Search
Scripture Reading: John 17:21-23; 1 Cor. 1:12-13; Eph. 4:2-6, 13-16
In this chapter we will consider the truth in the New Testament concerning the genuine oneness of the church. Christians today often speak of oneness, but there are many kinds of oneness that are not genuine. We need to realize that there is only one kind of oneness that is genuine. In the previous chapter we saw that the church is Christ. In this chapter we will see that the genuine oneness of the church also is Christ. Because Christ is the proper and real church life, He is the genuine oneness.
We are one in the church not because we have a common concept, goal, interest, or work. These factors could never create the genuine oneness. If we are one because of these factors, our oneness is not the genuine oneness. Any kind of oneness besides the genuine oneness is a oneness in division. Every denomination has a certain kind of oneness. The Catholic Church, the Presbyterian Church, and the Baptist Church all have a kind of oneness. In any Christian work there is a kind of oneness. Without some kind of oneness, no one would work together. There is a multitude of different denominations, and there is a multitude of different kinds of oneness. The oneness of the Christians in the Methodist Church is their method. The oneness of those in the Baptist Church is in the practice of baptism by immersion. The oneness of Pentecostals is mainly speaking in tongues. However, even in tongue-speaking there are different kinds of oneness. Not all agree on how to speak in tongues. Those who speak in tongues are not one even in tongue-speaking. Thus, there are many kinds of oneness among the denominations, but none are genuine.
We can be genuinely one only because of Christ. Christ is in every genuine believer, and this indwelling Christ is our real oneness. If we do not see this, we will not be able to be one with those of different nationalities and backgrounds, nor will we even be able to be one with our own spouse. Not many couples are one. Apart from Christ no human being can be one with anyone else. In other words, no two people are one without Christ. The genuine oneness is Christ. There is no oneness apart from Him.
John 17:21-23 is a deep portion of the Word. In verse 21 the Lord prayed, “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.” This verse reveals that the secret for the believers to be one is to be in the Triune God. If we are outside the Triune God, we are not one. The genuine oneness is possible only when we are in the Triune God, not only in doctrine and position but also in experience. We have the genuine oneness when we are practically and experientially living in the Triune God. Christians do not have the genuine oneness because very few Christians live in the Triune God. They may believe that they are in the Triune God, but they do not live in the Triune God. Their walk, their daily life, and their work are altogether outside and apart from the Triune God. Therefore, although there are many genuine believers, there is no genuine oneness among them, because the genuine oneness, which is Christ Himself, is only in the Triune God.
In order to have the genuine oneness, we first need to be in the Triune God. As believers, we are all in the Triune God doctrinally and positionally, but we may not be in the Triune God experientially. If we go to a movie theater, we surely are not experientially in the Triune God. We also may not be in the Triune God in all the areas of our moment-by-moment daily living, such as our relationships with our family members or roommates. Rather than being in the Triune God experientially, we are often in our self, our choice, our preference, our flesh, our jealousy, our hatred, or our pride. Although we know that we need the genuine oneness, we often lack this oneness because we do not live in the Triune God. As long as we are not in the Triune God, the oneness among us is not secure. The genuine oneness is safeguarded and secured only by our being in the Triune God practically and experientially in our daily living.
In verse 22 the Lord continued, “The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, even as We are one.” The genuine oneness is in the glory of the Triune God. There is something in the universe called the glory of the Triune God. This glory is the glory that the Father has given to the Son and that the Son has given to His believers that they may be one. We may not fully understand what this glory is, but we can see that glory is surely something of God and that it is in this glory that we can all be one. It is possible for all of us to be one only when we are in the glory of the Triune God. Simply put, glory is God expressed. This matter may be illustrated using electricity. Electricity is hidden until it is expressed as light. The shining of light is the glory of electricity. Likewise, the expression of the Triune God is the glory of the Triune God. When we are all in the expression of God, we are one.
Over the years I have seen many dear saints come into the recovery who truly love the Lord and stay for some time but who eventually leave in division. Some were even co-workers. They left in division simply because they were not living absolutely in the Triune God. Regardless of who we are, if we are not in fear and trembling to live in the Triune God every day, we may eventually cause a division. The only way to be kept in the genuine oneness is to daily live first in the Triune God and second in the expression of God, in the glory that the Father has given the Son and that the Son has given the believers. In this glory, the expression of the Triune God, our genuine oneness is doubly secure.
