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Part Seven:

The Family of the Father (2)


Defending the Unity of the
Father’s Family
Matthew 6:5-9; Luke 11:1
Church in the Boro, Rob Wilkerson

Introduction

In the last chapter it was necessary to define the family of God as those who are adopted by
God and brothers and sisters of Christ Jesus. It’s essential in order to defend our unity as one
family. This naturally leads us to defend our unity as one family. That’s essential because the
mission Jesus put us all on depends entirely on that unity, according to His own prayer in John
17:18, 20-23.

Jesus puts massive significance and emphasis in those verses on a Trinitarian kind of unity
among His people, as well as the built-in results of that kind of unity for the mission of world
evangelization. In other words, when Jesus sent the apostles and disciples out into the nations,
their mission was to be accomplished by preaching the gospel.

But by His own teaching and prayer life in John 17, we also see that the apostles and disciples,
as well as all Christians in general, would see more fruit in their missional labors when they
were a united people. So while preaching is the message of the mission, unity with one
another like the Trinity has is the method of the mission. We sow the mission by preaching, and
we reap the mission in unity. In short, when Christians get along with one another and love one
another, they will have a living-color example and context by which to interpret our message of
the gospel. It’s pretty basic. Yet so overlooked, neglected, and even rejected far too often.

This particular part of the series will be the most passionate for me, I must admit. For almost a
decade now a radical restructuring of my understanding of the unity of the church has been
maturing. So when I come to Jesus’ words, “Our Father,” I see – and I believe Jesus intended –
so much behind the word “our.” Such simple little words sometimes contain the deepest
meditations, yet they are so often quickly passed over with little thought. But not this word.
And not in this series. Every word is important as we’ve established previously, because Jesus is
drawing from OT theological concepts embedded into the special relationship He had with
Israel, and therefore the New Covenant / True Exodus community today called the church.

When I got a hold of Jesus’ theology of the unity of the church in passages like Ephesians 2 and
John 17, this passion inside of me began to swell in ways that seemed to overshadow so many
other passions. Perhaps this is because there’s this intense, built-in sense of things that are not
set right. The older I get the more I see the nasty underbelly of reality, and the deeper I see
between the lines that are so strongly and dogmatically drawn by various leaders,
denominations, and Christians.

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Church Power + Church Politics + Church Money = A Nasty Underbelly of Division

The nasty underbelly I’ve come to see more clearly is that so much of the church today is run
like a business. That means many churches are too often about money, namely making it and
spending it. While I agree that certain business principles can be brought into the church to
make things run smoother and more efficiently, essentially helping us work smarter and not
harder, I also deeply feel the inward tug of desiring worldly gain like any other American
breathing the air of the “American Dream.” Too many churches, at least in America, have
breathed this air deeply and find themselves drifting into an atmosphere of biblical unreality,
totally blinded to the black and white teachings of Jesus regarding money. So I’ve seen several
churches split in my lifetime over money.

And with the urge to make and spend money, to build a big and “successful” organization, also
comes politics. Where there’s power to be had and money to give and spend, there are people
wanting a piece of it, many of them vying for the biggest piece so they can have the biggest say.
This is another part of the nasty underbelly of church, and Jesus hates it, frankly. Those
churches whom I’ve been a part of who have also had a “healthy” or even enormous amount of
money in the bank have been those where the most politicking has occurred. Decisions are
made based on pragmatics and human reasoning all of which are called “wisdom” by many
leaders, but foolishness to God. And so I’ve seen several churches split in my lifetime over
power and control in the local church.

Reading Between the Denominational and Doctrinal Lines That Cause Division

Then we have those who have attempted to draw some pretty bold and dogmatic lines for
churches and denominations in the past. Those lines say things like “inerrancy of Scripture”
and “sound doctrine.” But no matter how boldly you draw those lines and writes those words,
there’s a very deep chasm of inconsistency between those lines into which many fall into who
cannot “tow the line” or are not “on the same page.” So I’ve also seen churches split because
of “doctrinal disagreements,” which of which, I’m convinced, were not entirely untainted by
struggles over money, control or power.

It’s hard to imagine it, but according to the World Christian Encylopedia, “Christianity consists
of 6 major ecclesiastico-cultural blocs, divided into 300 major ecclesiastical traditions,
composed of over 33,000 distinct denominations in 238 countries.” 1 Within Christianity, the
author of this article in the Encyclopedia counts 33,820 denominations. And his article was
written in the 2001 edition, some nine years ago. At the risk of sounding a little juvenile, I just
think that’s the most retarded thing I can possibly imagine. But it’s true.

1
David B. Barrett, George T. Kurian, and Todd M. Johnson. The World Christian Encyclopedia: A
Comparative Survey of Churches and Religions in the Modern World (New York: Oxford University Press, 2001),
1:16, Table 1-5.

