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John E. Staton, "A Vision of Unity - Christian Unity in the Fourth Gospel," The Evangelical Quarterly 69.4 (Oct.-Dec. 1997): 291-305.

EQ69:4 (1997),291-305

John E. Staton
A Vision of Unity-Christian Unity in the
Fourth Gospel

Sabbatical leave fur ministers has become increasingly common in recent years
and has been used fur a variety ofpurposes. Mr Staton, who is minister ofPaisley
Methodist Mission, has used his recent leave to further his knowledge of the
Gospel ofJohn-to his profit and to ours.

'That they may be one', the prayer of the departing Lord for the unity
of his followers, has become one of the slogans of the ecumenical
movement. It has been the earnest prayer of those involved in inter-
church relations on an international and national level, in local cove-
nants, in church union schemes, and in inter-church bodies, and
particularly of those involved in local ecumenical partnerships. But
what is it we are praying for? Too often we simply read our own ideas of
church unity into the prayer, so that our exposition reveals more about
the interpreter than about the text. Can we be sure we are being faithful
to the Biblical tradition? Perhaps we can make a start by studying the
text from which our opening words were taken in the context of the
teaching of the whole of the Fourth Gospel on the subject of unity. This
is a subject on which all too little work has been done.!
I propose, firstly to enquire as to the source of that unity, and then
as to its nature. Mter that, we will consider the purpose of that unity.
We shall end by assessing what contribution the Fourth Gospel's vision
of unity can make to the discussion concerning Christian unity today.

I. The Source of Unity

What, then, is the source of the unity of believers, according to the
Fourth Gospel? The source is to be found in Jesus as the community'S
I J. L. D'Aragon, 'La notion johannique de I'unit', Scimces Ecclisiastiques 11 (1959),
111-9; J. F. Randall, 'The theme of unity in John 17:20-23', ETL 4 (48) (1972,
373-394; cf. also D. B. Woll,johannine Christianity in Conflict (Chico, 1981)
Ferdinand F. Segovia has promised a major treatment ofJohn 17, entitled ThePrayer
of the Wont: A johannine eaU to unity, in n. 1 to his article 'The Journeys of the Word of
God: A reading of the plot of the Fourth Gospel' , Semfta 53 (1991), 23-54. Please note
that use of the name John in this article does not imply any particular theory of
authorship.
292 The Evangelical QJLarterly

common Lord. Jesus is the Good Shepherd who calls his sheep by
name and leads them in and out to find pasture and who lays down
his life for the sJteep. He is the door who admits them to the fold of
God's people Gohn 10:1-18). He is the one who must die for the
people and to gather the scattered children of God (11:52). And he is
the vine, of which they must be part if they are to belong to God's
covenant people (15: 1-11) . Indeed, asJ. W. Pryor has made clear ,Jesus
is the covenant people. 2 All the promises concerning Israel find their
fulfilment in him, all the attributes, titles, and privileges of God's
people are transferred to him, and those who wish to belong to God's
people must become part of him. 3 It has long been noted in respect
of the vine image Gohn 15) that it is not a case ofJesus being the stock
and his followers the branches, but ofJesus being the whole vine and
the followers the branches, implying a possibly stronger concept of
incorporation in Christ than is suggested by Paul's 'body' metaphor
(Rom. 12:4-5, 1 Cor. 12:12-31; Cf. Eph.l:23; 4:15-16). Quite howJohn
perceives this incorporation we will discuss later, but here we need only
remark that this image makes it crystal clear that Jesus, the commu-
nity's Lord, is the source and focus of its unity.
But that is not the complete picture. The source of the believers'
unity is not only in Jesus, their common Lord, but also in God, in
particular, in the union of Father and Son. In John 17:21-22 Jesus
prays, 'that all of them may be one, Father, just as you 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.' He prays that the believers may share in the union
which exists between himself and the Father, so they may be one and
so their witness may challenge the world to a believing response. Brown
remarks that 'heavenly unity is both the model and source of the unity
of believers' . Smalley goes so far as to say that 'the unity of the incarnate
Son with the Father is the ground, in Johannine terms, of the unity
between the believer and the Godhead, as well as of unity between the
believer and other Christians'.4 The parallelism that John uses here
! J. W. Pryor,John: Evangrtlist of the Covenant People (London 1992). Note that the image
of the vine applied to Israel in Psalm 80 is applied to Jesus, not to the community of
believers.
5 R. E. Brown, The Gospel Accorrling to St. John 2 Vols (London 1971),769; S. S. Smalley,
John: Evangrtlist and Interpreter (Exeter 1978), 212; cf. also D. M. Smith, The Theology of
the Gospel ofJohn (Cambridge 1995), 129.
4 a. R. Schnackenburg, The Gospelaccrmlingto St.John 3 Vols. (ET, London, 1982), adloc.
N.B. the difference between the thought ofJohn and Paul here. In Paul, the Holy Spirit
plays a m;yor role in establishing unity among Christians (cf. 1 Cor. 12:4, 11, 13, though
nowhere else unless one includes Eph. 4:3-4), whereas in John it is the Father and the
Son that perform this function. However, given that in John the Spirit is called 'another
Paraclete', implying thatJesus is the original Paraclete (made explicit in the Epistle-l
In. 2:1) and that the Spirit's task is to continue the work thatJesus came to do, and that
in Paul the demarcation lines between Christ and the Spirit can be somewhat blurred
(cf. Rom. 8:9- 11), maybe this difference is more apparent than real.
 A Vision of Unity-Ckristian Unity in the Fourth Gospel 293

