Fellowship in the Light

When our Lord Jesus prayed on the night before His death that “they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you,”He was not speaking figuratively. This was not a clever metaphor or a mere turn of phrase. It is the will of our Lord Jesus that Christians, those who bear His name, should be one.

And what is meant by this unity? Nothing less than that they share in all things. That is, that they would have very things of Christ without division, without rivalry, without conflict. His prayer is for a unity among Christians that reflects the eternal unity between the Father and the Son.

But as we all know, this is certainly not the case at present. The Church seems fractured. There are divisions between the East and the West, Romans and Protestants, Lutherans and the Reformed, liberals and conservatives, confessionals and missionals, the Missouri Synod; the Wisconsin Synod; and the myriad of other Confessional synods. Christ’s Church seems broken into irreconcilable pieces.

And yet the Scriptures remind us that unity is not optional. Christian fellowship is necessary. It is the very will of Christ that His people be one.

Find out more in this sermon preached at the 2025 Calov Conference from St. John's Lutheran Church of Oakes, ND!