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 have sent me. And the glory which you gave me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: 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. Father, I will that they also, whom you have given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which you have given me: for you loved me before the foundation of the world. (John 17:21-24 KJ2000)
For you are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as have been baptized [immersed] into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s, then are you Abraham’s descendants, and heirs according to the promise. (Galatians 3:26-29 KJ2000)
That we may all be one. This was Jesus’ final prayer for all who would believe in Him. From the very beginning, God created the whole universe to exist in divine unity and His rest. After man decided that God had left something out and was robbing from him his chance to be a god in his own right, man chose to add to what God had made in perfection (See Gen. 3). From that point on disunity and chaos has reigned.
So our Father sent His Son to bring man back into a proper relationship with Himself by taking our sins on Himself and nailing them to the cross. This gave man the chance to become one, not only with the Father and the Son, but with his fellow man as well by faith in the completed work of Jesus Christ on Calvary’s cross.
God is love and he who abides in the Father and the Son abides in their love. Jesus cleanses us from all unrighteousness as we abide in Him by faith. As we abide in His Spirit, His great agape love pours into our hearts and binds us to Him, the Father, and one another. John wrote to the ones in Christ saying:
And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwells in him, and he in God. And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love; and he that dwells in love dwells in God and God in him. In this is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear: because fear has to do with punishment. He that fears is not made perfect in love. We love him, because he first loved us. (1 John 4:14-19 KJ2000)
In this passage we see the plan of salvation that brings us into complete unity with the Father as we dwell in Him and He in us. This is that same spiritual enfolding that we read above in John 17–Christ in the Father, the Father in Him, and then we in them and they in us. In this wonderful unity, we find the powerful love of the Father and the Son not only for one another, but for us. Because God first loved us, we love Him by the power that is present in His great love. As we continue to dwell in that love, we continue to dwell in God and God in us. There is no fear as we abide in His love, because we are made perfect in love and fear speaks of imperfection.
As we abide in His love we become as He is in this world, loving everyone just as He does. This is the power of the gospel. A gospel that does not convey the love of the Father and the Son in unity with them is not the true gospel of Christ and His kingdom. John continues to say,
If a man says, I love God, and hates his brother, he is a liar: for he that loves not his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? And this commandment have we from him, That he who loves God love his brother also. (1 John 4:20-21 KJ2000)
The love of God is miraculously healing in its very nature. Having this love in our hearts makes lasting relationships with our brothers and sisters in Christ possible. Paul accurately defined the love of God when he wrote:
Love endures long and is patient and kind; love never is envious nor boils over with jealousy, is not boastful or vainglorious, does not display itself haughtily. It is not conceited (arrogant and inflated with pride); it is not rude (unmannerly) and does not act unbecomingly. Love (God’s love in us) does not insist on its own rights or its own way, for it is not self-seeking; it is not touchy or fretful or resentful; it takes no account of the evil done to it [it pays no attention to a suffered wrong]. It does not rejoice at injustice and unrighteousness, but rejoices when right and truth prevail. Love bears up under anything and everything that comes, is ever ready to believe the best of every person, its hopes are fadeless under all circumstances, and it endures everything [without weakening]. Love never fails [never fades out or becomes obsolete or comes to an end]. As for prophecy (the gift of interpreting the divine will and purpose), it will be fulfilled and pass away; as for tongues, they will be destroyed and cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away [it will lose its value and be superseded by truth]. (1 Corinthians 13:4-8 AMP)
In these scriptures we see that the same love that we have for God we also have for one another. Unity means that there are no divisions or walls, neither by race, nor social status, nor by gender. Do we dare to believe it? Do we dare to love one another as Christ loves us, or are we still driven by what is socially acceptable, fearfully abiding in our Christian cliques? What a travesty that Christians today are divided every way from here to Sunday! There are over 43,000 different Christian denominations and sects in the world, and in every one of theses are further divisions between male and female, rich and poor, intellectuals and those of little education, old and young, not to mention the clergy and the laity! The “church” as we see it today has become a fractured fairytale when compared to that wonderful last prayer of Jesus, “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 have sent me.” Because of this lack of unity in the love of the Father, the salt of our Christian witness has lost its saltiness and is being trod under the feet of mankind as irrelevant.
