"..That they may be one..."

I remember back in my junior year of high school wanting to preach on John 17, the "High Priestly Prayer" of Jesus. I remember seeing so many times Christ praying to the Father that His followers would be one, just as the Son and the Father are one. LO brought up a good point in responding to my questions about fundamentalism. He said that "a good argument could be made that the one thing that has characterized Christianty through the ages is division". Corey aslo raises the question of the unity of the believers in his response to the post. Why does Christ call us to be unified? "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" (John 17:21 ESV) WOOHH!?! What is Jesus saying? Is our Lord saying that we, as Christians, have the opportunity to show the world a witness of God sending His Son to this world to save man, just by living is unity with eachother?!? What an amazing opportunity! If we can believe the promises of the Bible, the very words of our Savior, one of the most powerful witnessing tools given to the believer is the union that is alive and active with other believers through Jesus Christ. This is evidence of a changed life that is now controlled by the Hold Spirit. The world cannot have that kind of union and fellowship. Can they? I have been attending meetings on a monthly basis with some Muslim friends that I have made. We are involved in sharing eachother's worldviews, discussion, and developing friendships. The men from the mosque are very kind and generous. I began to talk to a man one night at the mosque who was not a Muslim, but was very interested in the religion. We talked for some time and that night he told me that he had experienced and "tried out" many different religions and denominations including Christianity and Baptists. He said, and I quote, "of all the places that I have visited, I have never experienced such love and sense of community as I do here in this mosque." My heart sank. How tragic that those who do not have the love of Jesus Christ can be better examples of love than I can. Why is that? Why is there a lack of unity among believers? Why is the love of Christ not seen by unbelievers at times? What are we letting get in the way of true unity with eachother? Your thoughts....