You gave Me: It is important to remember that the glory that God the Father gave to God the Son was glory that often appeared humble, weak, and suffering. It was glory that was ultimately displayed in radical sacrifice. The glory of Jesus is almost the opposite of the self-glory and vainglory of man.

i. The glory of Jesus was ultimately displayed in His work on the cross. Jesus often referred to it as His glorification (John 7:39, 12:16, 12:23).

ii. “Just as His true glory was to follow the path of lowly service culminating in the cross, so for them the true glory lay in the path of lowly service wherever it might lead them.” (Morris)

c. That they may be one: The presence of glory – among the Persons of the Godhead and the members of Jesus’ Church – this glory contributes to the oneness and unity of God’s people.

i. Where there is a sense of God’s glory, unity is so much easier. Lesser things that often divide us are set far in the background when there is a sense of God’s glory at work.

(23) Jesus prays for a unity founded in love.

“I in them, and You in Me; that they may 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.”

a. I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one: Jesus again referred to the living, organic unity He prayed would exist among His people. This isn’t the totalitarian unity of coercion or fear, and it isn’t the unity of compromise. Jesus prayed for a unity of love and common identity in Him.

i. “Like sanctification, this oneness is simultaneously something already achieved and something that needs perfecting.” (Carson)

b. That the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me: Jesus here took the idea introduced in John 17:21 (that the world may believe that You sent Me) and expanded it. The repetition is notable, and so is the expansion.

i. The idea that the unity of God’s people would display to the world that Jesus was truly sent from God the Father was so important to Jesus that He repeated it in the same short prayer.

ii. Then Jesus expanded the idea, now praying that the unity among generations of believers to come would also demonstrate to the world that Jesus loves His people, and loves them after the pattern of God the Father’s love for God the Son (and have loved them as You have loved Me).

iii. This reminds us of the importance of unity and love among Christians. It is as if Jesus gave the world permission to doubt both His mission and His love if the world does not see unity and love among believers.

· This is difficult, because sometimes the most unloving and critical among the followers of Jesus directly justify their divisiveness and sharp criticism as love, as in “I only demand that you be exactly as I am because I love you.”

· This is difficult, because sometimes it is true that there must be criticism, correction, and rebuke in the name of love.

· This is difficult, because even as we understand the words of Jesus here, we also understand that there are many, many other reasons why people do not believe (2 Corinthians 3:13-16, Ephesians 4:17-19, Romans 1:20-21). Christians have a great responsibility to display Jesus to the world through their love and unity, but often Christians are too quick to blame one another for an unbelieving world.

iv. “But what a sad thing was it, that a heathen should soon after have cause to say, No beasts are so mischievous to men, as Christians are to one another.” (Trapp)