probably means that this is what is in John's mind when he hasJesus

say in the next verse, 'I have given them the glory that you gave me,
that they may be one as we are one.' This glory is the glory that is
perceived in the incarnate Word in 1:14, 'the glory of the one and only,
who came from the Father', the glory that is revealed in Jesus' signs
(U. 2:11) and supremely in his death (Cf.12:23-33). This glory is none
other than the fulness of the life of the Godhead manifested in Jesus,
which displays itself as power in the signs, as love in Jesus' death
(15:13), as majesty in the incarnation of the word and in the eschato-
logical glory (1:14, 17:24), and which can be seen at work in the union
of the Father and the Son (14:23,17:22), and in the work of the Holy
Spirit, the Paraclete (14:25-26, 15:26, 16:5-15). It is this glory, this
'fulness of divine life' (Schnackenburg), which forms the basis, the
source of, and the energy behind the unity ofbelievers. 5

2. The Nature of Unity

But what kind of unity is it to which Jesus, the community's Lord calls
believers? Much ink has been spilt answering this question, much of it
by people justifYing their own vision of church unity in the present day
or of how churches should be organised.6 But the best interpreter of
John is John, so let us look again at the unity prayed for by the
departing Lord in John 17:20-23 in the light of the teaching concern-
ing unity contained elsewhere in the Fourth Gospel.
If we do, we will find that it is firstly a unity of love. Raymond Brown
says, 'Sooner or later most authors say it is a union oflove.' His point
is that this is an inadequate definition. But it may be a good place to
start. The departing Lord shows a great concern that his followers
should love one another (John 13:34-35, 15:12, 17-N.B. the com-
mand is repeated in both cases), and the believers'love is intended to
demonstrate the love of the Father for them and the love of the Father
for the Son (17:23). Exhortations to brotherly love are a common
feature of farewell discourses, especially in late Jewish times, and the
writer may well have the fear of a threat to unity in his own situation
in mind. The evangelist must therefore have been thinking of a unity
of love, though one that had a vertical (believer-God) aspect, as well
7
as a horizontal (believer- believer) aspect. But this love is no sloppy
emotion or mere sentimentalism, it is the love that moved God to send
his Son into the world (3:16), that caused the Son to show the full
extent of his love by accepting the death that awaited him (13:2), and

5 R. E. Brown, op. cit., 775.

6 Ibid., 776. For Farewell Discourses see J. F. Randall, op. /:iL, !J76
7 a. D. M. Smith, op. t:iL,152. 'According to the image, each member branch is directly
related to Christ, but not otherwise to the members.'
294 The Evangelical Q}l.arterly

which caused him to lay down his life for his friends (15:13). This is
the love that is to bind Jesus' followers in unity.
Secondly, the unity in view in John 17 is a unity of loyalty. If the
source of the unity of the community is to be found in Jesus as the
community's Lord, then the ongoing nature of that unity must, to
some extent at least consist in loyalty to Jesus as the Lord of the
community. This, indeed, is reflected in the text of the Fourth Gospel,
most evidently in connection with the vine image of chapter 15.
Whatever else may be implied by the concept of 'abiding in the vine'
(and much else is!), the least that can be said is that Jesus is seen in
this passage as commanding his disciples to remain faithful to him.
The vine branches are primarily joined to the stem, and only indirectly
to each other. Their togetherness depends absolutely on their individ-
8
ual dependence on the Lord. This idea also comes to the fore in the
shepherd image Gohn lO), where we have an image of sheep who know
their shepherd (w. 2-4, 14,27), listen to his voice alone, and follow
only him (w. 4-5,16, 27). Here there is a clear picture of the unity of
believers as a unity of those who recognise Jesus as the community's
Lord (perhaps the major theme ofJohn's gospel is the recognition of
Jesus true identity-described as 'believing' in such places as 2: 11; 4:39;
6:69; 9:35-38; 11:45; 17:8,20, and as the essential condition for salva-
tion in 1:12 and also described as 'knowing' in lO:14-15 and 17:3) by
means of his signs, his teaching, and supremely through his 'glorifica-
tion' -i.e. his death and resurrection, and who listen to and follow him
alone. Both these images bear testimony to a strong element ofloyalty
in the unity of believers as envisaged in the Fourth Gospel.
Thirdly, the unity of believers in view in the Fourth Gospel is a unity
based on the mutual indwelling of the Father and the Son on the one
side and the believers on the other, and which is modelled on the
union between the Father and the Son. Here we emphasise the other
side of Brown 's phrase quoted above: 'heavenly unity is both the model
and source of the unity of believers '(see n. 4). The unity of the
community is the unity experienced by those who are each united in
the closest possible way with the Father and the Son. This concept of
'being in' is a theme of the Farewell Discourse in john's gospel
(14:10-11,20, as well as 17:20-23, 26). It expresses largely the same
idea as the language about 'abiding in' inJohn 15 (cf. also 6:53-56)
and 'coming and making our home' in 14:23. This language is used to
describe the relationship between the Son and the Father, a relation-