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The reason I think it’s so retarded is because we split up and separate from one another over
the most bizarre and stupid and asinine things. The Baptist denominations were founded as a
result of separation from other groups around or just after the Reformation. The reason was
only their difference regarding the mode of water baptism. The Reformation brought with it
the continuation of infant baptism from the Catholic Church, but a group of believers scornfully
labeled the “Anabaptists” believed that once a person had been truly converted, they ought to
be water baptized by immersion again as an adult. And just to show you how bizarre this issue
got, many leaders in the reformation vein actually persecuted and murdered Anabaptists. Over
water. The history is shocking and horrifying and serves as just one small example among
myriads that Christians have a tendency to hurt one another and separate from one another
over doctrinal lines they boldly and dogmatically and arrogantly draw. One would think, for
example, that if baptism were that kind of issue, worth killing each other over, Jesus would
have been a little more clear about it in His gospels.

The Enlightenment and Its Contribution to Division in the Church

I can’t help but think that this line of thinking has largely been handed down to us through the
embedding of the Enlightenment into our cultures for the last five hundred plus years. That
period of history brought about a Renaissance of the intellect whereby scientific discovery by
men like Isaac Newton and others forged the way for a new kind of thinking. That thinking
largely dismissed mystery and replaced it with rationale. If it couldn’t be tested, observed,
examined, analyzed or proven then it had no place in life. And that kind of thinking has been so
woven into our cultures, throughout the world, that we have come to largely base our doctrinal
systems and beliefs and alignments with what can be intellectually worked out on paper.

As a result, we end up with thousands of doctrinal statements which various groups want to get
signed by whoever will agree with them. The result is that further and deeper division
continues to be forged between Christians who have so much to agree upon, namely the life,
earthly ministry, death, resurrection, ascension and heavenly ministry of Jesus Christ for His
children right now. I’m not sure I’ve ever met someone who called themselves a Christian who
didn’t agree on these things.

But when we come to other matters like the end of the world, the judgments in Revelation, the
mode of baptism, spiritual gifts, church government, Bible versions, etc. are these really of such
massive significance that they warrant, if not somehow demand, a separation from other
Christians who don’t agree with us? I mean, do we really have to have all these areas analyzed
with our enlightened rationale so that we have hammered them all out with such a deep
degree of agreement in detail? Science continues to press into the knowledge of matter, which
drives them to understand how things work on the most microscopic, subatomic, nanoscopic,
string theorized levels. And I say, “Go for it!” Let’s work on figuring all this out because, I
believe, it’s part and parcel of taking dominion over the earth God gave us.

However, there will always be points at which our knowledge and ability to observe, analyze,
and rationalize will be severely and massively limited. We bump up against this brick wall, and

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it’s called “mystery.” But enlightened minds aren’t satisfied with this, so we move on, driving
deeper and deeper, trying to peer further and farther. This essentially does nothing more than
build and develop and refine two idols in our lives.

The first is the idolization of our own thirst for knowledge. We want to know. Period. We
simply cannot be satisfied until we have analyzed and understood everything we get our hands
on. The second is the idolization of knowledge itself. We want to know. We are frustrated and
derailed when we don’t have answers. We let the lack of answers so totally throw us off that
we spend our entire lives trying to figure it all out.

But what about mystery? Is this not the territory where God makes His majesty known to us
and presents Himself to us as…God? Is this not what makes Him God and us humans? Isn’t it
mystery that makes Him infinite and us infinite? So when we bump up against mystery, which
is simply something we cannot answer, then why do our minds race and stomachs churn? Why
do our hearts fret? Why do we give in to frustration? Why do we submit to what we call
“confusion”, yet what God simply calls “mystery”?

This is where we can thank the Enlightenment for derailing the church from its marriage to
mystery. The Enlightenment filed divorce papers between the church and mystery, so that now
we have been able to sleep with Enlightenment for the last five hundred years. And look at all
the children we’ve had out of wedlock! About 33,820…and counting.

What About Agreement…Doctrinally and Practically?

On this point I have always been countered by the argument, “how can two walk together
unless they be agreed?” And to that I counter, “Love one another. That’s how.” That’s why
Jesus repeated it and exhibited it as the theme of his life. That’s why Paul repeated it. That’s
why Peter repeated it. That’s why John repeated it. Love is the most significant, foundational,
elemental piece of this whole thing we call Christianity. And when love for one another
abounds, we care more about each other than we do our doctrinal distinctives and
denominational lines.

Thankfully, the maturing process of postmodernism is eroding the effects of the Enlightenment.
It is bringing to the surface the most obvious point of all: any rationale and “enlightened”
thinking I bring to the table about anything is tainted by my imperfection and by my cultural
background. Therefore, any “objectivity” I attempt to apply to a matter is actually, and
necessarily, trapped within a sphere of subjectivity. There is objectivity. But it’s always guided
and influenced by my subjectivity. And it’s impossible for it to be otherwise. The result of this
line of thinking is that it seems to be producing a greater sense and desire of forbearance and
patience with one another so that we can more and more genuinely love one another.

