John 17:22 says, “The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, even as We are one.” As we have pointed out, glory is the expression of God. Jesus seemed to be saying, “Father, You have given Me the life, the right, and the position to be Your Son in order to express You. Now I have given this glory to all My believers. They also have Your divine life, nature, right, and position to express You.” This means that we are one in the divine expression. We are here not expressing a certain doctrine. We are here glorifying, expressing, God the Father. We do not stand for baptism, the presbytery, or even justification by faith. We receive justification by faith, and we practice baptism and the presbytery, but we are not standing for any of these. We are standing only for God. Our glory is not justification by faith, baptism by immersion, or the presbytery; our glory is God Himself. We have the Son’s glory, and in this glory, this glorious expression of God the Father, we are one. God is unique, His expression is unique, and His glory is unique. Therefore, we are unique in His expression. On the contrary, if we are for the presbytery, the charismatic gifts, baptism, or justification by faith, we are divided. We must all be for one unique expression, which is the glory of God the Father. In this way we are one.
Verse 23 continues, “I in them, and You in Me, that they may be perfected into one.” To be perfected into one is a matter of the growth in life. We may stand as one, but many of us are short of growth. This means that we are one but not yet perfected into one. Someone may say, “I care for the church life, but I am not happy with that certain brother.” To feel this way indicates that we are not perfected. We are short of growth, and we need to grow. Ephesians 4:13 says, “Until we all arrive at the oneness of the faith and of the full knowledge of the Son of God, at a full-grown man, at the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.” The way to arrive at the practical oneness is by the growth unto maturity. Even though we are in the church life, we may still murmur (Phil. 2:14). However, in the New Jerusalem there will no longer be any murmuring, because at that time John 17:23 will be fully answered and fulfilled. We need to be one, we must have the one goal to express God the Father, and we must have the growth so that we may be perfected into one. We have the divine nature for our oneness, the glorious goal of our oneness, and growth unto maturity for the perfection of our oneness. This is what we need, not a certain doctrine or practice.
Today we all have the divine nature within us, we have the one goal to glorify God, and we are all growing in life. Therefore, if we hear a young one, new one, or weak one complaining or murmuring, we should not be bothered. In a family, some little ones are still in diapers. We are not bothered by them. We simply clean them up, change their diaper, and let them grow. Every mother has the full assurance that after a few years the little ones will be out of diapers. God’s family is a nursery with many little ones. This is wonderful, and we like to see this. We should not despise the little ones. The church is a family, not an army or a school. In a school all the students should be a certain age, but the church is an all-inclusive family. Likewise, we should not despise the older generation. We need the “grandfathers,” and we must love them. They have more experience, and they can give good advice. We need to honor, respect, and praise the Lord for the older generation. It would be good to see many generations in the church.
A family is not a fighting army. However, the church must still be vigilant. To this end, we need the young people to fight the battle, just as a nation needs young soldiers for its defense. We need to respect the old ones, but we also need to raise up the young ones. Otherwise, we can have no peace. This is why 1 John 2:12-14 speaks of fathers, young men, and little children. This is the proper, all-inclusive church life. If we practice the church life in this way, there will be no divisions among us.
All of the above is according to John’s mending ministry for the practice of the church life. Paul’s writings contain many teachings, although, strictly speaking, he was not for those things. John, however, does not speak in the same way. He brings us back to God Himself, as in John 17:21: “That they all may be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us.” He brings us back to the Triune God as our life and nature, our goal, and our growth in life. Today we have the proper church life. Now we must all be one to practice the church.