SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/25/2017
7:33 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-1 “The Representation of True Unity”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: John 17:20-23
Message of the
verses: “even as You, Father, are in
Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe
that You sent Me. 22 “The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one; 23 I in them and You in Me, that
they may be perfected in unity,”
There are sometimes that I have to go back and read Dr.
Warren Wiersbe’s commentaries as I spent almost 24 years reading and studying
the Word of God with the aid of his very understandable commentaries and so I
thought that I would quote what he has to say about these verses. He entitles this section in his commentary “We
Share His Glory” (John 17:20-26). This
is the last sub-division in this section and we will only look at what he has
written on verses 20-23 which is the verses for the most part in this section.
“Here our Lord focuses our attention on the future. He begins to pray for us who live today, for
the whole church throughout all ages. He
has already prayed about security and sanctity; now the burden of His prayer is
unity. He is concerned that His people experience a
spiritual unity that is like the oneness of the Father and the Son. Christians may belong to different fellowships,
but they all belong to the Lord and to each other.
“The disciples had often exhibited a spirit of
selfishness, competition, and disunity; and this must have broken the Saviour’s
heart. I wonder how He feels when He
sees the condition of the church today!
The Puritan preacher Thomas Brooks wrote: ‘Discord and division become no
Christian. For wolves to worry the lambs
is no wonder, but for one lamb to worry another, this is unnatural and
monstrous.’
“What is the basis for true Christian unity? The person and work of Jesus Christ and His
glory (John 17:2-5). He has already
given His glory to us, and He promises that we will further experience that glory
when we get to heaven! All true
believers have God’s glory within, no matter what they may look like on the
outside. Christian harmony is not based
on the externals of the flesh but the internals and eternals of the Spirit in
the inner person. We must look beyond
the elements of our first birth—race, color, abilities, etc.—and build our
fellowship on the essentials of our new birth.
“We already possess His glory within (John 17:22, and
note Rom. 8:29), and one day we shall behold His glory in heaven (John
17:24). As we grow in the Lord, the
glory within begins to grow and to reveal itself in what we say and do and the
way we say and do it. People do not see
us and glorify us; they see the Lord and glorify Him (Matt. 5:16; 1 Cor.
6:19-20).
“One of the things that most impresses the world is the
way Christians love each other and live together in harmony. It is this witness that our Lord wants in the
world ‘that the world may believe that Thou hast sent Me’ (John 17:21). The
lost world cannot see God, but they can see Christians; and what they see is us
in what they will believe about God. If
they see love and unity, they will believe that God is love. If they see hatred and division, they will
reject the message of the Gospel.
“Jesus has assured us that some will believe because of
our witness (John 17:20), but we must make sure that our witness is true and
loving. Some Christians are prosecuting
attorneys and judges instead of faithful witness, and this only turns lost
sinners away from the Saviour.
“There is every reason why believers should love one another
and live in unity. We trust the same
Saviour and share the same glory. We
will one day enjoy the same heaven! We
belong to the same Father and seek to do the same work, witnessing to a lost
world that Jesus Christ along saves from sin.
We believe the same truth, even though we may have different views of
minor doctrinal matters; and we follow the same examples that Jesus set for His
people, to live a holy life. Yes,
believers do have their differences; but we have much more in common, and this should
encourage us to love one another and promote true spiritual unity.”
I have said many times that Warren Wiersbe puts the
cookies on the shelf where we can reach them, and this is a great example of
that from his commentary on these verses.
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: I don’t want to
be a prosecuting attorney or a judge as I desire to be a faith witnesses.
My Steps of Faith for Today:
Trust the Lord to allow me to be what
He wants me to be in order to do what He wants me to do.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “Two years” (Acts 24:27).
Today’s Bible
question: “What does ‘Emmanuel’ mean?”
Answer in our next SD.
3/25/2017 8:17 AM
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