Life-Study of Johnpor Witness Lee
ISBN: 0-7363-0957-8
Copia impresa: Living Stream Ministry disponible en línea
ISBN: 0-7363-0957-8
Copia impresa: Living Stream Ministry disponible en línea
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In the last message we covered the subject, the central thought, of the Lord’s prayer in John 17. In this message we come to the second part of this prayer. The first part, verses 1 through 5, gives us the subject of the prayer, and the second part, verses 6 through 24, deals with oneness. The purpose of oneness is for the glorification of the Son that the Son may glorify the Father. The people in this oneness include all the disciples, all those whom God has chosen and given to the Lord Jesus, all those to whom the Lord has given eternal life.
In order to have oneness, there must be the building up. Without the building up, there is no oneness. Do not think that a piling up of materials is oneness. No, that is not oneness. Consider a house. There is a genuine oneness among all the materials in the house, and that oneness is the building up. Every piece of material has been fitly framed together. This is oneness. The oneness that many Christians are talking about today is just a piling up. Sometimes, however, it is not even a piling up; it is a matter of one person who is far away from another, saying, “We are one.” Brother Nee describes this kind of oneness as shaking hands over the fence. But the oneness today often is not even a shaking hands over the fence, but a begging of people who are far away from one another. One on the east coast may plead with one on the west coast to be one with him, saying, “Dear brother, I am one with you.” The one on the west coast may reply, “Yes, I am one with you,” yet in his heart he says, “If we don’t keep a safe distance between us, we shall offend one another.”
If this is real oneness, where is the Body? The situation today is that the shoulder is afraid of the neck, wanting to keep a safe distance away from it. The eye is also afraid of the nose, saying, “Brother nose, you are too strong. I dare not stay with you. I want to be polite to you and nice to you, but I must keep a safe distance from you.” Most Christian workers are not willing to be one with others. Such a situation is not oneness. The genuine oneness is the building up. Look at the oneness of your physical body: that oneness is a matter of being built up. We all must see that this building is what the Lord needs today. Two thousand years ago, the Lord said, “I come quickly” (Rev. 22:20). Two thousand years have passed, and still He has not come. Why? Because it is a shame for Him to come back without having a real building. There must be a small remnant which will respond to the Lord’s heart and be willing to lose their identification in order to be built up together as one. This will be a shame to the enemy. The enemy, Satan, hates this building. Thus, in John 17, the Lord prayed for it.
In verses 6 through 24 the Lord prayed for the believers to be built up into one. This oneness is in three stages: in the Father’s name by the eternal life (vv. 6-13); in the Triune God through sanctification by the holy word (vv. 14-21); and in the divine glory for the expression of the Triune God (vv. 22-24).
The real oneness, the building up of the believers, is in the Father’s name by the eternal life. Eternal life is the reality of the Father’s name. The Father’s name is Father, and the reality of the Father is the divine life. This is even true with respect to our physical father, for our physical father’s reality is his life. If our father had no life to impart into us, he could never have been our father. My father is my father in reality because he has the life which has been imparted into me. The very life which has been imparted into me by him is the reality of his being my father. The word Father must not merely be a title; it must be a reality. The divine life, which is the eternal life, is the reality of the title Father.
Nota: Esperamos que muchos se beneficien de estas riquezas espirituales. Sin embargo, para evitar cualquier tipo de confusión, les pedimos que ninguno de estos materiales sean descargados o copiados y publicados en otro lugar, sea por medio electrónico o por cualquier otro medio. Living Stream Ministry mantiene todos los derechos de autor en estos materiales, y esperamos que ustedes los que nos visiten respeten esto.