Unity in the Father's eternal Spirit, of self-sacrificial love for all His children, of every Christian denomination and group.
God loves, and always has loved, His firstborn son, Jesus, just as God loves, and always has loved, all His children: with an absolute, limitless, all-forgiving, self-sacrificial love.
Ephesians 1:4 According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love:
5 Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will,
His is a love that we believers, while yet in this earth, can approach in understanding only to the extent that we are grounded in love for one another. Yet, His is a love that we cannot fully know with our own minds.
Ephesians 3:17 That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love,
18 May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height;
19 And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.
That’s what God did in Jesus: He gave us an opportunity to grasp, in the best way our little, human minds could understand it, an inkling of what is that absolute love of God, love beyond our knowledge, bearing absolute mercy for all His children, in Jesus. If we can *believe* the truth of Jesus, that He is God’s unbounded, eternal love to all God’s children, believing to the point of repenting of our sins, so that we can *walk* now in the truth of Jesus, behaving in this life according to that truth we believe, then God wants us to spend eternity with Him as His loving, obedient children, enveloped forever in His absolute love for all of us.
At unimaginable, sacrificial pain to Himself; at excruciating pain to His boundless, eternal love for all His children, Father God was willing to let His only begotten child suffer terribly in the form of a man, Jesus of Nazareth, knowing that in time, Jesus would be given all power in heaven and earth, and would gain for eternity many loving, adopted children to God in the process of showing to them, in the life of Jesus on earth, how God loves His children. We Christians, God’s children adopted from the life in the flesh we used to live in, but now dead to the flesh, and fully born again, begotten of the Spirit of God by our faith in Jesus, all believe in God’s sacrifice in Jesus as a true fact. And in loving response, each of us turns away from sin, turns away from thinking the physical, carnal world gives life, and each chooses instead to be in this life, not a carnal being, but a spiritual being. Each of us chooses to cause carnal lusts for the things of this world to die in us, and to cause the sin that dwells in us to die, each choosing instead to live primarily to seek God’s kingdom and righteousness first in our life, as the spiritual child of his or her spiritual father, God, who freely gives to each, life in His own Spirit.
2 Corinthians 7:1 Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.
Galatians 5:16 This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.
17 For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.
Romans 8:1 There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
Romans 8:14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.
That’s what God says this world is all about for His children: learning to always choose the spiritual life over the earthly, so that we’re in this world, but not of it. Hearts are spiritual things, and God knows hearts inside and out, every thought we think. When we Christians, each, first sought God from the heart, then the Father delivered us to find the truth of the spirit life in Jesus, as we truly repented of our carnal ways, and repented from the heart by our belief in Jesus.
Having found Him, He then stays with us always, correcting us by His word in the Bible, correcting us in His love, showing us whatever sin He may find in our lives. And if we truly repent of all sins that He reveals to us, if we repent in obedience to His Spirit in our hearts, He always forgives and forgets, never leaving us or forsaking us, giving us another opportunity, continuously, to live in His eternal Spirit instead of us just holding on in this mortal life to all that is temporary and dying in the flesh.
Without Jesus, we would have just kept on sinning, because we knew we deserved punishment, so why bother to stop? We could see, when and if we looked, what evil was doing to us, the destruction it was causing in our lives. But there was nothing we could do for ourselves to change our guilt for our past deeds, so we were trapped, deceived by our own sinful thinking, into continuing the same sinful, soul-killing behavior.
Romans 7:11 For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me.
Our logic then, before we had the mind of Christ, was man’s logic about sin, and it says something like this:
“If I consider the possibility of sin, I see no reason to stop. As long as I’m already guilty of sin, even if I can see it’s killing me, that doesn’t matter because we all die anyway. And the world tells me it’s a lousy life without sin, so who cares if it’s short? Why not keep sinning and try to enjoy it, to make the best of a bad situation, at least try to have fun for as long as it lasts?
If I sin more, I’m still just guilty of sin, like I was before, right? Guilty is guilty, right, so what is more sin going to hurt? You only live once, so why not try everything? I’m free to decide for myself what’s good and bad for me to try in this life. And who says that the old moral laws apply to me, any more, anyway? I’ll do what seems right in my own mind.