John Piper’s attempt several years ago, for example, to change the doctrinal stance of his
church to receive those baptized as babies into the membership of the church is so obvious in
light of what Jesus actually died for. Jesus Christ didn’t die for doctrine. He died for people. He

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“so loved the world” and not our “so-loved” theological interests. His blood unites, while His
people have shed blood to divide. Unfortunately, his church was not at a place where they
wanted to take that step. But Piper did, and it reflects an attitude or milieu of the times which,
with all the baggage it brings with it, offers a more loving approach to dealing with people, by
insisting on a reintroduction of mystery back into the equation. Just because I can’t understand
it, analyze it, comprehend it, rationalize it, observe it, or whatever, doesn’t mean it isn’t true.
One author has stated.

“Did we, under a clearer sense of our adoption of God, with a deeper conviction
of the debt we owed to Him for this signal bestowment of His grace, walk in
closer converse with God, the things which separate us from the family of God, -
the differences of ecclesiastical polity, of modes of worship, the hard speeches,
the slights, the woundings, the misunderstandings which engender so much
suspicion, coldness, and alienation among the saints, - would be buried and lost
sight of as the rugged rocks appear beneath the flowing tide. Love – love to the
one Father – would prompt us to throw the mantle of love over the one
brotherhood…”2

But this denominationalism, sectarianism, and religious class-warring is nothing new. It


happened in the Old Testament, God’s people killing their own to get what they want. It
happened in the New Testament church, according to James (3:1 ff.). It has happened
throughout church history. But in all of this is seen a much grander picture than simply the
outward unity which I so passionately long for. In the midst of all the divisive chaos so many
churches have both caused and experienced, we see the patient, kind, forbearing, gentle, and
infinitely loving work of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit all working
together to embrace those who have a hard time embracing each other. In other words, when
we are faithless, He remains faithful (2 Tim. 2:13). He remains faithful to His covenant made
with His Son, Jesus Christ, for the life of His bride, the church. A whole lot may separate our
love for one another like He has commanded. But nothing separates us from His love. And that
is frankly amazing, outstanding, breathtaking, and almost unbelievable.

The Love of the Father is the Soil in Which the Unity of His Children Takes Root

It is here in the unstoppable and inseparable love of the Father for His own that we find the
basis for the type of unity Jesus prayed for in John 17, which is the basis for the type of unity
among His children that He intended to teach when He prayed, “Our Father.” Jesus prayed that
we would all be “one” just as He and the Father are one (John 17:21, 23). In other words, just
as the Father and Son cannot be separated, neither should the children of the Father and the
brothers of the Son.

It’s unthinkable that two members of the Trinity could possibly be separated from each other in
heart, mind, soul, and mission. So also, it ought to be unthinkable to us that any two or more

2
Winslow, pp. 35-36.

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believers would be separable from each other in heart, mind, soul, and mission. And what is
the mission of the Father? Only the mission of the Son! And what was the mission of the Son?
Only the mission of His church. And what is the mission of the church? Through their unity to
lead the world to believe that the Father sent the Son and loved them (17:23).

Being United to the Father Also Means Being United to Each Other

The whole mission of the church then is predicated upon this concept of unity, Jesus prays for
even now! And that unity is predicated upon rather simple facts like this one: “If I am a child of
God, I am a brother to all God’s children.” 3 The existence of one relationship inseparably
means the existence of the other relationship. When Jesus reconciled us to God the Father, He
also reconciled us to one another. That is essentially the single theological point driven home
hard by Paul in Ephesians 2, perhaps one of the most significant chapters in the entire Bible on
reconciliation with God and each other.

When He teaches us how to pray, Jesus is implicitly clear in “Our


Father” that when we turn our voices and hearts to the Father,
we do not ever turn our back on our spiritual kin. In perhaps the
greatest devotional book I have read on the Lord’s Prayer by
Octavius Winslow in 1866, his words capture my passion the
most.

“I am indeed privileged – and oh, how great and precious


that privilege is! – to call God ‘My Father,’ but I must
never forget that Jesus taught me to say, in concert with
one family, ‘Our Father.’ And that when I enter into my
closet it is my privilege, as my duty, to bear before my
Father, not my personal sins and sorrows only, but those
also of the holy brotherhood to which, by divine
affiliation, I belong.”4

He goes on to write an amazing paragraph that exalted my view of Christ like never before.

“The unity of His Church was a truth dear to the heart of Christ. As the hour of
His mysterious passion darkened, this truth dilated before His mind and
occupied a more distinct and prominent place in His discourse. Foreseeing the
divisions of sect and the differences of judgment and the alienation of affection
which would spring up in His Church after His ascension to glory – defacing its
beauty and impairing its strength – standing as beneath the shadow of His cross,
He prostrates Himself at the feet of His Father, and binding the whole

3
Octavius Winslow. The Lord’s Prayer: It’s Spirit and Its Teaching (London: John F. Shaw & Co., 1866), p.
27.
4
Ibid, p. 28.

