City Life Starter

Written by Opeyemi Ojekunle

The Word

²² I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one— ²³ I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.

Exegesis

The glory that Our Lord have bestowed on us believers involve the power to work miracles, and to preach the gospel, that all believers might be as one body under one head. The Gospel was given to the apostles, and we are the continual ministers of it, to bring men and women to the unity of the faith, for the perfecting of the saints, and the edifying of the body of Christ: (Ephesians 4:11-13). Christ wants the believers to be one as an expression of his love to us.

Christ in us believers is a fusion of his divine nature to our flesh, this makes us partakers of His spirit and Divine nature; and God the Father in the Son is the fullness of the Godhead dwelling in Christ bodily; Christ being the brightness of God’s glory, the expressed image of God (John 14:10). The unity amongst the apostles and believers will make the Jews and Gentiles acknowledge Christ as the true Messiah and be saved unto life eternal. Our Lord especially prayed, that all believers might be as one body under one head, by their union with Christ and the Father in Him, through the Holy Spirit dwelling in them.

Application

As Christians, the more we dispute about lesser things, the more we throw doubts upon Christianity. Let us all seek to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace, praying that all believers may be more and more united in one mind and one judgment.

The world is divided based on race, politics, country, culture, social rank, opinions, religion, and other things.  Our unity and perfection are found in Christ. Only in him do we find the barriers brought down and all of us made into one family. Only in him do we find that, overcoming the things that normally divide us becomes a witness to God’s powerful love. Jesus came to reconcile and reunite. We should live and love as one, one with Jesus and one with each other.