The society I live in, all the media around me, most all of the modern cultural influences, all say that man makes his own rules, and that the lusts for all the things of this world are good. If I have any spirit at all, it may be a spirit that can achieve great things by the power of my own mind, or maybe even oneness with the Cosmos. It may be that God is just an idea of man, and I can achieve God-like qualities in this life through the efforts of my own thinking. I might as well try to make of myself whatever pleases me. I don’t recognize the validity of any law of God, so I recognize no sin. It’s all dead to me.”
Romans 7:8 But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. For without the law sin was dead.
But Jesus changed all that.
Proverbs 16:25 There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.
John 14:6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
Titus 2:11 ¶ For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men,
12 Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world;
That’s why we quit sinning, because we believe in Jesus to repentance, that He’s the way out of sin, and the way to Father God. Once we believe in Jesus, we know that if we keep sinning, we find ourselves right back where we started, with His boundless mercy still there available to us, always waiting for us, always ready to cover all. Believing in Jesus, we can’t get away from His mercy. We actually and truly believe that’s the unbounded mercy that His sacrificial love provides forever to us as His children. And that genuine belief in His everlasting, unavoidable love and mercy causes, in return, an intense love in us for God, a belief that directs our behavior, causing us, through His spirit, to willingly kill off the sin that lives within us.
Psalms 130:3 If thou, LORD, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand?
4 But there is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared.
Romans 6:1 ¶ What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?
2 God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?
Romans 7:20 Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
Romans 8:13 For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.
Romans 6:6 Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.
The issue with Christian unity is whether we are so foolishly egotistical as to think that our own minds can then proceed to derive from the Bible a doctrine greater than our own salvation from our old, carnal self of sin. That idea is just the foolish pride of the old carnal man, the one that’s supposed to be dead, taking pride over his own brethren in Christ, in his own knowledge of a greater doctrine; a doctrine that allows his pride to let him believe he is more knowledgeable in the Father’s will, that makes him an older brother in the Spirit, at least to his own way of thinking. And if he happens to find others to agree with him in that doctrine, to keep that particular carnal pride of doctrine alive in a whole denomination or group of Christians, as separate, and spiritually greater than the other believers outside the group, then it is the pride which causes divisions, whether the doctrine is true or not.
Are we going to take some perceived greater doctrine, greater at least in our own minds, and make of it great foolishness, by behaving toward one another as if God loves us, the ones in our own Christian group or denomination, as His only children, or loves us better, because we all agree in a doctrine that is better than our common, shared salvation with all who believe in Jesus? Shall we claim, that if children of God do exist outside of our own Christian denomination or group, then they are the little ones, the younger brethren, who must learn from us elders, what is the Father’s will for them who are believers, but outside our own denomination or group?
Matthew 32: 10 Neither be ye called masters: for one is your Master, even Christ.
11 But he that is greatest among you shall be your servant.
12 And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased; and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted.
13 ¶ But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in.
2 Corinthians 3:6 ¶ Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.
Luke 11:46 And he said, Woe unto you also, ye lawyers! for ye lade men with burdens grievous to be borne, and ye yourselves touch not the burdens with one of your fingers.
Luke 11:52 Woe unto you, lawyers! for ye have taken away the key of knowledge: ye entered not in yourselves, and them that were entering in ye hindered.
Or can we instead recognize that that same eternal, self-sacrificial love of God for us, that we received to become one of God’s children in the first place, applies equally to all Christians as to ourselves, applies beyond the boundaries of our own Christian denomination or group, beyond those who have, what seems to us to be, the best understanding of doctrine? Are we, rather, willing to include all who, like us, quit sinning because they truly believe in the Bible’s account of Jesus as God’s eternal, self-sacrificial love for all His children, whosever believeth, of every Christian denomination and group?
When we insist that our brethren from some other Christian denomination or group, outside our own, must come to know God as we know Him, by our doctrines other than salvation, we are effectively saying one of two things that are expressly forbidden in the Bible. The least we are saying is that we are the elder brother who knows the Father better than our younger brother. Or the worst we are saying is that we alone know the Father by our proprietary doctrines, and those who don’t know Him by such doctrines of ours, beyond salvation, don’t know Him at all, and we effectively call our brethren bastards. To deny a Christian’s brotherhood with us in Christ, is to deny that the Holy Spirit is in him, which is the one sin of blasphemy which Jesus said would not be forgiven in this life or the next.