Our only hope is in abiding in the Father and the Son and walking together in their love. Because of this extreme lack caused by the sectarianism today, those who do seek God find themselves doing so outside of that system which divides and conquers the people of God. If the system were functioning as the ecclesia of God, it would be moving in His love and His unifying power just as Paul wrote.
[I] beseech you that you walk worthy of the vocation by which you are called, With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love; Endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body, and one Spirit, even as you are called in one hope of your calling; One Lord, one faith, one baptism, One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all. (Ephesians 4:2-6 KJ2000)
One! If we love God, we love one another the same way He loves us. His agape love does not know division. We should be loving all the saints of God the same and not be divided by fear. Many men and women in the church, for instance, are fearful of this agape love of God spilling over into a carnal love for the opposite sex. Yes, this is a possibility wherever the cross has not been allowed to do its work on our soulish natures. Most of what we have seen of Christianity is like what Paul observed about the Corinthian church, “you are yet carnal.” But God wants us to mature in His love to the point that we want only what is edifying to all parties involved instead of our self-seeking, feeding of the flesh. The lack of the work of the cross in the lives of Christians keeps them locked in fear of truly loving one another with the love of God, but “perfect love casts out all fear.”
“Love endures long and is patient and kind; love never is envious nor boils over with jealousy.” Do we find ourselves jealous when we see one brother or sister being shown honor or being loved by someone else in the church? Do we envy someone that seems to be “getting ahead” in life? They say if you catch a crab and put him in a box, he will climb out. But if you put two crabs in a box and one of them starts to climb out, the other one will pull him back down. This is not love. Love in one person helps the other person escape from what binds them, no matter what the cost. Jesus gave up His freedom and died so that we might live and be free.
It has helped me to see the love of God as a huge river that flows out from the relationship of the Father and the Son. Everywhere it flows, it invites mankind to jump in and swim, and everywhere it goes it brings life and healing. Everyone in this river has life and an amazing love for others that knows no bounds. The Father and the Son are one, and so are all who are carried in the flow of His river of love.
Unity and love go hand in hand. Let us seek to be made perfect in the love of our Father, dwell together in unity, and be wary of all man-made walls that divide us. Amen.
And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bore twelve manner of fruit, and yielded its fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. (Revelation 22:1-2 KJ2000)
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, self-control: against such there is no law. And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. (Galatians 5:22-25 KJ2000)
In Christ there is no east nor west,
There is no north or south,
But one great fellowship of love,
Throughout the whole wide earth,
In Jesus Christ there is no east nor west.
A Wilderness Voice 
amen, what a blessing to read this Mike! the Holy Spirit is opening our minds….& finally we are seeing 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you Lillian. So good to hear from you again. Yes, my sister, sometimes what the Spirit starts showing us reminds me of Neo waking up for the first time outside of the Matrix on that rebel ship, “Why do my eyes hurt?” Morphius answers him, “Because you have never used them before!” 🙂
LikeLike
As long as one man clings to his self exalted position of power and control,for a salary to boot, and the folks support that false paradigm, true unity bound by the Spirit, and Christ as head will never be realized this side of the grave, not in a million years.
Jesus desired to have a functioning body with no divisions but He also knew it wouldn’t happen except for a few rebel groups here and there and far between.
This demonstrates the utter and complete depravity and rebellion of man, even after he’s been redeemed.
The arrogance and King of the mountain mentality.
I know this for I have been debating the issue for months with a bunch of haughty and despicable, smart mouthed christians. On this particular site, few there be that see it. The majority are in high gear support of the organized den of thieves…and ‘love it so’.
Not sure if this will change any time soon.
Unity in the Spirit? All parts functioning? Jesus actually in His rightful position of control? What a novel experience that would be. 40 years in a holding pattern. No place to land yet. A thick fog of foolishness that won’t lift. I hope it will. Not holding my breath.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Devon,
Yes, there are small groups of believers who have found Christ and His love as their all and they are rare, it would seem. Most have been driven outside the camps of Christendom by proud leadership and their followers.
There are some inherent dangers in answering a fool according to his folly. I used to get involved in trying to save people from their willful blindness as they followed their blind guides, but the Lord finally told me to leave them alone and let them fall into their appointed ditches. I know I had to fall into mine and stay there until I learned that Jesus was my only Teacher and Lord. I had to bare the fruit in my life as follower of men until the ditch had done its full work and I concluded that ONLY Jesus was to be my sufficiency in ALL things and there is nothing that men can do in their fleshly ways that can add to that.