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brotherhood around His heart, He prays, ‘That they all may be ONE, as Thou,
Father, art in me, and I in Thee, that they all may be one in us; that the world
may believe that Thou has sent me.’ This sublime petition of the Great
Intercessor is being partially answered now in every act of brotherly love, in
every recognition of fraternal relation, in every lovely, loving effort to manifest
and promote the visible unity of the Church.” 5

Winslow’s insights into the connection between what we call “catholicity” and the Lord’s Prayer
are undeniable. If the Father is a Father of a family, and if the Father’s love is imparted and
installed into His sons and daughters, then that Fatherly love will reach out and connect to
others who have been loved by the Father. John taught this in his first epistle.

“For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should
love one another…We love because he first loved us. If anyone says, ‘I love God,’
and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he
has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we
have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother” (3:11; 4:19-21).

Two Reasons Jesus Teaches us to Pray “OUR Father”

Pretty obvious then, isn’t it? So when it comes to praying to the Father, Jesus says “Our Father”
basically for two reasons.

The first reason Jesus teaches us to pray “Our Father” is because He can’t conceive of His
brothers and sisters – the sons and daughters of the Father – not praying together. Prayer in
the closet is one thing, and it is a good thing, as Jesus taught in Matthew 6 just previous to His
teaching on the Lord’s Prayer. But He moves from teaching about private prayer to
understanding the corporate nature of prayer. And in simple, here’s what it looks like:
Christians praying together.

This is not modeled anywhere better than in the early church. After the resurrection of Jesus
from the dead, the church is huddled together as a corporate praying people. They were united
in grief by their murdered Messiah. And they were united in joy by their resurrected
Redeemer. Then they were united in prayer by their hope in the Spirit of the Savior. “When
the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place” (Acts 2:1). After Pentecost,
they were united in prayer together in devotion to worship. “And they devoted themselves
to…the prayers” (Acts 2:42). Later they were united in prayer by their partnership with their
Persecuted Prince.

“When *Peter and John+ were released, they went to their friends and reported
what the chief priests and elders had said to them. And when they heard it, they

5
Ibid, pp. 28-29

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lifted their voices together to God…And when they had prayed, the place in
which they were gathered was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy
Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness” (Acts 4:23-24).

I have often wondered as a pastor if my shepherding attempts throughout my years of ministry


efforts have not been impeded and inhibited by a lack of corporate praying. Praying together
as a body is the greatest reflection of unity in a local church. Man! That makes me want to
radically alter and shift and change the way I do things as a leader. Praying together is the best
way to be the unified people Jesus prays that we would be in John 17.

The second reason Jesus taught us to pray “Our Father” is because any approach to the
Father necessarily and inherently and explicitly acknowledges and embraces that He has
other children besides me. Christians must go to the Father in prayer with no other
understanding of the Father except that which understands Him as a Father to many other sons
and daughters. In other words, when we come to the Father in private prayer we simply
cannot pray to Him without a heart-attitude about our unity with one another that is
interwoven into the very fabric of our attitudes and words in prayer. Coming right off the heels
of private prayer, Jesus begins His teaching on prayer with first-words that group me in
together with everyone else in the family of the Father. So if I’m going to engage in private
prayer, I simply cannot do it without this mindset dominating my prayer life.

In short, there can be no individualism when it comes to praying to the Father. While you are
bringing your needs to the Father, and while He cares about them, those needs must be
tempered with the same needs other brothers and sisters have. Peter speaks like this, for
example, when he teaches the persecuted and scattered believers about spiritual warfare and
prayer.

“…casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you. Be sober-minded;
be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeing
someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds
of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world” (1
Pet. 5:7-9).

This is a call to all of us now to defy individualism. “I” isn’t part of “our”. Believers cannot think
in terms of “I” but “us” and “we” and “our”. We are a family…all of us. And that is so anti-
cultural, isn’t it? We’re trained from birth to worry and fight and secure comfort for ourselves
and then for one another. So we bring our world’s culture into our relationship with God so
that He is my God. And that’s good and necessary, but to a certain degree.

It is good in one respect because many of us have never had anyone to love us and nurture us
and take care of us, especially in a generation where fathers have abdicated their roles to their
wives and pursued their careers. But this also can be dangerous when not tempered with the
fact that Jesus died for a group of people, and not just for me. I cringe when I hear statements
or songs that tell me that if I were the only person on earth, Jesus would have died for me. The

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Bible always couches Christ’s death and God’s love in terms of a corporate group of people, and
not in terms of individualism.

