In verse 22 the Lord continued, “The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, even as We are one.” The genuine oneness is in the glory of the Triune God. There is something in the universe called the glory of the Triune God. This glory is the glory that the Father has given to the Son and that the Son has given to His believers that they may be one. We may not fully understand what this glory is, but we can see that glory is surely something of God and that it is in this glory that we can all be one. It is possible for all of us to be one only when we are in the glory of the Triune God. Simply put, glory is God expressed. This matter may be illustrated using electricity. Electricity is hidden until it is expressed as light. The shining of light is the glory of electricity. Likewise, the expression of the Triune God is the glory of the Triune God. When we are all in the expression of God, we are one.
Over the years I have seen many dear saints come into the recovery who truly love the Lord and stay for some time but who eventually leave in division. Some were even co-workers. They left in division simply because they were not living absolutely in the Triune God. Regardless of who we are, if we are not in fear and trembling to live in the Triune God every day, we may eventually cause a division. The only way to be kept in the genuine oneness is to daily live first in the Triune God and second in the expression of God, in the glory that the Father has given the Son and that the Son has given the believers. In this glory, the expression of the Triune God, our genuine oneness is doubly secure.
We need to be not only in the Triune God but also with all the saints in His expression. Our work should be for the expression of God, not for our own success, goal, or purpose. The expression of the Triune God has the power to kill all our ambition, goals, and desire for success. Every human being is purposeful, having his or her own goals, intentions, and aims. Until all our personal goals, intentions, and aims have been killed for the sake of the expression of the Triune God, we are not secure in the genuine oneness. The church life is the expression of the Triune God. God’s economy and the work of God’s economy are for the expression of the Triune God. If we have any goal, aim, and intention other than the expression of the Triune God, we will eventually lose the genuine oneness. Eventually, we will become a cause of division because of our differing goals, aims, and intentions. In order for the genuine oneness to be secured, we must first live in the Triune God and second be in the expression of the Triune God. This expression will kill all our goals, aims, and intentions.
Every Christian denomination has been divided. Even a small group may be divided after meeting for only two or three years. Christians today cannot be one but are endlessly divided because most do not live in the Triune God and do not care for the expression of God. They care instead for their own goals, aims, and intentions, or even worse, for their personal tastes, choices, or preferences. Because their goals, aims, intentions, tastes, choices, and preferences are not the expression of God, the genuine oneness among them is not secure.
The Lord goes on to pray in verse 23, “I in them, and You in Me, that they may be perfected into one.” Verse 21 indicates that we are in the Triune God; verse 23 indicates that the Triune God is in us. The Triune God being in us is more experiential than our being in the Triune God. We need to consider whether or not the Triune God is in us experientially. Perhaps instead of the Triune God, some other person or matter is in us. Doctrinal differences are excuses; they are not the real reason that Christians cannot be one. The real reason is that they do not live in the Triune God, they do not care for the expression of the Triune God, and they do not have the Triune God in them experientially.
To be perfected into one, we need to be in the Triune God, we need to be for the expression of the Triune God, and the Triune God needs to be in us. We may be one, but our oneness has not yet been perfected. Even the genuine oneness needs to be perfected. We all need to be perfected into one. Although we have all been regenerated and love the Lord and the Lord’s recovery, the degree of our oneness may not be very high because we have not been perfected into one. The way to be perfected into one is not by outward correction but by the Triune God working in us. The more the Triune God is in us, the more we will be perfected into the genuine oneness. Although we love the Lord, we still have our tastes and are still natural, fleshly, and selfish in the old man. As long as these negative things exist, our degree of oneness is not very high. Therefore, we need the indwelling Triune God to work in us to eliminate all these negative things. Then we will be perfected into one. The degree of our oneness will be high, and our oneness will be strong and secure.
All the churches in the Lord’s recovery surely have oneness, but our oneness is not very deep, high, or secure, for we are not absolutely in the Triune God, and the Triune God is not fully in us. We all need to be filled with the Triune God so that He can work in us to perfect us into one. Then our oneness will be deeper, higher, and more secure. John 17:21-23 shows that the genuine oneness is not easy to obtain. If our oneness is not deep, it is because we are not allowing the Triune God to work in us. We need the Triune God to work in us to eliminate all the negative things within us so that we may be perfected into one. Our oneness needs to be solid and unbreakable. Although our oneness today is genuine, it is not solid and strong. The oneness among us is fragile because our living in the Triune God is not deep, we do not care enough for God’s expression, and the Triune God’s working within us is limited.