7 day plan

Why Unity Matters

Day 1 of 7

NIV

John 17:20-23

Jesus Prays for All Believers

20“My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 21that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one— 23I 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.

Series Introduction:

For the next seven days, we will be reading the Bible with members of Bible Society Australia’s staff. At Bible Society, unity plays a crucial role in our work. We know that unity with other believers is an essential aspect of the Christian life. The Bible teaches that believers are one body in Christ, and we should strive to maintain the unity of the Spirit. In this series, each day a staff member will reflect on a Bible passage on the topic of unity, sharing from their experience, and offering their perspective.

Reflection:

Today, we are reading the Bible with Penny Mulvey, the Chief Wellbeing and Communications Officer for Bible Society Australia. Penny is a hopeful optimist who desires a flourishing world.

What an audacious prayer Jesus prayed to his Father in heaven. Two thousand years ago, as Jesus was waiting to be arrested, knowing that he was about to be nailed to a cross, he was also thinking of you and me, and what he wanted most of all was for us to be united. That was what was on his heart at that most momentous of times. Us. Those who believed in him through the first disciples.

Just pause for a moment and let that sink in. If Jesus was praying for you and me at that key moment in the Garden of Gethsemane, perhaps these words could be of grave significance. Not to be skipped over. To ponder, read again, and meditate on.

Why was unity so important to Jesus? He tells us. So we could be one, as he is with his Father. Twice in these three verses, Jesus makes clear why ‘complete unity’ is so important. It’s not that complicated. Those who do not yet know Jesus as their Saviour meet him through their Christian friends, colleagues, parents, children, pastors and the Bible. But if we are not united; if we bicker on social media; if we have public spats; ‘the world’ will not see or understand that our Lord Jesus loves them in the same way that God loves Jesus.

How are you contributing to complete unity? How am I? Let’s keep working on that because that’s why Jesus died, “so that the world may believe that you have sent me”.

Prayer:

Lord God, forgive me for the times I have gossiped, been deliberately provocative, sown seeds of discord, or written harmful words in social media. I am hurting you and stopping the world seeing your love. Help me to pause, to seek unity even with those I disagree with, for I am loved by the Saviour of the world. Amen.

The Holy Bible, New International Version® NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by Permission of Biblica, Inc.® All rights reserved worldwide.

Days

1
2
3
4
5
6
7

John 17:1-26

Jesus Prays to Be Glorified

1After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed:

“Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. 2For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him. 3Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. 4I have brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do. 5And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.

Jesus Prays for His Disciples

6“I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word. 7Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you. 8For I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me. 9I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours. 10All I have is yours, and all you have is mine. And glory has come to me through them. 11I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name, the name you gave me, so that they may be one as we are one. 12While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe by that name you gave me. None has been lost except the one doomed to destruction so that Scripture would be fulfilled.

13“I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them. 14I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. 15My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. 16They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. 17Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. 18As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. 19For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified.

Jesus Prays for All Believers

20“My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 21that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one— 23I 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.

24“Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.

25“Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. 26I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.”

The Holy Bible, New International Version® NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by Permission of Biblica, Inc.® All rights reserved worldwide.