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In this 360th episode of the Reformed Brotherhood, hosts Tony Arsenal and Jesse Schwamb continue their exploration of prayer by examining Jesus' High Priestly Prayer in John 17. Focusing on the final portion of this prayer, they unpack Christ's profound petition for unity among His followers - not merely as a hope but as an established reality rooted in the eternal nature of God. The hosts explore how this unity differs from uniformity, reflecting the unity within the Trinity itself. This episode challenges listeners to understand prayer not merely as personal petition but as participation in the unified body of Christ, and to recognize that the unity Jesus prays for is already secured through Him.
Unity within the body of Christ is grounded in and reflects the unity of the Trinity itself. As Tony explains, "Christ is saying to his Father that the church will be one. The people of God will be unified even as or likewise the way I am unified with [the Father]." This isn't merely a functional unity but a profound mystical reality that defines the Church's very existence. While the Church never shares a single divine nature like the persons of the Trinity, there is still "something about the way the church is constituted and the way that the church is one with many members" that reflects the Godhead's unity. This has practical implications for how we relate to one another - our diversity doesn't threaten our unity but actually demonstrates it more powerfully, just as the diverse functions within the Trinity don't compromise divine unity.
One of the most striking insights from the episode is how prayer itself serves as a unifying activity. Tony points out that "if we're praying rightly, we are not only praying for ourselves, which is totally fine and appropriate to do, but we are praying for [others]." He notes that "when you're beseeching the Lord, when you're coming in petitioning the Lord, you're praying with probably thousands, if not millions of other Christians simultaneously" even if we're not consciously aware of it. This reveals that private prayer, though personal, is never individualistic. It's always conducted as a member of Christ's body, which is why Jesus taught us to pray "our Father" even in our private devotions. Prayer becomes one of the clearest expressions of the Church's mystical unity across time and space.
I think sometimes we confuse ourselves into thinking that we're growing in Christ, or to grow in Christ is to always go recklessly headlong into studying and to start to process more information, oftentimes without practice. And really the opposite maybe true, which is in order to have that kind of effective study is really to have first and foremost a deep private prayer life. - Jesse Schwamb
The mark of Christian community is unity. Again, not uniformity, not everyone becoming like every other person, not dressing the same or saying the same things or using the same language or liking the same music, but in spite of all those things—because of all those things—finding ourselves so thoroughly supernaturally bonded together in a familial kind of way that the outside world is like, 'This is wild. There's no reason these people should be together.' - Jesse Schwamb
We should not ever be asking God to be or do something that He is not already doing because, first of all, that's really presumptuous to ask the perfect, infinite, unchangeable God to somehow change for our needs. - Tony Arsenal