8 For the relationship of knowledge and belief cf. R. Bultmann, art. ginoslco, mm I,
esp. pp. 711-3. On knowledge generally see also E. Schlitz, art. 'Knowledge', New
International Dictionary ofNew Testament TMology (Exeter 1976), 11, 392-406
9 Cf. O. Cullmann, op. cit 14ff. .
 A Vision of Unity-Christian Unity in the Fourth Gospel 295

ship which is so close that seeing the Son is said to be equivalent to

seeing the Father (14:9). The Son works the Father's work (5:17), the
Father shows him all he does and entrusts all judgement to the Son
(5:20, 22), he grants the Son to have life in himself (5:26). The Son
obeys the Father, continuing his work (5:19) and passing on his
revelation (6:44-51; 8:28; 12:49-50). He only does what pleases the
Father (8:29), and believing in the Son is the same as believing in the
Father (12:44-45). The Son loves the Father (14:31) and the Father
loves the Son (17:23-26). This relationship is one oflove, of trust, of
respect, of faithfulness, and (on the part of the Son) of obedience and
loyalty. It is a personal relationship that is so close that the two parties
seem to have become almost one person (12:44-45; 14:9; 1O:30?). But
I say 'almost'. The fourth evangelist never loses sight of the distinction
between the Son and the Father, between God and the Word, which
is probably his reason for prefacing the gospel with his famous pro-
logue (1:1-18). Most especially he is concerned throughout his work
to identify the incarnate Jesus with the exalted Christ. 10 But we are
talking of an extremely close, perhaps even an intimate, relationship.
In fact, of course the evangelist goes farther still in describing
the relationship between the Father and the Son. His is arguably the
highest christology in the whole New Testament. The Son is the
incarnate Word, he is described as 'equal with God', he says 'I and
the Father are one' and 'before Abraham was, I am', and pronounces
the famous 'I am' sayings.ll The soldiers draw back when he says 'I am
he' (Gk. ego eim,) in the garden (18:6). How can this kind of relation-
ship be likened to the relationship of the believer to the Godhead?
Only, I think, if this image is seen, like all images in the gospel to be a
metaphor which discloses truth through « certain point or certain
points of comparison rather than an allegory where every point has to
match Up.12 The personal relationship between the Father and the Son
is to be replicated in the relationship between believers and the
Godhead, but the believers do not share in the divinity shared by the
Son and the Father (cf. 1:1; 20:28).
The relationship of believers to the Son finds its clearest expression
10 It could be argued that 5:18 is a misunderstanding on the part of the 'jews', but it is
one ofJohn's frequent literary ploys to have characters to speak 'truer than they know'
Cf. 11:52; 19:19-21. There is no doubt John believed this statement to be true. In
regard to 10:~, there is also no doubt thatJohn intended his readers to understand
a claim to a share in divinity, even if it would not be understood in the historical
context. Here John is making connections back to the mth of his own community.
See previous note.
11 See the interesting discussion of John's use of metaphor in R. Kysar, 'johannine
Metaphor-Meaning and function: A literary case study ofJohn 10:1-18', SeMa 5!J
(1991),79-111
11 See dictionary articles quoted in n. 9. Cf. also Schnackenburg's Commentary, ad Ioc.
296 The Evangelical QJsarlerly