Thanks for your comment.
LikeLike
Michael: Seeing these passages of Scripture all together like this is so revealing! I do see Genesis 3 with a bit of a difference though – not so much that man knowingly decided “to be a god in his own right;” but that he (she) didn’t believe God. Eve was led to believe that God had lied to her by withholding something from her. The crux of the issue was that God could not be trusted. And isn’t this the root of any hesitation we have to exercise faith in the Faithful Lover of our soul? What with our old sin nature wanting to do it our own way (I see this as a RESULT of that first sin) and the devil lying to us all the time about God’s love and provision for us.
I love the image of a huge river flowing out from the relationship between the Father and the Son. A wonderful truth to drown out the lie! Many years ago I read a book by W.J. Hocking called “The Son of His Love.” He captured that huge river in a such a way that it completely altered my grasp of the love of God (and the Scriptures overall). My spiritual mentor had told me that “the Bible is about the Father and His love for His Son.” I instinctively knew that was true but didn’t actually understand it until I read this book years later. And now I see it throughout the entire Word of God. The book is available on line here: http://www.stempublishing.com/authors/WJ_Hocking/
I enjoyed reading this post — thank you for putting it together!
LikeLiked by 1 person
You are welcome, Lori. Actually we both are seeing the temptation of Eve the same way but with different words. I just cut to the chase. If she caved into the temptation to do it her way instead of obeying God, she was putting her self-will in the place of God and His will, making what Satan said to her a truism, “You shall be as gods.” One of the most rude awakenings for me was seeing that the anti-christ (Greek meaning – instead of Christ) was in self-willed me as I chose my own will over His in my life. I know this might sound harsh, but this really what underlies all our sin and rebellion until it can be truly said, “In Him we live and move and have our being.” May we be totally pulled up into their vortex of love until we are truly ONE with them. Amen.
LikeLike
Yes Michael I see what you are saying. Sometimes when fear and discouragement overtake me, I find myself thinking: I feel trapped here on this globe! I feel like I don’t have any control! Now who could that be whispering to me that I’m a fool for thinking that if I did have control it would be any better? The whisperer takes me to the book of Job where I read chapters 38-41 and get set straight. It’s so easy to be filled with fear, or down right panic, and just think of it as a weakness in my personality (lived with it my whole life), but it is really distrust of my Father and, yes, wanting to stand in the place of God Himself. As C.H. Mackintosh said: Eve acquired the knowledge of good without the ability to do it, and the knowledge of evil without the ability to resist. And there we stand until we realize union with Christ!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Dear Lori, this was a very honest reply. I appreciate your heart, dear sister. We are truly pilgrims and strangers on this earth. I think that really seeing how much God loves us as an individual goes a long ways in doing away with all our fears that come at us in this life. We have this confidence, that to be absent from this body is to be present with the Lord. “If God be for us, who can be against us?” God bless you!
LikeLike
Michael, I kept quiet for decades. Now I only write as He moves me. I get what you are saying however. I was hitting it hard for a long period of time and then He said stop. Went for about 3 months then He started to lead me again to write. I don’t volunteer for anything. I only speak and hold not my peace, as He directs.
LikeLike
Bro. Michael, it is so refreshing to read the post. God’s love is something that is so wonderful. I am so easily distracted from His love by my concerns. Lately, my health has been an active bother. I need to be in His love, and not in my feelings.
I rejoice in God’s mercy and goodness, and then I am back into how I feel. Rejoicing is better for me – than lamenting.
Susanne had a post some days ago on maturity. I thought that the best description of maturity that I could think of is 1Corinthians 13.
Again, thank you for the post, and forgive my rambling.
Love in Him,
Pat Orr
LikeLiked by 1 person
Dear Pat, it was good to hear from you again and you were not rambling. I think you are right about 1 Cor. 13 as being a great description of Christian maturity. If the greatest of spiritual attributes is God’s love, and it describes here what those with His love in them do… well, we have a great bogometer of how mature we are IN Christ.
Dear Father, please heal Pat of this ailment. Amen.
God bless, you dear sister!
Michael
LikeLike
Great, God-breathed post, Michael! ⭐
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you, Susanne.
LikeLike
Greetings Michael
The earth quakes and cannot bear up under, “an unloved woman when she gets a husband” .Proverbs 30:21-23. The reason is, this woman will never be satisfied with the natural earthy love of that husband. The woman could be a false bride of Christ, deceived, that has a view of love that is need, and greed based, from one another, that is.
