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Scripture Reading: John 17:20-23; Matt. 28:19; Eph. 4:2-6, 12-15; 1:22-23
In the last chapter we saw that we need to be those living a life according to God’s heart and will. In this chapter we want to see the organic oneness of the Body of Christ. In order to see this oneness, which is organic, we must study John 17:20-23.
The prayer of the Lord in John 17 shows that the organic oneness of the Body of Christ is the organic oneness in the Triune God. Verse 20 says, “I do not ask concerning these only, but concerning those also who believe into Me through their word.” This verse tells us that the Lord’s prayer here includes us, all the ones who believe in Him. Verse 21 says, “That they all may be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You.” This shows that the oneness of all the believers should be like the oneness in the Triune God. The Triune God is three yet one. The Father is in the Son, and the Son is in the Father. The oneness in the Godhead is not a mere unification. That is the oneness of men. The oneness of the three of the Godhead is that They mutually indwell one another. What is the oneness among the believers? No word can adequately explain it, but there is the example of the divine oneness among the three in the Godhead.
Our God is the three-one God. There is not such a number “three-one” in man’s mathematics. Our God is three-one because the three indwell each other. The Father is in the Son and in the Spirit, the Son is in the Father and in the Spirit, and the Spirit is in the Father and in the Son. They are three, yet They are mingled together as one. This is coinherence. The three of the Godhead not only coexist but also coinhere. Coinherence is a mutual indwelling, or a mingling.
Verse 21 goes on to say, “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.” As the Father is in the Son and the Son is in the Father, we also are in the Father and the Son. Before we believed in the Lord Jesus, we were separate from the coinhering Triune God, but now we are in the Triune God. God the Father’s being in the Son, God the Son’s being in the Father, the Father and the Son’s being in the Spirit, and the Spirit’s being in the Father and the Son has an issue, an outcome. This issue, this outcome, is that all the believers may also be in the three of the Godhead. In the entire universe there is such a oneness, and this oneness is that the believers are mingled and wrapped up with the Triune God.
Now we have to ask how we could be in the three of the Godhead. We have seen that the Father is in the Son, the Son is in the Father, the Father and Son are in the Spirit, and the Spirit is in the Father and the Son. Because all three are mingled together, the believers may be in all of Them. If we are in one of the three, we are in all of Them because They are mingled together as one. We are in the Father, in the Son, and in the Spirit at the same time because the three of the Godhead mutually indwell one another. We are in the divine “Us,” in the Triune God. We are in the three who are one. This is the oneness of the believers.
We need to see what the real Christian oneness is. The real Christian oneness is a coinherence. The Father, the Son, and the Spirit coinhere, which means that They are mutually within one another. By coinhering, the three are one. Because the three are one, we believers can be in the three. When we are in one of the three, we are in all three. By being in the three, we join the divine oneness. The divine oneness was once only among the three of the Godhead, but now we the believers have joined this oneness.
In verse 21 the Lord prayed that we would be one so that the world may believe that the Father has sent the Son. Suppose that we are meeting together in the wonderful way of being not only one with one another but also one with the Triune God. Then there will be a manifestation that God the Father has sent the Son. The people in the world will be able to see this. In other words, if we are really one in the Triune God, this is a strong testimony to prove to the world that God the Father has sent God the Son. Now that we believe in God the Son, we have become not only one with one another but also one with the Triune God. There is a oneness on the earth today, not only among human beings but also between human beings and the Triune God.
Verse 22 says, “And the glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, even as We are one.” What is the glory in this verse? The Father has given His divine life to the Son that the Son may express the Father. This expression is the glory. Now the Son has given us His life by which we can express Him. This expression is also glory. This indicates that the oneness we have with the Triune God is the divine life, and by this divine life we can express the Triune God. The divine life has been given to us and is within us. When we express the Triune God by this divine life, that is the oneness. The oneness is the very expression of the Triune God in and by His divine life.
We all have received this divine life. When we live the divine life, there will be an expression, and this expression is the oneness. The oneness is the expression of the divine life of the Triune God. If we all live by our natural life, there will be no oneness. Instead, there will be division and separation. How can we have the practical oneness? We can have the practical oneness by living the divine life. When we live the divine life, our expression is the divine life. When the Son was on the earth, He lived the Father’s life and this living was the Father’s life expressed. We may also say that His living was the oneness of the Triune God expressed. Now that we have the divine life within us, what is needed is for us to live by this life, not by our natural life. If we live by our natural life, what is expressed will be division. If we live by the divine life, what is expressed will be the oneness of the Triune God.