in the images of the shepherd and the vine. The significant passage in
John 10 is vv. 14-15, 'I know my sheep and my sheep know me just as
the Father knows me and I know the Father.' We interpreted this above
in terms of believers recognising Jesus as their Lord. But this cannot
be the whole meaning of the saying, because of the second part 1ust
as the Father knows me and I know the Father'. It may make sense to
affirm that Jesus recognises his 'sheep' (ie. those who will believe in
him) and that the 'sheep' recognise him, but talking about the Father
and Son 'recognising' each other makes little sense. The gospel gives
every indication that both these parties have been aware of each
others' identity for eternity! Here a more personal relationship is in
view. This accords with the use of yada' in the Hebrew Bible and of
ginoskO in the Septuagint, where knowing God is largely a matter of
acknowledging God's acts (Dt. 11:2; Is. 41:20; Hos. 1:3; Mic. 6:5) or
that he is God (Dt. 4:39; 8:5; 29:5; Is. 43:10; Ps. 46:10), but where the
words are also used to indicate a personal relationship between human
beings, or between God and men (e.g. Dt. 34:1O;Je. 1:5; Am. 3:2). So
here in John 10: 14-15 knowledge as acknowledgement or recognition
ofJesus as the 'Good Shepherd' and the community'S Lord, and as a
personal relationship between Shepherd and sheep is in view. This may
stretch the metaphor a little, but this is nothing unusual where our
author is concerned. We have a picture of a flock where the sheep are
united in a close personal relationship with the shepherd.l~
The other major treatment of the relationship between believers
and Jesus is in John 15.Jesus' followers are commanded to 'remain in'
Jesus. This is not the first time our author has used this phrase. The
first time was in 6:56, where 'remaining in Jesus' depends on eating
Jesus' flesh and drinking his blood, which in context means accepting
the spiritual nourishment and salvation Jesus has won for us through
his death (hypet', 'for', in v. 51 is commonly used in connection with
sacrifices offered 'for' or on behalf of someone), very probably
through the means of participating in the communion meal. This
receiving of salvation and spiritual life brings about a reciprocal per-
sonal relationship and enables the believer to share the divine life
(6:57). InJohn 15 we see the same phrase: 'Remain in me and I in
you'. Again the phrase must carry the sense of a close personal
relationship. 'Remaining in the vine' may well be a matter of staying
loyal to the community'S Lord, but the reciprocal formula must point
to something more. Again, the metaphor is stretched, though John
could claim that this is inevitable, since he is describing things beyond
human experience. The introduction of the theme oflove in 15:9-17
confirms that we are here dealing with a close, personal relationship

IS C. F. D. Moule, 'The Individualism of the Fourth Gospel', Nuv.T. 5 (1962), 171-90

 A Vision of Unity-Christian Unity in the Fourth Gospel 297

between Jesus and his own. Here we encounter a picture of a vine

where all the branches hang together by virtue of their close personal
relationship with the 'True Vine' (as we said above, Jesus is not the
stem, but the whole vine)-an unimaginable image, but hardly less so
than Paul's image of a body where all the parts have individual wills-
and where the branches are said to 'remain in' the vine in a sense very
close to that conveyed by Paul's 'in Christ' language. In John 15 we
even have the concept of corporate identity (Jesus is the whole vine
and the vine is an Old Testament representation of Israel), in John
6:56 we see the idea of participation in the death and life of Christ,
and here in John 15 we see the kind of personal relationship which
finds expression in Gal. 2:19-20.
With this in mind, we return to John 17. Jesus' prayer is that the
believers may be 'in us' that the world might believe. Being 'in us' is
parallel to 'being one' in the previous clause, and it is the being 'in us'
that is to bring the world to faith. This almost beggars belief. The
horizontal unity of believers consists in their each having a vertical
relationship with the Godhead and it is that series of individual rela-
tionships that leads the world to believe! How can this be? It is a very
difficult concept, like many others with which John presents us, but he
appears to be saying that those who are closely bonded to their Lord
in this fashion will be also closely bonded to each other, presumably
out of a desire to obey their Lord's command to love each other
(13:34-35; 15:12,17) and because the divine life in them fills them with
the divine love (17:26) and brings them to perfection (17:23, where
the Greek literally reads 'that they may be perfected into unity', cf. also
1 John 3: 1-1 0). Further, it would appear that the author believes that
those who are closely bound to their Lord have an inner power of
attraction-the attraction of someone who really means and lives and
believes what they are saying.
Fourthly, this unity is a unity of fellowship. What we have said so far
would tend to support the view of Moule and others that the Fourth
14
Gospel is very individualistic. But this cannot be all there is to the
Johannine concept of unity. InJohn 17,Jesus prays, 'that they may be
one ... that the world may believe ... may they be brought to complete
unity to let the world know that you sent me.' How can a thoroughly
individualistic religion have this kind of effect on the world? How can
a series of believers wrapped up in their individual relationships with
the Lord be said in any way to be one? If, however, we review carefully
the Johannine teaching on unity, we will see that this is not what he is
saying at all. We mistake our author if we read him too quickly, taking