Inherent in individualism is thinking of God as a Father only to me. We think of Him in our
individual terms and concepts. We view Him through the filter we had of our own father, for
example, or perhaps as a Savior of our own personal hell or suffering. But this always run the
risk of falling into the pothole of idolatry, or making God after our own image, after our own
likeness. God is not my Father, but our Father. R. C. Sproul concurred when he wrote,

“When I talk to someone who is having difficulty using the word Father and
wants to choke on it when he refers to God, I usually advise him that, as hard as
it may be, to focus on the word that comes before it, our, because ‘our Father’ is
not his father. ‘Our Father’ is not the father who violated him. It’s our Father in
heaven, our Father has no abuse in Him, who will never violate anyone. We all
need to learn to use this phrase and transfer to God the positive attributes that
we so earnestly desire and so seriously miss in our earthly fathers.” 6

Two Reasons Why There Can Ultimately Be No “Personal Relationship” With Jesus

What I’m trying to say here is that there can really and ultimately be no “personal relationship”
with Jesus Christ. Christianity is not a “me and Jesus” thing. This is so for two reasons.

First, Jesus Christ is identified and known and interpreted by the world through His body, the
church. To have a relationship with Jesus is to have a relationship with His body. Any claim to
have fellowship with Jesus but not with other believers is a farce. It’s simply not possible
spiritually, theologically, or metaphysically. Paul taught this theology to the Corinthians.

“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. For in one Spirit we were
all baptized into one body – Jews or Greeks, slaves or free – and all were made
to drink of one Spirit…Now you are the body of Christ and individually members
of it” (1 Cor. 12:12, 13, 27).

And to the Ephesians he taught the same thing. Referring to the wall of hostility between Jews
and Gentiles, Paul writes about the unifying person and work of Jesus Christ.

“For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one…and might reconcile us
both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility…For
through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no
longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and
members of the household of God…Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone,

6
Sproul. p. 26.

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in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in
the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God
by the Spirit” (2:14, 16, 18-22).

This leads me second to the fact that to focus on Jesus Christ is to also focus on His body, the
church. If you want to savor Jesus, you do so by serving the saints and loving one another. You
can’t love Jesus and “dis” His Bride. He has chosen to manifest Himself through a corporate
people called the church. So any conception you and I have about Jesus and our relationship to
Him must be guided by and built in this theology of “one people.” He is inseparable from His
people.

That’s why, for example, in the Parable of the Sheep and Goats in Matthew 25, the goats were
sent to hell. Because they did not do the things Jesus mentions there to “the least of these my
brethren” the goats did not in reality do those things to Jesus Himself. There is an inseparable
unity and oneness Jesus has with His people so that they are intertwined, and what happens to
one affects what happens to the other. Unity to Jesus necessarily and inherently means unity
to other people who are united to Jesus.

So it is in light of this truth about our oneness together in Christ’s person and work that Paul
writes to the Ephesians about how they should be living with each other.

“…*W+ith all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in
love, eager to maintain the spirit of unity in the bond of peace. There is one
body and one Spirit – just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to
your call – one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is
over all and through all and in all…Be kind to one another, tenderhearted,
forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you” (4:2-5, 32).

To the Philippians again, he writes,

“…*C+omplete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in
full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility
count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to
his own interests, but also to the interests of others” (2:3, 4).

Praying With This Mindset Will Morph and Guide Our Prayer Life

As we pray with a fuller, more richly theological understanding of the corporate body of Christ
and our unity together with Christ in the Father, I see several ways from Scripture in which our
prayer lives will be morphed and guided. We will be taught how to pray. We will become
intercessors. And we will develop thanksgiving. Let me break these down briefly.

1. Praying With This Mindset Teaches us How to Pray Better

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It is crucial for sons and daughters of the Father then, to come to their Abba in prayer with a
corporate sense of identity, instead of our own individual needs and wants as our culture and
selfish nature trains us to do. I realize that the Apostle Paul tells us in Romans 8:26 that, “we
do not know what to pray for as we ought.” But I also know that Paul is not saying, “Don’t learn
how to pray better.” If that were true, then the Spirit would not have guided him to write
down so many of his prayers for the churches so that we could read and learn what prayer does
in fact look like.

In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus teaches how to pray and “what to pray for,” as Paul says in Romans
8:26. The fact that He is teaching us means that prayer is not something that comes naturally
to us. That, I believe, is the essence of what Paul is after in his statement about prayer in
Romans 8, by the way. Jesus’ teaching on prayer is part of the renewing of our minds so that
we can be transformed people (Rom. 12:2).

While we are born again, and while the old has gone and the new has come (2 Cor. 5:17), our
new nature inherently inclines us pray with the right attitude and heart. However, we still must
be taught to do it and to think about prayer within the context of our corporate identity as one
body, and our unity together in Jesus Christ. So this is hard work we’re talking about here, both
praying and learning how to pray at the same time. Realizing that I am only a part of a huge
family of the Father will effectively temper, shape, form, and morph the way I pray to the
Father. In fact, the mere word “Father” makes me immediately think of His other children so
that I am thrust into their needs and their sufferings.

