The Week of Prayer for Christian
Unity
in Flagler County
January 17-24, 2010
Scriptural basis for Christian
Unity
[using the New Revised Standard
Version Bible]
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11And now I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world,
and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them in your name that you
have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one. John 17:11
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20 'I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf
of those who will believe in me through their word, 21
that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I
am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you
have sent me. 22The glory that you have given
me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one, 23
I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one, so that the
world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have
loved me. 24 Father, I desire that those also,
whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory, which
you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.
John, 17:20-24.
Other words of Jesus [according to John]
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14I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me,
15just
as the Father knows me and I know the Father. And I lay down my life for
the sheep. 16I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold.
I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will
be one flock, one shepherd. John 10:14-16
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5I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me
and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing.
John 15:5.
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34I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just
as I have loved you, you also should love one another. 35By
this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for
one another. John 13:34-35.
The Apostle Paul on unity
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4 1 I therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beg you to
lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called, 2
with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one
another in love, 3making every effort to maintain the unity
of the Spirit in the bond of peace. 4There is one body and
one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling,
5one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6one God and
Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all. Ephesians,
4:1-6
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10 Now I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, by the name
of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you should be in agreement and that
there should be no divisions among you, but that you should be united in
the same mind and the same purpose. I Corinthians 1:10
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12 For just as the body is one and has many members,
and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with
Christ. 13 For in the one Spirit we were all baptized
into one body, Jews or Greeks, slaves or free and we were all made to drink
of one Spirit. 14 Indeed, the body does not consist of
one member but of many. 15 If the foot were to say, 'Because
I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body', that would not make it any
less a part of the body. 16And if the ear were to say, 'Because
I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body', that would not make it any
less a part of the body. 17If the whole body were an eye, where
would the hearing be? If the whole body were hearing, where would the sense
of smell be? 18But as it is, God arranged the members in the
body, each one of them, as he chose.
19If all were a single
member, where would the body be? 20As it is, there are many
members, yet one body. 21The eye cannot say to the hand, 'I
have no need of you', nor again the head to the feet, 'I have no need of
you.' 22On the contrary, the members of the body that seem to
be weaker are indispensable, 23and those members of the body
that we think less honorable we clothe with greater honor, and our less
respectable members are treated with greater respect; 24whereas
our more respectable members do not need this. But God has so arranged
the body, giving the greater honor to the inferior member, 25that
there may be no dissension within the body, but the members may have the
same care for one another. 26 If one member suffers,
all suffer together with it; if one member is honored, all rejoice together
with it. 27Now you are the body
of Christ and individually members of it. 1 Corinthians 12:12-27
From the Acts of the Apostles
4
32 Now the whole
group of those who believed were of one heart and soul. Acts 4:32