14 S. Pancaro, • "People of God" in St. John's Gospel', NTS 16 (1970), 114-29; cf.
Schnackenburg, op. cil., Vol. 2, 350.
298 The Evangelical Qy.arterly

in only the broad sweep of what he says and missing the little touches
that put all the rest in context and restore the balance.
There is, indeed, a 'corporate' strain running throughout John's
gospel. The two great images of unity, the flock and the vine, are both
corporate images (the sheep of a flock must stick together, the
branches of a vine must stay attached to the vine), indeed both are
established images of God's people, Israel (Ezk. 34; Ps. 80). This is
reinforced in chapter 10 by verse 16 where Jesus says, 'I have other
sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too
will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd.'
Here Jesus is not talking about individuals, but about groups of people.
Like most commentators, I interpret 'other sheep' to refer to Gentiles,
but however one defines that phrase, there is an obvious concern for
the people of God as a whole. This comes out again inJohn 11:49- 52.
Here Caiaphas 'prophesies' that 'it is better for you that one man die
than that the whole nation perish' and John comments 'he prophesied
that Jesus would die for the nation, and not for the nation only but
also for the scattered children of God.' In interpreting this passage S.
Pancaro points out that the words translated 'nation' and 'people' have
very distinct meanings in the Greek Bible and particularly in John. The
former word in Jewish usage is the one often rendered 'Gentile' in
English, the latter is used for God's holy people, Israel.John, however,
makes an important change here. ForJohn, since the coming of Christ
in the flesh, the Jewish people are no longer God's people in any
special way. The phrase 'God's people' can now only refer to those who
believe in Christ. There will be some Jews among their number (note
Jesus dies so that the whole nation should not perish in v. 50, andJesus
does die for the 'nation' in v. 51, but not only for them, v. 52), but
Gentile believers too are included. The 'children of God' in v. 52, is
also a traditional title ofIsrael as God's people, but is now transferred
to the community of those who believe inJesus (1:12-13 and 1 John,
passim). Thus John thought of the whole company of believers as
constituting God's covenant people, though bearing in mind what we
said above, believers are only included in the people of God if they are
incorporate in Christ (believing, remaining in the vine, following the
Shepherd etc.), but those who are so attached to Jesus are as fully God's
corporate people as Israel ever were. Pancaro realises that such lan-
guage presupposes the thought of a church, though John never uses
the term, and certainly the evangelist has in mind here the universal
community of believers of his own day.15
We should note also the terms that Jesus uses in this gospel to
describe his followers. There are many. There is the word 'disciple'
15 a. D. M. Smith, op. aL, 156£.
 A Visiun of Unity-Christian Unity in the Faurlh Gospel 299

with which we are familiar from the synoptics, although in John

9:27-28 this word is used in a way which would include very many more
than the Twelve (arguably this word means more than the Twelve in
the synoptics also), Jesus' followers are described as those who believe
(17:20), as those who know the truth (John 8:32), as children of God
(1:12; 11:52), as 'sheep' (John 10:1-18), as servants (12:26; 13:16), as
'branches' of the vine, as friends (John 15: 13), and as those the Father
gave Jesus out of the world (17:6). These are all very egalitarian tides.
There is no hint of rank and no room for 'jockeying for position' . Here
we have a picture of a fellowship of equals, though Moody Smith is
right to counsel caution in drawing too many dramatic conclusions
about Johannine ecclesiology (or the lack of it!) and to point out that
the picture we have here may well be the Johannine community as it
16
should be rather than as it was.
In addition, we see Jesus having supper with his chosen friends the
night before his death, exhorting them repeatedly to love one another
(13:34-35; 15:12,17), enjoining them to remain faithful, and praying
for them (17:9 and passim). Many of the verbs in chs. 14-16 are in the
plural, and Jesus prays specifically for their unity, believing that this
unity would convince the world that Jesus came from God (17:23) and
lead them to have faith in him (17:21). Presumably John thought it so
unlikely that this group of human beings should be united, that
evidence of their unity must convincingly point to a heavenly origin
and sustaining power. Thus, though this unity is to be based on a strong
vertical relationship with God through Jesus, it shows itself in a bond
of fellowship between believers, characterised by love, the kind of love
that leads a person to lay down his life for his friends (15:13).

