Though every believer should be rooted in all of the basic Christian
doctrines, no one person, church, or movement, has all the truth. As we
discussed earlier, the gravitational pull of all the different planets
help keep the earth in its proper orbit. Likewise, all the spiritual
heavenly bodies need each other's influence to stay in their proper
orbits. What we have must be joined to what the Lord gives to the rest
of His body if we are to have the whole truth. This is stated in the
Lord's Prayer the night before He was crucified:
And the glory which Thou hast given Me I have given to them; that they
may be one, just as We are one;
I in them and Thou in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, that the
world may know that Thou didst send Me, and didst love them, even as
Thou didst love me (John 17:22-23).
The Greek word that is translated "perfected" in this Scripture could
have been translated "completed." Either way, the Lord has established
that the only way we can fulfill our purpose is to be properly joined to
the whole body of Christ. This is why Paul did not write that "I have
the mind of Christ," but rather "we have the mind of Christ" (see I
Corinthians 2:16). No one person, or one body of believers can contain
His mind. It takes the coming together of the whole body for us to have
His mind.
Because of this, when the church comes into this unity the world will
know that He was indeed sent from the Father. We will not be able to
come into such a unity without Him, so when we do, we will both perceive
Him and reveal Him. However, we will not come into this unity by seeking
unity, but only by seeking Him. Unity as a goal in itself can be a false
god, a stumbling block to both the mind of Christ and true unity.
True unity will never be built on compromise, or political alliances,
but rather on the revelation of the Son of God as the only Head of His
church. Revelation is a revealing from God. The revealing from God is
always the Son. When the Lamb comes in, even the twenty-four elders will
cast their crowns before His throne (see Revelation 4:10). Who could
ever presume glory or position in His presence? When He is revealed all
the things that now divide us from one another will be seem just as
petty and profane as they are.
When we see the love that He has, we will be ashamed of our lack of love
for Him and one another. Our crowns will also come off, as we humble
ourselves before His great glory. Then we will not be seeking position
or recognition, but we will be consumed with a passion to see His glory
revealed. That passion to see the Son of God exalted is from the Holy
Spirit. Jesus is the Truth, and Jesus is Reality. All other endeavors
will pale when He is revealed just as the stars fade when the sun rises.
This is the glory that He prayed for us to have so that we could be
perfected in unity—it is the glory that He had with the Father in the
beginning. This is why John wrote:
but if we walk in the light as He Himself is in the light, we have
fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us
from all sin (I John 1:7).
When we walk in the light of the Son, we will have fellowship with one
another, and we will be cleansed of all unrighteousness by His life
(blood) that flows through us. As blood can only flow through those
members that are joined to the body, we too must be joined to His whole
body if His life is to flow through us.k
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