2. Praying With This Mindset Develops a Biblical Intercessory Prayer Life

Commands and teachings like these are seen more clearly in light of how Jesus teaches us to
pray. Take this one for instance: “Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ”
(Gal. 6:2). Or this one: “…in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of
you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others” (Phil. 2:3-4). Bearing
one another’s burdens and counting others’ needs as more important than mine should happen
first and foremost when we address “our Father” in prayer. This is called intercession and the
Apostle Paul defines it this way. “Praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and
supplication. To that end keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the
saints…” (Eph. 6:18, 19). When I have a deep sense of my oneness with my other brothers and
sisters, praying for them will just flow rather naturally from my heart.

3. Praying With This Mindset Develops a Heart of Thanksgiving in our Prayer Life

Then there’s thanksgiving which Paul modeled so well for us. You’ll notice how many of the
letters he writes begin with his personal prayer life and how the people he writes to actually
shape his prayers. In other words, he actually engages with the content and substance of their
life and allows that to guide how he prays. He doesn’t pray cheesy-traditional prayers for
people that we’ve heard so many times.

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You remember what I’m talking about here: “God we just wanna thank you for your servants
John and Joanna who so faithfully serve in ways we just have don’t time to list. And we also
just wanna lift up all our missionaries who are so faithfully serving you in foreign countries.
Time just doesn’t permit us to remember each one of them here and now, but we just wanna
lift ‘em up and ask you to bless ‘em, Lord.” Remember prayers like these? In churches where I
grew up they were usually prayed by older people during Wednesday night prayer meetings, or
just before the offering on Sunday mornings.

But if you compare this mindset and prayer life with what we actually see in the life and letters
of Paul, we get an altogether different picture of how a corporate identity and unity and
oneness and togetherness in the body of Christ actually shape and morph our prayer life. Allow
me to take a brief survey of Paul’s personal prayer life to make this point. I’ll then follow it up
with two simple observations.

Prayers Motivated and Guided by a Group of Believers

 To the Philippian Church: “I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always in


every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy because of your partnership
in the gospel from the first day until now” (Phil. 1:3-5). Listen to Paul’s usage of
superlatives like all, always, every, and all. It doesn’t appear that he left people out!

Likewise, since he was writing to them from prison, their prayers for him were shaped
by a “one-another” mindset. “Yes, and I will rejoice, for I know that through your
prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ this will turn out for my deliverance”
(1:18, 19).

 To the Colossian Church: “We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
when we pray for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you
have for all the saints…” (Col. 1:3, 4). Notice again the superlative, always. In other
words, every single time he remembers one of the Colossians, he is always led to pray
for them and thank God for them. Also notice that Paul’s personal prayer life is guided
and morphed by something remarkable he notices about the Colossian church. There
was something specific about them that sparked him to thank God for them and pray
for them.

Conversely, his imprisoned situation should guide the Colossians as they pray for him.
“Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving. At the same
time, pray also for us, that God may open to us a door for the word, to declare the
mystery of Christ, on account of which I am in prison – that I may make it clear, which is
how I ought to speak” (4:2-4). Then, we get another snapshot of one of Paul’s apostolic
team members, Epaphras, “who is one of you, a servant of Christ Jesus…always
struggling on your behalf in his prayers, that you may stand mature and fully assured in
all the will of God” (4:12).

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 To the Thessalonian Church: “We give thanks to God always for all of you, constantly
mentioning you in our prayers, remembering before our God and Father your work of
faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thess. 1:2,
3). Notice again the superlatives: all and constantly. It’s a habit here. Then notice the
frequent uses of “our” which clearly show that even Paul himself is not praying by
himself for them. Rather “We” and “our” indicate a more corporate involvement he has
in praying for them, probably with the apostolic team he traveled with. He begins his
second letter to them with no less a sense of unity in prayer. “We ought always to give
thanks to God for you, brothers, as is right, because your faith is growing abundantly,
and the love of every one of you for one another is increasing” (2 Thess. 1:3).

Prayers Motivated and Guided by an Individual Believer

 To Timothy: “I thank my God whom I serve, as did my ancestors, with a clear


conscience, as I remember you constantly in my prayers night and day” (2 Tim. 1:3).
Paul is writing to a young man he personally disciple for many years, before leaving him
in Ephesus to take over the pastoral work there. After leaving, Paul thought about
Timothy constantly, which led him to pray. And what precisely does he pray about
regarding Timothy? His tears of love for Paul (v. 4) and his sincere faith which he
learned from his grandmother and mother (v. 5).

 To Philemon: “I thank my God always when I remember you in my prayers, because I


hear of your love and of the faith that you have toward the Lord Jesus and all the
saints, and I pray that the sharing of your faith may become effective for the full
knowledge of every good thing that is in us for the sake of Christ. For I have derived
much joy and comfort from your love, my brother, because the hearts of the saints
have been refreshed through you” (vv. 4-7). Philemon was the owner of a house in
which the Colossian believers met as a church family. So when Paul remembered
Philemon and his service to the church family in this way, something this simple sparked
and motivated and guided some significant praying for Philemon and his family.

