I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one – 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.
JOHN 17:22-23
Jesus says here that He gave us the glory that the Father gave Him so that we could be one as He and the Father are one. By this glory that he gave us we would be brought to COMPLETE UNITY. Jesus was given the Spirit without measure when He was baptized by John.
As a man He spent time with the Father and doing the Father’s will. He learned obedience through suffering. So by the Holy Spirit the Father was in Him. The glory of the Father was in Him. The word glory here can be defined as the outward manifestation of an inner life. Simply put, the glory of God reveals what He essentially is and does, as exhibited in whatever way He reveals Himself in these respects. His character and His power reveal His glory. Jesus came to reveal or show us the Father that was in Him by the anointing of the Holy Spirit. Jesus has now given us this glory through the Holy Spirit in us and the new birth of our spirit. We now give glory to the Father because we know what He is like through Jesus being in our lives.
In verse 3 of John 17 Jesus says “This is eternal life that they may know You the only true God and Jesus Christ Whom You have sent”. This knowledge is not just head knowledge, but experiential knowledge of the heart. This exchanged glory is all based on a two way love relationship between the Father and the Son. The glory is extended to us by the love of the Father and Jesus for us and is manifested in our life by our love and obedience to Them (John 14:21-24, 15:10).
Jesus’ prayer is that as we continue in this love and obedience by the glory of God that is already in us through the new birth we will be brought to COMPLETE UNITY.
JOHN 15:8 “This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.” We bring glory to Jesus and the Father by bearing fruit. The main fruit of the Spirit is love. Jesus said they would know us by our love. The most powerful way we can bring glory to God is a combination of His love (character) and His power (gifts of Holy Spirit) to the world.
Jesus is saying that complete unity is a result of our love for Him and the Father, brought about by the glory of God in us as we bring glory to Him by our love for each other and our sacrificial love towards the world. Then as Jesus confirms the Gospel message by signs and wonders the world will realize that the Father sent Jesus.
We lift up the Name of Jesus not only by miracles but also our lives of love.
As ministry gifts and leaders to the Body of Christ we should already be in unity, it is not something we should have to develop. It should already be a result of our commitment to Jesus as our Lord and our love for Him and the Father.
From this we can again understand that complete unity is a heart issue the same as all other problems that we have.
As we have said before it is walking in the sacrificial love of God that heals our hearts. Love brings maturity and emotional healing and wholeness of life to our hearts. Until we reach that spiritual maturity our hearts have needs of acceptance, self worth and identity. In that immature state our hearts will want acknowledgement from others, we will crave accolades and praise from people, and our self worth will be in people’s perception of how God is using us and what He is doing through us. In other words, our hearts want to take some or all of the glory instead of it going to God. We love God and want to do the right thing, but our hearts are deceitfully wicked. So until we become mature we will have both motivations within our hearts. The spiritual motivation of love and servant hood and the carnal or fleshly motivation of acknowledgement or praise from men. This is why Jesus said “Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Herod”. The leaven is our hearts’ need for position and power which come out of the rejection, rebellion and pride of our hearts. We can discern which motivation is working through us by the fruit (or character) we are doing it in. JEREMIAH 17:9-10 “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; Who can know it? I, the Lord, search the heart, I test the mind, even to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings.”
The main thing that keeps me functioning properly is my reverential fear of the Lord and my love for Him. I want to please Him and hear Him say when He comes “well done good and faithful servant”. I do not want to hear Him say “I never knew you, away from Me you evildoer” even though He used me to do many miracles. I have to continually guard my heart and check my motives and my way of doing things. (fruit)
When I make mistakes I correct them and keep doing it the Lord’s way by staying close to Him.
Therefore judge nothing before the appointed time; wait until the Lord comes. He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of the heart. At that time each will receive their praise from God.
I CORINTHIANS 4:5
