John 17:20-26

Jim delivered an excellent sermon on Sunday. Oh, I know, Sunday was a fair few days ago... But you watch, I will get into the swing of this, and my posts will become more regular.

It was on John 17:20-26:

"My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 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. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: 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.

"Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.

"Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them."

Naturally, the sermon dealt a lot with unity, and the pre-requisites for it. This passage is not saying that everyone on earth should have unity with one another; it is specifically for believers, in Christ and in God the Father. Right at the start we read: "I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one".

So our oneness comes from:
a) believing in Jesus. But an important question, which comes up a lot, is which Jesus? Do we have unity with those who believe in Jesus.... as teacher alone? as prophet alone?
b) no. the next part is - believing in the Jesus presented by the disciples, "through their message" - Jesus's words, not mine. That is, if someone's belief in Jesus is contrary to the teaching of the disciples, then their Jesus is a false Jesus. I think this can be extended to all apostolic tradition - Paul, for example, did learn from the disciples, so I think he is a trustworthy conveyer of truth.

This means people can say they believe in Jesus, yet be deluded. I already knew this, but now it's becoming clearer where the lines are drawn. Unfortunately, I think this also puts a number of so-called Red Letter Christians at risk. I don't know enough about them to say all. I know that they focus on the teachings of Jesus (which just seems Christian to me), mostly those about love and nice things (the Socialist Gospel), but I have come across Red Letter Christians who don't read anything but the words of Jesus. This is risky due to the subsequent ignorance of the Old Testament, which is a key factor in understanding the character and teachings and necessity of Christ; it's the context. And Jesus quotes it a lot; if he thinks it's important, who are we to ignore it? I do not understand how Christians can ignore the Old Testament insofar as it is readily available.

But even more risky, these Red Letter Christians would also ignore the teachings of the disciples, who say lots of things about how Christ is the only way to salvation, you need him, so on and so forth...

And maybe that's worse than ignoring the Old Testament. I'm starting to think so.