Observations on Paul’s Prayer Life

Now, within this survey there are two simple things I observed regarding Paul’s prayer life. And
these examples of his prayer life are there, by the way, to give us a living-color example of what
our prayer should look like when we are genuinely praying, “our Father.”

1. Beginning my prayer with “our Father” immediately forces my mind into the lives of my
other brothers and sisters whose needs, circumstances, and situations I feel to be more
significant and important than mine. Praying like Jesus taught me will lead me to pray
these people as a group (like Paul did entire churches), or for individuals (like Paul did
Timothy and Philemon, and others).

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2. Beginning my prayer with “our Father” fills my prayers for “our” brothers and sisters
with substantive content about God’s work in their lives. This always produces joy and
thanksgiving in my heart for them. In other words, assuming I’m connected to the lives
of others as I ought to be, when I think about them I will be led to thank God for them
and joyfully pray for them.

I think those two observations sum up the basics when it comes to not only Paul’s prayer life,
but also our own as we pursue a Father who belongs to us all. This is just so natural for a prayer
life that is dominated and guided by this corporate sense of identity, oneness, unity and
togetherness we all have as sons and daughters of Jesus Christ. No doubt it was built in to
Jesus’ teaching on prayer, as well as Paul’s example in prayer, including the reflection of the
early church in their prayer life. In all three examples it seems common sense that whatever
problems, situations, circumstances, struggles, tribulations, trials, or conflicts a church
experiences, praying together, and praying with a unity-dominated mindset enables a church to
pass through these fires with gold and silver instead of wood, hay and stubble. Winslow has
written,

“There is not an engagement so uniting, so healing, so hallowing as prayer. In


this holy atmosphere nothing can live but the pure, the holy, the loving.
Sectarianism vanishes, bigotry expires, coldness dissolves, wounds are healed;
and the saints, clustering together around the feet of the one God and Father of
all, realize their spiritual unity, exhibit their indivisible oneness, and present a
spectacle of holy love such as earth, with all its boasted alliances never saw, and
such as heaven, from amidst its perfect harmony, looks down to see. Oh, were
there a deeper and more universal spirit of united prayer pervading Christ’s
Church, it would tide over those sectarian differences and party jealousies which
so much deface its comeliness, impair its power, and shade its luster; and
flowing with the effulgence which encircles the throne of grace, she would go
forth, luminous and invincible, to subdue and bless the world…” 7

The Significance for the Mission

Jesus prayed to the Father because He loved the Father, and because the Father loved Him.
Paul prayed for these churches and individuals because he loved them, and he knew they loved
him. The early church prayed together because they loved the Father, and they knew He loved
them. In all of these examples and reflections of prayer, they seem to be rooted in the soil of
God’s love. And that’s approximately where we started out in this particular chapter.

Love is what makes the wheels turn and the motor run when it comes to the church on its
mission. When we love someone we think about them when we are not around them. And
when we love someone we want to get to know them better when we are with them. Love for
one another is what motivates mission. That’s because it’s what motivated God’s mission.

7
Winslow, pp. 33-34.

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“God so loved the world that He sent His only Son…” (John 3:16). God loved the world so much.
He loved the world so much. He loved the world so much, that He gave. He gave by sending
His only Son. The Father loved you and I and the world so much that He send His Son on a
mission to get us back to Himself.

The Father has handed that mission to Jesus, who has handed that mission to the disciples, who
have handed that mission down to us. And in each generation, the mission is still guided by the
same thing: so much love for one another that we are sent into the world to give of ourselves
so that others may believe in Christ and have eternal life. It is this love for one another that we
call unity. And when it pervades and dominates our lives, all the way down to the private areas
no one sees or rewards (except for God, of course), then we are one people whom the world
cannot dismiss. We are a force to be reckoned with.

“As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world…I do not ask
for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, so
that they may all be one, just as you Father, are in me, and I in you, that they
also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The
glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as
we are one, I In them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so
that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved
me” (John 17:18, 20-23).

Listen to Winslow’s words in closing on this issue of love.

“Why should we not love, even though we differ? Why should we not unite,
even though we are separated? Why should we not bear each other’s burdens,
and sympathise with each other’s trials, and aid each other’s efforts, and bow
together at the footstool of the same Father, even though we are labouring for
Him in sundered departments of the one house? If our love to the Father is
genuine, our love to the offspring of that Father will be true. Love to the one will
be the measure, as the evidence, of our love to the other. Oh, for more love!
Were I asked what the first great need of the Church was, I should unhesitatingly
reply – love. And what the second – love. And what the third – love.