We need to be not only in the Triune God but also with all the saints in His expression. Our work should be for the expression of God, not for our own success, goal, or purpose. The expression of the Triune God has the power to kill all our ambition, goals, and desire for success. Every human being is purposeful, having his or her own goals, intentions, and aims. Until all our personal goals, intentions, and aims have been killed for the sake of the expression of the Triune God, we are not secure in the genuine oneness. The church life is the expression of the Triune God. God’s economy and the work of God’s economy are for the expression of the Triune God. If we have any goal, aim, and intention other than the expression of the Triune God, we will eventually lose the genuine oneness. Eventually, we will become a cause of division because of our differing goals, aims, and intentions. In order for the genuine oneness to be secured, we must first live in the Triune God and second be in the expression of the Triune God. This expression will kill all our goals, aims, and intentions.
Every Christian denomination has been divided. Even a small group may be divided after meeting for only two or three years. Christians today cannot be one but are endlessly divided because most do not live in the Triune God and do not care for the expression of God. They care instead for their own goals, aims, and intentions, or even worse, for their personal tastes, choices, or preferences. Because their goals, aims, intentions, tastes, choices, and preferences are not the expression of God, the genuine oneness among them is not secure.
The Lord goes on to pray in verse 23, “I in them, and You in Me, that they may be perfected into one.” Verse 21 indicates that we are in the Triune God; verse 23 indicates that the Triune God is in us. The Triune God being in us is more experiential than our being in the Triune God. We need to consider whether or not the Triune God is in us experientially. Perhaps instead of the Triune God, some other person or matter is in us. Doctrinal differences are excuses; they are not the real reason that Christians cannot be one. The real reason is that they do not live in the Triune God, they do not care for the expression of the Triune God, and they do not have the Triune God in them experientially.
To be perfected into one, we need to be in the Triune God, we need to be for the expression of the Triune God, and the Triune God needs to be in us. We may be one, but our oneness has not yet been perfected. Even the genuine oneness needs to be perfected. We all need to be perfected into one. Although we have all been regenerated and love the Lord and the Lord’s recovery, the degree of our oneness may not be very high because we have not been perfected into one. The way to be perfected into one is not by outward correction but by the Triune God working in us. The more the Triune God is in us, the more we will be perfected into the genuine oneness. Although we love the Lord, we still have our tastes and are still natural, fleshly, and selfish in the old man. As long as these negative things exist, our degree of oneness is not very high. Therefore, we need the indwelling Triune God to work in us to eliminate all these negative things. Then we will be perfected into one. The degree of our oneness will be high, and our oneness will be strong and secure.
All the churches in the Lord’s recovery surely have oneness, but our oneness is not very deep, high, or secure, for we are not absolutely in the Triune God, and the Triune God is not fully in us. We all need to be filled with the Triune God so that He can work in us to perfect us into one. Then our oneness will be deeper, higher, and more secure. John 17:21-23 shows that the genuine oneness is not easy to obtain. If our oneness is not deep, it is because we are not allowing the Triune God to work in us. We need the Triune God to work in us to eliminate all the negative things within us so that we may be perfected into one. Our oneness needs to be solid and unbreakable. Although our oneness today is genuine, it is not solid and strong. The oneness among us is fragile because our living in the Triune God is not deep, we do not care enough for God’s expression, and the Triune God’s working within us is limited.
John 17:21-23 is a healthy word containing a great revelation. The thought in these verses is beyond our human understanding. Nevertheless, we need to be impressed with these three main points: our being in the Triune God (v. 21), the glory, the expression, of the Triune God that makes us one (v. 22), and the Triune God being in us that we may be perfected into one (v. 23). We need to bring these three points to the Lord in prayer.
To keep the oneness, we need the Lord’s grace. Many saints may be spontaneously and naturally in the oneness today, but they may not have been tested yet. When a test comes, they may feel that they cannot keep the oneness. The word in this chapter is intended to help us to realize the need of the genuine oneness. Although we may have been in the church life for years, we may easily fall out of the Lord’s recovery if we lack the genuine oneness. John 17:21-23 reveals what the genuine oneness is and the way for us to have the genuine oneness.
