“These things I command you, that ye love one another.”John 15:17.
(UL 31.1)
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Christ’s prayer [in John 17] ... is an illustration of the intercession that He is offering for us before the Father.
(UL 31.2)
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“Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth,” He prayed (John 17:17). “As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth.”John 17:18, 19.
(UL 31.3)
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“Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; 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 17:20~23.
(UL 31.4)
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Today the One who uttered this prayer is interceding before the Father in behalf of the human beings He has redeemed. He presents them to Jehovah, saying, “I have graven them upon the palms of My hands” (cf. Isaiah 49:16).
(UL 31.5)
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Sanctification is to come through the truth; oneness with Christ—this is God’s purpose for us. By their sanctification and their unity, Christians are to give evidence to the world that a perfect work has been done for them, in and through Christ. Thus they are to bear witness that God sent His Son to save sinners. Will you not let Christ carry on this work of sanctification in your hearts? You may all be complete in Him. You have the assurance that through the sanctification of the truth you may be made perfect in one....
(UL 31.6)
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The Saviour is acquainted with the mental suffering of His children. He knows how at times their hearts are wounded and bleeding. He would have the afflicted soothed and helped. He says to us, “Bear ye one another’s burdens” (Galatians 6:2). “We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves” (Romans 15:1). We are to relate ourselves rightly to one another, even though to do this demands sacrifice. Christ made an infinite sacrifice for us, and should we not be willing to sacrifice for others? We are to guard carefully against wounding or bruising the hearts of God’s children, for when we do this, we wound and bruise the heart of Christ.—Letter 31, January 17, 1904, to Elder and Mrs. J. A. Burden, and Dr. and Mrs. D. H. Kress.
(UL 31.7)
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Let men be careful how they treat the purchase of the blood of Christ. Let them not forget the prayer offered by the Saviour just before He left His disciples for the long struggle in the Garden of Gethsemane. Let them not forget the high estimate He has placed on human beings by purchasing them at the sacrifice of His life. There are many who seem willing to wound and bruise the hearts of their brethren. Are they following the example Christ has left them? Where in the record of His dealing with men do they find themselves sustained in showing so little forbearance and patience in dealing with their brethren?...
(UL 122.6)
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Read and study carefully the prayer that Christ offered just before His trial, recorded in the seventeenth chapter of John. Follow its teachings, and you will be brought into unity. Our only hope of reaching heaven is to be one with Christ, and then, in and through Christ, we shall be one with one another. No one is called to walk alone. In Christ life and immortality are brought to light. He has opened the way to the kingdom of heaven to those who believe in Him, but He assigns to no one a path different to that which all must travel. He calls for unity, and unity we must have. God asks us to sink self in Christ. For the natural man this is not easy. But through the power of the incarnation of Christ, God manifest in the flesh, the strength of God is revealed in gentleness and beauty. To “as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God.” By this power we may overcome our evil tendencies and so modify our imperfect dispositions that the will of God may be fulfilled in us.—Letter 79, May 7, 1903, to J.A. Burden and wife. (Elder Burden was engaged in sanitarium work in Australia.)
(UL 141.5)
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“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 17:23.
(UL 153.1)
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Let us make it known that provision has been made for our redemption. Christ left the heavenly courts and came to this world to make an atonement for us. All who come to Him in living faith will be enabled to stand on vantage ground. As God’s servants proclaim these things, Satan steps up to some of those who have itching minds and presents his scientific problems. Men will be tempted to place science above God. But who, by searching, can find out God? Men may put their own interpretation upon God, but no human mind can comprehend Him. This problem has not been given us to solve. Let not finite man attempt to interpret Jehovah. Let none indulge in speculation regarding His nature. Here silence is eloquence. The Omniscient One is above discussion.
(UL 153.2)
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Christ is one with the Father, but God and Christ are two distinct Personages. Read the prayer of Christ in the seventeenth chapter of John, and you will find this point clearly brought out. How earnestly the Saviour prayed that His disciples might be one with Him as He was one with the Father. But the unity that is to exist between Christ and His followers does not destroy the personality of either. They are to be one with Him as He is one with the Father. By this unity they are to make it plain to the world that God sent His Son to save sinners. The oneness of Christ’s followers with Him is to be the great, unmistakable proof that God did indeed send His Son into the world to save sinners. But a loose, lax religion leaves the world confused and bewildered.
(UL 153.3)
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My brethren and sisters, take your stand on an elevated platform, and work to the point to be one with Christ. The heart of the Saviour is set upon His followers’ fulfilling God’s purpose in all its height and depth. They are to be one with Him, even though they are scattered the world over. But God cannot make them one in Christ unless they are willing to give up their own way for His way.
(UL 153.4)
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In view of all that Christ has suffered for us, should we complain when we are called to endure self-denial and suffering? Would not this make God ashamed of us? Let us rejoice that it is our privilege to be partakers in the sufferings of Christ, for thus only can we be fitted to be partakers of His glory.... Let us live lives that will lead sinners to the Saviour. Christ carried His humanity with Him into the heavenly courts, and all humanity can claim Him as their representative. We may be made complete in Him.—Manuscript 58, “The Work in Washington,” a talk given May 19, 1905.
(UL 153.5)
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The disciples were filled with great joy. Over and over again they repeated the words Christ had spoken to them in His last lessons, as recorded in the fourteenth, fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth chapters of John; and every one had something to say about the instruction, especially with regard to the words of the fourteenth of John ... [Verses 1-3, quoted]....
(UL 357.3)
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