The fourth base of the oneness of the church is the oneness the Lord prayed for. This shows us the contents of the oneness of the divine Trinity.
The oneness for which the Lord prayed is firstly the oneness in the Father's name by the eternal life (John 17:6-13). This is the first factor of the divine oneness. In John 17:11, the Lord asked the Father to keep us in the Father's name. To be kept in the Father's name is to be kept by His life, because only those who are born of the Father and have the Father's life can participate in the Father's name. We cannot realize the Father's name without the Father's life. It may be difficult for a brother to call his father-in-law "father" because he is not his father according to life. When a little boy calls his father "daddy," there is a sense of sweetness. He can address his father in this way because his father's life is in him. As those who have been born of God the Father, we have His life, and our oneness is in the Father's name by the Father's life. When we say "Abba, Father" to our God (Gal. 4:6), there is a feeling of sweetness within us. Such an affectionate term implies an intimate relationship in life between a genuine son and a begetting father.
The oneness we have in the church is due to our having the same life, the Father's life. In the church life, we have people of all races gathered together in oneness. The nations of this world are not the united nations but the divided nations. However, we are united in oneness because we have one Father with His one life. Despite the differences in our ages, we call each other "brother" and "sister" because we are all born of the same Father and have the same life. This is the base of our oneness, so there is no reason for us to be divided.
We are also one in the Triune God through sanctification by the holy word (John 17:14-21). The Triune God has been consolidated, realized, and embodied in the holy word. Whenever we touch the Bible, we touch the consolidated, realized, and embodied Triune God. The Father's living word always sanctifies us, separates us, from the world and its occupation unto God and His purpose not only positionally (Matt. 23:17, 19) but also dispositionally (Rom. 6:19, 22). The holy word sanctifies us from anything that is not of the Father or that does not belong to the Father.
The third stage of our oneness is the oneness in the divine glory for the expression of the Triune God (John 17:22-24). In this aspect of oneness, the believers, having their self fully denied, enjoy the glory of the Father as the factor of their perfected oneness to express God in a corporate, built-up way.
We are the Father's children, having Him as our life and enjoying Him in the sanctifying word, separating us from anything that is other than the Father. Now we are here in His divine glory. This is why we are one. When we quarrel, we have to realize that we are outside of the Father's life, not in the Father's sanctifying word, and not in the Father's divine glory. We need to remain in the Father's life, in His word, and in His glory. The oneness is here. As long as we remain in the Father's life, word, and glory, we are one. When we are in the meetings of the church and of the ministry, we have the sense that we are one, but in our relationships with one another outside the meetings, this oneness may disappear. When are we really one? We are really one when we are in the Father's life, in His word, and in His glory.
Now we have seen the base of the oneness of the church in its four aspects: the seven factors of our Christian faith, the oneness of the Spirit, who is the essence of the Body, the oneness of the divine Trinity, and the oneness for which the Lord prayed, which is constituted with the Father's life, His word, and His glory. This is the base of the oneness. If we have this as the base of our oneness, we will never be, can never be, and should never be divided.