“I have given them the glory you gave me, so they may be one as we are one. I am in them and you are in me. May they experience such perfect unity that the world will know that you sent me and that you love them as much as you love me.”
John 17:22–23 (NLT)
As Jesus continues praying to the Father in John 17, His focus shifts. He moves from praying specifically for the apostles who are with Him to praying for all who will believe because of their message. Much of the New Testament was written by the very men Jesus was praying for here—evidence that this prayer was effective.
What Jesus asks for us is the same thing He asked for the twelve, just expressed in a new way. Earlier, He prayed they would be united just as He and the Father are united. Now He prays that all believers would be ONE. The goal is unchanged: that the world would believe God sent Jesus.
Jesus then says something astonishing. He tells the Father that He has given us the same glory the Father gave Him. That glory is the Holy Spirit. Just as the Spirit descended on Jesus at His baptism so He could reflect the Father to the world, Holy Spirit now lives in us so we can reflect Jesus to the world—and to one another. This unity is not organizational or surface-level. It is spiritual. Jesus lived this way, only saying what the Father told Him to say and only doing what the Father told Him to do.
Jesus says this kind of unity will do what no strategy ever could. The world will know Jesus is real—not through better arguments, stronger sermons, or more impressive churches—but through perfect unity accomplished by the glory God gave Jesus and Jesus gave to us. And then He says something even more staggering. This unity will reveal that God loves each person individually with the same passionate love He has for His own Son. God doesn’t just love the world in general. He knows each of us by name and loves us as much as He loves Jesus.
So what does the world see when it looks at the people you walk with in faith?
If unity is missing, the answer isn’t more effort—it’s more surrender. Yield again to the same Spirit who raised Christ from the dead. This is how the world will know Jesus is real. We must be ONE, just as the Father and the Son are one.