Matthew 12: 31 Wherefore I say unto you, All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men: but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men.
32 And whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come.:
We look for the certain destruction, in this life, of all who lie and blaspheme against the Holy Ghost, whether they lie against His presence working through other brothers in Christ, as they did to Jesus, Himself, or if they lie against the Holy Ghost in themselves, claiming that He motivates their actions, when the Holy Ghost is not in them at all. This is what happened to those who threatened the unity in the church of Acts, to those who lied against the Holy Spirit while claiming that they had given everything for all their brothers and sisters in Christ, while, in fact, they were motivated by some other spirit.
Acts 5:3 But Peter said, Ananias, why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost, and to keep back part of the price of the land?
4 Whiles it remained, was it not thine own? and after it was sold, was it not in thine own power? why hast thou conceived this thing in thine heart? thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God.
5 And Ananias hearing these words fell down, and gave up the ghost: and great fear came on all them that heard these things.
This destruction of those non-Christians who oppose Christian unity by making the most serious error of blaspheming the Holy Spirit, will continue to happen, and will happen more often, as the body of Christ comes to recognize, and to use the power of the Holy Spirit for the glory that Jesus already gave us, that we may be one in His love for all His children. This is one of the earliest parts of this prophecy, and the destruction in this life of such liars against the Holy Spirit has already been seen to happen relative to Christian unity within the last year or so. It will in fact be the cause of the final end of the Beast of name 666, in due course, which will be shown further in this prophecy as time provides. We need to realize that in Christian unity, *we* are God’s tabernacle.
Revelation 13:6 And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven.
Daniel 8:25 And through his policy also he shall cause craft to prosper in his hand; and he shall magnify himself in his heart, and by peace shall destroy many: he shall also stand up against the Prince of princes; but he shall be broken without hand.
By Christian unity, in our self-sacrificial love for all the Father’s children, the day will come when we Christians never remotely suggest that Christians of other denominations or groups don’t fully know God as their loving Father, already. Even the babes know their own Papa.
Jeremiah 31: 33 But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.
34 And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.
Also in Christian unity, united in the Father’s eternal, self-sacrificial love for all His children, of every Christian denomination and group, God makes of us, together in Him, the people who forever do know our God.
1 John 4:7 Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God
1 John 4: 16 And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.
17 ¶ Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world.
Daniel 11:32 And such as do wickedly against the covenant shall he corrupt by flatteries: but the people that do know their God shall be strong, and do exploits.
And the issue with Christian unity is not that we just learn to tolerate each other as brethren in Christ, or that we just don’t have anything major *against* those of other Christian denominations and groups. The issue is, most importantly, that we do, in fact and in deed, lay down our own lives for them, for all of them, the way Jesus did for every one of us, without holding anything back, in spirit and in truth, not leaving a single believer out, from every Christian denomination and group there is.
It’s all our heart, soul, strength, and mind God wants involved in His kind of love. God knows it’s the spirit within a person that drives all the actions taken in this life, and that it’s the spirit that can carry over to the next life as well, if the spirit of a person chooses to believe and live eternally in Jesus. So God knows that if He can get our hearts right now, if He can get our spirits within us right while we’re in this world, if He can get His Spirit within us and get it obeyed, then everything will all fall into place for us, both in this life and the next. And He’ll have the eternal spirit children he wants: spirit children made eternal in His Spirit.
That’s why He warned us not to draw nigh to Him with our mouth and honor Him with our lips while we keep our hearts far from Him. That’s why He told us the hour is now come when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeks such to worship him. The Father also seeks such to live eternally as His children with Him. That’s the kind of spirit children the Spirit Father, who is God, wants. God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. The outward show means little or nothing to Him. It’s the truth we believe and obey in the heart that He’s after.
And the one heart decision He wants most of all, more than any other, for each of us to make, is the same one Jesus made, the decision required of every one of God’s children: the decision by each of us to lay down our own life, in love, for all our sisters and brothers in Christ, for every believer in Him, regardless to which Christian denomination or group they belong. Life together in the body of Christ is the ultimate form of spiritual life, the best and highest, and the one we’ll spend eternity together in, because the spirit in the body of Christ is the Spirit of Christ, Himself. And the Spirit of Christ, Himself, is the Spirit of self-sacrificial love, forever, for all of God’s children.