This woman might be shocked in the end of her life to discover that the authentic love of Christ was not what she sought so hard after, rather from other people. Moreover, it would surly be shown to her, that the allegory of the bondwoman in Galatians 4 was that self seeking needy love.
Rejoice, barren woman who does not bear (obtaining, seeking earthly false love) Break fourth and shout, you who are not in Labor (to get that love from others) For more are the children of
the children of the desolate (unable to obtain) Than the one who has a husband. (found a natural earthly person to love them)
May God have mercy on us who were deceived by a deceptive love need.
Greetings from Montenegro
LikeLiked by 1 person
Russell, it has been a while. I see you are back in Montenegro again. It must be good to have the four of you together again.
That proverb is also translated, “a hateful (odious) woman when she get married.” Of this Barnes commentary says,
I know of a man who has a mother-in-law like this. Her every waking moment is focused on how to control the lives of everyone in her reach. I can see how many who claim to be the bride of Christ might fit this description. The enemy has sown tares among the wheat. Five virgins were totally ready for the coming of the Bridegroom for they had gone to the Lord for their oil. But five were foolish because they went to other virgins to get theirs and they missed their chance when the time came. One thing for sure, Jesus will have a bride that is totally without spot or wrinkle and is totally in love with HIM.
Michael
LikeLike
I am glad that you put in 1st Cor 13 quote from the AMPLIFIED BIBLE. It is
more explanatory than the KJV.
Also, your quote. :LOVE IN ONE PERSON HELPS THE OTHER PERSON
ESCAPE FROM WHAT BRINGS THEM: NO MATTER WHAT THE COST.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Good article. It is sad to see so many that profess Christ who show hatefulness toward people that are different than they, or believe differently. We are called to love and leave everything else to God. The traditional church spends so much time arguing among believers and condemning those outside the church, that the love of God is no longer seen.
LikeLiked by 1 person
It takes two to love and in the case of the Father and his Son it ties together by Gods Holy Spirit–so it must be with us humans and in most human circles there is not that tie but instead they are practicing circle jerk–it is good to be amongst the binding tie on yours and Sues blog sites–I LOVE IT!
LikeLiked by 2 people
Thanks, Kenneth. It is good to have you here with us as well, sharing the love of the Spirit with us. In my years of practicing Sunday religion I ran into a lot of “jerks” who were not abiding in the leading of the Holy Spirit, but rather doing what seemed right in their own eyes and many of them were in church leadership. It took me a long time to finally get the message that it was not the building or the administration that sanctified the fellowship, but rather the Spirit we abode in.
“For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit.”(Romans 8:5 KJ2000)
“Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: By whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God… because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who is given unto us.” (Romans 5:1-5 KJ2000)
“Yet the most High dwells not in temples made with hands; as says the prophet, ‘Heaven is my throne, and earth is my footstool: what house will you build me? says the Lord: or what is the place of my rest? Has not my hand made all these things?’ You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, you do always resist the Holy Spirit: as your fathers did, so do you.” (Acts 7:48-51 KJ2000)
LikeLiked by 1 person
A beautiful message, Michael.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Imagine how different the world would look like if everyone had this kind of love? I often get frustrated when people lack in love and hurt one another.
I try to reflect God’s love as best as I can so I can show other people how to love as God loves!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks, Joseph, I know what you mean. When I look at how Paul described the love of God in 1 Cor. 13, I even get frustrated at my OWN lack of walking totally in this depth of His love! I know that without HIM doing a miracle IN ME, it ain’t going to happen. BUT IN Christ all things are ours.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hi Michael — I’ve found Andrew Murray to be a great source of Spiritual wisdom and help. Thought you might like this from one of his books: “God is the great and only fountain of blessing. As much of God as I have in me, so much blessing can I bring.” So . . . . a fountain isn’t exactly a huge flowing river, but close. Right? :o) There are more good quotes from Murray here: http://www.onandrewmurray.com/Blogs/40/17/31-Quotations-from-The-New-Life-by-Andrew-Murray-%203-11
Blessings to you!
LikeLike
Thank you. Lori. Yes, Andrew Murray was a wonderful writer and has written many things that have had great insight and been very helpful for me as well. I will check out this URL of His quotes. Thanks so much.
You are a blessing,
Michael
LikeLike