We need to realize what the Lord’s recovery is. The Lord’s recovery is the recovery of mainly two items: Christ as life and the genuine oneness. Christ as life is the nature of the Lord’s recovery, and oneness is the standing, the ground, of the Lord’s recovery. Everything in the universe has a nature and a standing; nothing exists without a nature and a standing. The Lord’s recovery exists by its nature and by its standing. We saw in the previous chapter that the church is nothing but Christ. Thus, Christ as life is the content, the nature, of the church in the Lord’s recovery, and the genuine oneness is the standing of the church in the Lord’s recovery.
The nature and standing of the church — Christ as life and the genuine oneness — are both lacking to the uttermost in today’s Christianity. If our nature is not Christ as life and our standing is not the genuine oneness, the Lord’s recovery will become merely a continuation of Christianity. The difference between Christianity and the Lord’s recovery is that Christianity does not have Christ as its nature or the genuine oneness as its standing. Instead of Christ, Christianity has various things as its nature; it is an organization built upon certain concepts. Instead of genuine oneness, Christianity is full of divisions. The Lord’s recovery, in contrast, has only one thing as its nature. Christ is the unique nature of the church. Because the church is composed entirely of Christ, Christ alone is the nature of the church. The standing, the ground, of the church is the genuine oneness. If we lose the genuine oneness, we are immediately no longer the church or the Lord’s recovery. Instead, we become a continuation of Christianity, having the same nature and standing as Christianity. This is a serious matter. To remain in the Lord’s recovery, we must keep these two things: Christ as life and the genuine oneness.
Now we will go on to see how to keep the oneness. Ephesians 4:3 says, “Being diligent to keep the oneness of the Spirit.” Verse 13 says, “Until we all arrive at the oneness of the faith.” These two verses mention two kinds of oneness — the oneness of the Spirit and the oneness of the faith. We all have the oneness of the Spirit because we all have the Spirit. Therefore, what we need to do today is to keep the oneness of the Spirit until we all arrive at the oneness of the faith.
When we believed in the Lord Jesus, the Spirit immediately entered into us. Because the same Spirit has entered into all the believers, the Spirit is our very oneness. All the lights in a room are one in the electricity; the electricity within them is their oneness. When electricity is gone, the lights are divided. When electricity is in the lights, they are one, yet they are not one in themselves but one in the electricity. Thus, the oneness of the lights is the oneness of the electricity. Likewise, our oneness is the oneness of the Spirit because we all have the same Spirit in us. The Spirit is our oneness. We need to keep this oneness until we all arrive at the oneness of the faith.
According to the context, the faith mentioned in verse 13 does not refer to our subjective ability to believe but to the things in which we believe. The word faith in verse 13 refers to the Christian faith, composed of all the things in which we believe. The items that constitute the Christian faith are related to Christ’s person and His redemptive work. These items are that God in Christ became a man, that this man, Jesus, died on the cross for our sins in order to redeem us, that He resurrected from the dead and ascended to the heavens to be our Savior, our Lord, and our life, and that He is coming again to receive us to Himself in His kingdom.
When we are saved, we become one with all other believers, for we all believe in the same items of the faith. However, we also bring things with us that are not items of the faith. Then as time progresses, we gradually pick up more things that are not items of the faith. For instance, four college students may be saved during a gospel campaign. Because the Spirit enters into all of them, they have the oneness of the Spirit. Furthermore, because they all believe in the same things, they have the same faith. However, one, a doctoral student, may have a peculiar concept that eventually becomes a great problem in the church life. Another one may decide to study theology. Therefore, he may enter a seminary and acquire many modernistic teachings. The third student may attend a Baptist church and become convinced that immersion by that church is the only proper form of baptism. The fourth student may be brought into the practice of speaking in tongues.
On the day the four students were saved, they were all one. However, if they come together some time later, they may argue with one another over their different concepts. The doctoral student will contend for his peculiar concept, the seminary student for his modernistic teachings, the Baptist for baptism by immersion, and the fourth student for speaking in tongues. Their oneness will be lost because they picked up various things other than the oneness of the Spirit and the oneness of the faith. The things they picked up, which are according to their preference and choice, are like toys to them. Although the first brother is a doctoral student, in the eyes of the Lord he is a young boy who likes the toy of his peculiar concept. The others also have their toys of modernistic teachings, baptism by immersion, and speaking in tongues. Because they are spiritual children, they love their toys.
