Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.
— John 14:23
For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one. And there are three that bear witness in earth, the Spirit, and the water, and the blood: and these three agree in one.
— 1 John 5:7-8
And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am,
— John 14:3
The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.
— Romans 8:16-17
And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are.
— John 17:11
At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you.
— John 14:20
Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not.
— 1 John 3:1
And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.
— Galatians 4:6-7
Even as We Are One, by Matthew Henry. The following contains an excerpt from his “Commentary on the Whole Bible.”
That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me. — John 17:21-23
What is intended in this prayer: “That they all may be one” (v. 21). The same was said before: “that they may be one, as we are” (v. 11), and again (in) verse 22. The heart of Christ was much upon this. Some think that the oneness prayed for in verse 11 has special reference to the disciples as ministers and apostles, that they might be one in their testimony to Christ; and that the harmony of the evangelists and concurrence of the first preachers of the gospel are owing to this prayer. Let them be not only of one heart, but of one mouth, speaking the same thing. The unity of the gospel ministers is both the beauty and strength of the gospel interest. But it is certain that the oneness prayed for in verse 21 respects all believers. It is the prayer of Christ for all that are His, and we may be sure it is an answered prayer—“that they all may be one,” one in Us (v. 21), one “as we are one” (v. 22), “made perfect in one” (v. 23). It includes three things:
1. That they might all be incorporated in one body. “Father, look upon them all as one and ratify that great charter by which they are embodied as one church. Though they live in distant places, from one end of heaven to the other, and in several ages, from the beginning to the close of time, and so cannot have any personal acquaintance or correspondence with each other, yet let them be united in Me their common Head.” As Christ died, so He prayed, to gather them all in one (Joh 11:52; Eph 1:10).
2. That they might all be animated by one Spirit. This is plainly implied in this—“that they…may be one in us.” Union with the Father and Son is obtained and kept up only by the Holy Ghost. “He that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit” (1Co 6:17). Let them all be stamped with the same image and superscription and influenced by the same power.
3. That they might all be knit together in the bond of love and charity, all of one heart. “That they all may be one”: (1) In judgment and sentiment:6 Not in every little thing—this is neither possible nor needful, but in the great things of God, and in them, by the virtue of this prayer, they are all agreed—that God’s favor is better than life—that sin is the worst of evils, Christ the best of friends—that there is another life after this, and the like. (2) In disposition and inclination: All that are sanctified have the same divine nature and image; they have all a new heart, and it is one heart. (3) In their designs and aims: Every true Christian, as far as he is so, eyes the glory of God as his highest end and the glory of heaven as his chief good. (4) In their desires and prayers: Though they differ in words and the manner of expressions, yet, having received the same spirit of adoption and observing the same rule, they pray for the same things in effect. (5) In love and affection: Every true Christian has in him that which inclines him to love all true Christians as such. That which Christ here prays for is that communion of saints, which we profess to believe; the fellowship that all believers have with God and their intimate union with all the saints in heaven and earth (1Jo 1:3). But this prayer of Christ will not have its complete answer until all the saints come to heaven, for then, and not until then, they shall be perfect in one (v. 23; Eph 4:13).
What is intimated by way of plea or argument to enforce this petition—three things:
1. The oneness that is between the Father and the Son, which is mentioned again and again (vv. 11, 21-23). (1) It is taken for granted that the Father and Son are one—one in nature and essence, equal in power and glory, one in mutual endearments.7 The Father loveth the Son, and the Son always pleased the Father. They are one in design, and one in operation. The intimacy of this oneness is expressed in these words: “thou…in me, and I in thee.” This He often mentions for His support under His present sufferings, when His enemies were ready to fall upon Him, and His friends to fall off from Him; yet He was in the Father and the Father in Him. (2) This is insisted on in Christ’s prayer for His disciples’ oneness: (1) As the pattern of that oneness: showing how He desired they might be one. Believers are one in some measure as God and Christ are one; for, first, the union of believers is a strict and close union. They are united by a divine nature, by the power of divine grace, in pursuance of the divine counsels. Secondly, it is a holy union, in the Holy Spirit, for holy ends. (It is) not a body politic8 for any secular purpose. Thirdly, it is, and will be at last, a complete union. Father and Son have the same attributes, properties, and perfections; so have believers now, as far as they are sanctified; and when grace shall be perfected in glory, they will be exactly consonant9 to each other, all changed into the same image. (2) As the center of that oneness: that they may be “one in us,” all meeting here. There is one God and one mediator; and herein believers are one, that they all agree to depend upon the favor of this one God as their (happiness) and the merit of this one mediator as their righteousness. It is a conspiracy,10 not a union, which doth not center in God as the end and Christ as the way. All who are truly united to God and Christ, Who are one, will soon be united one to another. (3) As a plea for that oneness: The Creator and Redeemer are one in interest and design; but to what purpose are they so if all believers be not one body with Christ and do not jointly receive grace for grace from Him, as He has received it for them? Christ’s design was to reduce11 revolted mankind to God. “Father,” says He, “let all that believe be one, that in one body they may be reconciled” (Eph 2:15-16), which speaks of the uniting of Jews and Gentiles in the church; that great mystery, “that the Gentiles should be “fellowheirs, and of the same body” (Eph 3:6), to which I think this prayer of Christ principally refers, it being one great thing He aimed at in His dying…“Father, let the Gentiles that believe be incorporated with the believing Jews, and make of twain (two) one new man” (see Eph 2:15). Those words, “I in them, and thou in me,” show what that union is which is so necessary, not only to beauty, but to the very being of His church. First, union with Christ: “I in them.” Christ dwelling in the hearts of believers is the life and soul of the new man. Secondly, union with God through Him: “Thou in me,” so as by Me to be in them. Thirdly, union with each other, resulting from these: “that they (hereby) may be made perfect in one.” We are complete in Him.
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