That They May All Be One

Jesus explicitly extends the prayer beyond those physically present to those who will believe through their word. There is a chain from Jesus through the disciples' testimony to future believers. Jesus does not first define unity through organization, culture, or identical personalities. He points to the relationship between Father and Son. No. Being "in us" does not erase the distinction between God and humanity. The language concerns fellowship and participation. The passage does not say every believer must have the same personality, role, or opinion about every detail. Jesus' language is stronger than a merely invisible or abstract unity. Their unity is somehow to function as witness before the world. Jesus connects the relationships among his followers with mission and with the world's response to the claim that the Father sent him. Unity therefore becomes part of the disciples' public testimony rather than merely making the community more pleasant. The passage makes it difficult to claim that Christian relationships have no effect on mission. Yet it does not give a simple formula in which every organizational separation invalidates the gospel. Jesus says he has given the disciples the glory the Father gave him so that they may be one. In John, glory is closely connected with Jesus' mission and glorification. Unity is grounded not merely in human effort but in fellowship with Jesus and the Father. Teleioō can mean complete or bring to the goal. Unity can therefore be understood as something that matures and deepens. Verse 21 speaks of the world believing; verse 23 speaks of the world knowing. Both connect unity with public witness to Jesus. Verse 23 also says the world is to know that the Father has loved the disciples as he loved Jesus. The passage has rightly become important in Christian efforts toward unity among churches and traditions. Yet Jesus' prayer is larger than institutional merger alone. The text does not explicitly say all Christians must belong to one administrative organization. That should not be used, however, to make Jesus' prayer for real unity meaningless. Earlier in the same prayer Jesus says, "Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth." John 17 therefore contains both truth and unity without setting them against each other.

Independent English translation from the Greek text, using SBLGNT as the primary Greek edition.