Ephesians 4:13-14 says, “Until we all arrive at the oneness of the faith and of the full knowledge of the Son of God, at a full-grown man, at the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, that we may be no longer little children tossed by waves and carried about by every wind of teaching.” All the teachings that are toys to the four students are winds that blow them away from the genuine oneness. If we are not careful, a wind of teaching may become a toy to us, just as some in the churches today have picked up the teaching that it is legalistic not to go to movie theaters and that it is religious to regularly attend the Lord’s Day morning meetings. This kind of teaching becomes a toy to some saints, and such toys become factors of division.
Although we have the oneness of the Spirit as soon as we are saved, we may pick up many other things as toys. Thankfully, however, as we go on with the Lord, we will grow and mature. When a child grows up, he eventually drops his childhood toys. A full-grown man does not have toys. As we are growing, on the one hand, we will pick up toys, but on the other hand, we will drop our toys so that we eventually arrive at the oneness of faith. At a certain stage of maturity in the Christian life, we will care only for the oneness of the Spirit and the oneness of the faith. No doctrines will be able to blow us away. Because young saints are more vulnerable to winds of teaching, my burden in this chapter is to inoculate them. We need to learn not to pick up any winds of teaching. Rather, we need to remember that the church is uniquely Christ, that the nature of the church is life, which is Christ, and that the standing of the church is the genuine oneness, which also is Christ. If any kind of doctrine comes to us, we should say, “I do not care for this toy. I care only for Christ.” Someone in the charismatic movement may ask us if we have experienced the baptism in the Holy Spirit and may tell us how good it is to speak in tongues. This may become a wind of teaching that blows us away from the genuine oneness. Today’s Christianity is full of division, but the Lord’s recovery is to recover us back to the genuine oneness.
Christianity today is made up of denominations, which are divisions, or sects. The word denominate means “to give a name to.” Any Christian group that has a particular name, such as Baptist, Presbyterian, Methodist, or Episcopalian, is a division. Even a group that does not have a particular name yet insists on a special teaching is a sect. If a group does not insist on a particular teaching, but they practice a special fellowship that does not include all believers, they also are a sect. Some groups, for example, do not accept a brother into their circle unless he speaks in tongues. Any group that has a particular name, a particular teaching, or a particular fellowship is a division.
The churches in the Lord’s recovery do not have a particular name. We are simply the church, just as the moon is simply the moon. No matter where on earth the moon is viewed from, it is still only the moon, having no particular name. In Boston the church is simply the church in Boston. In New York City it is the church in New York City. We do not have a particular name because once we take a particular name, we become a sect. Nor do we have particular teachings. Many saints among us have spoken in tongues, and some probably still do. However, we are not a tongue-speaking church. Neither do we have a particular fellowship. As long as a man believes in the Lord and is saved, he is our brother. We are common in that we accept all genuine believers.
Some have tried to bring tongue-speaking into the church. However, if we become a tongue-speaking church, we will be a sect. Some believe in pretribulation rapture. To hold such a doctrine is not wrong, but if some preach this, insisting that the whole church hold this doctrine, it will lead to division. We are common and general for the sake of the oneness, but because other Christians are particular, they refuse to be one with us. Thus, the responsibility for division rests upon them. We need to learn not to be particular but to receive all kinds of genuine Christians in order to keep the oneness. Some Christians are willing to drop their particular teachings and concepts. When we came into the church life in the Lord’s recovery, we dropped our particular teachings and became common so that we could have the genuine oneness. If we are not common but particular, we will lose the oneness and become a sect, a division. We all need to see the genuine oneness.
Question: How is the perfecting into one in John 17:23 related to our sanctification?
Answer: We are already in the genuine oneness, but only to a small degree. Therefore, we need to grow in life to be more sanctified and thereby more perfected. The more we are sanctified, the more we are perfected, and the more we are in the genuine oneness. As long as we have Christ’s life in us, we are in the oneness. However, our degree of oneness is low if we have little growth in life. When we grow, we are more sanctified, more perfected, and therefore more in the genuine oneness.
