“Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on Me through their word; that they all may be one; as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that Thou hast sent Me” —John 17:20, 21.
IT is sometimes said that it is a pity this prayer has never been answered. But that is a mistake. However much outward schisms have rent the professing Church, the glorious fact remains that “there is one Body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling” (Eph. 4:4). The more our souls enter into this, the greater will be the power of our testimony to the world. Manifested unity is the strength of the Church of God, and strikes terror to the forces of evil (Phil. 1:27, 28).
Christian fellowship is something far deeper and more precious than mere companionship of like-minded persons or a confederation of societies or local assemblies. It is a spiritual reality that is manifested by communion with the redeemed of the Lord everywhere, “the communion of the Holy Ghost” (2 Cor. 13:14). Elsewhere it is called “the communion of the Body of the Christ” (1 Cor. 10:16), and “the fellowship of His [that is, God’s] Son” (1 Cor. 1:9). Into this fellowship all believers are introduced by the Spirit’s baptism, which makes them members of that mystical Body, of which the exalted Christ is the Head (Eph. 5:30).
“In Christ there is no East or West.
In Him no South or North;
But one great fellowship of love
Throughout the whole wide earth.
Join hands, then, brothers of the faith,
Whate’er your race may be:
Who serves my Father as a son
Is surely kin to me.”