3. The Purpose of unity

Thirdly, then, what is the purpose of this unity of believers? It is
twofold. To begin with, the purpose of unity among believers is the joy
of the believers themselves (15:11). This sounds very selfish and in
keeping with the extreme individualism some find in the gospel. But
if we look more closely at the context we will find that something
completely different is being said. The joy of the believers is ajoy that
arises from remaining in the vine, from allowingJesus' words to remain
in them, from remaining in his love, and from obeying his commands,
especially the command to love. It is a joy that comes from the believer
giving his life over completely to his Lord and serving him faithfully,

16 Cf. V. P. Furnish, The Looe Command in the New Testament (London 1973), 143-8,
against C. R Bowen, 'Love in the Fourth Gospel', JR XIII (1933), 39-49, and Emst
Kasemann, The Testament ofJesus (London 1968).
300

being bound to him and to his fellow believers in the closest possible
bands of love. This joy is not selfish, it is totally self-giving.
However, a unity of believers whose purpose was to give joy to the
members of the community could be said to be insular. John avoids
this danger by stressing that the other purpose of the unity of Christ's
followers is mission to the world. Indeed, this is the major end in view
in John 17-'that the world may believe ... that the world may know'
(these terms are largely identical in meaning; see above n. 9). This is
surprising, given the generally negative picture of the world inJohn's
Gospel (3:19; 15:18-25; 17:9), but it is coherent with another strain in
the Fourth Gospel, which emphasises God's love for the world (3:16;
Jesus is the 'Saviour of the world', 4:42; and the Light of the world,
8:12; and by his death he will draw 'all men' to himself, 12:32). The
truth is that, inJohn's thought, some of those present in the 'world',
as well as some at present described as 'Jews' will come to believe (see
above on 11 :52), so the community must continue to love those groups
of people and reach out to them in mission so that the ones who will
listen to the Father and come to Jesus may do so. In doing so they cease
to be 'Jews' (in John's sense, they become 'true Israelites' cf. Pancaro,
op. cit.) or 'people of the world' and they become 'children of God'
(1: 12; 11 :52). But that does not excuse believers from constantly loving
the world that persecutes and hates them~ and reaching out to it in
proclamation (4:35-38; 15:16; 17:21,23).1 This mission involves not
only speech, but also ethical behaviour. 'Bearing fruit' must mean that,
and not just missionary preaching in 15:8 especially with the emphasis
on love and keeping the commandments in the context. The com-
mandment above all for John, of course, is the commandment to love.
Maybe both concepts are in view here. Maybe also John expects
powerful works to be part of this mission (cf. 14:12), in view of the
phrase 'This is to my Father's glory' (15:7, see Schnackenburg's com-
mentary on this verse). One is reminded how the signs of Jesus were
said to reveal his glory, and how in the Farewell Discourse he says, 'I
tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been
doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going
to the Father.' What the 'greater things' may be is disputed, but there
is surely no doubt that powerful signs are in view in 'the things I have
been doing'. Note that in the context of 14:12 and of 15:8 Jesus
promises to answer prayer made in his name. However, in this gospel
the glory of Jesus is shown, and God is glorified also through Jesus'
death, the supreme example oflove.

17 cr.]. D. G. Dunn, Unity andDivmity in the New Testamml (London 1977), lIB£.
 A Vision of Unity-Christian Unity in the Fourth Gospel 301

4. Conclusion
This, then, is the Fourth Gospel's vision of Christian unity. But what
significance does all this have for our search for Christian unity today?
Some may wish to say it has none, as John's teaching is so thoroughly
conditioned by the historical circumstances of his community. This
would seem to be overly pessimistic. Similar comments could be made
about every writing in the Old and New Testaments, but the Christian
tradition has always maintained that the revelation of God is to be
found in the Scriptures. We cannot duck the difficult task of herme-
neutics, either by refusing to accept the historically-conditioned nature
of the text, or by giving up all hope of finding something in it of
relevance to today. We must continue to seek to merge the horizons
of the text and of our situation. Others would be able to find a message
for today in this study, but it would not be a message they would wish
to hear, or see proclaimed, as it would militate against their perception
of what God is saying in these times. To them, I would like to say that
all messages have a right to be heard, and especially that all voices of
Scripture have a right to be heard. Each writing of Scripture is there
for a purpose. Each has its own special emphasis and message, and
each is there, among other things, to prevent the emphases of the
other documents being taken to extremes. Perhaps recently the voice
ofJohn has not been given sufficient attention and now is the time for
that particular strain of Christian teaching to be emphasised. Not that
John is to be heard to the exclusion of Paul, Peter, Luke, and the
others, but alongside them in equal balance.
So, what can we learn from the Fourth Gospel to help us in our
search for Christian unity today? The following points suggest them-
selves. ~ -
Firstly, we must put at the top of our agenda what the Fourth Gospel
puts at the top of its agenda-the recognition of the glory of Christ.
Christ is the Lord of the universal church in every age, not just the
Johannine community, and the whole raison d'etre of the Christian
Church is to proclaim him as such. He is the source of the Church's
unity and he is the uniting force, in conjunction with the Father and
the Spirit. So any search for Christian unity must start with a true
appreciation ofJesus. Any approach that places the essence of unity in
the solidarity of human endeavour is not only not faithful to John's
teaching on unity (so Brown's commentary on 17:20-23) but also
unlikely to work. Any approach to unity that starts by getting people
together without first focusing on the common Lord who binds us
together is putting the cart before the horse. What is needed is a focus
on Jesus as the Son of God, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, the
Incarnate Word (expression, wisdom) of God, the Lamb of God who
302 The Evangtflical Q}larterly