God created this earth the way it is in order to create us as spiritual children for Himself: loved, and loving offspring of His eternal Spirit. He had one perfect Spirit child already but He wanted more, forever, all adopted and made perfect by sharing in the eternal Spirit of the firstborn. He begat us all by His word of love for the brethren, which word we obey, born again through His Spirit of love for all God’s children.
1 Peter 1: 22 Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently:
23 Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.
The children He’s creating in this world are us Christians, the people who believe that we serve a God of absolute love; a love that God defines as the complete giving of self for all children of God, for all Christians, regardless of Christian denomination or group. He wants to create us to be a people who believe the absolute love of God for all His children with certainty, and to believe that same love is in us for one another, to believe it for a long time and with enduring patience both here in this life and through the next, beyond time. And He wants us to believe it no matter what “facts” may appear to the contrary in each one’s own, humanly perception of this world.
No one knows, exactly, just what situations we may face together in eternal life, after this world passes away. But we know that God wants our belief in this absolute, self-sacrificial love for His children to stick with us through it all, come what may, for all of this life, just as for all eternity with Him and with the rest of His children, our sisters and brothers, all kinds of Christians. We know that in His kingdom, the greatest are the ones who serve all the others, like Jesus served us. So we don’t really know the details, but it’s easy to see why Father God might want to spend eternity with a bunch of His own kids, who all love and serve each other selflessly.
Because His absolute love for each of us, His children, is so great, we could not possibly please him more, or love and serve Him more, in any other way so much as in loving and serving each other with the life He gives to each of us in the first place, now and forever in Christ. In that way, the life He gives to each of us serves all the other children of God that He loves, so that His Spirit works in the power of His love through each to all, the same way God’s Spirit works in the power of His love through Jesus to all. Knowing for a fact the way in which Jesus gave to all of us the life that God gave to Him, we give our lives to each other in the same way. And that life which was sent here in Jesus, Himself, and the life which we each receive in us by Jesus, are both lives given by the Father through Jesus to serve all the other children of God, including every one of us adopted ones, no matter which Christian denomination or group. God wants us all served by each of the others.
God knows we are in different Christian denominations and groups. He knows that all Christians have different pasts, different childhoods, different upbringings, different traditions, different abilities, and different life experiences. Whatever we have, whatever we have experienced, whosoever we are, God gave us all the good things, and only the good things. But from it all, whatever each one’s own life experiences, or present life situation may be, God wants people who can look at this world from their own life’s perspective, at all the good and the bad we can see in the whole world around us, and *choose* to believe that God is the spiritual Father of eternal, all-forgiving, self-sacrificial love in us Christians for one another, together in Him.
He wants us to choose Him, to choose to believe that we Christians serve a God who would have all power, and having all power, would willingly lay down that power and come to earth in the form of a man, specifically in order to let the forces of spiritual evil, working through evil men, do evil to Him in this life; a God of all power who would let evil men cheat Him of all the good things He truly deserved in this life for the perfect way He lived here as a man, but who would instead let evil men hate Him, beat Him, ridicule Him, cut Him, and nail Him to some wood like so much lumber, so they could hang Him up to slowly die, in constant agony.
He could have shown His power to call down legions of angels; or, had He so desired, His power to speak a universe into existence. But instead, He only used one power to hold Himself up there, suspended between heaven and earth. The power that that kind of God wanted us to know, more than any other, was the power of His love.
He hung there with no one to help Him, no one to turn to; hung there so long until He believed Himself to be completely abandoned and forsaken by His own, dear Heavenly Father; hung there until He believed Himself to be finally cut off from the Father’s unbounded, absolute, eternal, self-sacrificial love; cut off from the love that the Father has for all His children, all of whom, always, believe in the Father’s love for them. Jesus had to be subjected to so much unrelenting pain and anguish, that he came to believe that God forsook Him, so that the rest of us children of God could know, forever, that it will never happen to us. God’s first begotten had to suffer the complete agony of merciless separation from His own, sweet Father’s love, so that we believers could be joined to it in all mercy, and to each other in it, forever.
Mark 15:34 And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani? which is, being interpreted, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
John 14: 18 ¶ I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.
19 Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me: because I live, ye shall live also.
