John 17:21-23 is a healthy word containing a great revelation. The thought in these verses is beyond our human understanding. Nevertheless, we need to be impressed with these three main points: our being in the Triune God (v. 21), the glory, the expression, of the Triune God that makes us one (v. 22), and the Triune God being in us that we may be perfected into one (v. 23). We need to bring these three points to the Lord in prayer.
To keep the oneness, we need the Lord’s grace. Many saints may be spontaneously and naturally in the oneness today, but they may not have been tested yet. When a test comes, they may feel that they cannot keep the oneness. The word in this chapter is intended to help us to realize the need of the genuine oneness. Although we may have been in the church life for years, we may easily fall out of the Lord’s recovery if we lack the genuine oneness. John 17:21-23 reveals what the genuine oneness is and the way for us to have the genuine oneness.
We need to realize what the Lord’s recovery is. The Lord’s recovery is the recovery of mainly two items: Christ as life and the genuine oneness. Christ as life is the nature of the Lord’s recovery, and oneness is the standing, the ground, of the Lord’s recovery. Everything in the universe has a nature and a standing; nothing exists without a nature and a standing. The Lord’s recovery exists by its nature and by its standing. We saw in the previous chapter that the church is nothing but Christ. Thus, Christ as life is the content, the nature, of the church in the Lord’s recovery, and the genuine oneness is the standing of the church in the Lord’s recovery.
The nature and standing of the church—Christ as life and the genuine oneness—are both lacking to the uttermost in today’s Christianity. If our nature is not Christ as life and our standing is not the genuine oneness, the Lord’s recovery will become merely a continuation of Christianity. The difference between Christianity and the Lord’s recovery is that Christianity does not have Christ as its nature or the genuine oneness as its standing. Instead of Christ, Christianity has various things as its nature; it is an organization built upon certain concepts. Instead of genuine oneness, Christianity is full of divisions. The Lord’s recovery, in contrast, has only one thing as its nature. Christ is the unique nature of the church. Because the church is composed entirely of Christ, Christ alone is the nature of the church. The standing, the ground, of the church is the genuine oneness. If we lose the genuine oneness, we are immediately no longer the church or the Lord’s recovery. Instead, we become a continuation of Christianity, having the same nature and standing as Christianity. This is a serious matter. To remain in the Lord’s recovery, we must keep these two things: Christ as life and the genuine oneness.
Now we will go on to see how to keep the oneness. Ephesians 4:3 says, “Being diligent to keep the oneness of the Spirit.” Verse 13 says, “Until we all arrive at the oneness of the faith.” These two verses mention two kinds of oneness—the oneness of the Spirit and the oneness of the faith. We all have the oneness of the Spirit because we all have the Spirit. Therefore, what we need to do today is to keep the oneness of the Spirit until we all arrive at the oneness of the faith.