came to take away the sins of the world, the Bread who gives spiritual
life, the Ught which shows God's truth to an unbelieving world, the
Shepherd of his faithful flock, the Resurrection and the life of all who
believe in him, and the Vine in which all his followers are branches.
And it is not just 'head' recognition which is needed, but 'heart'
recognition-what I once heard an Orthodox clergyman refer to as
the 'vision' of Jesus, a real heartfelt experience, which leads to a
commitment of life to obeying the one recognised as Lord.
Secondly, though malbe too much may have been made ofJohn's
individualism by some,] one has to accept that there is a very strong
individualistic strain in the Fourth Gospel. Perhaps this is one reason
why the voice ofJohn has failed to be heard so much in recent times,
as the church in general (and in more than one wing) has been
happier, for a number of different reasons to talk in 'corporate' terms
and was suspicious ofindividualistic language. Whilst being sensitive to
that feeling, however, it is vital that precisely in such a situationJohn's
voice should be heard so that there may not be an imbalance between
individualism and corporatism on the corporate side. If Christian unity
is to be sought, and if the Church is to survive and carry on the mission
its Lord has given it, then it must not be on the basis of a weak
lowest-common-denominator kind of faith, but on a real personal faith,
strongly held by each member. Sometimes the church can be scared of
strongly held opinions, because strongly held religious opinions have
caused so much trouble in the past, and no doubt will cause so much
more in the future. ButJohn shows us it is only as each branch is firmly
attached to the Vine, believing firmly in the truth, following faithfully
in the way, and filled personally with the divine life that the fruit can be
borne. There may well be trouble (there was in theJohannine commu-
nity) , but this will have to be faced in the power of the Holy Spirit. Note
that this is no charter for those who choose to rebel against the church
authorities. The Johannine Jesus brooks no opposition (8:42-46; 15:6)
and neither did the Beloved Disciple or his representative in the letters.
Contrary to the protestation of J. D. G. Dunn that 'there is no real
concept of ministry, let alone office in theJohannine literature',]9 there
is in fact a very clear concept of ministry-that of an all-authoritative

18 Idem., 119, following E. Schweizer, Church Order in the NftIJ T/lStammt (London 1961.)
19 O. M. Hengel, TheJohannine Question (London 1989),34-39, contra Dunn, &p. cit.,
358f. and E. Kasemann, 'Ketzer und Zeuge: zumjohanneischen Verfasserproblem'
(1951), in Exegetische Vmuche und &sinnungm, Vol. 1 (GOttingen, 1960). The office
of the revered teacher could not, of course, be filled by anyone else after the Beloved
Disciple's death, so only the local ministries survived, and theJohannine communities
soon ceased to exist as a distinctive entity soon after their teacher's death (cf. Hengel,
&p. cit.).
 A Vision of Unity-Christian Unity in the Fourth Gospel 303

teacher, whose authority may not have been formal or institutional, but
was no less real for all that, and a number of more formal ministries-
the 'elders' of house churches, of whom Gaius and Diotrephes were
20
examples. John calls the Church, not to anarchy, but to a united
fellowship where all have direct access to their Lord, and where all are
bound to him in a strong personal relationship, and are thus bound to
each other in loving fellowship under those leaders the Lord appoints,
21
and in harmony with the church universa1.
Thirdly, Christian unity for John is a unity of love and fellowship.
But for John these are not merely theoretical or sentimental concepts.
He calls believers into a close, loving relationship with Christ, and into
a similarly close, loving relationship with each other. The kind of
fellowship the fourth evangelist is looking for is not a jolly party, nor
is it a loose association of largely independent churches for mutual
support. Of course, the modem situation of a plurality of churches all
with a claim to be 'mainstream' within a locality cannot be said to exist
in john's time. Those who split from his churches were no longer
counted believers (lJn 4:6; 2Jn 7;Jn 15:6). The fellowship he has in
mind is a bond of practical love between individual Christians that is
so strong that outsiders are attracted to faith when they see it in action,
a bond that is so close it can be compared to the relationship of the
Father with the Son. This is, of course, a counsel of perfection, but this
is John'S way of challenging his readers-to hold before them the
ultimate, and to encourage his readers to keep on striving to reach it,
not resting until they do.
Fourthly, we need to bear in mind John's teaching that the purpose
of unity is mission. Too often discussion about Christian unity is about
relationships between 'insi~rs' who belong to different branches of
the Church, or about the closer working relationships or even amalga-
mation of church bureaucracies. The Fourth Gospel tells us the focus
of our unity should be mission, outreach, 'that the world may believe ...
that the world may know'! It is no accident that the modem ecumenical
movement grew out of the Edinburgh Missionary Conference, and that
it is in those parts of the world that were regarded as 'the mission field'
(e.g. India) where the greatest ecumenical strides have been made.
The International Nepal Fellowship, which carries on Christian mis-
sionary work in a country where the government has traditionally
frowned on attempts at Christian proselytizing and has made life very
difficult for Christian converts, is a shining example of how a wide
range of churches can work together for Christ. 'Mission England' and
the Decade of Evangelism/Evangelisation are further examples of how
possible it is to achieve a wide measure of agreement and working

