God’s Promises for the Church Together as One

Many of God's promises to us are given to the Church together, collectively. They become effective for us individually only as we are living in love, as a functioning part of the Body of Christ.

Exactly as we are frequently told, God makes many promises in the New Testament. He promises to live within and among us, and to be visible through us. He promises forgiveness of sin and restoration from its effects. He promises healing. He promises miraculous power, that we will do greater things than Jesus. He promises to answer prayers and to provide for our physical needs. He promises peace and joy. He promises boldness in our witness to the world, and that our witness will be effective. Most of these promises were originally made, not to individuals, but to groups, and now apply to the Church collectively.  Much of the preaching and teaching we hear in our present, individualistic age attempts to personalize these promises, so that we can each individually “claim” them for ourselves independent of our participation in the Body of Christ. We listen to this preaching, often, and wonder why God does not seem to be keeping His promises. As is shown below, the answer to our question is that the promises were not given to each of us individually, to use however we please. They were given to the Church, and are available to us individually only as functioning members of that Body.

Promises Based on Loving God and Keeping His Commandment

            The most concentrated single collection of promises associated with our oneness is found in the thirteenth through seventeenth chapters of the Gospel of John. John 13 through 16 is John’s account of the Last Supper; John 17 recounts Jesus’ prayer for us in the Garden of Gethsemane. John 13 starts with Jesus washing the disciples’ feet. He did this to demonstrate His love for them¹ and as an example of what they should do for each other.² Jesus then entered into a discourse in which he made a number of promises to anyone who loves Him and keeps His commandments. Six times in these chapters, He repeats his insistence that certain promises apply only to those who keep His “commandment” or his “teachings.” Compare, John 14:15, 21, 23 and 24; John 15:10 and 14; compare also John 15:7 (“if you abide in me, and my words abide in you”) in which the “you” in Greek is plural.³ .But Jesus does not leave the identity of the “commandment” which we must obey in doubt. He states three times in these chapters that his “commandment” to us is “that you love one another.” John 13:34; John 15:12 and 17. This command is stated in the plural (the KJV, “ye,” though archaic English, accurately reflects the Greek)^4,5and only makes sense as directed to all of us, together. We are to love each other in the same way Jesus loved us, and laid down His life for us. Then, in his prayer in John 17, Jesus asks His Father to make us one, with the result that the promises he had made in the previous four chapters may be fulfilled and the world may see Jesus’ oneness with His Father manifested in us.⁶ Thus, God’s fulfillment of many of the promises of John 13 through 16 is tied directly to our manifestation of our oneness through our self-sacrificing love for each other.

            What Jesus promised in John 13 through 17 was realized, in part—and more fully than in any subsequent time–in the early Church recorded in Acts. As will be discussed further below, in Acts, when the Body worked together, prayers were answered for the entire world to see, miraculous things happened, God dealt openly with sin in both forgiveness and judgment, the Gospel was proclaimed boldly and Christ was visible in His Church. This is still the model for the Church today.

God Lives Within Us through Manifestation of Our Oneness

            Oneness is the key to the effectiveness of the Church because God lives in us through the manifestation of our oneness with each other. A person who has Jesus’ commands, who knows Jesus’ words, and keeps them is a person who loves Jesus.⁷ But to such people—people who show their love for Him by keeping His commands—Jesus has promised that they will be loved by both Him and His Father and that Jesus will manifest Himself to them.⁸ Even more, Jesus promised that both he and His Father will come to such people and live in them.⁹ When Jesus comes to live in us, just as His Father lives in Him, He gives us His glory, so that we may be one with each other just as He is one with His Father, and we are made “perfect in one,” brought to complete unity.¹⁰ The one command, the new commandment, that he has given us to keep, the command on which all of the others hang, is that we should love one another. John 13:34 and 15:2; compare Matthew 22:36-40, Romans 13:8-10 and 1 John 3:14-24.