KEEPING THE ONENESS, LOVING ONE ANOTHER, AND HAVING THE ONE ACCORD
In John 17:19-21 the Lord Jesus prayed, “For their sake I sanctify Myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth. And I do not ask concerning these only, but concerning those also who believe into Me through their word, that they all may be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us; that the world may believe that You have sent Me.” We are all members of the Body of Christ. As such, we must have the real oneness. We are really one. However, although today we are still in the recovery and in the oneness, we need to realize that the oneness among us is not a living oneness…The genuine oneness will cause us to take action when we hear of a need among the saints in the Body. The real oneness is an active and acting oneness.
We are one, yet we may not know the eight members of our group so well. That is not the living oneness. In John 17 the Lord said that if we have this oneness, the people of the world will know that Christ is the One who was sent by the Father (vv. 21, 23). This indicates that when we go to visit people, they will realize that we are one among ourselves. They will realize that with us there is something heavenly, something divine, that the people of the world could never have.
In John 13:34-35 the Lord said, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this shall all men know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” If we love one another, we do not need to tell people that we are Christ’s disciples. The worldly people will realize this.
The early followers of Christ, including Peter and John, followed the Lord Jesus full time. They were fishermen, but they left their nets, their boat, their job, and their father to follow the Lord Jesus (Matt. 4:18-22). To the outsiders they were idle, not doing anything but following this One. They did this for three and a half years. Eventually, they saw the crucifixion, the resurrection, and the ascension of the Lord, and that kept them more in oneness. Thus, the beginning of Acts says that these dear ones were in one accord (1:14), not merely in oneness. Oneness is not as practical as one accord. They were in one accord with no different opinions, concepts, or insights. They were all one in one accord…This is what we need. We need to keep the oneness, we need to love one another, and we need to have the one accord. (CWWL, 199-1992, vol. 3, “Fellowship concerning the Urgent Need of the Vital Groups”, chp. 9, pp. 423-425)
The church in Zamboanga 