21. See above, n. 2.

304 The Eva~lical Q!larterly

together when mission is the goal. John issues a challenge, to awaken

the people, not just church leaders, to their Lord's command to go
out in mission to share his revelation with the world, and to offer them
his promise of eternal life.
But the mission the Fourth Gospel has in mind is not just a matter
of talk. In the ambiguity in chapter 15 between the interpretation of
'fruit-bearing' as missionary success and as an ethical lifestyle, we can
see atypically Johannine suggestion that it is not a matter of' either-or'
but 'both-and'. Indeed, we get the firm impression that the ethical
lifestyle is pan of the mission. 'This is to my Father's glory, that you
bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples' (15:8; cf. 13:35,
'By this all men will know that you are my disciples'). The world will
be attracted by the ethical living of the disciples, especially by their love
('By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one
another'). That love, and the unity it produces, will bear as eloquent
witness as the disciples' words (but note the spoken witness is not to
be neglected, 4:35-38), and it will be the evidence that Jesus is the one
sent by the Father and will bring them to faith (17:20-23).
However, the point cannot be made too strongly that for John the
whole purpose of unity among the believers is mission, and that a unity
that has lost its sense of purpose cannot survive. It is only as the Church
aims unswervingly toward the goal of mission that it can ever hope to
achieve that unity for which Christ prayed.
But the search for that unity must continue. It may well be that it is
not church union schemes that John had in mind. Nor is it church
union schemes that will bring the world to believe. But what effect, in
our modern world does the existence of so many different denomina-
tions have on the way people respond to the Christian message? And
what effect does it have when a church union scheme publicly fails?
Surely this must have a negative impact! It is difficult to argue that
organisational unity and church union 'don't matter', even if they do
fall into the category of 'eliminating the negative' rather than 'accen-
tuating the positive'. As the song says, both need to be done.
But that is not where the emphasis should lie. The emphasis should
lie, as it does in the Fourth Gospel, in building up in each local
congregation a loving fellowship of believers. This is what will convince
the world that Jesus is real, that he can bring them eternal life, and
that he is Lord of all, if they can see him reigning and making a
difference in a local body of Christians, who each manifest a real,
genuine faith and a true loving practical concern for each other. Only
then will the Church attain to the unity for which Christ prayed. Only
then will it bear abundant fruit in an ethical, loving lifestyle. Only then
will it reach out to the world so that they too can know and believe.
And only then will we see the prayer ofJesus fulfilled, 'Father, I want
 A Vision of Unity-Christian Unity in the Fuurth Gospel 305

those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory,
the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation
of the world.'

Abstract
The aim of this article is to examine the concept of the unity of
believers in John 17. This unity has its source in the community's
common Lord, and especially in the mutual indwelling of the Father
and the Son. It is a unity of love and loyalty, but it is primarily a unity
based on the mutual indwelling of the Godhead and the believers,
which is not only the source of unity, but also its essential element. The
believers are united by their common relationship with their Lord. The
unity also has a corporate element, however. The believers' relation-
ship with Father and Son should result in their loving each other as
their Lord commands, and living together as part of one Vine and one
Flock. The purpose of this unity is to bring joy to the believers and to
motivate them to mission in the world.

John: Evangelist and Interpreter

[Revised and updated edition]
Stephen S. Smalley

A classic, comprehensive introduc- additional material on the current

tion to the Gospel of John. Reap- state of the question of the relation-
praising John's Gospel in the light ship between the Johannine and
of new scholarship, the author synoptic traditions and a discussion
analyses the tradition, historical on the present position of the liter-
character, literary structure and ary approach to John's Gospel.
theology of the Fourth Gospel, and Furthermore the footnotes and
it relationship to the other Gospels. bibliography have been exhaus-
The study outlines new directions tively revised.
in Gospel scholarship, as the
author clarifies John's role as an Stephen Smalley is Dean of Chester
evangelist, and his profound influ- Cathedral. He is the author of
ence on Christian teaching as a various books including 1, 2,3,john
distinctive interpreter. and Thunder and Love and the
This new edition contains editor of Christ and spirit.

0-85364-823-9/ pb / 229 x 145mm / £9.99

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