Verse 23 says, “I in them, and You in Me, that they may be perfected into one, that the world may know that You have sent Me and have loved them even as You have loved Me.” The Son is in the believers, the Father is in the Son, and by this the believers may be perfected into one. On the one hand, we are in the divine oneness. On the other hand, we still need to be perfected. This means that we may be in the oneness only to a small degree. This is why we need to be perfected into one. To be perfected is for us to have the growth in the divine life every day. The divine life has been given to us, and we need to live by this divine life. Then our expression will be the divine oneness. At the start of our Christian life we have just a little of the divine life, so we need to be perfected. This means that the divine life within us is continually increasing, and that we are growing in this increasing of the divine life. The more we grow in the increasing of the divine life, the more we are perfected and the more oneness we live out. I hope that we all can realize that the very Christian oneness is the mingling of the Triune God with the believers in an increasing way. Last year the divine oneness expressed among us might have been only fifty percent. This year our expression of the divine oneness may increase to sixty percent. Later, we may go up to seventy percent. This increasing of the divine life and its expression are our being perfected into one.
The prayer of the Lord in John 17 is a unique prayer made by the Son to the Father. We may be accustomed to calling the prayer in Matthew 6 the Lord’s prayer, but the prayer in John 17 is also the Lord’s prayer. Actually, the prayer in John 17 is much higher than the one in Matthew 6. As we have seen, the Lord’s prayer in John 17 is that we, all the believers in the Son, may be one, even as the Father is in the Son and the Son is in the Father, that we also may be in the Triune God (v. 21). The oneness among us is a oneness of coinherence. The three of the Godhead mutually indwell each other as one, we are one with the Triune God, mutually indwelling each other as one, and we believers all are one in the coinhering Triune God. We believers and the Triune God are all one. Although the believers in Christ come from many different countries and cultures, they all have the same unique divine life. The same life that is in you is also in me. Through this life we are one with each other and with the Triune God.
As an illustration of this oneness, let us consider the lights in the ceiling of a room. These lights in the ceiling are separate from one another until the switch is turned on and the electricity begins to flow in them. In all the lights there is one current of electricity. By the current of electricity all the lights are one. According to themselves, the lights are separate, but according to the electricity within them, they are one. They are not only one with one another but also one with the power plant. We all need to remain in the “current” of the divine life. When we live in this divine life, we are one with each other and with God. When we do not live in this divine life but in our own life, we are separate. The Son is in us, and the Father is in the Son, that we may be perfected into one in the Triune God. The Father is in the Son, and the Son came into us, so the Son with the Father is in us. By Their being in us, we can be perfected into one, not in ourselves but in the Triune God.
Matthew 28:19 refers to a marvelous fact in the universe: we believers have been baptized into the Triune God. This verse says that we have been baptized into the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Spirit. The name of the Triune God denotes the person of the Triune God. To be baptized into the Triune God is to be baptized into the divine person of the Divine Trinity. Our baptism brought us into a mystical and organic union with the processed Triune God so that all of us, the believers in the Son, may be one in this organic union. The proper oneness among us Christians is a oneness in the organic union among one another and a oneness between us and the Triune God. The Lord prayed in John 17 based upon the fact that we all have to be one in the Triune God.
The oneness in the Divine Trinity can be seen in Ephesians 4:4-6: “One Body and one Spirit, even as also you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.” The Body is the expression (the fullness) of the Lord (1:23), and the Spirit is the essence of the Body. The one Lord is the Head (v. 22) to be the authority over the Body (Acts 2:36). The one God and Father of all is over all and through all and in all. God is the Originator of all things, and the Father is the source of life for the Body. On the one hand, we were created by God, the Originator of all things. On the other hand, we are also believers in Christ, so in this sense God is our Father. As the Father, He is the source of life for the Body. Over all refers to the Father as the source, through all refers to the Son as the means, and in all refers to the Spirit as the consummation of the Triune God, who reaches us by entering into us. God is the Father, the Father is in the Son, the Son is the Spirit, and the Spirit is the consummation of the Triune God, the consummated Spirit. As the consummated Spirit, He is the consummation of the Triune God reaching us by entering into us, so the Triune God is in us. In this reaching Spirit of the Divine Trinity, we all, the believers in the Lord, are one. The oneness is in the Triune God. As long as we are in the Triune God, we are in the oneness. The Christian oneness is God in His trinity mingled with us as one.
According to Ephesians 4:3, the organic oneness of the Body of Christ is also the oneness of the Spirit. The Spirit is the essence of the organic Body of Christ. Hence, the Spirit is the reality of the oneness of the Body of Christ. In other words, the oneness of Christians is the Spirit Himself. If you have the Spirit, you have the oneness. If you are in the Spirit, you are in the oneness. The oneness is just the Spirit.
We need to go on to see the oneness in practicality, which is the oneness of the faith and of the full knowledge of the Son of God (v. 13). The oneness of the unique (objective) faith is our belief concerning the redemptive work of Christ. Although we are believers, there may be different concepts, ideas, and opinions among us. These different concepts, ideas, and opinions cause division. On the one hand, we are one in the divine life in reality, but are we one in our living in practicality?
Recently among us there has been a different opinion concerning the apostles’ relationship with the churches that they have established. Some have said that once the apostles establish churches and appoint elders, they should keep their hands off the churches. To their feeling, the churches should be absolutely independent from the apostles. But according to the Bible, after the apostles established churches and appointed elders in them, they still took care of the churches.
