John 17:11 And I am no longer in the world; yet they are in the world, and I am coming to You. Holy Father, keep them in Your name, which You have given to Me, that they may be one even as We are. (21) That they all may be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us; that the world may believe that You have sent Me.
The first aspect of oneness, which is the building up of the believers, is the oneness in the Father's name by His divine life. In this aspect of oneness the believers born of the Father's life enjoy the Father's name, that is, the Father Himself, as the factor of their oneness. We are one because we have one Father. We not only have one God but one Father. The first ground and reason for our oneness is that we all are sons of God having the same divine life and that God is the Father of us all. Because God is your Father and mine, we are of the same family, the family of God. You are an American and I am a Chinese, yet we can call one another brother. This is so dear and intimate. In fact, I do not sense such an intimacy with my own brother in the flesh. The Lord can testify this for me. Why is this true? Because we were all born of the same Father, have the same life, and are brothers in that life. We are not brothers-in-law--we are brothers in life. Praise the Lord that we are brothers in the Father's life! For this reason, we must be one. There is no reason for us not to be one, for we are one family having the same Father and the same life. Therefore, we have the real brotherhood in life. In this life we all must be and can be one.
Bible verses are taken from the Recovery Version of the Bible and Words of Ministry from Witness Lee, Life-study of John, pp. 473-474 Both are published by Living Stream Ministry, Anaheim, CA. Please visit us at www.emanna.com. Send comments to: [email protected].
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