20 At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you.
Jude 1: 20 But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost,
21 Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.
Deuteronomy 31:6 Be strong and of a good courage, fear not, nor be afraid of them: for the LORD thy God, he it is that doth go with thee; he will not fail thee, nor forsake thee.
Matthew 28:20 Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.
Hebrews 13: 5 Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.
6 So that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me
He laid down His power and suffered all this, just so that evil could never do it to us again, no kind of evil, either in this life or the next, no matter how much we may have deserved it, ourselves, for what we’ve done in this life in the past, now that we believe what He did, believe that we are in Him, and believe that we are His righteousness.
Romans 10: 10 For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
11 For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.
Philippians 3:9 And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith:
2 Corinthians 5:21 For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
Psalms 37: 32 The wicked watcheth the righteous, and seeketh to slay him.
33 The LORD will not leave him in his hand, nor condemn him when he is judged.
Of course, we’re still subject to the civil laws and higher powers of man, ordained by God.
Romans 13:1 Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God.
But the spiritual evil that originates at much higher levels and operates through evil men in this world is the true oppressor in this world, and our true enemy, over whom Jesus has given to us the certain and sure, present victory as children of God.
Ephesians 6:12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
1 John 5:4 For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.
No matter how fair it might be for us to receive punishment at the hands of evil ourselves, in just payment for our own past evil behavior in this life, God still won’t let evil men or evil spirits do any part of it to us, because they already did it, undeservedly, to the all-righteous God of all power, Himself. Yet, to give us this mercy, God did justice, as He always must do. So in receiving His own horrendously unfair, undeserved injury, He earned for us the gift to receive unbounded, undeserved mercy, now and forever, in Christ.
He’s God, and what’s fair is what He says is fair; and He says it’s fair for us sinners to repent and get off free and clear because perfect Jesus got all the pain and suffering we deserved.
And our part of the deal is simply to believe that He’s that kind of God, the kind who would give Himself that way.
That’s love. That kind of God *is* love. And that is the kind of love that God is. He is that love, and the Father of it. God knows that from our knowledge of that kind of love, flow all desire for repentance and all forgiveness, from Himself, to us, and through each of us, to all our sisters and brothers in Christ; and from all of us as the body of Christ united in that love, it flows out to the rest of the world.
John 13:35 By this shall all [men] know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.
God, the Father, fathered that kind of love in Jesus Christ of Nazareth. And He fathered that kind of love in all Christians, who believe Jesus is that kind of love: namely, the kind of love that gives, now and forever, it’s own life for all sisters and brothers in Christ, for all who believe in Christ to repentance, for all of God’s children, of all Christian denominations and groups.
And if we believe God is that kind of love in Jesus, we know why love is God’s highest priority, both in the first and second most important commandments of the old law, as well as in the new commandment given in person by the Word, Himself. We know why we can’t claim to love God, in obedience to the first most important commandment, unless we love all of the brethren in Christ, in obedience to the new commandment of Jesus. We know why Jesus’ one, new commandment to us is to love all believers to the point of laying down, each our own life, for all other believers, regardless of Christian denomination or group: because we all believe that He’s the kind of God that lays down His own life that way. We believers believe that’s the definition of love, which is Jesus; and we believe that’s the definition of God shown to us in Jesus; and we believers believe that that is the definition of the part of God that’s in each of us, in the Spirit of Jesus who is in us Christians, here in our hearts where we love all other Christians, all of our sisters and brothers in Christ, of all Christian denominations and groups.
Consider what the Word says, starting in John 17:23:
**************************************************************************
John 17:23 I in them,…
*Jesus in us* is the Father’s self-sacrificial love for all His children, in us, because Jesus, Himself, is that love, God’s kind of love, in us, which love we have for all God’s children. And we each have that love in us, who is Jesus, if we each, in obedience to the commandment of Jesus, and following the example of Jesus, lay down our own lives, the way we all know that Jesus did, in love for all the brethren, regardless of the Christian denomination or group to which they belong.
John 14: 20 At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you.
21 He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.
John 15:12 This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you.
**************************************************************************
…and thou in me,…(John 17:23 continued)
John 17:23 I in them,…
*Father God in Jesus* is the Father’s self-sacrificial love for all His children, in Jesus, because Father God is love, and the Father wrapped up the sacrifice of Himself, as all His love for us, wrapped it up in Jesus, and gave the free gift of Him to anybody who would believe that God would do that.