The apostle Paul’s relationship with the church in Ephesus is strong evidence of this. According to Acts 20, Paul established the church in Ephesus and appointed elders in that church, but after this he did not leave the church and the elders alone. Instead, he once stayed with the church in Ephesus for three years (v. 31). While Paul was on his way to Jerusalem, he sent some from Miletus to call the elders in Ephesus to come to him (v. 17). When they came to him, Paul reminded them of how he behaved, worked, and labored among them for three years, admonishing the saints with tears (v. 31) and teaching them publicly and from house to house (v. 20). He charged them to take heed to themselves and to the flock committed to them (v. 28). He warned them that after his departure, wolves would come in among them, not sparing the flock (v. 29). He told them that some would rise up from among them, speaking perverted things to draw away disciples after themselves (v. 30). This portion of the Word in Acts 20 shows that Paul did not leave the church in Ephesus alone. On the contrary, he was always caring for them.
Besides his visits to the church in Ephesus, he also wrote her the Epistle, teaching, admonishing, and giving her a lot of instructions for her edification and for the building up of the Body of Christ. In 1 Thessalonians 2:1-12, Paul told the saints that he was a nursing mother and a teaching, exhorting father to them. How could a nursing mother leave her children alone? How could a father leave his children, who are under his care, his teaching, and his raising up, to themselves? To say that the apostles stayed away from the churches after they established them and appointed the elders is not scriptural. This concept has caused trouble in some places. What shall we do about this? We have to exercise our patience. We have to love one another and keep the oneness of the Spirit. By keeping the oneness of the Spirit, we will grow. We hope that some of the brothers who have picked up this wrong concept will grow and advance. They will see more light and eventually see that the thought they hold today concerning the churches being absolutely independent is wrong. We all need to arrive at the oneness of the faith. This indicates that a process is required for us to attain to, or arrive at, the practical oneness.
We also need to arrive at the oneness of the full knowledge of the Son of God concerning the all-inclusive person of Christ. The oneness of the faith refers to Christ’s work, and the oneness of the full knowledge of the Son of God refers to Christ’s person. We may agree with the truth concerning Christ’s person and work, but because we may still be young and childish, we hold on to different kinds of concepts. These different kinds of concepts cause divisions. Children enjoy playing with toys. All the different teachings are toys. The more that we advance and grow in life, the more we drop these toys. When we become a full-grown man, we will not have any toys.
We all need to be perfected to arrive at the practical oneness (Eph. 4:12-13). We need a practical oneness, not just a oneness in doctrine or a oneness as a fact in the Spirit. The oneness needs to become our practical experience. We are perfected to arrive at the practical oneness by growing in life to be a full-grown man (vv. 13b, 15) that we may be no longer little children, tossed by waves and carried about by every wind of teaching (v. 14).
As we have pointed out, a wind of teaching has come in among us. In the past when I was in mainland China with Brother Nee, I saw this. In 1949 we came to Taiwan from mainland China, and we began the work there with a strong understanding of the unique ground of the church. This truth had been established among us. The work on the island of Taiwan was prevailing at the beginning. Within five years we increased a hundredfold, from about four hundred to forty thousand. Because some of the brothers felt that we needed some spiritual help, we invited T. Austin-Sparks from England to visit us. He came to visit us twice, but he brought in the thought that the unique ground of oneness is wrong. He even taught this to some of the young co-workers. That became a wind of teaching among us, causing division and frustrating the increase of the work in Taiwan. To say that the apostles should not touch the churches or the elders once they have been established is also a wind of teaching. We should be encouraged, however, that no wind can last for a long time. The winds come and they go. We should be at peace because any storm that comes into the Lord’s recovery will not last long.
We need to keep the oneness of the Spirit to arrive at the oneness in practicality (vv. 3, 13a). Ephesians 4:2-3 says, “With all lowliness and meekness, with long-suffering, bearing one another in love, being diligent to keep the oneness of the Spirit in the uniting bond of peace.” As long as there is a storm with winds and waves, we have to be long-suffering. We also need to be diligent. We should not be discouraged. To be diligent is to be aggressive. On the one hand, we need to be lowly, meek, and long-suffering, bearing with one another in love. On the other hand, while the winds and the waves are here, we have to be aggressive and diligent. We should not be disappointed to the extent that we would forget about the church life. During the storm, we can go out to visit people for the preaching of the gospel. While the waves are making trouble, we can make some profit for the Lord’s interest. We can set up home meetings to nourish the newly born babes. We should not be disappointed or frustrated. Although we might experience the winds and the waves, the Lord is in our “boat,” which means that He is in the church life. We have to go on aggressively to do a positive work to save sinners, to take care of the young ones in their homes, to have small group meetings, and to perfect the seeking ones. Eventually, all the winds and the waves will be rebuked by the Lord. Regardless of how strong the storm is, eventually the church comes out with a profit and is built up in resurrection.
We need to keep the oneness of the Spirit with all lowliness and meekness, with long-suffering, bearing one another in love by being diligent. Eventually, we will arrive at the oneness in practicality—at a full-grown man and at the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ (v. 13b).