“I marvel not that our Lord added a ‘new commandment,’ as it were, to the
Decalogue – ‘That ye love one another, even as I have loved you.’ Love would
veil infirmities; love would seal the law of kindness upon the lip; love would
rebuke slander, reprove falsehood, and suppress every thought, feeling, and
word that would dishonor the Father through the child, wound the Savior
through the disciple, grieve the Master through the servant.

“Realising our personal interest in God’s love, and remembering that He loves
alike all the children of His family, with what holy guardedness should we respect
the feelings, and shield the reputation, and promote the happiness of all the

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sons and daughters of God! Oh, how can I look coldly upon him whom God
smiles? How dare I disown one whom Christ accepts? Where is the evidence of
my own sonship if I unite not in heart and voice with my brother in saying, ‘Our
Father, who art in heaven?’ – and while I breathe the filial words, feel not a
brother’s love glowing in my heart?” 8

“Why should we not, though of different communions, break through the fence
and leap over the wall of separation, and pour out our sorrowing hearts together
in mutual fellowship at the feet of OUR Father in heaven? Could these happy
spirits [in heaven], who have fled from the religious divisions and strifes of the
Church on earth, bend from their thrones and speak, with what holy
earnestness, with what glowing love, with what celestial and touch eloquence
would they exclaim –

‘Your different forms of church polity and worship are human, your essential
faith and heavenly hopes are divine! Oh, love as brethren! We now see the folly
of our divisions, the sin of our contentions, the iniquity of our jealousies, strifes,
and alienations. Here there are no different communions, no separating walls,
no exclusive altars, - nothing to impair the power, or shade the lustre, or disturb
the music of that love which now knits every heart in the closest fellowship, and
blends every voice in the sweetest song.

“We are now with Christ! In the effulgence of His glory all is absorbed and
annihilated that once created a cloud, or inspired a jarring note. His love so
overflows our souls that we are transformed into love, we are all love, and
nothing but love toward one another. All our thoughts and feelings, worship and
service, so centre in Christ, that, forgetting earth’s divisions and strifes, or,
remembering them but to deepen our humility and heighten our song, we now
feel, as we have never felt before, how human, how light, how insignificant were
the things which once separated, - and how divine, how real, how lasting are
those which now unite us in a fellowship as holy, as close, and as eternal as the
unity of the God we adore.’

“Let us endeavor to approximate, in some measure, to the sentiments and


feelings of the glorified saints. Let us realise in some degree what that love in
heaven is that constrains the most fierce polemics and the widest sectarians,
who once wrote and spake and strove with each other so fiercely and so bitterly,
each for his own communion, now to meet in the embrace of a love that buries
all the past of earth’s infirmities in its infinite depths of its eternal flow.

Oh, in the light of the one close view of eternity, in the experience of one
moment’s realisation of heaven, how unimportant and puerile the contentions

8
Winslow, pp. 37-38.

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as to whose orders are the most valid, or whose church polity is the most
apostolic! OUR Father, who art in heaven! Look down upon Thy one family!
And so fill it with Thy love, that, casting out all selfishness, coldness, and
alienation, all may meet at Thy feet, and love as brethren, and worship Thee as
the one God and Father of all.”9

“Do not speak evil against one another, brothers. The one who speaks against a
brother or judges his brother, speaks evil against the law and judges the law”
(James 4:11).

“Finally, all of you, have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart,
and a humble mind. Do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the
contrary, bless, for to this you were called, that you may obtain a blessing” (1
Pet. 3:8, 9).

“Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away
from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving
one another, as God in Christ forgave you. Therefore be imitators of God, as
beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us,
a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God” (Eph. 4:31-5:2).

“Were these divine and holy precepts more conscientiously and strictly
observed, were they entwined more closely with the intercourse of saint with
saint, and of the saints with the world in daily life, how much evil would be
prevented, how much alienation of affection would be averted, how Christian
brethren, now sundered in the intercourse and fellowship by
misrepresentations, evil-speaking, and mischief-making, would be united in the
sweetest communion and in the holiest service for Christ! Oh, to remember that
every shaft hurled at a brother’s fair fame pierces him through the heart of
Jesus!”10

“*A+s we approach eternity, and realise more the heavenly glory, do we not feel
a closer drawing towards all who love the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity? Standing
once by the dying bed of a child of God, he stretched forth his emaciated hand,
cold and clammy with the moisture of death, and, grasping mine, exclaimed,
‘The nearer I get to heaven, the dearer to my heart are the Lord’s people of
every branch of His one family.’

“Such, too, was the testimony of, a few days before his death, of an eminent
professor of an American university – ‘The longer I live the more clearly do I prize
being a Christian, and the more signally unimportant seem to me the differences

9
Ibid, pp. 44-46.
10
Ibid, pp. 48-49.

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by which true Christians are separated from each other.’ How sweetly these
dying testimonies to the unity of the Church of Christ chine with the dying prayer
of Christ Himself for His universal Church, ‘That they all may be ONE.’”11

11
Ibid, pp. 51-52.

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