**************************************************************************
… that they may be made perfect in one;…(John 17:23 continued)
We are made *perfect together in one*, because we’re all the Father’s children, always receiving, always surrounded by, and always immersed together in, the Father’s love for all His children; while at the same time, the Father’s love for all His children is in us, in each one of us for every other, regardless of the Christian denomination or group to which each belongs.
**************************************************************************
…and that the world may know that thou hast sent me,…(John 17:23 continued)
The world is enabled to know that God sent Jesus, the way Jesus said they would know it: and all men of the world are being enabled to know and see it now in Christian unity, as we Christians now choose to obey the new commandment of Jesus.
John 13:35 By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.
Soon all men will know that we Christians are the disciples of the One sent by God, because of our obedience to Jesus’ command to love to the point of self-sacrifice, all the brethren, regardless of Christian denomination or group. In so loving, we show to the world, by the power of His Spirit of love in us for each other, that we are the disciples of the true Christ and Redeemer; because Jesus promised that all men would see it, *if* we have love one to another with that kind of love, as now we do.
John 15:12 This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you.
13 Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
We show to ourselves, as well, that we are His well informed friends, who know without mystery, what is God’s will for us, and what it is that our Lord doeth in us: that we are gathered by Him in one in Christ, because we join one another in His love which is His purpose, joining with Him and with each other in His assignment to show to the world that He was sent here by God, to be God’s self-sacrificial love now and forever, for all God’s children, whosoever believeth.
Ephesians 1:9 Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself:
10 That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him:
John 15:14 Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you.
15 Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you.
And the world won’t know it because large numbers of Christians all use their own power, the power of men, in this world to do some sort of work together in this world.
Psalms 127:1 [A Song of degrees for Solomon.] Except the LORD build the house, they labour in vain that build it: except the LORD keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.
2 Corinthians 10:4 (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;)
5 Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;
The world already knows what the might of an army of men can accomplish in this world. Christian unity is a thing of His Spirit, not a thing of man’s works. What the world needs to see in us Christians, is what miracles real faith can work by love.
Galatians 5:6 For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision; but faith which worketh by love.
1 Corinthians 2:9 But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.
All men need to know that we are the disciples of the One sent by God to be His love, in all power, forever, for all His children, which all men will come to know when we Christians obey the new commandment of Jesus, releasing the power, not of many people, but of the one Holy Spirit.
2 Kings 6:17 And Elisha prayed, and said, LORD, I pray thee, open his eyes, that he may see. And the LORD opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw: and, behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha.
That power will then be enabled to work in us and through us, not because of armies of men, but because of the obedience of the spirit within each one of us, obedience from the heart, to the Spirit of God, and to God’s love in Jesus, who is, Himself, God’s love for all His children, regardless to which Christian denomination or group we each belong.
Zechariah 4:6 Then he answered and spake unto me, saying, This is the word of the LORD unto Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the LORD of hosts. {might: or, army}
Christian unity in God’s kind of love is about getting the fullness of His Spirit into all of us Christians. It is true that genuine belief in Jesus results in repentance, then obedience and the doing of righteousness. But for each of us to work out our own salvation, it is the believing in Christ, and the faith in Christ, that each of us needs most to concern ourselves with, looking to our own heart. When we have the righteousness that is of faith, the obedience follows, and our faith in Christ comes alive with works.
Galatians 3:26 For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.
In a similar way, it is also true that, as we allow into ourselves the fullness of His Spirit of love for all His children, of every Christian denomination and group, the works and deeds of Christians who live out such belief in Christian unity will result. For instance, when all the members of the body of Christ come to truly believe in the Father’s eternal, self-sacrificial love for all His children, by having His love in ourselves for one another, in deed and in truth, with our faith made alive by works, the day will come when you won’t be able to find on this earth a single, destitute, starving Christian, unless he just makes the error of being unwilling to work, though able.
2 Thessalonians 3:10 For even when we were with you, this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat.
1 John 3:16 Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.
17 But whoso hath this world’s good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?
18 My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth.
19 And hereby we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before him.
James 2:26 For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.
Mark 9:41 For whosoever shall give you a cup of water to drink in my name, because ye belong to Christ, verily I say unto you, he shall not lose his reward.