Question: Recently, another brother and I did not have the same opinion on a certain issue. I said that I could drop what I felt and take his way, but he said that I needed to think the same thing as him to truly be one with him. When we are fully in the oneness, will we all think the same thing?
Answer: Philippians 2:2 and 4:2 mention the matter of thinking the same thing, and 2:2 also mentions thinking the one thing. The same thing and the one thing are Christ. Suppose one brother wants to go to a movie, and a second brother wants to read the Word. For them to think the same thing does not mean that the second brother drops his concept and decides to go to the movie with the first brother, nor does it mean that the first brother drops his concept and decides to read the Word with the second. Rather, it means that both drop their concept and set their mind on Christ. Christ must be our thinking. We should not think about whether to go to a movie or read the Word. Instead, we should set our mind on Christ. If we set our mind on Christ, I doubt that He will ever direct us to go to a movie. He will probably direct us to read the Word.
Question: Sometimes, though not often, we meet Christians who want to have a general fellowship. They do not have any particular teaching or any particular fellowship, and they are willing to be one with us. However, they may consider being in the church as being synonymous with being under your ministry. One group I met is wary of being under anyone’s ministry because they have been damaged by different teachers in the past. What can we say to these ones?
Answer: Ephesians 4:11-12 concerns the matter of ministry. These verses say, “He Himself gave some as apostles and some as prophets and some as evangelists and some as shepherds and teachers, for the perfecting of the saints unto the work of the ministry, unto the building up of the Body of Christ.” Verse 11 lists several gifts, or gifted persons, but verse 12 mentions only one ministry. All the gifts are in one ministry. Second Corinthians 4:1 says, “Having this ministry as we have been shown mercy, we do not lose heart.” This verse shows that although the apostles are many, their ministry is one. Peter, John, James, Mark, Matthew, Luke, and Paul all preached and taught only Christ and the church. They were many gifts, but they had one ministry.
To say that the Lord’s recovery is under one man’s ministry is inaccurate. In the denominations some teach the doctrine of church leadership by the presbytery, some teach baptism by immersion, some teach speaking in tongues, some teach pretribulation rapture, some teach posttribulation rapture, and some teach midtribulation rapture. They teach different things; therefore, they have different ministries. This causes much division. Among us we have only one ministry; it is not a certain man’s ministry but the ministry. The unique New Testament ministry includes Paul, Peter, Watchman Nee, and me because we all teach the same thing — Christ and the church. If any brother is raised up by the Lord to minister, he also will minister only Christ and the church. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John each wrote concerning a different aspect of Christ, but this does not mean that they taught different things in the way that those in Christianity today teach. We do not desire to have any different ministries among us. We desire to have only the one unique ministry composed of many different gifted ones who all teach the same thing — Christ and the church. If we teach differently, our teaching will cause divisions.
Question: When we meet other Christians and simply try to enjoy Christ with them, it seems that divisive questions always come up, and it is difficult to be one with them. What should we do?
Answer: It is difficult to help such ones, because they are divisive. They may turn their backs upon us and say that we are divisive, but arguing leads nowhere. The burden in this chapter is to help us discern what the genuine oneness is so that we may be preserved in the Lord’s recovery. We do not need to go out to convince all Christians to be one. No one can do this. Even the Lord Jesus does not do this; He allows the denominations to exist until He comes back (Rev. 2:18—3:6, 14-22). However, we need to seek to be approved by the Lord. First Corinthians 11:19 says, “There must even be parties among you, that those who are approved may become manifest among you.” The parties mentioned in this verse are sects or divisions. We can be approved and manifested because the divisions exist. Thus, the divisions actually serve a purpose.
Question: Some saints on the college campuses have formed student clubs or organizations. Is this the proper standing?
Answer: In some places it is necessary to form a club in order to be able to use a classroom for a Bible study. That is all right. If possible, however, we should try to avoid forming a club. Instead, we should simply be Christians.
Christianity has existed for twenty centuries. Many good Christian evangelists have tried to find the best way to attract people to hear the gospel and be saved. However, history shows that only the genuine work, the work that is carried out by the Holy Spirit, remains.
