Good Works Within

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF JOHN

 GOOD WORKS WITHIN

John 17:20-23

20 "My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 21 that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: 23 I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.

NIV

There it is, we have been included in this prayer of Jesus so that all he has been praying that seemed to apply only to his eleven actually apply to all who believe in the message. Jesus prays that we all would be one, just as the Father is in Jesus and He is in the Father. In order to fully understand what it means to be one, we need to know just how the Father and Jesus are one. This seems rather easy as we know them to actually be one, the Father and Jesus, as well as the Holy Spirit, are all God, the three in one. Somehow we accept the relationship of the Father and Jesus being one, but we struggle with all us believers being one. We might say we are one, that we are all members of the body of Christ, that we are all living stones being built into the temple of God, but it would seem we see ourselves more as individuals then as one. If we were truly one then all those feelings and behaviors of envy, jealously, bitterness, grudges, no forgiveness, gossip, spiritual competition and pride, and feeling hurt, along with a host of other feelings and behaviors, would not exist. We cannot imagine any of those conditions or feelings existing between Jesus and the Father. So then if the prayer of Jesus is heard and answered by the Father, which we know it has to have been, then we have to arrive at one of two conclusions. Either we are one and refuse to act like it, or we are not actually part of this prayer, which would mean we have not believed the message. If Jesus is in us, which is in each one of us, then the Father is in us as well, that is if we believe the message. Because we confess we are believers, then by faith, we are believers, we have believed the message. Then it must be that we are refusing to act like believers in actually being one. This idea that when one member is suffering we all suffer and when one member rejoices we all rejoice does carry that concept of being one. But again, we have to ask if we are really suffering along with those who experience actual suffering, and we have to ask if we truly rejoice when someone actually rejoices. Once again, we have to consider if any of those personal feelings that relate to self-centeredness exist within. Who said being a believer was easy? It takes effort to deny ourselves and pick us our cross and follow Jesus. Not so much a physical effort, but a spiritual one or perhaps an emotional or mental one. This is where not thinking more highly of oneself then we should, or putting others before ourselves meets up with being one. It seems no matter how long we are believers we still have more works to do, work within in order to be in complete unity so the world will know that God loves them. So all that work God prepared in advance for us to do may well be the good works within.