Likewise the day will come when Christians know that the miraculous power of God is real in this world, and that every Christian is expected to do their part in it, doing and giving whatever we can, to the point of laying down our own lives for all the children of God, of every Christian denomination and group. When we Christians really know this, the day will come that when any Christian who has this world’s goods, sees the neediness of any brother in Christ who is known to be seeking God’s kingdom and righteousness first in his life, the one with the wealth will be afraid *not* to do all he can to make the promise of Jesus come true for the child of God in need, in service to one of God’s children in Jesus.
Matthew 25:45 Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me.
46 And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.
Poor Christians, and poor Christian ministries, and Christian churches that have to go begging for funds, will be a thing of the past. Christians who truly believe that the power of God is working in their lives will know how to give of their own bounty for the ministering to their sisters and brothers in Christ, becoming eager and joyous in their giving for the work of the church, as were some of the early Christians.
2 Corinthians 8:3 For to their power, I bear record, yea, and beyond their power they were willing of themselves;
4 Praying us with much intreaty that we would receive the gift, and take upon us the fellowship of the ministering to the saints.
Mark 9:41 For whosoever shall give you a cup of water to drink in my name, because ye belong to Christ, verily I say unto you, he shall not lose his reward.
But whether it comes to them through other Christians, or through God, Himself, when needy Christians know the power of God’s love for all His children in Christian unity, those in need will know that having all their needs met in this world is part of their birthright in the Spirit. Needy Christians will know that they only have to get their priorities straight, so that all they have to do is seek God’s kingdom and righteousness first in their lives, being willing to work, and God will make sure they get all their needs well met.
The worldly-wise want us all to think we depend on the world to have our physical needs met, so that we will fear their power, and serve them. God says they don’t have that power, and He wants to keep us dressed better than rich King Solomon. God wants His children to live lives that are prosperous in every way. The power of God’s love shown in Christian unity will make it easy to know who’s telling the truth of the matter because we will all have our needs in this life amply met. We Christians will all prosper together in this world, and never become of it. If riches come, we will keep our hearts set on the kingdom and righteousness of God that brought all prosperity into our lives in the first place.
Psalms 62:10 Trust not in oppression, and become not vain in robbery: if riches increase, set not your heart upon them.
Matthew 6:33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.
**************************************************************************
…and hast loved them,…(John 17:23 continued)
That’s supposed to be the point, of course, how God has loved us Christians. Even though our first commandment is to love God, we know we can’t claim to love God, except as we love our sister and brother in Christ.
1 John 4:21 And this commandment have we from him, That he who loveth God love his brother also.
That’s the point. That’s what we’re here to show the world. Not that we love God, but that He loves us, as seen in our love for our brethren in Him.
1 John 4:10 Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.
God’s too far above us to need anything our love could give Him, although because He loved us first, He wants the satisfaction to Himself of knowing that His love is returned to Him through our love for each other, because He raised obedient, loving children. Our brothers and sisters in Christ are right here with us, and by serving each other, in Christ, we are serving the same God that Christ, the Holy One of Israel, served, and we are serving God in the same way as Jesus did.
Psalms 16:2 O my soul, thou hast said unto the LORD, Thou art my Lord: my goodness extendeth not to thee;
3 But to the saints that are in the earth, and to the excellent, in whom is all my delight.
4 Their sorrows shall be multiplied that hasten after another god: their drink offerings of blood will I not offer, nor take up their names into my lips.
1 John 4:20 If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?
Matthew 25:40 And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.
And His own Spirit, of which He has given us in Christ, is the Spirit that perfects in us the love we have for each other, making it the same as His love for all of us. His own Spirit dwelling in us is our love for one another, which is the same love as the Father’s love for all His children, regardless of Christian denomination or group.
1 John 4:12 No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us.
If we love one another, we dwell in Him together in His love for us, while He is simultaneously in us, because He is that Spirit who is love, dwelling in each of us, for all the others in Christ.
1 John 4:13 Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit.
**************************************************************************
…as thou hast loved me.(End quote: John 17:23)
The Father loved Jesus with an absolute, eternal, self-sacrificial love for His firstborn son, which is the same love as the Father’s love for all us Christians, all His adopted children.
