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I. THE GREAT MEANS OF THE UNITY which Christ proposes here. "The glory which Thou gavest Me," &c. The glory which the Father gave the Son was —

1. That He endowed Him with the Holy Spirit (John 3:34, 35). The Holy Ghost descended upon our Lord in His baptism and abode upon Him. In Him was fulfilled Isaiah 11:1-3. In this Spirit there is glory, for the prophet further says, "His rest shall be glorious." Now upon each true disciple this glory of God rests according to his measure. Owing to this endowment, there rested upon Jesus Christ a wondrous glory in many respects.

(1) As man He knew the name and character of God. "The pure in heart shall see God," and those pure eyes of His had seen God to the full. Has He not given us that same vision of the Father? Yes, for He tells us, "He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father." Our eyes have been opened by the blessed Spirit of God to see the invisible.

(2) In His receiving, keeping, and giving forth the Word of God. The depository of the Divine word was Christ, and this was greatly to His glory. Is not THE WORD, one of the brightest of His titles? But now He hath given unto us the Word, and henceforth we are to hold forth the Word of Life.

2. In the sanctification of His blessed person. "For their sakes I sanctify Myself." How consecrated to God He was from His childhood till He said, "It is finished!" This is the glory which He gives to us. His prayer is, "Sanctify them through Thy truth: Thy Word is truth." His disciples live unto holiness, and are known as a people zealous of good works.

3. In His mission. "As thou hast sent Me into the world, even so," &c.

4. In His model humanity. You, too, are not to be common men, but model men. Jesus especially was a model in —

(1) His perfect self-abnegation. For God's glory, and Christ's purpose in the convincement of the world, we are to live, and if we do so the Spirit of glory will be resting upon us.

(2) His oneness with God. His life ran parallel with the path of the Most High.

5. Wherever this glory is seen true unity is developed. Suppose I were to find a man, living in the likeness of Christ, with this spiritual glory conspicuous upon him. Suppose he is a coalheaver, the glory of his character will be none the less conspicuous amid the dust; or suppose that he is an earl, the glory will be none the more dim because of the good man's honours. The holy consecration in each case is the same, and the degrees of rank do not affect the essential beauty of either. If you bring a company of common Christians together and they begin discussing, I daresay they will jangle; but if you could select a number upon whom this glory rests, within a short time they will be all on their knees together, or singing together, or engaged in some form of loving fellowship. Spiritual men are so essentially one that like two drops which lie close together they have an increasing tendency to unite.

II. THE UNITY ITSELF. It is not uniformity. This our Lord says nothing of. Though we are one body in Him, yet all the members have not the same office.

1. "I in them." Christ lives in His people, and we are so to act, in the power of the Holy Ghost, that onlookers shall say, "Surely Christ lives again in that man, for he acts out the precepts of Jesus."

2. "Thou in Me." That is, God is in Christ. This is manifestly true, for you cannot read the life of Christ without seeing God in Him.

3. This brings about the union of believers with the Father: being one with Christ, and Christ being one with the Father, the point is reached for which our Lord prayed, "that they also may be one in us."

4. Couple this with believers being one with each other, and you get the being "made perfect in one." Moved by the same love of holiness, inspired by the same spirit of love, the eternal Father's will is the will of the Son, and the Spirit worketh in us also to will and to do according to the good pleasure of the Lord.

III. THE EFFECT WHICH THIS PRODUCES.

1. It will convince the world of the truth of Christ's mission. When they see men who are no longer selfish, hard, ungenerous; men no longer governed by their passions; men who desire that which is holy, just, and good; men living to God — then the world will say, "Their Master must have been sent of God." And then, not only will their characters convince, but their unity, because the ungodly world will say, "We see the glory of Christianity in the poor man, and we see the same in the rich man."

2. But the world is also to be convinced of the Father's love to us. When the world sees bodies of truly consecrated men and women living together in holy love, then they will also see much joy, peace, mutual consolation, and they will perceive that the providence of God makes all things work together for their good, and that the Lord has a special care over them as a shepherd hath over his flock. Then will they say, "These are the people that God has blessed." See how He loves them.

(C. H. Spurgeon.)

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KJV: And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one:

WEB: The glory which you have given me, I have given to them; that they may be one, even as we are one;