To believe in the name of Jesus, is to believe in the Father’s love for all His children, and it is to have the Father’s self-sacrificial love for all His children, in ourselves, for one another.
1 John 3:23 And this is his commandment, That we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he gave us commandment.
Do we Christians believe on and in the name of Jesus?
The Father’s eternal, self-sacrificial love for all His children, is God’s name, as Jesus defined it for us. And that definition of love in Jesus includes God’s children of every Christian denomination and group there is, all of those who believe the name of Jesus to repentance. The Father’s eternal, self-sacrificial love for all His children is the meaning of God’s name that God wants us Christians to learn so we can show it to the world. It’s the name of God that Jesus showed us in His whole, self-sacrificial life and death, and in His eternal life again, resurrected and given all power in heaven and earth.
Matthew 28:18 And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.
Strong’s concordance says of the word, “name”, in the New Testament, “the name is used for everything which the name covers, everything the thought or feeling of which is aroused in the mind by mentioning, hearing, remembering, the name, i.e. for one’s rank, authority, interests, pleasure, command, excellences, deeds etc”. It’s a big word, one that carries a lot of meaning as it was used in the New Testament. Jesus sums up what the name of God is that Jesus, Himself, defined for us in His life, and death, and life again, in power:
John 17:26 And I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it: that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them.
The love wherewith the Father loved Jesus is the Father’s self-sacrificial love for all His children. That’s why Jesus is God’s son, so that we would know that the references to God’s name, and the reference to the Father’s love for His son, Jesus, and the references to His love for all us children, whosever believeth in Jesus, are all the same name of His love for us. Jesus is in God’s name, and we brethren in Christ are in God’s name, because we are in His love for all His children, and we take His love in us, always, as we have that love for all His children in ourselves. God is love; and God’s name is God’s love for all His children, whosoever believeth, of every Christian denomination, group, and congregation.
Hebrews 6:10 For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love, which ye have shewed toward his name, in that ye have ministered to the saints, and do minister.
1 John 4:16 And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.
Jesus is also God’s Son so that we can know He is a child of God like us, a joint heir to all the Father gives us.
Romans 8:17 And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.
The suffering we do is to crucify the carnal man we once were, from which death of the flesh, we are reborn in life in the Spirit of Jesus, as a child of God, like Jesus.
Galatians 2:20 I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.
Galatians 5:24 And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.
To be born again as a child of God, is to be born with a heart that is fervently in love of all the brethren, regardless of Christian denomination or group. We are born again in charity and brotherly love by the eternal seed of His word that tells us to give our lives to one another, because we have purified our souls of the former carnality that once caused wars among us.
James 4:1 From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members?
1 Peter 1: 22 Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently:
23 Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.
Being born again as children of God, Jesus is in all of us, as the Father’s children who have in ourselves that same self-sacrificial love for all the Father’s children, which love is exactly who Jesus is, no matter to which Christian denomination or group the Father’s children may belong, because Jesus died for us, one and all. Believers, by definition of the rebirth in God’s Spirit, love *all* believers, whosoever believeth.
1 John 5:1 ¶ Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God: and every one that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him.
To claim the name of Jesus, and the name of God that the Father declared to us by Jesus, we believers just believe in our hearts to repentance, that Jesus is the Father’s self-sacrificial love given eternally to all His children, regardless to which Christian denomination or group they belong. And in heartfelt belief of such love for us all, we, who claim to be the Father’s children, believe to the point that we repent of all carnality, including lust for the unrighteous things of the flesh such as money, and material things, and illicit sex, and power and honor among carnal men.
Mark 7:21 For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders,
22 Thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness:
23 All these evil things come from within, and defile the man.
And because we now obey Jesus’ new commandment to unite in Jesus as the Father’s love for all His children, we repent as well of the carnality that causes divisions in the body of Christ. Whether due to our unrighteous behavior or due to our failure to have in our hearts the commanded, self-sacrificial love for all our brethren in Christ, regardless of Christian denomination or group, either mistaken, carnal choice has, in the past, prevented us Christians from being seen as the manifest children of God, either by the world, or among ourselves, or in the eyes of God.
1 Corinthians 3:3 For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men?
1 John 3:10 In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil: whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother.
1John 4: 12 No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us.
13 Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit.
1 John 4: 16 And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.
17 ¶ Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world.